I think your second half is bang on the nail for the missing part of this story. It is not just to drive search directly, it is also to control the browser market long term.
That's what Microsoft did very successfully with Internet Explorer too. They have it away for free and bundled it with Windows, killing all competition and then used that to leverage MSN. They also didn't follow standards and through market dominance shaped the internet.
Google sort of follows standards but they have also forced through proprietary standards or have broken code which is why some websites don't work well in Firefox or Safari even now.
Chromium may be open source but it is a tool used by Google to control and dominate the internet.
Apple is exactly the same with WebKit - they talk about privacy and security but the real motivation is surpressong alternate routes to the internet from their devices whic then keeps iron control over payment methods particularly in iOS. Yet people in the apple eco system buy into the narrative that the one piece of software you're not allowed in iOS is a non apple web browser, as if that is an acceptable approach. It's just another manifestation of anti competitive behaviour and the power and money you can get by "free" software.
I dunno, I don't think "a more worthwhile game to play than starfield" is a Cunty commennt? Ironically you're the one who posted a snarky comment, not the person you're seemingly railing against.
Why do you care if someone thinks Outer Worlds is better than Starfield? Also why shouldn't you compare these games to something like Stardew Valley? Stardew Valley also has RPG elements and is a fantastic game.
I'm glad your brother in law enjoys starfield but I don't understand why you're so bothered by the comment.
I personally prefer Baldurs Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 to Starfield because both offer a richer narrative experience for me personally. I don't think that makes me a snarky gamer piece of shit though.
This is actually a hugely important project if successful. Storing data long term is a huge hidden problem globally. Magnetic storage and optical discs have limited lifespans, and paper remains the most reliable long term medium IF stored in perfect conditions.
We are losing our heritage slowly all the time as books degrade or are lost, or library's struggle. Even data on the internet and digital media is fleeting without a long term solution to archive stuff robustly. Genetic data in seed stores for example would last much longer if we could store it in coded form and "rebuild" the gene later for use.
I hope this project or something similar succeeds as we need to be thinking about how we preserve knowledge and data for not just the next 10 to 20 years but the next 10000 years.
Going futher into sci fi territory, if our species is going to go to other solar systems then it will probably be generation ships unless we make some major discoveries. A civilization that spreads slowly across the stars will need reliable ways to transfer data over 100s and 1000s of years to benefit new worlds. That is all data - our science, arts, music but also genetic data of earth's bio diversity.
It's good users are now aware that Brave includes redundant features that you have to pay extra for to activate. Users browser will update everytime the browser or the VPN software needs an update.
For example Firefox VPN from Mozilla is separate software. They don't force millions of users to download it even if they don't want it.
This is yet another example why people should not be using Brave and should be skeptical of its intentions.
Also a bizarre comparison. Cities 2 is a simulation game - they are very CPU intense games. The graphics are nice but it's likely it's problems with balancing the CPU demand and the graphics that is the problem, rather than the graphics themselves. Simulation bottlenecks will drop the FPS drastically, regardless of the graphics engine.
From what I'e seen of the game on Twitch, I think the performance issues aren't game breaking. It seems the game runs fine if you reduce settings; while it's far from ideal it looks playable.
But it will be damaging for the game. Mods won't launch until after the game is launched, and that may be delayed further by time taken fixing the game post launch. For a game that suceeded in a very large part due to user content that may really harm the game's success.
It's becoming clearer and clearer that for-profit companies are not the way to drive quality in the tech sector long term. That they even torch their own products to try speaks volumes.
Yeah this is dodgy. Basically he's saying "we cannot say something but we'll say it anyway,". You only need 1 confounding factor or 1 incorrect adjustment to completely break the validity of any link.
To say the link got stronger as they adjusted for different confounding factors doesn't mean anything. It's a specious argument.
The articles take is still out of kilter with a lot of opinions. He's focused on the empty procedurally generated content but then talks about how "phenomenal" the main quest is?
The main quest is ok. I wouldn't say it's "phenomenal". I'm not seeing the depth of gameplay and writing that I saw in Baldurs Gate 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 or The Witcher 3. Starfield is not a bad game, but it's also not phenomenal. It's ok. I'm more excited by the next CD Projekt Red or Larian game than I am about the next Bethesda game at this point.
