cerebralhawks

@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨steam vs gog, which game store to buy from?⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
I prefer GOG because of the DRM-free option, and I like what they stand for. But, you’re right, there are a few cases where you’d want the Steam version instead. I’d say ask the community around the game and see what they think. There are no cases I’m aware of where not having the Steam version would be a problem, but I don’t play games like that.

GOG does a few things better than Steam, though. They fix stuff. Steam just pushes what the publisher gives them. Two cases, same franchise… same shitty developer. Fallout 3 shipped with DRM called GfWL (Games for Windows Live), basically Xbox Live for Windows. GfWL failed, but Bethesda didn’t take it out of Fallout 3, meaning to play Fallout 3 on PC, even if you bought it legally, you had to crack the DRM, which is illegal in the US. No one got in trouble for doing so, but that’s what you had to do. GOG just took the DRM out. Problem solved. Something like a decade after Bethesda created the problem by not taking it out themselves, they did just that — VERY recently, and thus, it became “legal” to play Fallout 3 on PC again. Second case, Fallout 4. Same developer/publisher. Different case. They put out a patch about a year, year and a half ago, and it broke the random NPC generator. There was a cursed combination of variables that could make up an NPC, that if it generated that set of variables, you could never get close to that NPC, or your game would crash. Modders quickly found the problem and told Bethesda how to fix it. They refused. More to the point, they ignored the issue. I don’t think GOG carried that update for months. They refused it. You could only get the older, last working version for a while. I think they eventually allowed it, but with a note on it saying it was broken with no fix in the works. Couple weeks ago, they said they fixed it… after like 16 months. But introduced more problems. (Disclaimer of bias: I own Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and all the official DLC on Xbox, Steam, and GOG. I used to be a big fan of Bethesda, but after Starfield… I am discovering way too late that it’s not a tenth the game the Mass Effect trilogy was. Better late than never, I suppose?)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon’s AI ‘Banana Fish’ Dubs Are Hilariously, Inexcusably Bad⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
It’s insulting because there are a lot of LGBTQ+ voice actors who want to do this but the powers that be won’t greenlight it.

Look at Amazon’s relationship with Trump, Trump’s positions on LGBTQ+ people, and ask why Amazon is doing this. They aren’t contractually obligated to do so. They are doing various animation projects and paying real voice actors. Though Hazbin Hotel is pretty gay, and so is Helluva Boss (same people/same universe). The only other animation project I know at Amazon is Mighty Nein, and I wanna say those guys are LGBTQ+ friendly but I’m not sure they’re on the spectrum. So I don’t wanna say Amazon is acting prejudicial here, but it smells.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why are they pushing kpop demon hunters so badly? Who makes money off this new group?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
I know a lot about anime, but not as much as some. I’ve only been watching since 2013. And I know about an animated flick that’s popular with little girls, but I’m neither little (I’m in my 40s) nor female. I have a niece who’s about twice as old as your kid, but she likes any character with red hair. Or pink. I tried to get her into SPYxFAMILY (which doesn’t have any singing!) but, just because everyone’s favourite character is a four-year-old with pink hair and big green eyes, doesn’t mean the show is made for four year olds. It’s set in 1960s Germany, albeit with fictional place names, but it’s the whole East vs West, Spy Vs Spy kinda thing, except the spy needs a child to get to a reclusive rival who only ever attends school events for his young son. So he adopts this girl, but anime plot twist, she has pink hair and is telepathic (also dumb as a box of rocks). So it’s a comedy. Then he needs a wife, for the mission, and “marries” an assassin — from the other side. It’s PG-13 at best but there are a lot of gun fights, and the “mama” fights with knives. There is some blood but it’s not graphic. It’s nothing compared to what I grew up with, so I’d say it’s fine. Not all the episodes are about the kids, but a lot of them are, and the kids are pretty realistic, like how they bicker and plot and make up by the end of the day, and have their little cliques and whatnot.

As far as traditional cartoons for toddlers… I have no idea. Kids these days play Roblox and Fortnite on tablets. I don’t know what they watch on their own.

