Take out the “half your age plus” and you might be onto something.

They’re all boosting each others’ craziness so none of them drop the dreaded list that exposes all of them, and/or the people they owe favors to.

Not really. Most people don’t care about privacy, or their personal data being sold to the highest bidder. People still use Facebook, too.

Final Fantasy 7 on PS2. They published the intro movie re-imagined using the PS2’s capabilities. Later they laughed it off and said it was just a tech demo. Later beyond that they said they felt they should not capitalise on FF7 by remaking it until they could release a newer FF game they were proud of enough to not need FF7 to support the company (newer FF games should do that on their own). The FF7 remake was later broken into 3 parts (2 have released so far) for the PS4 and PS5, with an Xbox release on the way.

As for the Amiga (mentioned by OP), that computer was more capable than the IBM/clones and Apple computers of its day. Bill Gates (Microsoft cofounder) once said you need 8MB of RAM for multitasking, but the Amiga did it with 256K (and also with 512KB if you had the memory expander), though some argued Amiga did not do true multitasking. The Amiga was in the 1980s what the Mac is today, a computer for artists and creators.

Also, obligatory Half-Life 3. The issue there is, Valve decided it was more profitable to sell other people’s games and make money off the backs of others rather than develop their own games. At this point I don’t even want HL3. HL2 built such strong momentum, and it spawned two expansions that were mostly good. And then of course Portal, and arguably, The Stanley Parable (game that started as a HL2 mod). I don’t think a HL3 based on how games are now would be as popular as some people think. And if it were based more on HL2 gameplay, I don’t think it would sell very well today. Same reason we don’t have Deus Ex anymore. The Deus Ex formula got pretty diluted with the latest entry, Mankind Divided, and that was almost 10 years ago? Now if you want the Deus Ex gameplay, you kinda have to go for something like Cyberpunk. DX elements plus some GTA stuff.

People voted for this with their wallets.

As an iPhone guy, I know we already have it like that, and our keyboard has always sucked (and none of the third party keyboards help, they all suck compared to Gboard on Android), but while we dread the day that Apple becomes a data broker like Google… that day is not here yet.

Borderlands. The first one. The game is amazing by yourself and slightly better with friends. It’s not meant to be worse either way. It’s just a lot of fun.

The later BL games were made the same way, but I haven’t found any of the sequels (/“Pre-Sequel”) to be as engaging as the original. They are bigger and more ambitious, though, with BL2 being a fan favorite. I just really like the Soldier (Roland) from the first game. The other games don’t have a character I like playing as much as him, so I’d rather join the original rather than settle for a lesser character.

Actually, the best co-op game is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It’s played with your left hand and your right hand. I’m being a bit of a smartass, but technically it does qualify as co-op because two characters on the screen are being independently controlled and they must work together. But it is specifically designed to be played by one person. Your dominant hand should control the older brother, with the analog stick moving him and either trigger doing the action, whatever that may be (it’s basically a one-button game, plus the stick). Your other hand controls the younger brother, same thing. So naturally the older brother runs straight and does what you expect but the little brother tends to stumble and waver. All intentional. Also, don’t bother with the remake. It breaks a few things and honestly doesn’t look much better. Different art style, not better. Just play the original. You can get it on GOG on sale all the time for like $2-3. Also, it’ll take ~4 hours to complete and you’ll probably never want to play it again (but recommend it to everyone). I actually bought the remake (mistake) and had my wife play it. For the hell of it, I speed ran both of them (this was on Xbox) for the achievements. Then I did the same on the original. Interestingly, you do not have to complete the game to get all the achievements! You don’t even have to complete the final fight, or do the climactic scene before the final fight. Before you’re even aware the climactic scene is coming, you sit on a bench and blip, there’s the last achievement, if you’re doing an Achievement% run, that’s when you call time. (I’m not a competitive speed runner. I just did the runs to pop the achievements before uninstalling them.)

If it aims to please a vast audience and it succeeds, then that means more people are happy.

The opposite is a film aimed at a very specific niche.

The best movie I’ve seen is the Japanese film 君の名は。. It’s (maybe) not for everybody. It is somewhat popular (a bit more so when it was new, 9 years ago), people know what it is, I’m pretty sure it’s in the IMDb Top 250, it’s one of those movies everyone should see at some point, but most people wouldn’t Top 10 it. I like movies with certain elements that appeal to me, and some of the movies I like, “most people” don’t. Like maybe if they gave it a chance they’d like it, but they wouldn’t watch it. The algorithm wouldn’t recommend it to them. And niche films keep getting made by studios like A24 and Blumhouse that give creators more control. But anyway, I also like KPop Demon Hunters, which is like, the #1 movie right now. I recognise it’s a formulaic movie. I see the formulae. I still bop to “Soda Pop” and “What it Sounds Like” along with the kids, teenagers, and millions of other people who made it the top film. I listen to the songs in my car, and at home. I was one of the ones in the theater watching it last week, but I did not sing along, I was just there to enjoy it on a bigger screen.