Well that graph shows total posts and SFW posts have declined massively. NSFW posts have grown but the impact will be disproportionately noticable as the aite is basically in decline otherwise.
That's all assuming AskReddit is representative of the site as a whole.
I find the logic behind this uncomfortable. This may help people try rationalise issues in the US or other colonialised regions but it's actually a fairly absolutionist view of the issue - the chain dismisses any argument or discussion about what it means to be indigenous vs a settler as invalid.
At first glance that may not seem to be a big issue but lets invert this for a moment: I'm a white person living in Europe; does this stuff apply to me too? This absolutionist view is problematic - it'd also excuse the anti-immigration rhetoric of white nationalists in my continent. I'm an "indigenous" person in my country but I would not argue in favour of this chain or logic.
I can understand the motive - a deep sense of injustice and dismissal of one group by another "majority" group. But this is not the solution - this just stifles discussion and frames any discussion as if there is no valid opinion that does not conform to one narrative.
Indigenous vs colonial/settler/immigrant issues are not simple, they cannot be reduced or distilled in such an absolutionist way. You do not solve injustice or right the wrongs of the past by replacing it with a new type of injustice.
Normally the vice president wouldn't get this kind of attention. She's getting this attention because Biden is so old, and he is standing again for election. Vice President is a bizarre non-job in the US system but also very important because of its potential.
Kamala Harris is being attacked because there is a serious chance she will be President.
On the one hand she is being attacked and undermined because she's a woman and she's black. But on the other hand it is an election and it's right to think about the vice president, and particularly one who may actually be President.
Yeah this is exactly right; an inability to separate their own political stance from their professional role. For the law firm, there is also a lack of insight and common sense around wading into such a controversial and difficult issue in such a way.
This is the text from their newsletter:
Hi y'all.
This week, I want to express, first and foremost, my unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination. Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life. This regime of state-sanctioned violence created the conditions that made resistance necessary. I will not condemn Palestinian resistance. Instead…
I condemn the violence of apartheid. I condemn the violence of settler colonialism. I condemn the violence of military occupation. I condemn the violence of dispossession and stolen homes. I condemn the violence of trapping thousands in an open-air prison. I condemn the violence of collective punishment. I condemn the violence of phosphorous bombs. I condemn the violence of the United States military-industrial complex. >I condemn the violence of obfuscating genocide as a "complex issue.” I condemn the violence in labeling oppressed people as "animals." I condemn the violence in removing historical context. I condemn the violence of silence.
Palestine will be free.
Your SBA President,
Ryna
This was in the NYU LAW Student Bar Association's SBA Weekly newsletter.
Read the text they wrote in the newsletter (I've posted is in this thread) and make up your own mind. Bear in mind this was not sent as private email expressing her views; they wrote it for (and published it in) the weekly Student Bar Association newsletter and signed it as SBA President.
I doubt the NYU Law Student Bar Association is a political organisation.
It is what was actually written and the context that matters in this story, both of which are largely missing from the theintercept.com coverage. The reaction was for them to lose their position as SBA President and have a job offer rescinded.
EDIT: To be clear I don't see how freedom or democracy has been curtailed here. People are free to say and do what they want, but actions have consequences. The SBA membership is entitled to remove their student president and the law firm is entitled to rescind a job offer.
I get where you're coming from, but in fairness the model can work. Cities Skylines 1 DLCs did mostly add substantial content to the game which over time built it to what it is today. At launch CS1 was a good game, far better than the premium Sim City 2013. I have over 1000hrs in the game so for me I think it was good value; and a lot of people bought the game over the years on heavy discount with a lot of the DLCs bundled.
The downside with this model is when they release half baked games and withhold core game mechanics to engineer DLC. From what they've released of Skylines 2 that doesn't seem to be the case - it seems to be a fully featured city builder with more at launch than CS1 had. Obviously it will depend what the game is actually like and launch and there are obvious hooks for DLC already.
I compare that to a game like Sim City 2013 - that released as a premium game, with a shitty reduced game scope, basic missing features and an always on-line DRM requirement, 1 crappy expansion and then completely abandoned by EA in a crappy state despite selling 2 million copies.
Essentially the engine is more modern, the graphics are nicer, and the simulation seems to be better. It is also hopefully a better base for newer mods.