If you want more anime recommendations though, I can help with that. Also I wouldn’t mention something if it wasn’t in English. I watch mostly in Japanese with subtitles, but obviously that wouldn’t work for a 4 year old.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why are they pushing kpop demon hunters so badly? Who makes money off this new group?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
It’s not actually a group, it’s just a movie. And they weren’t pushing it. Netflix released it thinking it wouldn’t go anywhere, and it took off. That’s why there isn’t a lot of merch for it (and it’s just now coming out), because they didn’t expect it to take off like it did. Now they’re pushing merch and kicking themselves for not doing it sooner. Now they’re pushing it to try to meet demand. It’s largely being pulled by grade school girls and young adults.

As for “new group,” I’d say you’re confusing KPDH with 22/7, only most people don’t know what 22/7 is. 22/7 is a Japanese pop group who have an anime which tells a fictional tale of a mysterious wall that spits out cards with orders that people follow, eventually creating an idol group to win the hearts and minds of the people. But 22/7 is an actual group that records music and releases it. Their best song isn’t even in the anime — it was released after.

With KPDH, it’s just a movie, though if the producers and whatnot were smart, they’d take the three singers who do the singing voices of the HUNTR/X girls, and have them record together… like 22/7 do. So by the time the next movie comes out, they’ve already had a couple albums out, and this can play into the lore of the new film. EJAE (Rumi) is a K-Pop star in her own right, but they don’t have to write songs. The pop industry has for decades had other people write songs for the performers. (The other two are also singers, none of them are very good on their own, though it’s subjective, but the other two are quite unlike HUNTR/X, with a lot of explicit stuff. Not something you want your grade school daughter looking into.) (They should also do the same with the Saja Boys.) (Of course, if KPDH has you jonesing for K-Pop, you could just listen to BTS if you like the boys, and Blackpink if you like the girls, then branch out from there. Or K/DA if you like cartoon bands — they did music for League of Legends, before Jinx/Arcane were the focus. K/DA is probably the most similar to HUNTR/X as far as I can tell.)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You now prossess Dracula’s heart⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Way I heard it, some of the characters were meant to straight up lie to you.

Vampires are known to be seductive. The Dracula in Castlevania is no exception. It makes sense that he has some agents in the various towns who feed misinformation to the Belmonts and their allies, and report back to the Count.

Back then though, I think we were supposed to consider games more trustworthy. We didn’t expect the game to lie to us. The unreliable narrator has become a lot more popular over the years. Imagine, for example, saying you hate Portal because GLaDOS lies to you. “But I was promised cake!” Same thing. Only we didn’t expect it then.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You now prossess Dracula’s heart⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
All good. I’m sure there are RHs that do focus on improving the game, but also, I feel like if you took away the jank, you’d have a pretty easy game. Simon’s Quest was never hard once you knew where to go. Knowing where to go was half the challenge. The other half was the janky ass physics.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You now prossess Dracula’s heart⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
The game originally released on the NES, and has only ever been officially re-released on PC as part of the Konami Collection, the Switch in its original form, and I think there’s a collection on XBS and PS5 (maybe XB1/PS4 as well?) with the NES Castlevania games, basically a console port of the Konami Collection, only it doesn’t have the Contra games (and I think it has Castlevania IV). It was never a Super NES game. That said, I’m super curious about this ROM hack.

Found a video reviewing it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYhfIs9K2HY
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You now prossess Dracula’s heart⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Loved this game when I was a kid. It got a lot of hate at the time, vs the first one, and the third one, and then the fourth one on the Super NES.

Simon’s Quest fans got justice when it, not the first and third games, became the basis for Symphony of the Night and, you know, the whole “Metroidvania” genre. I mean, Simon’s Quest wasn’t the first Metroidvania, that would arguably be Metroid 1, but it was the first MV in the Castlevania series. And now they’re mostly all like that, from Symphony through Bloodstained. Not to mention the GBA/DS ones, particularly the Sorrow titles.

There are still games like Castlevania 1 and 3. Ghosts & Ghouls, Double Dragon, Bad Dudes, Battletoads, Metal Slug… Some of those games are actually pretty good. I think the Terminator game Dark Fate coming out is one of those — and I want it. Mostly because I’m a T2 fan. But also because, when done right (especially Metal Slug), those games are a lot of fun. But, I always thought Castlevania was better for exploration than straight up side to side combat.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Aluminium OS will be Google’s take on Android for PC⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Wasn’t this posted like a week ago without the paywall?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do people who have bad relationship with their parents care about "insults" like "I fucked your mom last night"? Or do you just not care?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
No, we don’t. My response to that would be something like, “damn, that’s why she sounded so disappointed. We hadn’t spoken in a few weeks, so I know it wasn’t me this time… it sounded like she got some bad dick, thanks for providing context I suppose.”

