Disclaimer: I am not trolling, I am an autistic person who doesn’t understand so many social nuances. Also I am from New Hampshire (97% white), so I just don’t have any close African-American friends that I am willing to risk asking such a loaded question.

I have an eight-year-old laptop that needs replacing and I’m paralyzed. What are the most reliable ones now? Do I need a desktop for CAD? Pros and cons of operating systems (and where do I find them?) Browsers ditto? Where do I find answers that aren’t just product marketing?

I’m on my second reading, and would love to have someone to discuss it with.

Sorry to be so boring. Bye!

I have been recently diagnosed as autistic, and now I seem to see autism everywhere in my social circle. My brother, a daughter, at least two friends. . . Either there are a lot of undiagnosed autistic people out there OR I tend to become friends (more comfortable) with fellow autists, OR I am just being silly and am attributing autism to NT people with strong interests. Fellow neurodivergent folks of all types, what is your experience? (Edit: changed ND to NT. oops!)

Our old house in New England has a steep pitched metal roof and no gutters. Our front door is right under a roof valley, so it is unusable on rainy days and all of winter. The water running down the valley has rotted out our building sill, and we have to get it replaced. I don’t want the same thing to happen to the new sill! Installing gutters is not currently an option because the winter snow avalanches would just rip them away. I have read about snow guards, but have never seen any in real life. How well do they work, are they hard to install, will they work when 18” of snow falls on the roof? Will the snow guards slow down the avalanches enough to keep gutters in place? Alternatively, should we just build a porch to divert precipitation further from the foundation? Any advice is welcome!