He just went out for a pack of smokes, he’ll be back any minute now…

Can they just fucking not?

We have to persevere with US corporations remaining completely and totally unregulated for the next 2.5 years at least - but we should resist any more enshittification for as long as possible - until someone _competent _ like Lina Khan can resume control of the FTC.

Didn’t think I played that, until I Googled some screenshots and it flooded me with unblocked* memories!

That was from a time when my parents would let me rent a new game from Blockbuster or a Video Ezy once a month or so, to supplement the 1-2 new games I would otherwise get per year.

I ended up playing a lot more than just the handful I remember owning - Bonanza Bros. being the most notable.

World Grand Prix for the Sega Master System 2.

Technically the second ever game I owned, as the system came bundled with Alex the Kidd in Miracle World.

Was maybe 6? at the time.

At least it would stop Gamers^TM from complaining about how “ugly” that character is?

AiSS: Arbitrarily Interfering Super Slop

I think that movement in general has similar vibes to:

I mean, Sony & Microsoft consoles are basically PCs with a custom OS now already (PS4 onwards, and Xbox One both used x86-64 CPUs).

There are fewer and fewer reasons to buy a specific (and expensive) piece of hardware that is less flexible in terms of functionality than the alternatives, so this is Sony trying to protect their own fiefdom.

Fuck ‘em.

Not quite the same thing, but I used an LLM to cobble together a HTML file that allows me to search for products on Coles, Woolies, Aldi and Amazon at the same time in the same window (via frames and a Firefox extension to get around some security settings).

Works a treat when planning our big shops for the week, and has already saved us hundreds of dollars since Jan.

GTA6 is likely going to be the only reason I’d get one, because the rest of the exclusives have been pretty lacklustre.

On the upside, homelabs are going to have a glut of high capacity, barely used server hard drives to choose from then this AI/data centre bubble eventually bursts?

The fact this plays so well (interface wise) on a smartphone is ridiculous…

…massive nostalgia vibes, and I don’t even have to juggle 6 floppy disks to boot!

Prepare to die from dehydration, because man do I have some bad news for you…

This is a slight historical re-write.

Blizzard’s parent company since ‘98 (Vivendi) was the larger of two companies at the time of the merger in ‘08, and put forward $2b towards the merger vs. Activision’s $1b.

Vivendi remained the majority shareholder of the new entity, and chose to appoint Bobby Kotick as the CEO.

Activision-Blizzard didn’t buy-out majority control until ‘13 - well after the enshittification began.

…and more importantly, what about NFTs?!

Again not the original person you asked, but I found Bazzite a tad too restrictive - I couldn’t for the life of me get PIA’s VPN client installed (for all of those Linux ISOs on my home server).

Ended up switching to CachyOS, which is also very gaming-focused (and Arch-based, if that matters at all!). It’s a bit more open, allowing you to fiddle (or not) with everything a bit more than Bazzite.

As an aside, my only hang-up is that it sometimes hangs while trying to boot up the GUI (not sure why, hasn’t bothered me too much), and it can’t wake from Sleep - but I’m pretty sure that’s just something misconfigured in the BIOS.

I’ve heard good things about IKEA electronics and white-goods also; for instance their LADDA batteries are apparently Eneloops, their dishwashers are/were Bosch, and they partnered with Sonos for their speakers also.

Costco apparently does quite similar with their Kirkland own-brand products - but at least here in Australia they haven’t offered (m)any electronics yet.

Oh, this 100%!

I ended up buying a cable tester in order to sort, identify and validate the rats nest of USB C cables we’ve accumulated.

Once identified, I use a little bit of coloured electrical tape around one end to keep them categorised. I originally wanted to use silicone o-rings or mini clips for this purpose - but didn’t have any luck finding something suitable.

It shouldn’t have to be like this, manufacturers should clearly label both transfer and power delivery capabilities on the cables themselves.

For this reason alone, I’d give plenty of kudos to LTT for doing just this with their recently launched line of True Spec cables. Every cable moving forward should be produced to this same standard.

TBF, charge-only USB-C cables are great for data security when needing to charge your device from a public / untrusted port.

I thought USB 2.0 Type C cables were covered by the spec also, but I honestly have no idea.

Beyond just the pedophilia, his (Epstein) operation was largely one of socialising, and securing (probably coerced) introductions from people he helped facilitate and now held blackmail over.

e.g. using blackmail material on a Bill Gates to secure an introduction to another wealthy and influential individual, offering them a “massage” and then producing kompromat at a later date to bring them into his circle.

Now don’t get me wrong, everyone who found themselves in this position was a willing participant, not a victim - but I can understand how so many oligarchs eventually found their way into his little black book.