I love CS1 but the engine is 8 years old and PC gamers in particular have been hitting the engines limits in multiple ways for years. There were also some fundamental design decisions which limited the scope of what could be done with the game going forward - it is definitely time for a sequel.
To be fair though, CS1 is going nowhere and has a massive amount of content available for it (including the massive free community content). It will probably take a couple of years before CS2 surpasses it. Although for Console gamers it'll probably quickly surpass what CS1 was and is able to offer.
signal requires a phone number to sign up. a phone number could be used to trace your signal account back to you. so why do people, especially privacy enthusiasts and experts (like edward snowden), still use it and endorse it when it lacks anonymity in that sense? i get that people could use a voip number or something to sign...
They made a mistake in removing SMS support - that was a good way to become useful to people with the current paradigm and encourage them over to the new. Sometimes Signals decisions are self destructive.
I still have signal but I use it much less since it stopped SMS support; I just open it less and so when starting conversations default to WhatsApp. For a while signal was growing amongst my friends and colleagues but it appears to have stalled.
Google are now doing the same pushing their RCS in the default SMS app in Android.
GAZA CITY, GAZA—The complicity of each and every Palestinian in the violent actions of their militant ruling authority was reportedly on full display Friday morning when dying Gazans received justified criticism for not using their last words to condemn Hamas. For example, instead of issuing a full-throated denunciation of the...
I do find the self censorship that goes on now extremely worrying though. There seems to be a zeitgeist around what you are and are not allowed to say, and the media and politicians go a long with it without challenging it.
It's like a blank cheque is being handed to Israel to do what they want in Gaza and the entire world is doing worse than just ignoring it - powerful people are actively endorsing it as if it's a reasonable approach.
Good on the Onion for at least trying to call out the stupidity of it all. But it won't make any difference.
As usual the mainstream journalists don't understand what the paper is about and produce hysterical headlines.
If you read the paper it does in no way say the earth is going to be uninhabitable. It does say that they have modelled which bits of the earth will become less habitable and they are areas of high population density, and also that the risk is reduced sognificant of climate change is limited to 2 degrees. That's starkly different from the headline.
That is also without any critical appraisal of the paper. My first thoughts are how accurate is transfering static lab based measures of habitability to dynamic open environments?
This research is mildly interesting but like most research frankly it is of limited scope and utility, and unfortunately a great deal of research is actually unreproducible dross.
On top of that a lot of journalism is unthinking dross. This makes a good headline to feed the beast that is the internet but it does not reflect the reality of the climate crisis.
Or was this the first example of gurilla paid advertisement in the comments section? "How do I advertise my dental practice? I know I'll pretend I was disturbed by a telegram and they shall print my complaint! And it shall goeth viraleth"
I think they want to be vendor neutral to reap the benefits regardless of where people bought the game (i.e. not be limited to steam workshop)
I'm more bothered by the Mods being for Console and PC. I worry that PC modding is going to be held back by the inherent limitations of modding on and for consoles.
Hey you all, i started using LibreOffice since i switched to Linux, but i didn’t used it often yet so I’m still getting the hang of it. Since I’m gonna start College next week, I’m interested in what extensions you can recommend. Some weeks ago i read that it’s recommend to install some fonts, so when you exchange...
Not sure exactly what you meant about the fonts but I do routinely install the Microsoft Fonts from my Linux repo whatever system I'm on. It used to be very important when browsing the net as Arial and Times New Roman were ubiquitous. That is less true now, and many sites use their own fonts.
But in office Times New Roman and Arial are still there. Microsoft has moved to newer fonts now like Calibri and Cambrea but this is proprietary. You could try and get your hands on copies of these (relatively easy if you already have windows).
When creating documents you can embed the fonts you used in Libre Office in it to ensure if you send it to someone else it renders as you intended. When you open someone else's documents you can see what fonts were used and try and install those or ask libre office to substitute fonts you do have for the missing ones. A metric font is a font with the exact same size of characters in terms of character width and height (even if it looks different) - this preserves the layout so if you're missing a font and have a metric equivalent you can subsitute that font and the document layout should then be preserved.
For Calibri there is a freely licensed Google metric alternative called Carlito. I believe that usually comes with Libre Office but double check. Also Cambria is another common Microsoft font with a free metric equivalent called Caladea that should come with Libre office.
The Liberation fonts commonly found on Linux and Libre office are metric equivalents of the Times New Roman, Arial and Courier fonts if you want to avoid Microsoft proprietary fonts all together.
