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Wolfire & Dark Catt's antitrust suit against Steam has been certified as a 'class action', with 'all Steam devs who got paid out since 2017'
  • I don't want to simp for a corporation, but what is Valve doing that's anticompetitive?

    Like, don't they need to be doing something to limit competitors' access to the market to be anticompetitive?

    Steam requires base price/same price parity for selling Steam keys, but they're literally giving their services away to developers for free in those cases, so that's pretty clearly not anticompetitive, right? And there's no requirements that I've seen written anywhere that they require price parity for non-Steam-key sales.

    And, based on the massive numbers of bundles of games I've bought with Steam keys with total historical-low game prices below best-ever Steam sale prices, they pretty clearly don't even enforce this rule strictly (it seems like so long as the total bundle price is in line with individual title sale prices, they're fine, even if consumers get other games as well.)

    So I'm not sure what the basis for this suit is. Not saying it's healthy for the market to have an effective monopoly in this space, but the reason Valve is maintaining its marketshare is because they're consistently offering the best value to consumers compared to other storefronts, which isn't illegal.

    /Insert "prove me wrong" meme

  • 2024 Presidential General Election Results | DDHQ
  • I'm a cis Canadian and I'm terrified for everyone in the US. Even the ignorant masses who viewed for him. Project 2025 is going to dismantle American democracy, and with a stuffed supreme court, there are no remaining impediments to reverse this for a generation, until it's too entrenched to change. If the USA lasts that long.

    Literally wondering if an American civil war, or breaking apart into smaller countries, will be coming.

    Longer term, terrified what this will mean for anthropogenic climate change and the world my children will inherit. (A climate-science denier is going to be the PM of Canada this time next year, too, and many are already provincial premiers.)

    I didn't think this was possible, tbh. I don't understand how 51% of Americans can think the "grab-her-by-the-pussy" con artist is the best choice for president. He's literally told them, repeatedly, what he's going to do and they don't care, don't pay attention, or don't believe him. I can't even.

    I'm going to go bury my head in the sand. No more news for me for the next long while. This isn't good for my health.

  • Vote!
  • Had a horrible wait on election day a few years ago; a hateful bigot was polling really close to the (effective, thoughtful, visible-minority) incumbent leading up to the election, and people turned up in droves. Broke records for number of votes cast in a municipal election.

    But waiting in line 3+ hours to vote, with 2 preschool kiddos with us? Never again. Never. Again.

    Early voting, every time. It's the way.

  • [Opinion] I moved to Finland believing it was a progressive dream. It hasn't turned out that way | Mike Watson
  • 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.

  • Watch. It.
  • Epicly long light novels are like that, too. Like in xianxia, they're weak and looked down upon, but, due to [secret hidden ultra advantage], they advance quickly until they can defeat the bullies. Which brings them to a new tier of power where they're weak and looked down upon, ...

    Some series do a good job of expanding the scope of things so politics start playing a bigger role, and they interact with people multiple tiers above their power for more continuity/scope, and/or move to new worlds/environments with entirely new structures, etc.

    Others just do the same thing over and over again. Most do both, lol.

    I find I can't binge the same thing for more than a few weeks before I need a "palate cleanser" series before going back.

  • Microsoft will charge Windows 10 users $30 per year for security updates
  • 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.

  • Microsoft will charge Windows 10 users $30 per year for security updates
  • 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.

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    *Permanently Deleted*
  • Mood.

    I'm not going to pay $45 for any game. If I'd known about the "never on sale, price only goes up" model they were using, I might have bought it back when it was $20, but I'll just never play it now and I'm okay with that. There are literally hundreds of amazing games I already own to play, and if I had 100+ hours to sink into a game like this (I don't, post-kiddos—for now, anyway), then I'd strike the earth for some Dwarf Fortress !!!FUN!!!, which I know I'll enjoy.

    Or maybe finally get around to beating Baldur's Gate 1... (I never made it past the early game... BG3 I'll get to in the 2040s at this rate, ha ha!)

    Aside from people who just want to play football/CoD/D4/whatever multilayer game, I don't understand why anyone pays full price for games. I'm glad they do, mind, since they're subsidizing the development costs mean games get made, and I get amazing games for cheap.

    As a recent example, I nabbed MH Rise for cheap recently, and bounced off it. I might try again later, but it didn't grab me. So glad I didn't pay more than $15 CAD for it!

  • This is why I still use an Android custom ROM in 2024
  • 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.

  • Why do anti-piracy people often treat us as the "villains" of the story?
  • 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.

  • Why do anti-piracy people often treat us as the "villains" of the story?
  • 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.

  • B.C. NDP hangs on to power, will form next government CBC projects
  • 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!

  • New Fanatical bundle; what's worth playing?

    Fanatical is running a Steam Deck games bundle right now. Are any of these games worth the time?

    I feel like I've heard good things about Arise, but I'm out of the loop. I don't recognize many of the others by name.

    Prices are reasonable, so it's less a question about if it's worth the money, more if its worth the time. (3 for CA$6.79, 5 for CA$9.59, or 8 for CA$13.69)

    Terror of Hemasaurus Jack Move Garden Story Castle on the Coast The Tarnishing of Juxtia Arise: A Simple Story Zombie Army Trilogy Beyond the Long Night ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree The Smurfs - Mission Vileaf Röki Home Sweet Home EP2 Hero's Hour Moonlighter Pathologic 2

    3
    Did anyone get the Limited Edition OLED Steam Deck

    I'm just curious if anyone else tried to get one of the Limited Edition Steam Decks before they sold out. I tried for it (on 3 devices) but kept getting error messages until it sold out. I just ordered the 1 TB edition instead.

