I’m generally against the rise of subscriptions in every service on the Internet, but I did actually benefit from game pass for a couple years. Access to the library meant I could try a lot of games I otherwise probably would not have played. I was only out the time I spent downloading and playing them if I didn’t like them- no need to deal with returns or resale, which is especially difficult/restrictive for digital purchases.

I can’t find what the original price for game pass was, but I’ll do the break-even math for the current price: It looks like the highest tier game pass subscription today is ~$30/mo. Multiply by 12 months, that’s $360/yr. With games typically costing $60-70, $360/yr divided by $60 is 6 games/yr.

One would need to play > 6 new games each year to save money with xbox game pass. I think that number is pretty achievable for the average gamer, but I’d be curious to see some statistics about average game consumption.

Hacker News, probably.

That’s fair. I agree that it would be nice for them to properly release SteamOS for general hardware. I think valve probably doesn’t want to get roped in to providing tech support for hardware platforms they don’t control beyond what they do for steam.

My impression is that their priority is building the hardware to show what’s possible in the form factor, then get third parties to buy in to the ecosystem to keep it going (which we’re seeing with steamos support for the Asus and Lenovo handhelds). The software has to be polished and well-received to get this buy-in, which is easier when they have control over the hardware.

Their strategy with the original steam machines (circa 2015 I think?) skipped the first party hardware step and they didn’t do well with the software execution either- although iirc that’s where the big picture mode, steam controller, and generally better controller support came from.

SteamOS is already an extant distro (based on Arch btw), it’s what they use for the steam deck/machine/frame. It’s also available to download but there is no official support. I’ve been meaning to try it on my desktop, as I primarily use it for gaming anyways

SteamOS wikipedia page since the steam page keeps redirecting me to the app

They keep saying their ai features will be opt-in, and yet everything they’ve rolled out so far is opt-out. I struggle to believe future ‘features’ will be any different. Maybe it’s opt-in in the sense that I’m not required to click whichever button activates it, like whatever they added to the context menu, but that’s not really what opt-in means and degrades my trust in Mozilla.

I’m also frustrated by their seeming inability to focus on their core browser product and building a popular competitor to chromium browsers instead of going off on side quests.

You asked, and I gave my opinion. All this AI bullshit has done and continues to do significant damage to the global economy and ecology, god forbid I have a problem with that or any company contributing to it.

The problem is that they’re pushing it without any way for those of us who really don’t want that crap to strip it out of the browser. I don’t want all this ai garbage, never asked for it, and am harassed at every corner by every fucking company thinking it’s somehow going to change the world.

Sure, Mozilla allows you to turn off some of these features, but I’ve already had it reenabled in updates after previously disabling it. Further, many of the settings are buried in about:config, which is not a user-friendly way to make those changes. At best, these functionalities should be opt-in and presented as addons that can be installed, rather than being a core part of the browser that cannot be removed.

Ah, any developer who suggested that probably got the same answer I get at work: “Testing costs money, so unless we absolutely have to, no.”

That’s fair. I’m certainly not one to defend msoft, nor do I really have the technical knowledge to rebut. Is it possible that ‘trying’ the driver as you suggested could damage the drive or corrupt data? Just wondering if there’s a legitimate reason they wouldn’t go for a seemingly easy win aside from being a generally dumb organization.

Using this driver, however, is fraught with risks. Not all NVMe SSDs support it, and if incompatible, it could break Windows 11 boot.

Probably why it isn’t standard, especially since there’s a driver that does work even if it’s suboptimal.

Yes, let’s give the group that has extensive abuse and corruption issues with nigh zero accountability new ways to hurt people.

If anything, we should be advocating against remote vehicle control for the myriad security and safety issues that would introduce.

The default (at least in most of the US) is to treat a malfunctioning light as an all-way stop sign, with traffic alternating in each direction. The waymos instead stopped and blocked intersections, failing to reach the basic expectation for human drivers. Should we not hold these machines to a higher standard, if not at least the same standard as human drivers? Self-driving vehicles are supposed to be safer and ‘better’ than human drivers.

I feel that. I got a 50" 4k Sceptre from walmart maybe 4 or 5 years ago that has absolutely no smart features. They’ll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands before I consider ‘upgrading’ to a so-called smart tv.

I’m pretty sure my bathroom qualifies as a brownfield site

By that logic, it’s also a hostile activity to close the bathroom door when I’m taking a fat shit. Privacy isn’t just for criminals.

I think a toastie and a panini are very similar, but a panini typically uses a stiffer bread and the toastie is kind of sealed on the sides. A grilled cheese (US) is typically a cheese sandwich toasted in a pan, so kind of somewhere in between a toastie and a panini

Anything other than cheese on a grilled cheese makes it a panini, not a grilled cheese.

If those games can do LAN connections (computers on the same network), you could use something like Hamachi to put your computers on a virtual network together. I’m sure there are more modern versions of Hamachi, but that’s how I used to do it in the early 2010s.

Ads that pretend to be normal content are literally the fucking worst kind of ad and anyone who suggests implementing them should be dragged out back and shot.

Not surprised that stack exchange is doing this, given that they seem determined to drive away their entire userbase.

Good.