Also works for prime games. And if you are on Linux especially GOG as well.

Can you trust anyone? How much trust do they need to have. If you actually want to be secure. Don’t use any encryption provided inside a program. Even if code is supposedly open source. If you didn’t audit the code before compiling it yourself. It may as well still be a black box. If tight security is a must. Then nothing beats negotiating one time pads with those you are going to interact with. They’re one of the few things that are actually uncrackable unless someone gets a hold of your pad. Write whatever it is you need to write encrypted using a program for one-time pads or just a basic algorithm and then send it in clear text or any other messenger you want. Only people who have access to your pads will be able to decrypt it.

It’s literally just a two to three minute long video. With literal links to the research paper in question. Perhaps you should read more and talk less.

Wrong as usual. Heres a video from 2 years ago. From an actual light transport researcher for 3d rendering. Again, this likely won’t be on your 50 series GPU. But it is something very actively being researched. And likely will start showing up in consumer hardware before the end of the decade.

In the future it’ll be less about upscaling. And more about giving the algorithm a minimalist basic 3D representation as a starting point. And then told to make it photo real. Ray tracing isn’t really going anywhere. But AI radiosity is going to supplant it in many applications.

Think about it. These algorithms are already making impressive if uncanny images from Simple Text prompts. In less time than it would take most CPU GPU combinations on consumer Hardware to actually Ray trace a scene. Ray tracing will always be there when you need the accuracy. But AI radiosity is going to offer benefits most people don’t even comprehend yet.

For instance once it makes its way into consumer Hardware etc. Suddenly a lot of older games will be able to have their Graphics upgraded with no recoding or tricks. Just using the input video stream as a reference.

So Google is selling license for code and technologies. They’ve shown no ownership of in a competitor’s product? Google is actively funding litigious troll shell corporations who shown no actual harm to harass and drain competitors resources? Google is creating and using secret apis for themselves. Breaking the ones for third parties in order to hold them back?

I’m not saying Google’s good Or anything. Not defending them in any way. But they’ve got a long way to go before they reach Microsoft level. Microsoft is literally the reason why before going public. Google had the motto of don’t be evil.

Microsoft is the OG. The other two are just imitators. The only reason Microsoft happens to step carefully. Was a little thing that happened in the late 1990s. That all penalties were largely waived for. But still it frightened them enough to behave better for a short while.

Separating software and hardware would be a good start. Though that may be a big ask as that’s been Apple’s schtick from the start. But seeing as it’s a big part of Apple’s anticompetitive practices, not outrageous.

You were spot on. I pressed him on it elsewhere. And that was literally it. Which was hardly surprising.

You claimed Democrats banned books in another post. I asked you which ones. You replied to many other posts since then. But not that one. It’s almost like your hypocritically projecting again.

I bet you say all this unironically in your head while wearing a Che shirt.

Careful, that’s another antique. And no. I don’t wear my politics in any way. And would definitely not wear anything with Guevara as I have rather strong ideological differences with him.

I don’t have any cognitive dissonance. Thank you very much.

At this point I’m inclined to agree. You seem insincere and more concerned with poor attempts at unsuccessful trolling.

Lenin, look how great that turned out.

I agree. You can even check my post history as I’ve effectively said the exact same thing elsewhere. Today even. I just have actually valid, non hypothetical criticism to offer regarding it.

No. Communist countries don’t exist. There are ML countries. And yes, they’re as problematic as the unregulated capitalism countries.

Capitalism is an issue. Has been for over 100 years. As has Lenin’s malformed ideologies for almost the last 100.

You should stop digging for antiques in your mom’s basement. Before projecting on to others.

I was sincere in advising you to address your cognitive dissonance.

No. Which ones have Democrats banned? Also, it’s wrong whoever does it.

To a lesser extent? Quite possibly. Ignorance though is heavily prevelent in both groups. All groups really. We’re all ignorant about some things. It’s impossible not to be. However Republicans do stand out however. Purposefully embracing and championing ignorance.

Attacking trans people and burning books like the Nazis did is a bold move. We’ll see eventually if it works out differently this time.

I am not opposed to wealthy people or billionaires or whatever. What I am against is the companies running the show and having undue influence over the government. People like Zuckerberg have way to much power over the government and that isn’t good.

It’s the same picture.

If you’re against people like Zuckerberg. You’re against billionaires etc. If you’re not against billionaires you’re not against people like Zuckerberg. You just want one you agree with. Musk maybe?

I used to be against heavy regulations but we have gone to the other extreme of too little regulations.

If only we knew who pushed for, and funded this. I mean it absolutely was not the wealthy or chad billionaires. They’re just good honest bros. They wouldn’t use that vast wealth to manipulate and lie to us.

I am tired of my insurance being tied to my employer. I am tired of forced arbitration agreements

Guess who. Guess who. Those things are in the vested interest of the wealthy and especially billionaires. Though they would never leave themselves subject to them.

The problem isn’t capitalism but human nature.

