Spyke

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games

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[MEGATHREAD] Starfield - Your experiences!

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This is one of the more biting criticisms I've heard of the game. It results in a lack of feeling of scale and scope. The universe just feels like connected places, instead of worlds within a galaxy. No Mans Sky got this right, and it's surprising that Bethesda would fumble such a core mechanic. It looks like they tried to cover up this wart by... removing city maps.

world

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Tesla exaggerated EV range so much that drivers thought cars were broken

I guess we add this to the pile of complaints about Tesla.

The real takeaway here for me is that if you make an amazing product, you can treat your customers any way you like. They'll keep buying. Despite all of these complaints, their output is parabolic. They're not just up YoY, they're even up QoQ. In other words, their Q1 2023, which is typically the slowest auto sales period, just beat Q4 2022, which is typically the highest volume period. Their most recent market announcement for Q2 shows 466,140 deliveries; up from 422,875 in Q1. That's 9% QoQ for an auto company. They now command 4.46% of the entire US auto market. An EV company. Not only is their total auto market share increasing, but their EV market share is increasing as well. This despite almost every major auto manufacturer entering the market with a century of auto making experience, and the supply chains to match.

news

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France to quit making cigarettes as last factory prepares to close

Kicking the habit Efforts by authorities to curb smoking and its health hazards, not least by prohibiting puffing in restaurants and cafes and banning ads for cigarettes, have prompted sharp reductions in cigarette sales in recent years.

While I support bans in restaurants and cafes, I don't support prohibition, which is what a lot of Western nations are aiming at. We learned our lesson during the alcohol prohibition years in America, and for the last 70 years around the world with marijuana prohibition. The social effects are far worse when forcing recreational drugs underground. Educate support addiction programs, but don't ban.

world

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Two years under Taliban rule in Afghanistan: ‘I never thought the world would forget about us so quickly’

I'm not sure what people want, exactly. 20 years of occupation wasn't enough to change their culture even a little bit. Do they want permanent American occupation? That's clearly untenable for many reasons. I don't want America to be the world police, and I don't want them invading countries on moral grounds.

Any aid given to Afghanistan immediately ends up in the hands of the Taliban now.

europe

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Europe’s sweeping rules for tech giants are about to kick in. Here’s how they work

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I’ve been following this from the perspective of iOS and iPhones. In effect this will enable one to:

  • Install any software without prejudice or gates. Apple cannot, for example, require developers to register with Apple, or pay them a fee.

  • Install any app store and choose to make it default.

  • Use third party payment providers and choose to make them default.

  • Use any voice assistant and choose to make it default.

  • User any browser and browser engine and choose to make it default.

  • Use any messaging app and choose to make it default.

  • Make core messaging functionality interoperable. They lay out concrete examples like file transfer.

  • Use existing hardware and software features without competitive prejudice. E.g. NFC.

  • Not preference their services. This includes CTAs in settings to encourage users to subscribe to Gatekeeper services, and ranking their own services above others in selection and advertising portals.

  • Much, much, more.

It’s one of the most impressive, most expansive pieces of technology focused legislation in my lifetime. They’ve really done a great job of covering all bases.

I expect these to be available next month when the latest version of iOS drops. The deadline is in February/March. If they don’t get this out the door soon, they risk 20% of global revenue as a fine. It would be foolish to wait until the deadline as any issues with deployment would risk the fine, and the EU is eager make an example.

news

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China Is on Edge as Fallout From Its Real Estate Crisis Spreads

This is many decades in the making. From useless infrastructure projects, to artificially deflating the yuan, to rampant IP theft, to making CEOs disappear, to destroying the entire IT sector, to fake economic figures, to crazy regional incentive models, to major corruption, to very restrictive foreign capital rules, and one of the worst looming demographic crises in the entire world. They're so racist and xenophobic they'll never be able to plug the gap with immigration either. Xi is reversing decades of Deng's economic reforms, and looks set to return China to Mao's policies. We have history to inform us of the likely outcome.

The good news for the West is that they've done such a good job of building an insular economy that even if all exports to China stopped today, it would barely move the market. Further, if they have a recession or depression, it will cut energy and food prices for us, reducing inflationary pressures. China is not a good world citizen. They pose a material threat to Taiwan, Tibet, millions of Uyghur muslims, and their neighbours. They champion authoritarianism, corruption, violence, and torture as means for power. I will not cry when they are weakened.

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Do you pirate? And do you justify pirating? i.e., what is your piracy philosophy?

I don’t pirate music or games because there are reasonable platforms and pricing models which make pirating more hassle than it’s worth. Shows and movies, on the other hand, are an absolute shitshow to purchase legally.

  • Outrageous pricing.

  • Declining quality. Especially writing. See Rings of Power, Wheel of Time, and Foundation.

  • Content is often unavailable to purchase. See Disney vault.

  • Competing streaming services. I’d have to subscribe to six services to access the shows I like.

  • Content disappears from services with little notice.

  • Studios and platforms have been removing and modifying older content for political reasons.

It’s like they’re trying to make the experience as bad as possible. So fuck ‘em. Thank you Sonarr and Radarr.

dach

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I moved to Germany and regret it. I've felt unwelcome by the people, and not even the great healthcare can convince me to stay.

  1. She uses words like "microaggression" repeatedly, so she's practiced at finding offense where there isn't any.

  2. She's American, so she's ignorant of foreign cultures and believes hers is superior. Anyone who doesn't conform is an "ist".

  3. Her German is weak. Many Germans do not speak English. She complains about having to take lessons.

  4. She moved to a small town and complained about small town problems. In small towns, people speak even less English, and are even less used to foreigners. Public transport is less accessible.

  5. Complains about Amazon delivery taking too long.

This is the most American whinge I've ever read.