Yep. And as another commenter pointed out, the “leaders” pushing these return to office mandates usually have substantial commercial real estate investments.

No conflict of interest there…

Oh yeah, I totally forgot the real estate side of things.

I work for a midsize company that divides up their office space rental costs between divisions/departments. Our CEO also owns the commercial property management company, and he also owns the holding company that owns the building.

He’s been fighting me for a while now on my division’s “flex work” policy. Finally he gave up, but my division still pays our “fair share” of rent despite several of my team members moving out of state. Oh well.

Let’s not forget that all “return to office” mandates are really just a way for the C-suite to reduce headcount while appearing strong/decisive, avoiding negative press (and therefore spooking investors), and not having to pay severance.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big fan of Teams. The fact that the software is named after a common organizational unit, and also a feature within the software is named after that same thing, is insane. Also, I haven’t seen such an unnecessary resource hog since the original Microsoft Edge.

It took me a minute to realize that “MVP” means “most valuable player” to most people.

Apparently I’ve been in tech far too long, and care about sports far too little.

I have no idea if having pig organs would make one more susceptible to pig diseases, but I imagine the human immune system (as opposed to a pig immune system) would play a part in this as well.

That said, the anti-rejection meds usually given to transplant patients make them more susceptible to infection in general. So the added risk could be negligible.

Also worth noting, if it were me and my lungs were failing, I’d choose “at risk for pig diseases” over “certain death” any day.

I’ve been using the same few Hydrocell bottles for years. (They’re a stainless steel vacuum insulated bottle, basically a significantly less expensive Hydroflask knockoff.) I use them mostly for water, but occasionally other drinks like unsweetened tea, sugar free electrolyte drinks, etc.

I have never had a mold problem with these. I just disassemble them and run in the dishwasher every few days. (Before I had a dishwasher, I would wash them with hot water and dish soap, lightly scrub, and air dry.)

This really sounds like a cleaning problem to me. I’d recommend washing water bottles every 3-4 days, and if you use a bottle for anything other than water (especially anything with sugar) wash it that same day.

Mold doesn’t magically grow out of nowhere, it needs “food”, a nutritious medium. This could be sugar in a sugary drink, protein in a protein drink, or just contamination from having been in contact with a mouth too many times without proper cleaning.

Also, the quality of the water you’re putting into the bottle makes a difference too. If you’re filling up at the water cooler at the gym or at work, for example, it could be that the water cooler isn’t being cleaned properly and has mold growing within. That would certainly accelerate things in your bottle.

As I assume most of you are aware

I most certainly was not! After some searching, I found an article about Synology’s new restrictions on which hard drives can be used in Synology’s NASs.

A few important notes:

1. This is a completely bullshit decision on Synology’s part. Unacceptable, and a total overreach.
2. This only applies to new DiskStation/RackStation models, so if you already have yours, you should be fine — as far as I can tell.
3. The internet has responded with a “hack” already: https://github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db?utm_source=syndication&pubDate=20250505

A prediction: This is a scream test. Within a month, Synology will walk this back. They’ll make some excuse about it taking time to test other hard drive brands for compatibility. They’ll claim that they never intended to prevent you from using whatever hard drives you want, that they just needed to make 100% sure everything was perfect first, and that they always had your best interests at heart.

This will all be a lie, of course. The real plan is to measure how loud their biggest customers scream about this change. And then, maybe a year or two from now, they’ll quietly update a user agreement or a warranty document to reduce coverage for NASs that use third-party hard drives. Maybe they’ll add some extra “safety features” to DSM for third-party hard drives (of course with the intention of keeping you safe) that will cause a “minor” performance hit.

I’m sure that if you subscribe to DSM Premium for a reasonable monthly fee, all of your problems will be solved.