Finally if you are sending documents to be read and not edited or just to print at another location, then save/export them as PDFs. PDFs will look the same on any device and OS and will print the same from anywhere.
Lastly I would suggest you use a sync service to keep your documents and keep your school docs in folders that sync. Something like DropBox. Microsoft Office uses OneDrive and it is fully integrated which was a game changer when it comes to accessing documents from anywhere but you can do the same with DropBox and Libre Office on other devices to ensure you can get your documents wherever you are and edit them in whatever is available (e.g. a school PC if you don't have your laptop to hand or your mobile device). Lots you can do with synced documents but you don't need Microsoft to do it.
In Australian slang a mob can just mean any grouping of people, not necessarily a criminal group or a group of rioters. It's not uncommon for people to refer to their own ethnic or political grouping as a mob; at least from what I've seen when reading Australian websites.
And by local government I think they are referring to the states and territories governments.
Cities: Skylines II - Region Packs | Teaser Trailer | Cities: Skylines II - Steam News (store.steampowered.com)
Covering 8 regions, with more than 2500 assets, we present the free Region Packs!
“Chrome exists to serve Google search.” - The Verge (www.theverge.com)
The Outer Worlds sells 5 million copies (twitter.com)
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/f981524a-e724-4eda-a8c4-0bdedb90c783.png
Jenna Ellis becomes latest Trump lawyer to plead guilty over efforts to overturn Georgia’s election (www.denverpost.com)
Microsoft's futuristic 'Project Silica' stores data on glass plates for 10,000 years (www.pcworld.com)
Brave browser quietly slips a VPN service onto your Windows PC (www.androidcentral.com)
Cities Skylines 2 reportedly runs with 7-12fps on an Intel Core i9 13900KS with AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX at 4K/High Settings (www.dsogaming.com)
Language learning app Duolingo to mothball Welsh course (nation.cymru)
Depression Linked to Ultra-Processed Foods, Artificial Sweeteners (www.webmd.com)
Starfield Desperately Needs More Unique Locations (www.thegamer.com)
Has reddit gotten hornier? This graph proves that there's been a sharp increase in NSFW askreddits within the last two years. (lemmy.world)
Astonishingly accurate (stockroom.wandering.shop)
found on Mastodon
The Kamala Harris Problem - Few people seem to think she’s ready to be president. Why? (www.theatlantic.com)
PRO-PALESTINE NYU LAW STUDENT SPEAKS OUT AFTER JOB OFFER WAS RESCINDED (theintercept.com)
TheIntercept.com
Cities Skylines 2 PC performance is below target and modding tools will be basic at launch, Paradox says (www.pcgamesn.com)
Signal requiring phone number, thoughts on anonymity?
signal requires a phone number to sign up. a phone number could be used to trace your signal account back to you. so why do people, especially privacy enthusiasts and experts (like edward snowden), still use it and endorse it when it lacks anonymity in that sense? i get that people could use a voip number or something to sign...
Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words To Condemn Hamas (www.theonion.com)
GAZA CITY, GAZA—The complicity of each and every Palestinian in the violent actions of their militant ruling authority was reportedly on full display Friday morning when dying Gazans received justified criticism for not using their last words to condemn Hamas. For example, instead of issuing a full-throated denunciation of the...
Heat is making Earth uninhabitable. Why isn't this the top news story around the world? (www.salon.com)
cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/3153498...
TIL in May 1864 the first record of electronic spam was sent by a dentist in London (lemmy.world)
Cities: Skylines II - Updates on Modding (store.steampowered.com)
MORE MODS FOR EVERYONE...
Useful Extensions/Add-ons for LibreOffice? (For College)
Hey you all, i started using LibreOffice since i switched to Linux, but i didn’t used it often yet so I’m still getting the hang of it. Since I’m gonna start College next week, I’m interested in what extensions you can recommend. Some weeks ago i read that it’s recommend to install some fonts, so when you exchange...
Indigenous Voice: Australians reject historic Indigenous referendum - BBC News (bbc.in)
Australian national broadcaster ABC has projected three states voted No, effectively defeating the referendum.
RFK Jr.’s Independent Campaign Launch Gets Off to Rocky Start: ‘I Need My Speech… It’s Upside Down!’ (www.mediaite.com)