Or if it were in passing/in person, maybe something more short and to the point like “she told me, said it wasn’t the worst she had, nor the smallest, but definitely the saddest.”

Or maybe just “I’m sorry, you should go get tested.”

Wouldn’t bother me in the least.

I don’t have a “bad” relationship with my mother, but a joke like that is hardly worth considering. Might as well have some fun with it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After Apple originally announced the first version of Halo in 1999, Xbox apparently called Bungie and said "'Steve Jobs can't have that. We're going to buy you.'"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Yeah, but Apple has a history of doing that. They dropped support for Motorola chips in the PowerPC era. They dropped support for PowerPC chips in the Intel era. And they’ve started dropping Intel chips in the Apple Silicon era. They keep reinventing the Mac to stay current. Meanwhile, Windows supports stuff going way back regardless of it being updated to support the newest stuff. Except Microsoft decided to try a similar thing, but also kinda not really? I mean, you can run Windows 11 on 7th gen Intel (I was running it on a 4th gen Xeon), they just don’t want you to.

At least with Apple you know what you’re getting, and it’s a lot more secure and stable for it.

Besides, I wouldn’t expect someone with a perfectly good PC to throw it out and get a Mac. I’d suggest they run Linux instead. It’ll run better than Windows, too. But if your computer is dead, dying, or on its way there, I do suggest Mac as a perfectly good alternative.

No one’s really running computers for 20+ years, except the government. For whatever dumb ass reason.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After Apple originally announced the first version of Halo in 1999, Xbox apparently called Bungie and said "'Steve Jobs can't have that. We're going to buy you.'"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
There have been exclusives for a long time, even before Halo. Mostly console, because Windows hasn’t really faced competition. Macs could never decide on a chipset. First it was Motorola, then PowerPC, then Intel, and now Apple Silicon. It’s a moving target. Apple Silicon may not be forever either. If Apple wants to get into gaming, I can see them working with AMD, but not soon.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After Apple originally announced the first version of Halo in 1999, Xbox apparently called Bungie and said "'Steve Jobs can't have that. We're going to buy you.'"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
No, he wasn’t making a free version of Crossover, but it did the same thing as Crossover. They both use free software made by WINE. The Whisky dev was not stealing from Crossover. However, Crossover gives some of its proceeds to the WINE community, so the Whisky developer felt that users using Whisky were indirectly cheating the WINE community by getting a free ride. Note that Proton and WINE are free. Crossover is the outlier being paid, but Crossover also gives back.

There are no assholes in this situation whatsoever. Not the Whisky dev for giving us a free alternative and not the Whisky users not paying for Crossover. Not even Crossover since they contribute to WINE. If there are any assholes, it’s developers who make games for Switch but not Mac (since they’re both ARM64 platforms; obviously not counting first-party Nintendo developers), people who pirated Crossover, and developers not developing at all for ARM64. But that’s a stretch and I’m not after any of those people, I’m just saying, if someone has to be an asshole, that’s where I’d look, not at Whisky/its dev/its users, and not at Crossover/its dev/its users.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How many instances have you been orphaned from?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Well, that explains why your first link is dead. Thanks for the explanation! I haven’t been around this long; db0 is my first instance. I’m not that crazy, I just looked at them and said “damn that’s wild, you know what you crazy SOB, I’m in.” Like the meme… Futurama? Rick and Morty? Not sure.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How many instances have you been orphaned from?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
An instance can defederate a user? Is that what you’re saying?

How would I find out?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After Apple originally announced the first version of Halo in 1999, Xbox apparently called Bungie and said "'Steve Jobs can't have that. We're going to buy you.'"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Apple announced a game without securing distribution rights first? Seems a bit shady on Bungie’s part for letting them, and negligent on Apple’s.