Oof, cognitive dissonance wins again. Capitalism that isn’t so tightly regulated that it struggles to exist. Only reinforces and encourages the worst of human behavior. They’re both a problem. Together they’re a perfect storm. Literally every one of your complaints can be directly attributed to your voting habits. (If you are truly Republican) You’ve enabled it all. (So have Democrats to a much lesser extent) And still stick with identifying as the problem. Note, I’m not saying Democrats are the solution. Slightly better problem perhaps. But certainly not a solution as they currently exist. But friend, you really need to work through the cognitive dissonance and indoctrination issues. In the end you will thank yourself if you do. And that’s what matters right?

If gaming is the primary thing you are going to do on it and everything else secondary. I can be helpfully unhelpful. There are a number of distributions based around valves steam OS. Which is at its core. Is what’s running on the steam deck. Not 100%. But very close. They will give you a very similar experience and feel to the steam deck. Only allow you much more hardware choice and larger displays. So I

You’re in luck. I have roughly 30 years experience. And first let me chime in with the other recommendations. Linux Mint is absolutely a good starting point. And making a “live” USB is a fantastic way to get an introduction and heads up on possible hardware issues. They’re rare but they do exist for any OS. However installing software etc to a live distro is not usually an easy thing. If you want to explore the software side beyond what’s on a live image. Try an install to virtualbox. You will get basic practice with actually installing a basic distro. And be able to fully explore the app repositories.

The biggest show stopper for switching to Linux these days is either that you have x rare oddball hardware, or you very specifically need y piece of software that refuses to run under wine, or obscure feature z of software package y.

One final recommendation. If you don’t back up regularly or like you should to external media. You will always run the risk of damaging your windows install should you want to keep it around. It’s a right of passage for many of us that did it back in the '90s. But not everyone wants that kind of stress just starting out. If you have a little bit of cash to spare. Go on eBay and pick up an old used HP Lenovo or Dell business system. You can get a fourth generation I7 with a decent amount of RAM and perhaps a hard disk and a windows license for almost $150. If you want to practice dual booting, it will make a perfect system. And with a $30 or so HDMI KVM. It can even use the same monitor. Keyboard and mouse as your main system. So you can use them side by side and see which one really stacks up. And in the end when you’ve made your decision. The old business system will be ready to make a great network file server. If nothing else. It’s sort of a win-win-win win investment.

On that at least we are 100% agreed.

Yes but you tried to hand wave it away because only European users are brainwashed to stick to WhatsApp at all cost. Neither is good. Both can and should be better. The existence of one does not exempt the other.

It makes plenty of sense if you understand the history. Apple for all their faults did get the first modern smart phone out. They had a lot of momentum from that. And with iMessage they parlayed that into lock in.

Nope.

You aren’t wrong that there are outlier markets, where iPhone doesn’t have the same market dominance. Or for unrelated reasons don’t have the lock on messaging that Apple has in the US. You’re confusing the outliers for the core group.

Is kind of funny you even mentioned WhatsApp. Do you understand how WhatsApp got to where it is? It wasn’t by being the best or most competitive. It took root in a lot of European countries where smartphone adoption was much slower and later. Ultimately it’s almost the same issues as iMessage. Just for Europe. Literally the EU is trying to legislate to force them to be interoperable and open just like Apple and iMessage. Even suggesting it is kind of tone deaf.

But here’s a thought experiment to leave you with. Why can’t IM be like email? Why shouldn’t it be like email? Why should we leave these services at the whim and total control of wealthy, oligarchs and fascists?

Apple does not want to switch. Apple likes their trapped prey in a walled garden. They will do a minimalist RCS implementation. And then when people fail to adopt it because it purposely doesn’t have the features that iMessage has. They can feign that they complied. But the people have spoken and they want the monopoly.

And what really would be the cost of catering to those people? I think plenty of Android people would be happy if they were even a second thought as long as they were a thought at all. If beeper was actually selling subscriptions for this. Apple is actively trying not to do business. They could easily provide this service for the same price or more that they give to Apple users for free. It’s like Apple doesn’t want money. Or that they think there’s more money to be had by keeping their users locks down and trapped.

Either way it’s just more illustration that it isn’t because Apple can’t do iMessage on android. Not that anyone should have ever believed that. They just want a walled garden with their users trapped inside to be repeatedly prayed upon. And not even RCS coming to iOS is really going to change that.

Actually that’s just self interest. Both capitalism and socialism claim to benefit workers. But only socialism has remotely shown to do that to any extent. Capitalist hoarding and speculation is the primary driver of inflation and things like the inafordability of housing.

If you labor for a living, you aren’t a capitalist. You’re labor.

Actually there was an incident a few years back where she was demonetized and nearly lost her Channel on YouTube. Only coming back after a large outcry from the youtube/maker community. I don’t remember the exact details. But I do remember it happening.

Yes this is definitely a major American thing. There isn’t really anything equivalent to the green bubble shaming outside of America. And I would Hazard a guess that this is also more prevalent in more affluent coastal areas. As well as especially on the West coast. Apple’s back yard.

