• 4 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 20th, 2023

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  • The supply chain problems of covid REALLY broke everyone.

    Consoles selling out is actually “bad”. Why? Because they are closed gardens. If people can go down to best buy or browse amazon and pick up a console they are more likely to buy a few games to go with it. Rather than needing to frantically monitor five different discord servers to get into a queue as fast as possible to MAYBE get one. The former encourages browsing and impulse buys. The latter is basically only for people with very targeted shopping lists.

    Also… it is not even October. MAYBE come early November you can start to make these assessments for that most holy of holidays, Black Friday. But hell day and xmas are still months out and the holiday rush of shopping hasn’t begun yet.

    I personally see nothing compelling about the ps5 pro. But this is the equivalent of buying an xbox and saying microsoft are going to win because they have a stronger supply chain.






  • If y9ou are close enough to a system of importance that you can spray it, you are close enough to compromise it in countless other ways.

    This is just one of many physical access attacks. Just like “you could take a hammer to it”

    Like, I know people want to think this is some Ocean’s Eleven heist waiting to happen. It isn’t. This is only viable if you can drench an area with helium (which means you can already gas everyone you care about) or you have such close physical access that there are so many other things you could do. At best it is an episode of Burn Notice where Michael has to rapidly improvise an escape where his CIA handler of the week already refused to give him something much more useful.




  • I would actually very much argue that the N64 is when they “stopped trying” as it were.

    Sony (which is a can of worms on its own), Sega, and even frigging Atari realized that CD-ROM was “the future”. Nintendo… let’s skip the Sony aspect and just say they chose not to.

    The end result is that everyone else had 700 MB-ish to use for resources and were working on finding ways to hide the load times (RIP Shang Tsung). Nintendo continued to use a cartridge that could hold 4-12 and later 32 and 64 MB. This meant dialogue and cutscenes remained almost non-existent and texture work was similarly VERY limited in favor of solid colors.

    Its Nintendo and most of The Internet are still the kids on the playground looking to beat up the Sega kids so we mostly talk about the good parts of those consoles going forward. But it is always fun to watch one of the Influencers have that “So… outside of like four games the N64 REALLY sucked, huh? BUT THOSE FOUR GAMES ARE THE GREATEST GAMES TO EVER EXIST AND I STILL LOVE YOU MIYAMOTO SAN!!!”. Whereas we all almost universally agree “The Playstation had an amazing library… and most of them look like someone sharted on the screen” because… 700 MB is still not a lot for texture and audio work. And “Oh yeah. The Sega Saturn existed… That was the tower of power, right?”

    And from then on? It was gimmick city. The Gamecube was “portable” because of the handle. Wii is obvious. Wii U was marketed atrociously but actually was way ahead of its time in terms of second screen (… I actually loved my Wii U) but was marketed like another condom for a wii mote. And the Switch is obviously the gameboy/console hybrid.


  • Different people like different games.

    But SoD is very much built around that sandbox style gameplay. Your guide is how you connect the evidence of whatever crime you are investigating.

    That said: I think the tutorial is “a lot” but it is well worth doing at least a good chunk of it. They do a great job of teaching you the basic steps for how to investigate a murder and what to do next.


  • … mostly the other way around?

    Theoretically it is possible that a compromised machine could compromise a USB stick. If you are at the point where you are having to worry about government or corporate entities setting traps at the local library? You… kind of already lost.

    Which is the thing to understand. Most of what you see on the internet is, to borrow from a phrase, Privacy Theatre. It is so that people can larp and pretend they are Steve Rogers fighting a global conspiracy while necking with a hot co-worker at an Apple store. The reality is that if you are actually in a position where this level of privacy and security matters then you need to actually change your behaviors. Which often involves keeping VERY strong disconnects between any “personal” device and any “private” device.

    There have been a lot of terrible (but wonderfully written) articles about journalists needing to do this because a government or megacorporation was after them. Stuff like having a secret laptop that they never even take out of a farraday cage unless they are closer than not to an hour away from wherever they are staying that night.


  • I think any “privacy oriented OS” is inherently a questionable (kneejerk: Stupid and reeks of stale honey) strategy in the first place.

    A very good friend of mine is a journalist. The kind of journalist where… she actually deals with the shit the average person online larps and then some. And what I and her colleagues have suggested is the following:

    Two flash drives

    • One that is a livecd for basically any linux distro. If you are able to reboot the machine you are using and boot to this, do it. That helps with software keyloggers but obviously not hardware
    • One that is just a folder full of portable installs of the common “privacy oriented” software (like the tor browser) supporting a few different OS types.

    Given the option? Boot the public computer to the live image. Regardless, use the latter to access whatever chat or email accounts (that NEVER are logged into on any machine you “own” or near your home) you need.





  • It isn’t about being reasonable.

    If you are expected to track your time to this degree (and, to make it clear, the majority of employers actively don’t want you to), there is a reason. That reason usually being different funding sources. Generally a mix of grants and clients.

    And if a client or grant source finds out you are lying about those? Maybe you only had enough work to do 34 hours instead of 40 hours in one week. Would you be cool paying extra because the guy repairing your muffler had a slow week?

    And if people think being proud of a tool that openly talks about what everyone else silently does isn’t a red flag for employers? Hey, its a great job market so I am sure none of that will matter.





  • Agree that the macbook IS the “future” (really present), same as it was with phones, because a single monolithic SOC is much easier to manufacture and has massive power and energy benefits. That said, I do like that “new” PCAMM2 format since it does wonders for making even those kinds of systems upgradable… to the extent you would upgrade.

    And a macbook with a lot less glue and signed parts is kind of what I think we SHOULD be striving for.

    That said, gonna nitpick a bit

    Having a highly configurable machine is the opposite of the MacBook. There’s probably a market for the Framework laptop. It fully leans into being configurable and repairable.

    Again, define “configurable” and “repairable” because the former is buying dongles and the latter is not too dissimilar from other (non-apple) laptops on the market

    That gives the user a bigger sense of control. They don’t feel dependent on huge corporations.

    Ah, so we are paying the security blanket tax. Farmework makes me feel warm and fuzzy so I should give them money?

    It’s not just a feeling either. Other companies don’t want their customers to repair or exchange anything on their laptops and will void the warranty if you do it. Framework is the opposite as it encourages their customers to assemble and replace parts themselves.

    Again, actually check out the landscape. Apple are fucking assholes and always will be. But when even frigging Microsoft is making fairly repairable devices (lots of glue but https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+4+Screen+Replacement/60348 )?

    Mostly it sounds like you are reading that marketing schpiel I alluded to. “Companies aren’t your friends and all want to fuck you in the ass. Except Framework. We are your friends”

    Customization has become huge in the PC market, especially among gamers. Framework is smart to try and fill this individualist niche. The marketing works well, just like you said. I find the programmable LED modules quite charming for example.

    Probably the biggest thing that happened to PC gaming specifically in the past decade is the Steam Deck. Which is a minimally customizable handheld computer

    The option to buy the laptop as a kit for me to assemble myself also sounds fun.

    And good for you. Personally, I would rather do my zany projects with random crap I got off ebay or build some gunpla. But… I am not going to tempt fate by saying I would never even consider buying a 1k USD model kit.

    Empowerment is what the marketing sells to their customers. Few people really need this product, but many find it desirable.

    On that I 100% agree. I just… wouldn’t call that a positive.