That's over half a 100mbit line 24/7.
I have my upload capped at 6MiB/s since that's ~half my 100mbit upload. (I can't get symmetric gigabit internet here, at least not until fibre-to-the-door lines are run in the next couple of years.)
Impressive numbers for home internet.
Sure, but long-term climate risks definitely factored into my family's most recent move to a new city.
Previously, we lived somewhere it was too cold to go out in winter (–50°C during a polar vortex) and too smoky to go out in the summer, from the constant bushfires and forest fires. And also had massive hail storm risks, drought/water insecurity, and if you lived closer to the river, flooding.
Now, we live somewhere where we only really face mild water insecurity from aquifer depletion. This close to the Pacific, we rarely get significant fire smoke, even. The Big One earthquake would suck if it happens in our lifetime, but that's mostly unrelated to anthropogenic climate change (the tsunami would be higher from water levels rising.)
So, sure, yeah. We're all affected by climate change. But the effects are definitely not equally dispersed.
An excellent summary that should sound reasonable to anyone who's looking at the situation rationally. As an outsider, I can't really understand why it's so close.
That said, in BC, Canada, our election in 18 days is too close to call, and the BC Cons are basing policy on American QAnon conspiracy theories (that teachers are part of a secret cabal brainwashing children). And our federal Cons are polling to coast to an easy majority government next year... with even more unhinged views. So it's not like we're doing much better up here.
I don't understand how these elections can be this close. How can ~47% of the population support anti-trans, misogynist, racist bullies? It makes me want to weep.
It's satire. The author is pointing out how morally reprehensible it is, using irony.
The text is only fucked the the way that The Onion sticks are fucked: this is only labeled satire because of the tone of the article. The content is as true as "real" news.
The actual "fucked" content is that the author was correct, and that the wealthy benefit from hunger and the threat of starvation to maintain access to abundant cheap labour.
Cheaters can load code before the kernel, so it supercedes kernel-level detection. There's really no stopping client-side cheating, just ways to make it harder.
Wireless game streaming is another reason to upgrade WiFi. I couldn't stream anything from my wired desktop to my Steam Deck on WiFi from the ISP-supplied router. I just finished upgrading to a WiFi mesh network partly because of that... but I haven't tested game streaming yet.
I expect it should do great, though. My Fire Stick used to occasionally buffer even with ~1.5GB/hr content, but I just tried a 1080p remux at 15GB/hr and it worked great.
I got it. Not clear if it's a scam or legit, though.
They also sold 5 million copies in 3 days, and who knows how many copies since then. They can afford to pay good IP lawyers for a long time, if needed.
It's funny you say that. I'm actively working to add intro sentences to more of my emails to add "fluff". Asking how their weekend was, commenting about the weather, sharing a one-sentence story about an experience I've had, etc.
I'm trying to build connection with people and not come off as terse/abrupt. My wife calls me out for it all the time.
I'm excited for this. I just got my wife a Deck used to play Escape Simulator together, but this will make it a lot easier for her to play most of my other games, now, too.
Sadly Dragon Age 3 can't be shared, which I should have added to her account, not mine... But we only had 1 Deck at the time! (On the other hand, I'll be able to play most of my library on her device while she's playing, so not a big deal!)
I think you can Steam Remote Play Together with non-Steam games, but that's the only way to "share" them that I know of.
Right, but Steam still let's people who own delisted games download and play them forever. (Well, assuming they're not live service games with no servers, but that's not a Valve problem.)
I have a slightly different perspective as someone just starting Rise as my first ever experience with this series.
Holy shit, the tutorials are terrible. Massive info dump walls of text explaining too many systems at once, cryptic warning messages to confirm you want to dismiss the tutorials are extra confusing... And despite the massive info dumping, they don't even tell you everything you need to know to complete the tutorial missions as you complete them. When you go to trap your first monster, there's no tooltip to teach you how to use items in the "how to trap" explanation or NPC dialogue. I needed to google it.
And no ability to pause in a singleplayer game? I googled some explanation about pause being on one of the menus, but I couldn't find it. Thankfully, suspending the game on a Steam Deck pauses it, so it's playable.
Also, why was I given massively OP equipment and piles of loot just for logging in? The entire early game is now so easy that it's not fun. I'm only 3 tutorials + 1 "real" mission into the game, so I'm going to try starting over without the EZ-mode loot and give it a second chance, but so far, I'm not impressed.
If I'd bought this through Steam, I'd have refunded it already before the 2-hour playtime window closed.
TL;DR: Terrible new-player onboarding has me questioning if I should push through.
Grow: Song of the Evertree has lots of crafting materials, but no money. I haven't played it much, but it mostly seems to be about gathering daily to grow the Evertree, then using the resources to expand the town.
You can get a cheap mp3 player for literally $5. Digital textbooks can be viewed just fine on a laptop, and schools have hundreds of those.
Smart phones are addiction machines. I'm very glad to see schools banning them. Hopefully, parents take note and realize how harmful they are for child development and start buying them dumb phones instead until they're older (16+).
Just FYI, I'm pretty sure you're confusing "AI" and "AGI".
Even enemy behavior is videogames is "AI", but obviously is not "General Intelligence".
I think the problem is Hollywood confusing the two terms, so people think AI = Skynet, but that's not the technical definition in Computer Science.
I haven't been following PoE2 very closely, but I hope it plays well on Steam Deck. If it plays well, then I'm going to play the hell out of this...
I'm getting tonnes of them. They always say they're from Rogers, for me. They've called about 20 times.
I'm hoping they call sometime when I'm otherwise free so I can waste as much of their time as possible. It's fun to bait them, and it saves them from potentially scanning someone else in that time.
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
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?
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?
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.
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?