There’s nothing wrong with liking popular movies, or movies that are marketed to you. There’s nothing wrong with marketing working, doing its job, serving its intended purpose.

It’s only wrong if you can’t find movies that nobody else but you (and a few others like you scattered around the world) like.

(P.S. I’m not trying to be obtuse, or a smartass. 君の名は。 is called “your name.” outside of Japan. I simply prefer to use the original title as a personal choice, and I can pronounce it correctly as well (something like “key-me no nye-wah.” The literal translation is “what’s your name?” which is where the international title comes from. I also prefer to watch it in Japanese without subtitles, despite it being fully translated to English as an option. I don’t know Japanese. I’ve just seen it enough to know exactly what’s going on at all times.)

Oh — I meant strictly for health reasons. Guess I got a bit off-topic there.

But yeah, starch breaks down to sugar and we don’t need more of that. I do love my corn (maize) tortillas for wrapping up meat and vegetables though!

You know what I find deplorable? Spyware as a feature. Like Android.

Also, Google bypasses ad blockers. Say you have an iPhone, or an unrooted Android phone. You’re blocking ads? You’re using DNS to do it. The Google app, and Google apps in general, ignore the system DNS settings and use Google’s own DNS. There are some good reasons they do it, but the chief upshot for Google is, they get to inject ads into a device whose owner explicitly tries to block them. Since ads can also carry malware/ransomware, Google is intentionally opening a security hole in a device you may not be able to 100% secure, but could be fairly secure. Relatively secure. For a smartphone.

I actually got ransomware on a popular Android blog through an ad they served. I’d just wiped my phone — this was the last Android phone I’d owned. So I mean, I’d wiped the internal ROM. Repartitioned it, installed a recovery (TWRP, naturally), and then flashed a custom OS. Back then, you couldn’t get stock Android on a national carrier in the US. So, I was flashing a European CFW customised with the CDMA radios that the US was using at the time (we’re all GSM now like the rest of the world, I think the last CDMA towers, which were 3G, have been shut down but I’m not sure — Sprint and US Cellular were CDMA and they’re both part of T-Mobile, and Verizon was the big one and they’re all on the GSM tech now). Anyway, I hadn’t installed AdAway yet, I was just reading tech blogs, when my screen went red, said illegal content was detected on my device, pay “the FBI” so many thousand dollars in Bitcoin to unlock my device. I laughed, wiped the internal ROM again and started over… installing AdAway before going out to the open web. Lesson learned. But that’s the kind of thing Google intentionally opens its users up to by tunneling around the ad blocker. (I don’t name the tech blog because I contacted them and they were very helpful in identifying the source of the ransomware attacks and getting that advertiser de-listed. So there is no reason to “name and shame.” But it can happen to anyone, and without even going to “shady” sites.)

Yes. If you’re a free developer (you have to register as a developer to even do this), you have to re-authorise the app every 7 days or it gets “revoked” which means the app will not launch.

You also have to install a certificate that certifies the app(s) to you. This is generally safe, but you should be careful with trust certificates. You’re basically taking full responsibility for the code that’s being executed on your device. If you haven’t audited the source code (or if someone you trust hasn’t), it might be a risk.

If you used a signing service, someone has bought a bunch of paid developer licenses and they’ve given you the certificate for one of them. Once Apple discovers this, they’ll revoke that developer license which revokes your apps. The signing service will then issue you a new certificate. Revokes aren’t super common, or so they say (I’ve never used a signing service).

I don’t do it. The 7 day thing really isn’t worth it and they aren’t any iOS apps to sideload I care about.

Delta is the coolest emulator due to cloud sync and it’s in the App Store.

No. But we can sideload. Two apps for free, have to be authorized every 7 days. (It’s actually three, but the app that does this for you takes a slot, so that and two others.)

You can also get a developer license for $99/year that lets you do unlimited with a much longer authorization window.

AOSP and production versions of Android (what’s on the Pixel) are not the same thing.

Depends on your age to a certain extent. Older men tend to value monogamy more, but we’re also older and looking for a sure thing (if we don’t have it already). Chasing tail, bedding a different young lady every night, sounds fun, but when you need someone to take care of you, it doesn’t really make sense as opposed to a long-term relationship.

