pedantichedgehog

So...the first thing you need to understand is that there are different types of sewing machines, as someone commented on your original post. There are:

1. "Regular" sewing machines, which can be either mechanical or computerized. These are the type of machines virtually all hobbyists use and can handle a huge range of projects, from linen napkins to ballgowns. It's important to note that either the computer or the mechanical system determines stitch length and width.

2. Serging machines, which cut the fabric while sewing it, and make a single specialized stitch.

3. Embroidery machines. These are similar to "regular" sewing machines, but with a wider table and extra parts for stretching out the area you're embroidering. They also have a computer to track/calculate the stitches in a given embroidered image.

As far as I'm aware, software is only available for embroidery machines. The computers in anything less than the most expensive of home sewing machines are pretty simple, and I'm not even sure how you would access them. They don't connect to wifi, and there are no ports in the machines except for power and the foot pedal.

For the use cases you listed, I recommend a basic "regular" sewing machine such as this one. Any regular sewing machine built in the past several decades will be able to use a variety of stitches out of the box.

For repairing socks specifically, I agree with the other poster who talked about zigzag and stretch stitches.

Do you have access to a sewing machine?

I've been struggling to stay on the wagon for more than two days for the past several weeks. Weighed in this morning at 153.

noooo it's horrifying

11

My autistic dad frequently said that I was on the spectrum (always that exact phrase) but refused to have me diagnosed. I grew up just assuming that I had a high-functioning (as I need relatively few accommodations; my apologies if this is an outdated term) form of autism.

Now as an adult, I still don't have the resources to get a professional diagnosis. I feel very much at home in groups like this; I have many of the symptoms of autism though not all; I got 136 on the RAADS-R test. That test was the tipping point that pushed me mentally from "strongly suspecting I'm autistic" to "self-diagnosed autistic".

I floss and brush religiously every night, have for many years. I had a cavity when I was young and the whole experience was terrible.

I still ended up with multiple cavities as an adult.

Great article, very enlightening for those of us who are too young to remember the early internet.

Digital pianos are fine. You never need to tune them, and your budding pianist can use headphones with most models. What weighted keys do is make a digital piano feel more like an acoustic piano. There's a more resistance to pushing down a key. "Hammer action" is similar. At 5, I don't think either is strictly necessary, but if you want something he'll grow into, go ahead and get something with hammer action or weighted keys. Likewise, consider the number of keys. A full-size piano has 88, but there's a lot that learners can play with fewer.

The real question is this: do you think that your 5 year old will continue to play piano? If he loses interest, will you force him to practice or will you let him drop it?

If he will continue to play piano, whether forced or by choice, invest in a quality instrument with 88 weighted or hammer action keys.

If you expect him to lose interest eventually and don't want to buy something expensive that won't be used, or expect his progress to be slow enough that number of keys won't be an issue any time soon, then something very basic will be fine. Look for something secondhand - brand isn't particularly important, just the fact that it plays.

As for personal experience, I've been using an Alesis Recital for around five years now. I picked it because it was the cheapest thing with the minimum specs I wanted, and I was broke AF. I don't have any experience with other digital pianos.

Thanks :D

Not an excuse, but an explanation: ignorance.

Most people don't know how ads or data collection works beyond the obvious uptick in a product after you search for it. They don't know what impact it might have.

Full disclosure: I'm mostly in this camp. I only recently started using firefox over chrome, for example. I know that big tech collects obscene amounts of data, and monetizes it by targeted advertisements, but...beyond that, I don't know what FAANG can do with the data collected on me. I only have a vague idea of what's being collected.

Fundamental rights