Ignisnex

Not when they roll out manifest v3

Personally, i just need a game that lets me do something pretty. Satisfactory was mentioned, or City Skylines. Or something that is highly nostalgic and familiar, like Skyrim, Halo or Minecraft. I don’t intrinsically need to think in these cases, which is my goal. I’m a programmer, so anything that lets me shut my brain off and just exist is great. Sometimes BloonsTD is also a great game for this, but it’s situational.

Counter intuitively, most “casual” games like Stardew don’t really fit this vibe for me because of the daily time limit. I need to pick and choose what tasks to do in a day, and I always fall into a min-max schedule, which requires effort. Much as I love them, I also avoid story driven games like Baldur’s Gate when I need to unwind, because I really need to pay attention to progress, and there kinda isn’t any mindless grinding. Multiplayer games with randos is also strictly out. No League, COD, Battlefield, Fortnite etc… Just in general. Don’t like 'em, never did, hate that they are so prolific. They’re just stressful.

Everyone seems to need instant gratification in every aspect of life. No one seems capable of thinking for more than 25 seconds into the future. The pervasive culture of “Fuck you, got mine”, and the rat race to the almighty dollar. I don’t get it, it’s sad, and it’s the driving force behind not wanting children. The world sucks, and I want to reduce suffering.

I would have upgraded a while ago if my hardware supported it. The kernel upgrades are pretty zippy.

You didn’t need to be a dick, you know. You chose that for yourself.

Basically in store credit, and it’s totally legal

I heard that while reading it. Like when someone says “Good news [everyone]!” and it sounds like the professor Farnsworth. God I haven’t thought about that episode in ages.

To your point, more people have access to information than ever. Good and bad. Look at all the crap around COVID. You have medical professionals releasing studies and vaccine, and some douche named Q saying “Nah, it’s poison. Drink bleach instead”. Obviously this is an easy example to differentiate what’s good and bad info. But people still tried bleach. Countering good information with a malicious, self serving narrative seems to be as easy as saying “That’s what the establishment wants you to think”, and people fall for it all the time. In huge numbers. Over every little piece of bullshit that gets published somewhere. Politics are a huge centre of misinformation and disinformation, making it very challenging to pick out what’s not total crap. And that’s the point.

I’ve got an original Pi running PiHole, I’ve got a Pi4 running my Plex + Servarr Suite, and a Pi2 B running a LAMPP stack and dev environment.

I work on the enterprise apps team at my university. We’d dump that so hard you’d think we were using it to get liftoff. Definitely complain. Also, it’s not inclusive to students without smart devices (they exist!).

If they do still have the option for manual use (with ID card scanners), there are a number of membership card / ID card wallets that are free on most platforms. You can just type the barcode into the app, and it’ll make a virtual card that can be scanned. Same convenience, no physical plastic. If you’re not offended by Google products, Google Wallet works pretty well. Or Stocard, but I’m not sure what level of tracking they implement. Granted, you’re still installing an app, but you get to pick your poison a bit, instead of being railroaded into Facebook shenanigans.

Two years ago, they were “essential”, and the idea of them getting any kind of benefit to prevent harm was unthinkable. Shafted at both ends of the spectrum.

Small nitpick. I’m not sure why you don’t like the idea of the vendor having stuff installed on hardware they make, to ensure it functions optimally. Like, on a primary compute device, sure, be picky about the OS. But this is a game platform. Nobody gives a shit that Nintendo makes their own OS for their hardware, why does anyone care how the Steam Deck does it’s thing?

Mythbusters did a bit on that. I seem to recall that unless you’ve got an MRI in your pocket, it should be fine.

Smith and Ford give enthusiastic, limp-wristed waves.