Prez wrote on Jul 15, 2025, 22:19:
I'm definitely becoming more and more out of touch. I don't think that I have ever seen so few of the movies and shows nominated for Emmys.

Emmys? Is TV still a thing? I hear that almost all televisions today are color-capable! (OK, I may have watched about 5 shows in the past 5 years--I usually forget about them after the first season.)

fujiJuice wrote on Jul 11, 2025, 21:11:
[strange Effexor side effects]

I was fortunate in not having any of those side effects, even when slowly withdrawing to start my current meds (Duloxetine / Cymbalta). One side effect I did get and still get is industrial strength constipation. (The gut nerves have been using these chemicals long before the modern brain.) Fortunately that is treatable with maximum strength stool softeners. Bodies: UGH!

The original Subnautica was my first free game from Epic, but I never played it. I think I'll wait for a similar price on the sequel before not playing it too.

Thanks for the info Bent. I see that I already snagged this game, but have never tried it before--maybe that will change soon.

Also I see that Distant Worlds 2 is under $20--I bought it long ago for nearly full price. DW2 is a rather different kind of 4X space game and I like it a lot despite it still being a bit janky at times. I recommend looking at DW2 videos on Youtube if you're interested to see some real gameplay.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 10, 2025, 17:02:
I mean, sure. But Velcro, dude.

Hmmm. AI seems to be pretty good at making more pornography... Maybe soon it can create Velcro porn! Just imagine the possibilities!

I did phone tech support for the Xbox 360 soon after its launch. (Working at a contractor, not Microsoft.) The earliest generation of the hardware did not have enough cooling, especially in a horizontal position. (Vertical was better for cooling, but often led to scratched game discs.Worst of all were those who just put the console on the carpet--best way to cook it fast.)

We had a lot of unhappy people over the initial 90 day warranty (our reply was that 90 days was standard for most consumer electronics). I had some discretion, and often let people get free repairs if they were only a few weeks out of warranty. Fortunately Microsoft soon upgraded it to 1 year.

fujiJuice wrote on Jul 4, 2025, 13:26:
I have actually had AI say "Womp Womp" to me so this should get interesting.

I forget sometimes that the bots are trained on almost all of the public internet, including wretched hives of scum and villainy like Reddit.

Jivaro wrote on Jul 4, 2025, 12:28:
MS's year so far...
... Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases

A lot of the "shareholder" returns went right into executive pockets. Some of that is deserved--Microsoft has done pretty well recently.

A better company that cared more about its workers might have "invested" in improving efficiency by spending more on the workers who are laid off. Imagine MS had said they were laying off thousands of people, but they would all get 2 years severance pay and benefits, plus opening a $100 million center for job assistance, counseling, and retraining, etc. Lots of these employees thought they had a great long-term career and made huge changes (like house buying) accordingly. Treating them well should make it easier to get new top talents.

Prez wrote on Jul 4, 2025, 12:32:
[...] use a chatbot to help deal with emotional distress? Are you actually serious right now??

At least the chatbot would appear to care about the person, unlike some executives.

I'm sure that soon we'll have new AI tools just to fix issues caused by other AI tools (often digging the hole deeper).

Thanks for the info, and I'm sorry you lost your job in the recent events. The gaming industry seems like a mess--so much talent wasted in cancelled or failed projects.

I liked the xkcd comic today. I figure I am in the top 100 billion chess players in human history, at least until human history contains that many people.

Snagged Backpack Hero and even played it for a bit. (I know, you're only supposed to collect the free games, not play them. ) Fun game with combat like Slay the Spire but inventory replacing cards. Initial runs in Story Mode are shorter than I'd like--hope they get longer soon.

Shame on you Jivaro, you casual snagger! I insist on a nice dinner and a show before doing the deed.

Thanks for the link! I snagged them all and only had to play the GOG CATCHPA minigame once!

Jivaro wrote on Jun 24, 2025, 14:41:
Just watch your Star Wars movie with your own beer.

If I'm watching the prequel movies, I need something stronger than beer. I'm not sure there is anything strong enough for the last sequel movie. Maybe LSD would make it watchable?

Takes one to read one!

I just wanted to highly recommend the Asianometry videos to anyone interested in the details of advanced chip manufacturing. The videos are concise, very well illustrated, have nice bits of humor, and only a brief ad for the author's Patreon/newsletter. Heck, even their YouTube comments are mostly enjoyable.

The linked video is a bit more business/history focused, but many other Asianometry videos are focused on the technologies. My favorites are the videos explaining EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) lithography which is essential to the most advanced chips today. For example, to produce the light needed for EUV two lasers are used to turn tiny tin droplets into plasma--repeated 50,000 times per second.

"This video is age-restricted and only available on YouTube."

Well, drat. I'm over 16 years old so I don't think I meet the restrictions for a Borderlands video.

Prez wrote on Jun 21, 2025, 22:42:
I'm finally starting to get good at Balatro.

...and thus the final secret prophecy of the Apocalypse was fulfilled.