This post was so engaging to read, it felt like the best war-story you'd randomly hear in the break room. Gotta check out the rest of OP's posts.

I've encountered the exact same issue. What helped me somewhat, at least with the video playback, is opening videos in embed player.

I coded an extension that adds a context menu for opening videos in embed mode. https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/youtube-open-as-...

I have nothing against AI myself, but it significantly changed how hackathons work.

One prominent example I won't name, I had attended over a couple years. Coincidentally,the timing overlapped with pre-LLM boom and post-LLM boom. My first edition had zero usage of LLMs, the last had practically 100%, the rules were accommodated. The teams were no longer required to present a working example, a literal figma concept and a cool slideshow were more than enough.

A melodramatic story of a failed backup, data recovery and a year of memories saved by a miracle.