If you’re younger though, you got your whole life ahead of you… just be safe. And try to avoid the crazy ones. They deserve love too, but they also take a lot of patience.

Adopt. Don’t make new people. Take in people who have been abandoned. My father had the same idea in the 1970s — I suppose I should be fortunate my mother overruled him on that one. But he had the idea almost 50 years ago, for similar reasons.

And apply a similar philosophy to the rest of your life. We all know the word recycle. And I have been a proponent of recycling for over 30 years. I’ve heard it doesn’t help. I’ve heard some municipalities take it all to the same place. I don’t care. I still do it. But I also remember when there were three words. The original slogan went “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Many people forgot the first two. You can reuse and repurpose a lot of things. But you should also reduce consumption as well. Eat less processed food. Stick to protein — plant and animal (unless you’re a vegetarian/vegan obviously). Stick to the outside of the grocery store (produce, dairy, deli, meat). Bakery is nice for an occasional treat, but find out what they make in-house and not ship in frozen.

I don’t think I’m doing enough on my own. I also don’t have illusions I’ll convince many others. I’m not really trying to. I’m not trying to save the world, just survive it.

Passed it a while ago. That doesn’t mean we can’t slow down.

Humanity will evolve to deal with the changes, maybe. Maybe not.

Been wondering this, or something like this.

I used to be good at Mario 1, but I cannot play it on emulators. It feels like there’s a delay. It feels a little like Mario is on ice, much like the ice levels of Mario 2. Mario is running, and I want to jump or stop, but there’s a noticeable delay and it makes me feel like my old ass has lost my touch. But playing any modern game, my reflexes are good enough. In a Nintendo to Nintendo comparison, I play Animal Crossing on the Switch, and sure enough, if I’m running and pull back on the stick, my villager skids at exactly the time I want them to. But on that same Switch with the same controller, I can’t control Mario in Mario 1 worth a damn. I do just fine in Super Mario Wonder, though.

(Side note, more to do with Animal Crossing than older games, but I’ve noticed a wired controller, plugged into the Switch dock via USB, with the Switch on the dock, gets more latency than the Switch in handheld mode, which I’m pretty sure uses Bluetooth to connect to its controllers, even if they’re physically connected — not 100% sure on that. But for one example, fishing — even the five-star rarity fish — is quite easy in handheld. But, with the wired connection, I mash A as soon as the fish bites, and it still slips my hook. Maybe the latency isn’t from the controller to the dock to the Switch, maybe it’s from the Switch to the dock to the TV (and speakers since I close my eyes and listen for the sound, which most animal crossers agree is the best way to fish).)

Is that the first game? Yes, it was great. But the publisher was scummy AF and broke the game up into four parts. Now, granted, each part came with an anime DVD which gave you some of the back story/real world issues around the back story, so they did try to make it worth it. But still, it should have been one game.

Nice — I absolutely use SponsorBlock on desktop (/laptop). Did not know it was on mobile.

It’s the other way around, it’s down to GrapheneOS to support other hardware. They simply choose to focus on Pixels.

You’re onto something with the AirTags but you haven’t got it quite right. Every Apple device participates in the Find My network, which means any Apple device marked as lost will have its location reported, anonymously, by every other Apple device it can communicate with. This is a good thing, unless you’re being stalked via an AirTag placed on your person, but Apple has taken pains to mitigate this issue. One shoe company recently released shoes with AirTag compartments so parents could track their kids, and the placement should mitigate the beeping they can emit. Honestly the AirTags and Find My network do more good than harm, the impact to devices participating in the Find My network is minimal, and if it’s your device that’s lost, you don’t want people opting out so thieves can get away with stealing your stuff.

The open source thing is largely a myth, though. AOSP is what’s open source. The version of Android on Pixel phones and Nexus before them was forked from that and bundles a lot of closed source stuff, like Google Play Services, Gmail, and more. But it’s close enough to AOSP that devs can target it and it should run on most/all Android forks.

So then Samsung and others take AOSP and they fork it and make their own OS that is based on Android. They are required per licensing to use Android branding if they want Play Store access. There are other rules, like Chrome and/or Google has to be on the main launcher page, Play Services has to be included… if they don’t play by the rules, they can still fork Android, they just can’t use the name Android… like Fire OS and Switch OS. (It’s unclear if modern Switches use any Android code. Before they were released they were rumored to have forked Android. Switches absolutely do not run Android apps, but the OS borrows several cues from Android design language.)