    This will be my first portable gaming device since the DSi, so I'm really excited for it. Getting the clear LE one would have been cool, but I'm probably better off not spending the extra $40 CAD, lol.

    So, what's your Steam Deck situation? Did you try for/get the LE? Do you already have one? Getting one? Don't want one?

    10
    Backpack Battles: business model i haven't seen since Minecraft, and it seems to be working?

    All over Twitch, about half the streamers I usually watch playing turn-based strategy games are all suddenly playing the same new game. I watched a few streams, and it looked interesting. Normally, I never buy games when they just come out because I have such a backlog and can wait for a sale, but I figured if everyone (figuratively) is playing it, it must be amazing.

    Turns out, they're giving the full game away for free during their "early access" phase as a "demo". But it's the full game, just with only 2 class choices.

    I had a blast! And now I'm probably going to buy it on release.

    The last time I remember doing this was for Minecraft. I see lots of games doing free weekends on Steam, which is very similar; doesn't work well for me since I only have a few hours for gaming each week, but I imagine that must be successful for a lot of games, too.

    What do you think of that business model? And/or, what do you think of Backpack Battles, if you've played it?

    9
    Sask. (Canada) high court upholds decision to not pay insurance to estate of man who died of drug overdose - CBC

    Saskatchewan is fairly conservative leaning, from a Canadian perspective, so perhaps this isn't surprising, but it's a shame that drug use continues to be viewed through a criminal lens instead of a healthcare and mental health crisis.

    My understanding is that even suicide is generally covered by life insurance policies after a two-year vetting period; I would have thought that drug overdoses would at least get the same treatment. It doesn't say in the article how long this policy existed, but the context implies it was longer than two years and I would have thought it would have been a relevant detail to include in the article if it was a newly opened policy, so the omission of that detail further supports it being an older policy.

    I have great sympathy for his family, especially because of the long legal battle that I'm sure has retraumatized them over the intervening years.

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    [Informal review] ALLDOCUBE iPlay 50 Pro 10.4" tablet – Surprising quality from a cheap AliExpress tablet

    My context / use case

    I got Fire 7 tablets for my kiddos a few years ago and they're dreadfully slow and can't really run many apps at all. With my daughter needing some educational support at home, I was looking for a cheap replacement that actually had enough power to manage recent education apps, and hopefully be future proof for a while.

    Alternatives

    The cheapest tablet at Costco.ca, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, is $500 CAD, has a weak processor, only 4GB RAM, and 64GB storage.

    I'll never touch Apple products for a zillion reasons, but cost was completely prohibitive for a device my child could drop any day. Even used ones are insanely priced. And the app ecosystem for education on iOS is almost entirely paid apps, increasingly using a subscription model. (Or so it seems.)

    Newer Amazon Fire "HD" tablets suck, too, but at least they're cheap. And they might be powerful enough to run some things? idk. I wasn't enthused.

    Then, I thought to check AliExpress and found an 8GB tablet with 128GB storage, a processor better than the S6, and a 2K (1440p) display. After reading reviews to check if it's legit, I ordered one.

    Informal Review

    The great:

    Price/value for the specs. I paid ~$240CAD for a bundle that includes a nice case, screen protector, charging block and cable, and a child-size Bluetooth keyboard. (It doesn't have a digitizer, so I skipped the stylus.)

    The good:

    The tablet is snappy. The battery lasts a long time. The screen has plenty enough resolution to render everything crisply on a 10.4" display.

    It's a perfect tablet for my kids use as an educational tablet. It's great for PDF ebook reading (mostly picture books and early reader chapter books to date, lol!) and has handled all the education/edutainment apps without any slowdowns.

    3.5mm jack. 18W fast charging. Build quality feels solid. Well positioned hardware buttons and 3.5mm jack make it easy to use in either orientation. The included case works as an angled stand. SD card slot for expansion. SIM compatible for phone/data.

    The bad:

    The viewing angle is pretty terrible. It's completely fine for solo use or for applications where colour accuracy isn't important, but it's very noticeable.

    The speakers suck. I'm not a sound geek, so I don't know the correct terms, but the sound is muddy and distorted. They also have a fairly low maximum volume, and become increasingly distorted at higher volume. They work well enough, but it's not enjoyable for music. I would definitely use headphones for music/video/games.

    I haven't tried the camera at all, but I've heard it's not great. Can't comment on that.

    The purchase

    The vendor I ordered from (ALLDOCUBE Direct Store) swapped the EU plug for a US plug at no extra cost. It arrived quickly (3 weeks?) from China.

    The package arrived with the retail box crushed, so the included screen protector broke. After using it for a day, I decided to buy a second one for my other child, and asked them to include a replacement. Not only did they include a replacement, but they pre-installed the screen protector on tablet #2 so it couldn't break, without my asking them to.

    I would recommend the seller, but ask them to pre-install the screen protector (if you plan to use one) so there's less risk of damage in transit.

    Discussion

    Anyway, not sure if this is the kind of content people want here, but I thought I'd do my part to add something!

    Has anyone else experimented with cheap AliExpress/Chinese Android devices?

    Based on my success with these, I'm considering getting a phone for my wife there. I'm a bit more worried about data vulnerabilities and software support longevity on a daily driver phone, but it's really hard to find a small quality phone for a reasonable price. Also, it needs to have a good camera or it's a nonstarter.

    Do you have any experience or thoughts on this?

    0
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)BL
    blindsight @beehaw.org
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