Hyperreality

Real politik.

Saudi Arabia is a useful ally to have in the region, a fellow enemy of Russian ally Iran, a good customer for the defense industry, and an alliance makes the US less reliant on Israel. That’s a win-win.

Elements in the Saudi government may have helped orchestrate 9/11, but after 2003 attacks in Saudi Arabia they drastically and often violently curtailed the influence of the Wahhabi establishment. The aristocracy clamped down on the power of the clergy. They also offered significant and valuable intelligence cooperation with the US

So if elements in the Saudi government did help orchestrate 9/11, it’s easier to sweap it under the rug. There are more important issues to worry about.

Twenty years ago? Other decisions should have been made and not made.

Now? The world and the regime in Saudi Arabia has changed.

It’s not The Wire or The Sopranoes.

It is genuinely fun and bingeable.

AI.

I suspect it’s because a lot of the cyberpunk out there is explicitly neo-noir. So you end up with a noir detective mixed with a robot, like Nick Valentine in Fallout, even if the tubes and cables are slightly Gigerish. Not much Inspector Gadget, because that’s primarily a cartoon.

I don’t know if they pay per sale, or if they bought the right to sell the game with a one off lump sum as they have done in the past for at least some games.

If it’s the latter, my buying the game on gog doesn’t send any more money to the original studio.

Gog?

I use it for gmail and related google apps, nothing else.

Honestly works for me. Chrome for emails and stuff. No history, full privacy mode firefox for everything else. That includes youtube and links in emails.

Google thinks all I ever do is check my emails.

Honestly, when it comes to duolingo, you’re probably best off sticking to Spanish or stuff like that.

I tried out a course in my native language, and it really wasn’t great beyond the basics. Loads of mistakes.

And if you’re going to be paying for that, you might as well buy (or pirate) a proper Spanish course.

I’ve encountered them in Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, and France.

Not everywhere though, and restaurants often have free toilets for customers. Mostly in cities, busy places.

Germany has paying toilets near on the Autobahn, but last time I checked you get a rebate coupon to buy something in the shop or cafe.

Not necessarily opposed to them. Some people are animals and 50 cents keeps out the worst of them and helps keep things clean.

High value target, vulnerable in a conflict with China.

https://news.usni.org/2021/06/14/mda-u-s-aircraft-carriers-now-at-risk-from-hypersonic-missiles

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/3/22/incoming-can-aircraft-carriers-survive-hypersonic-weapons

Counter argument:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2020/06/09/claims-of-aircraft-carrier-vulnerability-are-false-but-the-versatility-is-real/?sh=31fda78f591a

Caveat on this article:

Several contractors with a stake in the carrier debate contribute to my think tank, including Huntington Ingalls Industries HII —the only company in the world that manufactures large-deck, nuclear-powered carriers.

Yeah. It is/was free on epic. As you say, the story seems pretty boring.

I don’t know why, but it felt really dead and empty. Most of the missions are go fetch missions too.

Cyberpunk, (modded) Skyrim, Fallout 4 or New Vegas, I actually enjoyed walking to the destination. Outer Worlds I found myself using fast travel as much as possible because I wasn’t rewarded for taking in the scenery. Not truly open world.

I mean, one of the companions, IRC I simply fast travelled to and from the ship 4 times to advance the quest. Go fetch at point A, go to ship to discuss, go fetch at point B, go to ship to discuss, etc.

Japanese work culture is toxic.

Game industry work culture is toxic.

Combine the two, and it becomes even more toxic.

Think this may be relevant to that hypothesis:

And in a much-discussed report last month, the climate researcher James E. Hansen argued that scientists had vastly underestimated how much more the planet would warm in the coming decades if nations cleaned up aerosols without cutting carbon emissions. Not all scientists are persuaded.

Relevant bits:

As extreme as this year’s temperatures were, they did not catch researchers off guard. Scientists’ … 2023’s heat is still broadly within this range, albeit on the high end. … one exceptional year would not be enough to suggest something was faulty with the computer models … Global temperatures have long bobbed up and down around a steady warming trend because of cyclical factors like El Niño … has intensified since, possibly signaling more record heat to come in 2024. … “I’m not willing to say that we’ve ‘broken the climate’ or there’s anything weird going on until more evidence comes in.” … Until the current El Niño is over, “it’s unlikely we’ll be able to make definitive claims,” he said.

I like looking at women.

Also: having a female character and trying out a variety of cool outfits, dresses and make-up is fun. Especially as most games allow you to do a lot of customisation for female characters.

Barbie in Night City, Barbie in Skyrim, Barbie in the post-Apocalypse. I can happily spend far too much time getting their outfit and make-up just right, before I even get down to kicking ass.

Also, I like female bad-asses.

I’ll be forced to switch to linux when 10 reaches end of life, but I’m genuinely not looking forward to it.

I’ve tried it before and given up after hours of hair pulling. Not linux’s fault necessarily. Often driver issues.

That’s the thing a lot of fanboys forget. They often install linux on hardware they handpicked to be compatible on a pc they assembled themselves. Most casual users are upgrading an existing non-self assembled system, which may or may not be compatible, and contain parts that don’t have good driver support. Eg. a cheap realtek card that was never sold to consumers directly, meaning it would only be installed in windows systems.

I assume the longterm support version of windows 10 costs money.

AFAIK the upgrade to 11 is free.

https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

Bad analogy.

More like cycling to work with or without a helmet.

Perfectly happy to pirate media, but pirated software is a risk I can largely avoid for a very low cost. Usually 10cents per hour played.

Morality aside, I prefer not to pirate software for safety reasons. Malware is an issue, even if it’s rare.