You're correct. Law school exam, not bar exam. (Though, at least in California, the part of the bar that isn't the MBE is essays, so I think this suggests it could do the same thing with the bar itself.)

I will also state an axiom of the legal educational system: C's get degrees, bruh.

I think this is the right approach. Natural language searches have become much more popular these days, as compared to Boolean searches. I read yesterday that (I think) ChatGPT passed the essay portion of a bar exam... Not that surprising. It's a fixed curriculum that conforms to an outline format, with millions of example texts, and you get credit for synthesizing a factual prompt with an existing rule that relates to it. Very different from developing a working knowledge of a novel area and then advocating for why it applies to a novel situation. In other words, common law is meant to guide people's actions prospectively, and a chat bot can only process retroactive information.

That said, I don't have a problem with what the company tried to do here. It wasn't the practice of law. It was an aid for a pro per defendant. If it can be a tool for licensed attorneys helping clients, why can't it be a tool for litigants representing themselves?

Nope. Several reasons. First, while this is metal on the outside, it probably have plastic gears that are ready to evaporate at this point. (This is how power gets from the motor to the needle and the feet dog/bobbin assembly.) While “fixing it up” sounds great, you need a professional to re-gear the machine and then re-time it, or it won’t make a stitch. There are brand new machines that cost as much as an overhaul.

Assuming you got it working perfectly, you’re still working with something that was never designed to work with synthetic fabrics, can’t do chain stitching (which is what you want on anything stretchy and which will sort of approximate what a server does), and you’re missing out on all the things that are considered standard on a basic machine these days, like a self threading needle and electronic lock stitching.

The nostalgia for these machines is great and all, but this will cost you more money and more frustration than just buying a new, quality machine (like a mid-level brother). Unless this is literally “grandma’s old machine” that made your baby blanket, this is a hard pass.

I have blackout curtains and a sleep mask, and light still keeps me awake. Let's keep the sun on the other side, thank you. And the permanent night life will make my problem drinking seem a lot more normal.