Exactly. If I was really concerned about my employees etc. I would want them to have a union with power that could match mine to argue their needs and concerns. If he had a union a lot of these problems and mistakes that he’s having likely wouldn’t have occurred.

Actually, everyone is in love with steam machines currently. It took Valve a bit to find the right form factor and application. But they did get there. Have you heard of the steam deck? There have been other hand held PC systems before. But Valve released the definitive gaming one. And the software is there for other hardware manufacturers to use if they like.

And you’re having some heavy misremembering of history there. Halflife 2 had Physical releases outside steam. The only console it was never on was Nintendo’s. Having releases for PS2/3, OG Xbox and 360. As well as physical releases for Windows and Mac. Correct me if I’m wrong but steam has only ever been avalible for Windows Mac and Linux. So no, Valve didn’t play exclusivity games.

If I were forced under duress to pick a gaming corporation as being the good one. Good and corporation are two words that generally don’t go together. But Valve would be one of the closest. A generally flat socialist like company heirarchy. Largely platform agnostic. And has done more than any other company to reduce lockin. Their contributions to Wine and Proton are pivotal.

🤡

I’ll give you this much, that’s desperately what you wish it was about. And you’ve tried very hard to make it about that. It must be frustrating to keep failing so hard though. But I think it’s at least ironically funny a Microsoft fanboy like yourself is running around here acting all self-righteous calling everyone else fan boys. Clowns gotta clown I suppose. 🤡

Oh yeah that’s kind of the whole topic was the video game market etc. And the FTC Microsoft case. If you want to talk about the rape allegations and all that. Then you need to bring that up. Because that’s a whole other can of worms. Where even now you’re just creating straw man arguments.

And talk about bad faith bullshit. I’m not a Sony fanboy The last PlayStation I own was a PlayStation 2 and 2001. The last Nintendo I owned was a GameCube in 2003 the last Xbox I owned was never. You don’t get much more bad faith than yourself.

And your last few questions are rhetorical, self answering if you will. If I don’t want any business with Microsoft. Microsoft owning everyone makes it impossible for me to not do business with Microsoft. It is by definition a bad thing. Indie developers are fine. But again companies like Microsoft Sony etc put up a lot of barriers for many of them. So I have no love for Microsoft Sony etc again. Any more questions? Or at least genuine ones?

There are no unique features of Activision. Microsoft will not fail to maintain any of them. And that is the problem.

Quite honestly fuck Activision. I don’t give one flying fuck about Activision. Microsoft really can’t do any worse than Activision. That’s a problem is they can’t really do much better either. And it overall reduces choice which is a bigger issue.

The fact that almost all publishing and IP are largely controlled by four or five major groups is bad for consumers, and consumer choice. Tencent, Embracer, Microsoft, and Sony aren’t creative altruistic companies. Most if not all of them are realistically just parasites. Who are more of a burden to the studios under them than they are a help. Who through leveraging stolen money and IP or simple strong arm tactics have managed to acquire all this power and influence unduly. I’m especially looking at Microsoft here. Because let me be extra explicit here. Modern Activision is absolutely horrible. It wasn’t always that way though. Their name actually used to be a bit of a draw as a publisher or developer. But as they grew unnaturally this way the things got worse as they do with any company that grows unnaturally that way. However, Microsoft was never better. This is who Microsoft was from day one. And you can always count on Microsoft to do the wrong thing in the end. So moving from activation to Microsoft will not ultimately be a good thing.

I don’t have a current PlayStation or Xbox. I give a shit about this. Because frankly you’re just plain wrong. Two things can be wrong and deserve to be addressed. Just because people are upset about one doesn’t mean they aren’t upset about the other. The FTC should be tackling both. But they are purposefully hobbled by the opposition.

MSFT becoming evil

You are nearly 40 years late.

As someone who’s been a Blizzard customer for 30 years roughly. Selling to Activision was a bad move from a customer perspective. Selling all that to Microsoft is utter bobbins. I 100% think Microsoft games division is currently less horrible than Bobby Kotik. It’s a real; real low bar. But I know for a fact that as a customer I’d be much more satisfied if Blizzard was independent again and able to develop at their own pace and schedule. And not that of some distant detached greedy CEO focused on quarterly profits, and what they can cancel in the short term to boost them.

Also I have this controversial statement. There should be no locked down consoles or console exclusives for the last 20 years or so. They’ve all been one of 3 more or less common PC microarchitectures. Intel, PPC, and ARM. Hell before that they were largely Z80 or 6502 based. Those at least ran bare metal with fairly specialized configurations and timings. All the modern stuff largely runs on otherwise largely common commodity hardware with well-known APIs and back ends. Just artificially locked down.

If they only loose 10% of users or less. That can still be fatal. If they keep the 99% that’s lurking but lose the 1% that creates the content. The lurkers will leave eventually. Just slightly delayed. And from what I’ve seen there’s been a lot of content creation and activity here. And plenty of lurking as well. I think the reality is that we won’t see the true impact on Reddit for another few months.