and one day you'll say why, right?

my steam deck is my main daily device. I use it for most stuff. I own consoles, but its just so much easier to use the deck cause I can keep everything in one place.

steam, emulation, I even use it for youtube. docked to my TV.

for those that have trouble with the weird paywall jank on mobile:

Twice before, this Virginia carpenter had awoken in the predawn to start his work day only to find one of his vans broken into. Tools he depends on for a living had been stolen, and there was little hope of retrieving them. Determined to shut down thieves, he said, he bought a bunch of Apple AirTags and hid the locator devices in some of his larger tools that hadn’t been pilfered. Next time, he figured, he would track them.

It worked.

On Jan. 22, after a third break-in and theft, the carpenter said, he drove around D.C.’s Maryland suburbs for hours, following an intermittent blip on his iPhone, until he arrived at a storage facility in Howard County. He called police, who got a search warrant, and what they found in the locker was far more than just one contractor’s nail guns and miter saws.

The storage unit, stuffed with purloined power tools, led detectives to similar caches in other places in the next four months — 12 locations in all, 11 of them in Howard County — and the recovery of about 15,000 saws, drills, sanders, grinders, generators, batteries, air compressors and other portable (meaning easily stealable) construction equipment worth an estimated $3 million to $5 million, authorities said.

“One of the largest theft cases not only in Howard County but in this region,” Police Chief Gregory Der told reporters recently, standing in a county warehouse where the reclaimed loot is piled neatly along walls and stacked high on shelves. “The scope of the investigation is enormous and ongoing,” the chief said, adding, “We believe the tools were stolen from retail stores, businesses, vehicles, residential properties and construction sites.”

Though none of the prolific thieves has been arrested yet, Der said, “we are investigating several suspects for their roles in this massive theft scheme and expect charges soon.”

“Yes, yes, I hope they do,” said the 43-year-old carpenter in Sterling, Va., who helped crack the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his safety. “Jail for them.” Share this articleShare

Howard police provided contact information for the carpenter, who said his home remodeling business employs 14 workers. He lost about 50 tools in the January theft and has gotten back a half-dozen of them, he said. He is hoping for more.

“They don’t know what they do to me,” he said of the thieves. “They steal our job.”

Seth Hoffman, a Howard County police spokesman, said investigators think most of the 15,000 or so tools were stolen in Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania. Howard County is just where they were stashed. He said about a quarter of the tools are in store boxes with labels that make them traceable. Some were stolen as long ago as 2014, he said. As for the thousands of loose and well-used tools now in the county warehouse, it’s hard to tell who owns them.

“Oh, man, it’s basically every kind of tool you can think of,” Hoffman said. “Basically any kind of tool you can put in a car or a pickup and drive away with. I mean, it’s some kind of inventory.”

Der said detectives have identified about 80 victims so far, “and we believe there are hundreds if not thousands more.” Police created an online form for people to fill out if they think their stolen tools might be somewhere in the piles. It asks for serial numbers, receipts, photos or any “identifying marks, initials, or numbers.” Authorities declined to discuss further details of the investigation

As of Wednesday, Hoffman said, 140 forms had been submitted since police announced the recovery last week, and officers are trying to reunite victims with their implements. “A huge undertaking,” was how Der described it.

“These thefts affect their livelihoods,” the chief said. “We’ve heard from victims who lost work because of their tools. It goes well beyond the cost of replacing the tools.” correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to AirTags as GPS devices. They are a type of locator device, but they are not GPS trackers. The article has been corrected.

if you don't care, why comment?

also, if you're not able to differentiate between trash talking and going way too far, then you have far more issues than a simple online misunderstanding.

poor baby. he sounds a little bit like a clucking chicken XD

I am focused on what your saying. your cynicism doesn't mean the issue is impossible to fix. it just means you're cynical. but if people could be less accepting of it, maybe things can change.

I think that mentality is what allowed this to happen in the first place.

But if you believe that its ok for someone to tell a teenager they should commit suicide and get raped because they're female and playing a video game, I want no part of your level of comfort with the vitriol of these harassers.

I think if you had experienced the type of harassment I've spoken about at length for such a large amount of time, you'd likely disagree.

I'm happy to hear your gaming experience has been perfect. And I severely hope you never experience the kind of harassment many women who game unfortunately have to.

see I don't understand this "take your lumps" mentality. "Don't use the internet if you can't handle it."

there's a difference between:

"lol you're ass, bitch. you're garbage"

and

"I'm going to rape you and I'm going to love it. cry for me. open your mouth for me, whore."

if you have difficulty understanding the distinction between "trash talk" and straight up harassment and abuse, then I think you're the one who might need to reevaluate your presence on the internet.

the behavior can be fixed and stigmatized, but voices like yours make that extremely difficult.

does this journalist have crippling A.D.D. or something? why did he keep talking about the train? lol

it threw off the whole review.

I avoid any pvp online game exactly for this reason. if you open your mouth to call out, you just became a target. it's so normalized now that I have sworn off multiplayer games altogether unless they're co-op and I can play specifically with friends.

it really sucks.

sounds like some weird mouth-breathing troll shit to me. but enjoy yourself, champ.