Also, if we want to paint the narrative that a potential future of Apple in gaming was stolen by Microsoft, wouldn’t that put Apple in the perfect position now to hit back? They’ve been toying with the idea of bringing gaming to macOS, but they seem to want someone else to do the heavy lifting. On Linux you have Proton, and on macOS we had Whisky, but the guy threw in the towel when he realised another company was making a commercial product out of it, he didn’t want to take away from the work they were doing. (To be fair, they had been at it longer.) But it seems like if Apple wants to be serious about gaming, they need to build something like Proton. Maybe they should buy Crossover and make it part of macOS. Let just any Mac user run games made for Windows. But I’m also not saying non-gamer Mac users should bear any part of the cost of gaming, but something gotta give somewhere.

Microsoft is screwing up by running people off of Windows when PC building costs are at record highs and the economy is so low, and running up the price of the Xbox due to a situation they had a hand in creating (the AI bubble). While Linux will be a better target for people with perfectly good computers who don’t want to build a whole new one to satisfy Windows 11’s requirements, anyone looking at the end of the life of their gaming PC should be looking at the M4 Mac mini at $500 and at least considering it. And Apple can help them make that decision by appealing to gamers and actually being serious about it. Because if fucking Apple of all companies starts taking gaming seriously, maybe Microsoft will again, too.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic boss Tim Sweeney thinks stores like Steam should stop labelling games as being made with AI: 'It makes no sense,' he says, because 'AI will be involved in nearly all future production⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Oh, so you have to buy new ones? Yeah, no. I have Xbox 360 and Xbox One (RB3 and RB4 era) instruments and neither generation work. I’m not buying a new guitar for Fortnite. That’s crazy.

I heard there’s a new guitar controller out (Gibson?), some like 20th anniversary thing? And I’m wondering who this is for. These games are dead.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
So do we really think that everyone who works at Google or Microsoft is a bad person? Let me remind you that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has given billions to charity. He’s probably not a saint, but is he a net positive or a net negative to the world?

Net positive and net negative… there are 8 billion people and that in and of itself is a problem. Should we fault every human on the planet for being part of the problem? “I was just following orders,” someone in the comments said. Biological directives to mate and reproduce and raise a family. Two people having more than two children between them are increasing the population. If you have three kids, and you’re the father, if there are two different mothers, it’s the same equation. Three adults replaced by three children (after so many years). But population is increasing, not decreasing. We’re all part of the problem. Are we all evil?

That’s not the way I see it. I don’t think it’s fair to judge the individual by the group. I think a person can still be a good person even if they’re part of something that is not good. If you agree with me on overpopulation but not the company in OP’s post, do you draw the line at being able to help it? Like if you’re one of 12 kids you can’t help that, so maybe you adopt when you’re ready to have kids, instead of actually bringing more into the world? So most people can’t help where they work on account of your hopes and wishes won’t pay their bills. You can will them to do the right thing, but you’re not the one responsible for paying their bills, and if they get their lights shut off, their car taken, or evicted, you can draw the shades and say “that’s not my problem.” So why should you get a say? Are you willing to support their families? No, you are not.

But at the same time, I also recognise that some organisations are evil, some governments are evil, and those who enable them do own some responsibility for that. I just don’t think it’s the final say in who a person is.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic boss Tim Sweeney thinks stores like Steam should stop labelling games as being made with AI: 'It makes no sense,' he says, because 'AI will be involved in nearly all future production⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Some people don’t like to hear it, but Fortnite is basically the new Unreal Tournament… in the same way it’s the new Rockband. For the latter, it’s easy: Epic acquired Rockband and Guitar Hero creator Harmonix, and Fortnite Festival is just the latest version of that code, only you can’t use instrument controllers with it, only gamepads (or, I suppose, keyboards or touch screens). So what Fortnite really is, it’s a free-to-play showcase of the Unreal Engine. It’s meant to show off what it can do and anyone can pick it up and play for free. Of course, it doesn’t have all the features of Unreal Tournament. It’s pretty much just battle royale with base building. But it’s the newest version of the same engine and it’s a shooter. Not the same thing… but your skills with older UT definitely translate. My nephew got me to play it. I’d never played it before, and he had spent money on the skins and the extra stuff, so he would go around making big purple explosions and he’d attract attention. Me, I was blown away by the detail, but I found the movement just as fluid as I remembered. Once I got the hang of weapons and their grades, I was scouting out the best pistols and SMGs I could find, and shadowing his character, and when he got into fights, I’d circle around, flank his enemies, and we’d win every fight. We won our first match and I don’t think we’ve lost a match. If we did, we finished in the top 5-10%. We have an unconventional playstyle, and it’s really all me. He plays like most Fortnite players, and they engage him as such. I play like a UT player… or, more accurately, I play it like a Deus Ex player (which was based on the same UE1 that UT99 was). I pick my shots and I shoot to kill. My nephew doesn’t think I’m playing the game right, but he’s having fun and he likes winning.

