“FromSoftware is based AF, Bethesda you could learn something from them” or something like that.
Um, please no. If Elder Scrolls VI is a Souls-like, I won’t play it. But with regard to IP law, yeah, that’s all fine. But Bethesda is part of Microsoft now, and they were bad enough before with Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online and the mod storefronts for Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield… so yeah, probably gonna get a lot worse.
That’s 2 different questions.
I believe VLC can open m3u links (playlists). Not sure about m3u8.
As far as downloading videos from an app, good luck with that. Or if you mean using an app (say, to download from a website), you could probably do it with Firefox?
If you have access to a computer, jdownloader2 is super easy to download from most websites.
I got Macs and an iPhone and I can download stuff so I know you can with Android. (I can also send videos easily between Android and iPhone.)
Thoughtcrime issues? You have thoughts about harming someone, you get punished for it even if you don’t take action?
I suppose the upshot is it could be used to detect and diagnose mental illnesses?
Furthermore, going into the future, it could ostensibly be used to control parts of the body that are damaged or otherwise not working, or emulate their function. For example, someone with damaged vocal cords could use it to speak through connected speakers. Someone who is paralysed could use it to walk with a mechanical exoskeleton.
The problem with something like that is, it would have to be privacy focused. Samsung, one of the most popular smartphone makers, updated their Health app a year or two ago to where you had to agree to allow them to sell or give away your medical information if you want to continue to use Samsung Health. And that’s a Korean company. Apple Health is still private, but Apple is an American company, so the question is begged, “but for how long?”.
So, the question is, are the powers that be/fascists in charge going to use it to weed out LGBTQ+ and put them in concentration camps, or what?
Yes. When I used to mod Android phones, we used AdAway to fix the HOSTS file.
The HOSTS file exists on pretty much everything. iPhone, Android, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, Mac, PC. Most of those don’t let you edit it, though.
And on Android without root, just like on an iPhone, it’s down to DNS filtering. You need root to edit the HOSTS file.
For platforms you can’t edit the HOSTS file on, you can run your own DNS server (I have no experience doing this, but, it can be done) and block ads there, and route your locked-down machines through that. I think a Pi-Hole does that (Raspberry Pi computer running custom router software for blocking ads/trackers).
I looked outside and I do not see people dancing in the streets.
So, no.
That said, there are a couple dozen fascists who are half his age ready to take up the mantle when he does. His passing will not be the end of fascism in the US. It may even spike it.
LibreOffice is starting to look nice! How an office suite looks shouldn’t matter, but… it does. I have decades of experience with Word and Excel, and while I don’t love them, they are kinda the standard against which I compare others. Before (last time I looked, a few years ago maybe) LO looked like Office 95. Trash. The program was okay, but it irked me it was an all or nothing affair, like you had the LO core and you only saved a few KB by ditching one of the apps in the bundle. These days, that is less of an issue — and LO looks more like Office XP. It’s a good look, especially for Ribbon haters. (I quite like the Ribbon, but I’m also nostalgic for the time before it, so I could take or leave it.)
I’m on a Mac now and we have our own office suite (iWork) and that’s free, private, and it can read/write docx/xlsx files (newer Office files) pretty well. We use Microsoft 365 at work, and I have no problems importing anything made on that to the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers), and/or exporting files from them to the Microsoft formats and using them at work.
I don’t think any spreadsheet program is quite as good as Excel, though. And I really don’t do number crunching with it, I use it more to make forms. What I really like in Microsoft’s suite is Publisher, and Apple doesn’t have an equivalent of that. Not sure if Libre does. I think the other suites want their word processor to do double duty as a publisher, but none of them are quite there IMO. But as far as Word goes? Yeah, I’ll swap that out with Libre Writer or iWork Pages (or even Google Docs if I weren’t concerned with privacy) in a heartbeat. Word is nothing special.
I was just looking at it. And I should preface, I do not like or trust AI chatbots. I saw “uncensored” in the headline, but when I scrolled down to the pricing, it’s actually censored unless you pay. So for free you have a limited number of prompts (seems quite generous though) but there’s a maturity filter implied on the free tier which is “disabled” on the $18/mo tier.
