Fuck ransomware gangs. Also, fuck Epic. I guess if it’s gotta happen the silver lining is that it happened to an asshole company.

To be honest, Bethesda’s best work is probably behind them. They will sell a few more games based on brand recognition and because we are suckers, but I don’t expect much. I’m old enough to have seen many of my favorite developers go through this. It’s difficult to have overwhelming success and keep knocking it out of the park with every release. Expectations for something better than the last thing are so high, the pressure to do something new, the culture change that comes with huge growth, and they eventually lose that magic that captured us in the first place.

Already working on getting permanent residency in another country that doesn’t share a border with the U.S. Not specifically because of loser Trump but we will be more likely to use it if that fucker finds his way back to office.

Honestly, I would be shocked if he ever wins another election or somehow manages to come out on top. He lost by a lot of votes last time. Since then, we watched him on TV while he incited an insurrection, his subsequent behavior suggests he may want to start a civil war, a jury determined he is a rapist, and enough other shit to write a book series.

His post-presidency career is selling NFT’s, shoes, begging for handouts from his idiot followers, criminal defendant, and whatever other scam he thinks of when he wakes up. He’s a petty hustler who inherited money. He’s a loser.

More importantly, he is a criminal. He can’t help himself. He is going to cheat in the election because he cheats at everything. He cheats on his wife, cheats on his taxes, cheats in golf, cheated in an election. He is going to cheat and he will be caught red handed. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if he might get himself arrested for what he does in this election.

He’s already facing four criminal trials. He’s not beating 91 felony charges, especially when most of them are from the feds. They don’t lose cases and they don’t bring high profile cases unless they have the defendant dead to rights.

He is toast and he knows it, which is why he’s so desperate to delay the trials and win the presidency. He is arguably a domestic terrorist. He is arguably a national security threat. The three letter agencies are probably on him like flies on shit. If they’re not, they fucking should be. I don’t believe he will ever be permitted to set foot in the White House again, and that’s assuming he wins in the first place, which he won’t, or cheats his way to victory, which also won’t happen. He's done.

Good luck with that. Their phones are filled with ads and Samsung’s crappy software that can’t be removed. Apple and Google do the same thing, but their apps are at least good. As good as Samsung’s hardware is, they mess up the package with their hot garbage software.

Nobody is buying this and I don't think they are trying very hard to sell it either. Notice that this pricing is only in the U.S. This seems like a ploy to bolster their case for damages and/or royalties in a settlement. Or maybe just part of their patent defense strategy. This company is primarily in medical tech. Even if they aren't so interested in the consumer market, they have to protect their patent or someone in a market they do care about will get away with it too. I would assume it strengthens their case if they can demonstrate material damages in a market they participate in. So quickly unveil a prototype, price it so there's little to no demand, don't bother manufacturing a product nobody wants, win the case, cancel the product.

I don’t think it’s necessarily about beating Windows. What is significant is that Linux use is slowly growing to a point where it shouldn’t be ignored. Those of us firmly in the Linux camp benefit from that and it makes it easier for newcomers to kick the tires.

Frankly, I don’t care whether people use Windows or not. Not my business, not my problem. Use what works. I’m just happy my own shit works, whether it’s 2% or 80% market share. Linux gaming has been a breeze lately - easier than I remember Windows being - and it’s awesome. We are in a really good place and I hope it keeps getting better.

For starters, consider another distro if you want to make things easy on yourself. Alpine is probably a poor choice unless you have a reason to use it. I guess you could use it as a desktop if you really want to, but it’s more geared for containers and embedded devices. It uses musl instead of glibc so you will have problems running software that isn’t packaged for Alpine. The issue with Puppy is you will have a hard time getting help when you need it because it’s kind of a niche distro.

For your first time, you’re better off using something more mainstream. You are going to run into some issues and it’s a lot easier finding solutions for popular distros. Debian would be a fine choice because it’s widely used and runs great on older hardware. Beyond that, you could look at Ubuntu, Fedora, PopOS and Mint.

I bought mine in 2019 before I knew Elon is a lying turd. I bought FSD because I like tech stuff and I was doing a lot of highway driving at the time. My opinion of Elon and the car might be less negative if I didn’t feel like I got scammed out of $6000 for FSD. It’s been a good car otherwise, but I wouldn’t buy another one.

I mean, if you are so disinterested in the conversation that you would ask the internet how to have your side of it rather than check out the show, maybe you just shouldn’t have that conversation. Change the subject or tell them you’re not into it. Who cares if they believe there are aliens?

Personally, I find it impossible to believe there isn’t other intelligent life out there. It’s not because of blurry photos or spooky stories. It’s that the universe is just so vast and there’s so much we will never understand about this place we are in. How can it not be out there? Frankly, it takes more faith to believe there isn’t something.

With that perspective, I do occasionally find those shows interesting. Not because it’s proof of anything but because it’s fun to watch and wonder what it is. It doesn’t have to make you a believer or a non-believer. There’s obviously something in the videos. What it is and where it comes from is entirely different. It’s just entertainment for people who like to indulge in a little speculation.

My last gig was as a CIO in a fairly large organization and we had stringent infosec requirements due to the industry we were in. Old operating systems and software are absolutely an issue, although it still doesn’t stop some companies from running them.

Most of the malware going around exploits patched vulnerabilities. It literally takes seconds and not exactly a high skill level to compromise a machine that’s missing security updates. Regular patching is without a doubt one of the best controls you can have in place. The other big issue was social engineering. If you don’t effectively tackle those two things it doesn’t matter what else you do because you will be breached.

Besides that, you’re mostly right. We were all over the security updates but didn’t care for other upgrades because they introduce instability. It’s the last thing you want with thousands of endpoints and a bunch of shitty enterprise apps. Run it until the wheels fall off or it’s approaching EOL for security updates.

What if they turned him into a drooling hobo or cyber psycho who fried his brain with a homemade implant? I could be down with that. If not, I’m counting on a mod to remove his ass.

I’m gonna have to say Mass Effect has them both beat. Judy was awesome in Cyberpunk 2077, but romancing aliens in Mass Effect was just too good.