That said, I don’t love the game. I keep it on my Xbox, but I only play with him (or, I suppose, I’d be open to playing with anyone who asked). Even solo (I did that once on my iPhone when Fortnite came back to iOS this year or last) I still do alright for myself. Rarely take the top spot though. I need a decoy. But if there are 100 players, there’s no shame in being in the last 5 of them.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there an optimal home/apartment size that most people would be happy with?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
I think it greatly depends on how big the family is. If someone has six kids, they need rooms for those kids, and that would be too much for people with two or fewer kids. Even if you take away the dumb “girls need their own private locking space with two doors between them and any male in the house” rules.

Going to the other extreme, I’ve heard of prisons shut down and renovated as affordable housing. I think if you were going to make prison cells into housing for free people though, you would have to give those people control of the doors, and while I suppose a prison probably has a centralised location to cook for the entire population, you would probably want more local cooking on each housing unit, if it’s a big one with more than one. And the doors would be opened by the residents, I’m thinking with RFID or NFC cards. You can run power to each room through the water closets, i.e. where the plumbing goes. But none of these would be good for families, only singles. This would be a better solution for homeless people who don’t have anyone, and possibly for those who need help, as you could have social services, mental health type people go there instead of guards, to care for the people and their needs. Yes, almost like an insane asylum, but you give the residents full agency. No lockdowns or anything like that. Just people with basic living conditions being helped as needed, with conditions that are livable but would make anyone want to seek something better outside, anything, even if it’s just a single-wide trailer in tornado alley, just for the room and the space.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC: Here's what we know⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Everyone else is asking why and here I am wondering why an American company would use the English spelling of aluminium instead of the American spelling “aluminum” (Americans drop the last I).

Or maybe the author just wrote it in English out of habit and the word looks like the American version at a glance. But it’s something I notice.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Typing on a keyboard is kind of like sign language⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Okay, so you can actually get physical keyboards for phones. Matter of fact, I’m typing on a mechanical keyboard on my Mac. If I really wanted to, I could reach in front, flip the switch from “USB C” to “BT” and pair it to my phone. And then I’m typing on a mechanical keyboard… on my iPhone. (Works just as well with Android. Not sure about now, but back in the day, CTRL+ALT+DEL would reboot Android. No confirmation. Screen goes black and then it’s booting up. Fun times. Not sure how to do that on a Mac keyboard though. CTRL+⌘+DEL? Maybe. I dunno.

But I have an iPhone, I don’t really do a lot of typing on it. As far as I know, Apple never made a good keyboard, hardware or software. I tolerate the one on my MacBook. It IS good, for a laptop keyboard… but it’s a laptop keyboard. Absolutely fucking atrocious that official Mac desktop keyboards are also laptop keyboards. “Because thin”, I guess? Fucking stupid. If I wanna type on a phone, I actually enable hotspot on the iPhone, put it down, and pick up my old Galaxy S10. Gboard is awesome on Android, but it sucks on iOS.

Now, as far as trace typing… I dunno. I just got used to it. Been doing it for 15 years. If I know the word, I kinda… just trace it. On Android, it’s VERY forgiving. On an iPhone, it’ll do some weird and straight up dumb corrections, like “and” gets changed to “Abe”. Who the fuck is Abe? Someone who worked on the keyboard? I don’t know anyone called Abe. But the keyboard automatically inserts his name in place of “and” half the time. So yeah, I don’t like typing on iPhones. On Android though? Well, going back to what OP said about it being kind of like sign language? You don’t really think about it. You just do it. As far as how superior it is? Really comes down to personal preference. When Swype had the patent/whatever on it, they said it was faster, but they were kinda biased. Back then, you couldn’t buy the app. Your phone’s manufacturer had to buy and preload it. Now everyone can do it, including iPhone (they call it “QuickPath”) (albeit badly) and Swype isn’t really a thing anymore. I think it’s faster. For me it is. But I’m with you, I prefer typing on a mechanical keyboard. Just feels better.