I’ve just been using Duck.ai (DuckDuckGo) for simple and stupid questions (e.g. who would win in a fight between X and Y, dumb shit like that) and it’s been fine. You should know DDG has been linked to Bing (Microsoft) for searching. They claim their AI is private. Doesn’t really concern me, I think all AI is inherently shit, so I take them at their word that it’s private… because I’m not sharing anything with it that matters. Just asking it dumb questions.
Happy with a phone that’s basically based on UNIX and isn’t run by a personal information broker. I can put Google apps on it if I want (and I think I have a couple) but ultimately it’s up to me what I want advertisers to be able to buy.
I dunno, just seems better, especially given the two cost the same. So all that personal information they sell doesn’t work out to a cost savings for you, plus the phone they make themselves is like 20-40% slower, newest model to newest model. So in a sense you’re kind of paying them to sell your data? Not my cup of tea.
You ever see a dump truck that says “not responsible for broken windshields”? Guess what. EVERY truck — this is US law anyway — is responsible for securing its load. So why do they have the sticker? So you don’t bug them about it. Or at least so most people don’t bug them about it. They also say stay back 200 feet. That’s not a law. It’s just a bumper sticker and is equally as enforceable. If they crack your windshield because they didn’t secure your load, you (or rather your insurance company) can go after them. But the truth is, most insurance companies just write off so many broken windshields per however long anyway, they won’t go after the company even if you have proof. But they could — and so could you.
Post the review anyway. Or at the very least post a review that says “the terms say I can’t post a negative review so believe me when I say the service was acceptable.” It’s not a negative review. It’s not a positive review either. It’s a neutral review and it calls out the clause. It is heavily implied to be opposite of what you said. You said the work was acceptable, implying it’s unacceptable. If you used the same tactic and said the work was great, the opposite would appear true, that it was not great. But acceptable is not great. So say it was acceptable and imply you were forced to say that. Thusly, an intelligent person will see your message for what it is.
Hate that this is being downvoted by people who are mostly objectively right.
I think it’s poetic. I don’t think it’s true or even feasible but I wouldn’t downvote it.
At least with Cyberpunk we have a number e.g. CP77
It’s Lemmings not Lemmites, so keeping that same energy… Piefeedings? Piefeddings? I think Piefedders sounds better, though none of them are great.
However, Piefed does have fed in it like fediverse, so it’s not a bad name, just hard to riff off of.
Not a fan of Rockstar in particular.
GTA (as in, the first one) was a wonderful gaming experience. GTA 2 changed the game in some interesting ways, yet it remains the black sheep of the series for some reason. 3, 4, and 5 were iconic. Then 4 came out again (oops, the OG 4 is actually just Vice City, it’s not the fourth game but it’s also not DLC, not sure how that works. Interestingly while GTA 4/VC and GTA 4 were in different cities, GTA 5/SA and GTA 5 both took place in San Andreas (and surrounding areas). Anyway, I couldn’t get into the new GTA 4. GTA 5 was better, but I never finished it. Then they paused GTA to do a sequel to their Red Dead games, neither of which really went anywhere (popularity wise) but whatever, RDR2 (sequel to Red Dead Redemption, itself a sequel to Red Dead Revolver) ended up being a massive hit. Wasn’t for me, but I enjoyed what I played (the intro and maybe a couple hours after).
I don’t think GTA VI will be worth $100. I’m not interested in paying more than like $40 for it, tops. But, that’s just me. I know even at $100 it will break records and then everyone will think they can sell their games for $100 each. I don’t like it, but it’s going to happen.
So… they let you uninstall it? Or are we talking about spyware not made by Meta?
Because the way I understand it, Meta has been hacking iPhones ever since the App Tracking Protection thing came about. Mostly via the in-app browser. Point is, Tim Cook said Meta can continue to track you, they just have to get your permission first, and even if you said no, they still found a way to do it anyway. Therefore, are Meta products not spyware?
(So are Google products. On iPhone, you block ads system-wide with a DNS filter. Same as you do on an unrooted Android phone, since you don’t have access to the HOSTS file — rooted users are just using AdAway or something like it to update HOSTS. Anyway, Google apps use Google DNS, which they say makes them faster, but it also has the convenient upshot (to them) of going around your ad blocking, and forcing ads on a user who has explicitly configured their device to block them.)
