And there’s the whole issue with a certain buffoon who doesn’t understand how tariffs work and is currently trying to speedrun an economic collapse, so who knows if the hardware components will be available in three years.
However, unless there’s a significant change in games that makes the current Gen unable to play games, I think it’s likely going to be a great device in three years time. I know that I have no plans to upgrade mine.
I mean, nothing is stopping a whale from contacting Hello Games to get a bespoke spaceship… 😂
Yes, but that didn’t happen overnight. The authoritarian creep had been happening long before, but it’s important to remember that they don’t yet have total control; they can do a lot of horrible things with impunity, certainly, but they need to keep up appearances and move more slowly with other things so they have less resistance from whatever remains of the judiciary.
No Man’s Sky has almost every feature that Star Citizen will have/has:
Like, by the time SC releases, the game’s features will have been done by multiple companies. I expect people actually buying the game, if it’s ever released, will do so for the memes and not because the game has anything innovative to add to gaming.
Steam Deck 2 is very likely a long way away; they’ve said they won’t be doing minor upgrades—only major ones, and the current models still play most modern games just fine without issue. There’s no reason to wait on a Steam Deck if it’s within your budget.
You can absolutely play a Steam Deck on the couch. It’s effectively the same sort of device as a Switch, just without all the Nintendo nonsense of knowing that you’re supporting a company that specializes in squashing industry innovation through litigation.
You can even buy a dock that uses the USBC port as an HDMI output, if you want to play on a bigger screen, and connect your favorite Bluetooth controller.
…yet. Authoritarianism creeps, it crawls silently, strategically, meticulously, knowing that far too few will notice or care until it’s too late.
My work will not provide me a work machine for the very optional WFH benefit I have. Either I use my personal machine, or I have to go into the office, and fuck the office.
So, I put my work stuff into Virtual Machine jail; if they want to spy on me, they’ll have to figure out how to break out of that first.
As a wise person once said, “No company is going to break the law for you.”
It’s fine to have some trust in your services, but it should never be without exception. The responsibility for privacy is always ours to ensure.
Jesus H Christmas, that’s depressing
At that point where it matters, I feel like I should be buying the music from the artist, not streaming. My latest favorite band, Mad Routine, gives you the WAV masters when you buy their albums, and they are meticulous about sound; those lossless tracks actually sound better, even with Bluetooth.
However, I think few bands are actually putting in the effort to have beautifully crafted lossless tracks. Also, I have no way of knowing if Spotify is merely increasing the bitrate but using the same lossy source file, which is what I suspect is probably the case. After all, why share valuable goods when you could pretend and throw out a few buzzwords, instead?
I think the analogy is apt. If you post a price on goods, and somebody walks into a store, picks up the item, and walks out without paying, they can’t simply say, “Well, I didn’t care to read the price, and nobody presented me with a contract, so I just took it,” as a valid defense. There’s sometimes an explicit agreement upon terms, sure, but there are times where that agreement is implicit: they put a price on a thing, I pay it, else it’s stealing. I don’t need to sign a contract every time I get groceries.
I do, however, agree that this will only have teeth once it’s argued and upheld in court the first (few) time(s). If nothing else, it’s good to see people trying to solve the problem, rather than just throwing up their hands and letting billionaires run amok with virtual impunity. Maybe this won’t work to reign in AI tech bros, but maybe it will inspire the things that do.
I wouldn’t know! I’m currently exploring the black, and that hasn’t changed much! I think it’s had some improvements, though, since Horizons. They maybe added a new ship…? Still one of the best space flight sims.
On the other side of the coin, No Man’s Sky added walkable ship interiors to their new Corvette class ships, so they’ve basically added everything Star Citizen promised, just with more cartoonish graphics. Either are still great choices for scratching that space exploration itch.
I have to wonder if they’d be more interested if you’d said you fly a space ship with a HOTAS (as in Elite Dangerous).
Eh, I think I’ll just rewatch episodes of Bluey instead.
I’ll add that if someone knowing your phone number is an actual threat to your safety, you should already know better about using something more anonymous.
Privacy ≠ anonymity
Still playing through The Messenger. Excellent game that everyone should play.
I don’t actually own Silksong just yet, so I just started a game called The Gunk. So far, kinda has that Savage Planet semi-realistic vibe to it, and the voice acting is really good. The beginning hooked me, so hopefully it has a satisfying ending when I get there.
No idea, honestly. I’ve never had a device that was supported, so my knowledge of it is limited.
/e/OS has similar goals as Graphene (not exactly), but it supports many more models than Pixels. Check their list and see if it fits your needs.
That’s by design. Friends across the pond talk about mass protest as a solution, but not only is the US akin to a bunch of countries loosely allied together (300M people), but we do not have the job/civil rights protections necessary such that everyone can protest safely. If you get injured during a protest (or worse), you have to pay a lot of money to get treatment. If you “say something the wealthy don’t like,” you can lose your job, get smeared all over social media, and be blacklisted from future employment. If you snicker at a public event or sit quietly on a campus, you could wind up in jail or in front of a judge who will be more than happy to take cops’ words for it that you are a public nuisance or were resisting. Our “right” to protest is functionally a guideline, in practice.
I have some bad news. We’re already there. This is already a Mafia State, and although the lower courts still seem to be on the side of the people, the Supreme Court has been handing the Executive Branch more and more power when asked.
You should reconsider those friendships, because they are the reason we are here at all. They are the problem, and befriending the American far right is just befriending fascists. If you care about the future of global society and democracy, you cannot also hold space for the far right.