This reply would be half as long if I were on Android. Couple sentences if I were on my iPhone. But you got me on my Mac. With the good keyboard. Sorry. ;)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Typing on a keyboard is kind of like sign language⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:
Especially trace typing.

Blows my mind that in 2025, people still look at me like a wizard when I do it. Like, “you know you don’t have to press each button like a Neanderthal, you can just trace the word from letter to letter and it mostly works.” And then the blue line or “tail” that follows your finger just mesmerises them. Like bro, I’ve been doing this since like 2010, were you whelped in a barn, my good sir?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨So now that it's that time of year again in the US, what are some tips and tricks for dealing with that one relative who goes on about the same bullshit for hours and won't shut the fuck up?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Honestly I’ve never had that issue.

One of my favourite things to do at a holiday get-together is hijack the TV with my MacBook. Most people think Apple stuff only talks to other Apple stuff in the Ecosystem/Walled Garden and that Android is some rebel front against Apple. Most people are also fucking stupid. If I’m on your WiFi and you have a smart TV, best believe I can take that shit over with like two clicks. My family has one of those TVs, I think it’s a Roku? where if you don’t watch anything, it goes to this city skyline screensaver with billboards advertising the streaming services it has? Like there’s a Netflix billboard, there’s a Disney+ one, you might even see one for Apple TV at some point. But it’s just a looping video. When I see that — nobody’s picking something — I pull out the MacBook, find a movie, and cast to it. Nobody questions why the TV did that without anyone touching the remote.

Last time, it was KPop Demon Hunters. Maybe a couple people assumed I had something to do with it, but within minutes, all the kids were occupied with it. By the second or third song, even the adults were singing along (I was playing the Sing-Along version). It was great. Might do it again. I can’t just put on anything. It has to hook a few people, which in turn draws others.

So, distraction.

Also, I sit at the kids’ table. They have far more interesting conversations. And there’s always some kid, almost always a girl, usually one around 7-12, who will tell me I don’t belong there. Like some little Philosopher’s Stone-year Hermione, some little know-it-all. I’ll wait until none of the other adults are looking, and she’ll catch a pea or a carrot slice to the face, look at me, and see my look of “I’ll do it again” on my face. That usually settles it. Once in a while it turns into a food fight, which I never get blamed for because I know when to stop.

We only do these whole-family get-togethers a few times a year. It’s usually a good time. But honestly, by the end of the day I just wanna take my pants off and wind down watching TV (at home I mean, and we don’t have kids so I don’t mean anything weird). Get tired of people after a while. Even the fun ones. But the time I gotta be there? I make it work for me.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could another country like Great Britain Release the Full Epstein files?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
I think the question is, does London actually have the files? Washington has the files, which is why it’s down to the Americans to release them.

Others have said it already, but by contrast, the big paedo controversy in the UK a few years back, Washington didn’t have those files, so Washington couldn’t have exposed London in that way. Just like London can’t expose Washington here. London may have had its own investigation into Epstein, but they don’t have all the files that Washington has. They may have some of them. But the UK is very much, in some of the sense, “the 51st state,” meaning their fate and destiny is somewhat, at least, based on the strength of the US. Can the UK stand entirely on its own, or without US support? I would like to think so, but London certainly enjoys the support it has, and I do believe PM Starmer and President Trump are allies, if not friends, and agree on some important things. So no, London isn’t going to take hostile action against Washington, and Starmer isn’t going to sign off on an attack on Trump, because they are not enemies.

I think the better question is if Elon Musk could get his hands on them and release them unredacted? I think he has the skill, and he and Trump keep butting heads, but I don’t see him going for the nuclear option. Besides, and what a lot of people don’t seem to realise is, no one is going to change their mind about Trump whether he’s in the files or not. We all know he is. He doesn’t care because he can’t get a third term as president, which is why he was holding up food stamps for weeks, he was trying to start riots so he could declare martial law and suspend elections. That’s his only play for power past 2028, but he’s also 80-odd years old, he’s not going to be in power long regardless. It’s the younger men in his party who are implicated in the files, who could shape party politics for decades to come, they’re ultimately trying to protect, while trying to spin the files against the opposing party.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could another country like Great Britain Release the Full Epstein files?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Because these “radical hacker groups” often support the right, not the left. They’re not going after their friends.

