When the battery dies it just becomes e-waste — if you could charge and use it at the same time, then it could at least still be useful as a wired mouse for many more years.

Another subtle detail: “Donkey” was actually named this way because he is a talking donkey! Many miss this interesting tidbit

Why is this what we take from China, and not high speed rail (rhetorical)

I don’t understand the scenario here. Typically, you only need the TOTP (time-based one-time password) from your 2FA app, enter it on your computer, and you can use the computer to access your resources. The app itself is actually not even supposed to be on the same device, as an added layer of security.

It sounds like you need 2FA to run your company’s VPN (is that correct?). On your computer, you would launch the VPN, it’ll ask you for the TOTP (which you get from Aegis on your phone), and then you’re logged in and able to access company resources (on your computer).

When I graduated, the CEO of Raytheon spoke at our commencement

Minecraft, Mini Metro/Mini Motorways, an endless runner like Race the Sun, a tower defense game like Rogue Tower, or maybe something with a lot of busy work like Factorio

They saw what the IOF was doing and realized it was the only way to secure more funding

You would think spam would at least make sense.

It’s usually the opposite actually, to filter out anyone who might get savvy to the scam later on. Anyone who would be deterred by typos or weird inconsistencies would probably flake out when asked to send gift cards, download suspicious executables, etc., meaning the scammer would have wasted their time getting to that point. They only want the most gullible users, and anyone who follows through on really poorly written scams usually falls into that group.

In this case, I wouldn’t be worried though – looks like regular spam.