They probably are, but it's not really about cost, it's about fear. I fear that while it costs $x to switch to Unreal Enigne now, it'll cost $x+10 after a few weeks when they do their next decision, and $x+20 a month or so after that.
It was easier because Microsoft had a budget and were willing to guarantee that those employees would get paid no matter what. If Unions were better funded they could guarantee the same.
I didn't read the article yet and this is basically what I expected. Hardly a secret, and a fairly good summary. The economy is going to downturn anyway because people just can't afford the new housing. For a two bedroom anywhere with people, it's 650,000 and up. At that point you have to be married to someone who also works full time to have any reasonable chance of being able to afford the mortgage. At the average interest rate of 6% you're paying $4,100 per month, which is about the average pre-tax income (~$54,000 per year, so ~$1038 per week). Of course, that leaves very little wiggle room to save, and if either of you were to lose your jobs or the interest rate goes up, you'd probably default.
EDIT: I forgot to add the point. It's this. A whole bunch of people are going to default. People take bad mortgages because they have to, it's not like its an option to be homeless and sharing a house with strangers can really, really suck. But those people are going to be defaulting, or moving overseas, or just staying at home with their parents. The market will correct itself.
I remember Yudowski being a thing like a decade ago, and people were making fun of his "AI" research even then. It's scary to realize that not only did some people take him seriously, but those people are at the helm of AI companies and making decisions affecting tens of billions of investment capital. I think there was a quote by Kurt Vonnegut that "true horror is waking up one morning and realizing your high school class is running the country".
For the other poster lower down, I'd almost successfully forgotten about his Harry Potter fanfiction, people kept praising it so I actually read through a bit of it, it's painful reading. He also wrote a Superman fanfiction and that's even worse. I think they both say a lot about his internal mental state and his perception of other people though.
I read the BBC article on the recent shooting, you're right, it's tragic and wrong. Two gunmen shot up a settlement and then started exchanging fire with an IDF unit and the child was shot in the crossfire. This is awful, but has nothing to do with Palestine being an independent nation since this happened in the west bank, not the Gaza strip, which as I understand it, are different.
Also, this article (which is the only one I can access) seems to be posted in bad faith, the whole tragic situation started by a bunch of people opening fire on random Israeli citizens. But there's no mention of this at all when you're decrying Israeli violence. And the same for your talk about "Strategic Bombing", that no one is doing, or the political situation in the west bank (which is different from the Gaza strip).
What? Why? Where did I say that? What the fuck are you talking about?
I asked how this conflict was different and you started talking about a completely different topic like stategic bombing. But Israel isn't using strategic bombing, they're using artillery and missiles. Just like how the allies did against Berlin and other German cities when fighting the Germans. So how is this different?
I got that impression too, and the fediverse has lost a lot of its shine recently. People are rushing to say that they support "both sides" and Israel can defend itself... but just not in any way that would be able to stop another attack like October's from happening. It feels like a lot of people just want to side with Hamas, but don't want to actually say that out loud.
Ok, I have to ask. How would you apply this to any other conflict. For example the Allies fighting against Germany. Where did the German civilians fall in the spectrum of evil. Was fighting Germany justified, knowing that German civilians might suffer? If so, how is this situation different?
I think it comes down to just knowing what is good. When you're young you don't have any experience to judge quality by. As you get older you can rapidly assess that something sucks, even if other people are pumping it up. Either in terms of gameplay or plot or whatever, now you have standards. Also, a lot of modern games just don't respect your time, and as you get older you realize your time is valuable so you just don't have the patience for that.
I'm in my 30s, I still game, but I'm a lot quicker to just go "this sucks" and move on to something else.
Apple got grief because the processor can work at full speed even without a battery and works very well on Linux, but Apple chose to throttle back on OSX.
Maybe, but I'm betting that the CEO who floated the idea that FPS players would be willing to pay per-reload didn't push back too hard against the board's ideas.