Maybe.
I grew up reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Bentley Little, and John Saul. I now think horror movies are kind of silly. I like the Scream series because they’re smarter. They’re good slashers but you have the whodunit aspect as well.
I can’t speak for everyone though. And maybe it’s not so bad to be scared of horror? Like, isn’t that part of the fun?
Never got into horror games though. The problem I have with that is, being that it’s a game, either you have the agency to peek behind the curtain, or you don’t. With a movie, you only see what they want you to see. I never actually played horror games, as such, but there were a couple scary moments in games I have played, like Fallout 3 with the Dunwich Building. It’s a random building toward the southwest corner of the map that is not connected to any main or side quests. (I think one of the DLCs had a tie in to it, though.) When you go in, you find that you can’t leave the way you came in, and as you traverse the building looking for another way out, you see flashbacks that are handled like jump scares. It’s really not that scary, but the first time through might be. There’s a similar area in Fallout 4 (Dunwich Borers, so, same company) and you experience some of the same stuff.
Take out the “half your age plus” and you might be onto something.
They’re all boosting each others’ craziness so none of them drop the dreaded list that exposes all of them, and/or the people they owe favors to.
Not really. Most people don’t care about privacy, or their personal data being sold to the highest bidder. People still use Facebook, too.
People voted for this with their wallets.
As an iPhone guy, I know we already have it like that, and our keyboard has always sucked (and none of the third party keyboards help, they all suck compared to Gboard on Android), but while we dread the day that Apple becomes a data broker like Google… that day is not here yet.
Borderlands. The first one. The game is amazing by yourself and slightly better with friends. It’s not meant to be worse either way. It’s just a lot of fun.
The later BL games were made the same way, but I haven’t found any of the sequels (/“Pre-Sequel”) to be as engaging as the original. They are bigger and more ambitious, though, with BL2 being a fan favorite. I just really like the Soldier (Roland) from the first game. The other games don’t have a character I like playing as much as him, so I’d rather join the original rather than settle for a lesser character.
Actually, the best co-op game is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It’s played with your left hand and your right hand. I’m being a bit of a smartass, but technically it does qualify as co-op because two characters on the screen are being independently controlled and they must work together. But it is specifically designed to be played by one person. Your dominant hand should control the older brother, with the analog stick moving him and either trigger doing the action, whatever that may be (it’s basically a one-button game, plus the stick). Your other hand controls the younger brother, same thing. So naturally the older brother runs straight and does what you expect but the little brother tends to stumble and waver. All intentional. Also, don’t bother with the remake. It breaks a few things and honestly doesn’t look much better. Different art style, not better. Just play the original. You can get it on GOG on sale all the time for like $2-3. Also, it’ll take ~4 hours to complete and you’ll probably never want to play it again (but recommend it to everyone). I actually bought the remake (mistake) and had my wife play it. For the hell of it, I speed ran both of them (this was on Xbox) for the achievements. Then I did the same on the original. Interestingly, you do not have to complete the game to get all the achievements! You don’t even have to complete the final fight, or do the climactic scene before the final fight. Before you’re even aware the climactic scene is coming, you sit on a bench and blip, there’s the last achievement, if you’re doing an Achievement% run, that’s when you call time. (I’m not a competitive speed runner. I just did the runs to pop the achievements before uninstalling them.)
I have something like that on my iPhone, except it’s like 150GB of media (it’s a 512GB phone).
I have a lot more on my Plex server. But, sometimes I’m without Internet and it’s nice to be able to queue up a favorite video or movie without worrying about my network connection.
If you only have 10GB, any phone should work. A newer one will have faster data rates than a flash drive. iPhones are guaranteed to. Good Android phones use UFS 3.0 or better which is only slower than what’s in an iPhone on paper. In real usage you won’t really see a difference. Plus, you have a screen on it so you can watch whenever. I mean the cheap phones now start at like 64GB, iPhones and probably Android flagships start at 128GB, even from a few years ago. So it’s plenty of space and it’s also emulators and books and whatever else you wanna throw on it. Oh yeah, music too.