The whole “Guy Fawkes” and “for the people” is just a smoke screen. They aren’t your friend and they certainly aren’t your champion. At best, they do what they want, and taking down the alt right is not something they want to do. Wishing for them to do it is one thing, but don’t hold your breath.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Burger King now selling "Mystery" menus⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Not in the US…

I follow a YouTuber who lives in Japan, I think he’s American or English, either way, Burger King does some wild stuff over there. Some of it sounds really nasty. Some of it, I’d be willing to try — this is coming from someone who does not eat fast food. Like, I can make an awesome burger at home, in my air fryer, and honestly so can anyone. I get the convenience aspect and I try not to judge those who go for fast food, it’s just not for me.

I didn’t know they did different stuff in Spain, too. It seems like it’s just America that is boring for fast food places. This seems fun. It’s not something I’d partake in because I like certainty (goes more into how I prefer my cooking to theirs) but it’s a fun concept. I have worked in fast food before and I know there’s no way in Hell they’re making fresh food for this. You’re getting whatever they have left over. If they have nothing left over, maybe there’s a new “random” button on the register that picks a protein, picks a bread, picks toppings, and to the line workers, it’s as though the person actually ordered that weirdness. And they just make it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Android QuickShare is now compatible with AirDrop⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
To clarify, in iOS 18 and prior, it’s going to be the proprietary WiFi protocol in AirDrop. In iOS 26 onward, it’s WiFi Aware, which is an open protocol (that Apple contributes to).

For me, this mirrors the USB issue. So everyone thinks that Apple went with Lightning because they wanted to sell cables. No, Apple is on the USB committee or council or whatever TF it is. And they were always going to replace 30-pin with USB, but they were about to release the spec on USB 3 and Apple was all in… until they saw the plug. They said “hell no” and went to Intel to develop Lightning. Unfortunately Lightning still used USB 2 speeds, but it fit what they wanted.

What Apple said “hell no” to is actually USB-B. The one that looks like a B if you look at it dead on. It was Micro USB A, but with an extra plug to the side. The Galaxy S5 used this, and so did the Note 4… and not too many other phones. The gimmick was you could continue using Micro USB A, what most Android phones used, but you’d be limited in speed and charge power. The new USB would give you more of both. Also, USB B did not go away. I have an external hard drive enclosure and a USB hub that require it. They’re also fairly recent, too. But it’s USB-C on the other end. And they get USB 3 speeds. But I never unplug/replug them so I don’t care. A lot of portable hard drives and SSDs use it on the drive side (it’s still USB-C going to your phone or computer).

Apple, like other companies, is involved with a lot of tech. They don’t use all of it, but they are involved with it. So when people say Apple turned their back on an open standard to make something proprietary… usually there’s a reason. Oh, and yeah, they definitely wanted to sell those proprietary cables… but that’s not to say they didn’t have a good reason for not making a USB-B iPhone. And the thing is… that connector only lasted for one generation on Samsung. Most OEMs straight up skipped it. Many stuck with USB Micro A until USB C. Apple doesn’t do things for just one generation if they can help it. (I mean, there was the smaller notch that only existed on the iPhone 13, but I think they used it on the 16e as well.)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does a community called no stupid questions allow comments that say the question is stupid?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Being rude, in and of itself, doesn’t break the rules in most communities. Some do say to argue in good faith or something to that effect, but none really outright ban rudeness. Maybe the “nice” communities where people go to get away from drama. I dunno. I don’t read a lot of sidebars. The way I try to conduct myself generally fits with a lot of communities. The ones it doesn’t, will kick me out. And that’s fine, to a point. I mean it’s not great but it’s also not the end of, well, anything.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In many ways, Cat is to Lion as Bear is to Dog⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
In looks, maybe if you squint? Lions are felines; bears are not canines. They are not related.

Coyotes and wolves are the wild equivalent, but they aren’t much bigger. I think the largest canines that exist today have been domesticated, like the Saint Bernard and the Great Dane. There are others, but those are the popular ones. Also, I think you could breed the wild out of coyotes and wolves if you tried. I’ve never heard of anyone keeping coyotes as pets, but wolves? Sure. Especially wolf cross-breeds with domesticated breeds.