Dragon Age: Origins came out 15 years ago. That’s a very long time to stay with the same company in the tech sector. It’s not at all unusual that there are so few people left who worked with the engine for the first game.

I assume you’re American?

I don’t think anyone is saying that Finnish wait times are worse than the deplorable system in the US with (by far) the highest per capita cost in any OECD country with one of the lowest healthcare access rates.

So sorry you’re caught up in it. That sucks. I hope it turns out well for you.

Mood.

Very well summarized.

Project 2025 includes a detailed plan about how to dismantle the entire Federal government and replace thousands of government managers with alt-right extremists.

Project 2025 matches most of his campaign promises and is written largely by former Trump administration staffers.

The Overton Window has shifted to the right.

I’m sick of the regressive values of conservatism.

I’m running Win 10 Ameliorated on mine. Manual driver installs were the only big hiccup. Works well otherwise, but it’s not my daily driver.

I can’t really use Linux since my work is deeply embedded in Microsoft everything; I need OneDrive to work dependably.

It was offered as a free upgrade for anyone with Wishes 7/8. And you could get free upgrades to those from earlier editions of Windows, too.

Some people haven’t paid for Windows in 2 decades-ish with a legit retail purchase.

The ultra-wealthy are terrified of reprisal from Trump. And they control the media (Bezos/WP) and social media (Zuck).

Democracy in America may fail next week. Terrifying to watch.

Isn’t it getting harder to find custom ROMs, now? Used to be basically everything was on XDA forums, but I’ve heard lots of custom ROMs are moving to they’re own websites/Discord servers/whatever.

Meanwhile, Steam is raking it in by continuing to offer a better product than piracy. The Steam Deck is making that even more true; it’s so much more convenient to have games in the Steam library than try to keep a repack updated with new patches/content.

Right, but pirating Disney-owned IP is more moral than paying for it. Disney is the number 1 company in the world for lobbying for copyright over-reach. Every dollar that goes to Disney pays for lobbyists who will continue to push for life-of-author + 90+ years, because life-of-author plus 70 years just isn’t enough time to control our shared cultural heritage.

Similarly for Nintendo and software piracy.

Paying for Disney/Nintendo media is immoral.

Putting 2S at the front is part of Truth and Reconciliation, recognizing the intersectionality of being Indigenous and two-spirit and the importance of including Indigenous Knowledge across all systems of power.

With all due respect, decrying their inclusion is racist and continues the perpetuation of colonialist systems of oppression.

I say this coming from a position of immense privilege, as a white, cis male from fairly wealthy and educated non-immigrant parents.

Absolutely. STV is the dream system. Proportional representation but with fully local representatives.

My favourite feature is that it holds politicians directly accountable to their constituents. If you don’t know much about politics, you can just vote by party, like regular ranked ballot. But if you know more, you can rank individual party members against each other in the same party. There are no “safe” seats party insiders can hold to assure being elected, keeping everyone accountable.

MMP either has party lists (and its potential for corruption from seeking higher list rank from the party), or systematically over-represents areas with more fractured political views. MMP also can lead to more fracturing of parties, since you only need a very small percentage of votes to get 1 seat, instead of 20%+ (locally) to qualify for a seat in STV. We don’t need single-issue fringe parties holding the deciding vote(s) to get to a majority coalition government able to force a snap election at any time!

ikr? And they re-elected him!

Should have used the title to figure out the reading order. Would have saved me a lot of wasted mental effort. Brilliant.

Especially with video footage sitting him facing off against police ordering then to leave. “Just walked around” is a bald-faced like, and there’s receipts to prove it.

… he claims there is no point producing proof because they wouldn’t be believed.

He also dismisses any evidence created by others as untrustworthy.

What a load of shit. It’s up to the person making the claim to provide evidence. People have claimed the opposite, and backed it up with “low-quality” evidence. Refusing it would be pretty easy, if it were true; get someone independent to verify in a pre-funded, blind trial.

The only reason not to do this is because they know their product reduces framerate frequently enough to be a problem.

ikr? By buying online, it’s saving them money on staffing, and they want to charge for it? Bullshit.

If anything, they should raise prices and give a discount for buying online to cut down on box-office staffing needs. Customers prefer discounts to fees; everyone knows that. And it lines up with customer expectations that paying more to get more “service” (staff time) is reasonable.

What a stupid plot to alienate your customers.

I worry that age verification will backfire spectacularly; users can just tunnel their traffic through a VPN and then once on a VPN, they would also miss all harmful content blocking. Middle schoolers can figure out how to get around school web filters, and they, and everyone else, will figure their way around age verification just as easily.