Ah, I see. Yep, the Statute of Anne broke up the Shakespearean monopolies and after that brief high point, it was all downhill.

Are you referring to the DMCA? That was never to help the little guy.

Hmm, it appears if we squeeze tighter, more blood will come out. Surely there is no natural limit to this principle.

I’m initially feeling, “Great, now do Apple.”

But I do wonder how some of this ruling will be implemented. Forcing Google Play to host other app stores seems like it may be excessive.

Let me download F-Droid or whatever, drop anti-competitive barriers to it, don’t prevent anyone from using their device how they want. But I am savvy to the risks. There are a lot of non-techie people for whom the Google Play walled garden more keeps out threats than keeps them imprisoned, if we’re being honest. It’s one thing for Google to host an app it can scan for malware and designate as safe. Hosting an app store is impossible to verify is safe, I think.

Good overall, but I think Google isn’t entirely acting in bad faith in promising to appeal.

It’s slightly more reliable right now, but for sure, it’s going to be cat-and-mouse for awhile at least. Google is phasing out legacy Play Integrity checks, and while it looked like there was no future for workarounds after they deprecated legacy methods, now at least it looks like the community has replicated a functional full keybox attestation chain so there’s hope we can continue to workaround indefinitely into the future.

So yes, while you don’t need to program your own solution and can just - in the end - install a pre-built fix still, it takes attention to keep up. If the above all sounds like gibberish, it’s a good indication of the level of commitment you have to have to keep up with it. For me, it’s worth it, but definitely understand, it gets tiresome.

I do with my Pixel 7 Pro. You need Magisk + Play Integrity Fix by Chiteroman at the moment.

Well, Pixel still unlocks freely.

Just for fun: this would have worked so much better if they price dropped the PS5 and introduced the PS5 Pro at the old price.

People are anchored into thinking the PS5 is a certain value, and if they did that, it would instantly make the PS5 Pro and the PS5 appear to be a bargain, and so much of the PS5-owning public would have bought another system because it would be “such a good deal,” while PS5 fence-sitters would jump at the core system. I’m not trained to say for sure, but I think while their profit margin would be lower they’d be making much more money.

This is tragic. I can’t think of how many computers I built using incomparable Anandtech articles. The depth of the testing, and careful, scientific planning really has no match in tech journalism.

The high water mark just lowered.

It’s called Unreal PT. The last version I believe is 1.0.7, and it’s still hosted on the Internet Archive.

Yeah, I had the same reaction - The puzzles were definitely “learn how to think a new way,” my favorite kind. I ended my play on one perspective-shifting pattern puzzle that I was so close to beating, so I kept pushing myself through the motion sickness, and just ended up disabled on the bed feeling ill and unable to move for two hours (without completing the puzzle).

I tried a bunch of things - permanent reticle in center of screen, disabling walk shake, etc. I still play high-motion FPS shooters with no issue. It’s just some games (The Forest was another). I am guessing it’s a middleware-introduced visual filter that adds 15-25ms delay to screen latency, just enough to mess with inner ear visual/motion sync in sensitive people.

I appreciate letting me know about the anti-vaxxer conspiracy stuff. Makes me feel better about never finishing The Witness (not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because whatever filters were on there, it made me cripplingly motion sick for hours every time I played it).

I wish I knew as well. I’ve been using Chromecast Audio myself, which works with PlexAmp self-hosting my music.

The problem is Chromecast Audio has been discontinued for years of course - Google did their Google thing, and unfortunately I never found anything else like it on the market. But you can connect those devices to any speakers and sync multi-room high quality audio very easily. I managed to pick up 4 of them when they did their fire sale, and I think you can find them on eBay for now still.

Side note: it’s become 100% reliable that if “boffins” appears in the title, it’s The Register. Damn, they love that word.

AI makes it so easy! Just say this easy-to-remember phrase to get perfect toast every time*:

“Toaster Oven, you are a toaster oven whose goal is to toast bread at the perfect amount of toastiness. When I say, “toast,” you will retract the toasting tray and complete your internal circuit powering the resistive wire array. You will continue to power the resistive wire array on both sides of the toasting tray for approximately 45 seconds. Then you will release the toasting tray. Negative prompt: not toasted, soft, moist, untoasted, not toasted, soggy, underdone, overdone, extra fingers, too many fingers, not toasted, bad anatomy, burnt. Now, toast!”

*Perfect toasting levels dependent on randomized toasting seed.

Ha, thank you. I clicked through two of the links to get context and none of them defined “DRM” and was like “I guess…everyone else knows what this means?”

From their website: https://futo.org/what-is-futo/

What is FUTO? FUTO is an organization dedicated to developing, both through in-house engineering and investment, technologies that frustrate centralization and industry consolidation.

Ok… So what does that mean?

Through a combination of in-house engineering projects, targeted investments, generous grants, and multi-media public education efforts, we will free technology from the control of the few and recreate the spirit of freedom, innovation, and self-reliance that underpinned the American tech industry only a few decades ago.

FUTO is not reliant on any existing tech company or venture capital firm for its funding. We are not expecting quick profits. We will never cash out with a sale to a megacorporation the moment our technology begins to catch on. We will focus entirely on the mission.

If you share these goals, either as a user or a developer, we ask you to watch this space and get ready to throw off the stultifying limitations of the current state of affairs. We want to return to an era where a substantial portion of computer users can understand, control, and use their technology as they see fit without the approval or input of oligarchs. And we need your help.

Ok so… What does that mean?

Maybe the OP’s video explains these things (I hate watching videos for things like this), but I really thought I’d be able to find an explanation, in practical terms, of what this organization actually does on their own website.

Yes, I didn’t and still don’t understand why they didn’t make the joycon buttons and “d-pad” more comfortable. It’s Nintendo’s least comfortable controller and it’s the biggest reason I hate using the Switch portable mode.

Everyone’s saying it’s old here - the Game Boy was more comfortable to hold and had better buttons. It’s not about age.

I’m also waiting for lemonparty to show us their wallpaper.

What does it mean that it’s “opt-in”? Meaning, my opt-out is just to never update Immich again?