Pretty sure he’s been the bad guy for a long time.

“Sort of” because it isn’t a lawnmower, it’s possessing a lawnmower.

“But yeah” because that’s splitting hairs. 🤣

Sounds like Linus Torvalds’s code review comments got into the training data.

I love that San Francisco (NorCal) and LA (SoCal) are swapped.

(And also that NYC doesn’t actually include NYC.)

Well sort of. But yeah.

Oh, the article is from Popular Mechanics? So we can just ignore it entirely then.

I don’t know when it happened, but Popular Mechanics seems like it’s just, “Bullshit to make you open our article” now.

Oh yeah, the gen 1 iPad was awesome right up until it wasn’t.

They get updates, that will gank your device and make it unusable. Ask me how I know this.

Are you talking about the underclocking?

There was a generation that included many faulty batteries that caused undervolting. An undervolted CPU simply stops, causing the phones to shut off. The solution for those phones was to detect the battery lifecycle and underclock the CPU so it wouldn’t undervolt. For any phone affected, Apple offered extremely discounted (if not free) battery replacements, which would restore the CPU to original clock speed.

I was an Android user at the time, and people were accusing Apple of planned obsolescence and decrying the underclocking, but it seemed like a solid solution to a faulty battery issue to me.

Now, iOS tracks your battery health. If the battery has less than 80% battery health in the first, like, six months, it means a faulty battery and they will replace it for free.

iPhones and iPads get updates for ages. The iPhone XR can update to iOS 18 and it released almost 7 years ago. I don’t think it will be supported by the next OS, but that’s still pretty damn good for a modern smartphone.

Apple did patent a process to use as few gold molecules as possible to create 24k gold, IIRC, back when they were designing the first Apple Watch.

Important thing to remember about the “console wars.”

Other than the Nintendo Wii (iirc), most consoles sell at a loss at the beginning of the generation. They eventually turn a profit on console sales, but console sales aren’t the point.

Game sales are.

When each console was its own very specific architecture and games needed to be designed specifically for them, console sales matter a lot because that’s how you’d sell games.

But now that architectures are similar (if not the same), cross-compilation has become easier than ever. It’s why you see Sony finally releasing first party titles on PC.

Microsoft knows full well that their console sales aren’t great, but that’s okay for them. Their PC sales are. Many of their titles sell on Steam. And they sell some of their titles on PlayStation.

They’ll continue to make some form of console because without it they lose out on millions of Game Pass subscriptions from people who don’t want to make the initial investment in a gaming PC, or deal with the complexity, but their goal of making that next console more and more like a PC fits perfectly in their model.

It’s a shame the Series X has sold so poorly, it’s a great console, but I doubt Microsoft is too worried about “losing” the console wars to Sony. The game has changed.

Themes like “incest” and “rape” were pulled from Steam.

While distasteful to most, these are not illegal in pornography (local laws may differ). Hell, even snuff films are legal as long as they’re simulated (and not real video of actual murder). However, because of payment processors mainstream porn sites won’t host them.

Also

*it’s

the end being neigh and all

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him, and the horse said, “the end is neigh!”

(Neigh is what a horse says. The end is nigh. 😉)

Thanks!

Xenoblade Chronicles, especially 2 and 3 in my view.

And Halo, obviously.

Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

God of War (2018) and Ragnarok.

My degrees are in music

Sometimes I wish I had better training. I grew up on Suzuki violin, but I never really studied theory. I survive on talent rather than skill, and am very thankful for the skill of those around me!

People think singers aren’t good musicians as a rule and that’s total garbage.

It is wild to me the way some of the orchestral musicians treat the chorus. Most of them are friendly and complimentary, but some of them sure seem to think we’re beneath them. Could just be that they’re not very socially adept, I suppose.

We sing some really difficult stuff as a chorus and you have to know what your note sounds like before you sing it; you can’t rely on just knowing the fingering for your instrument.

And this can be so terrifying for some entrances!

It’s so much fun but also a great mental challenge. I’m thankful to have it in my life as my intellectual musical outlet.

I agree 100%.

Not really sure, but I’ll probably join what I find.

My sister was in a local youth chorus when I came home from college, and told me about the adult version. I found out when auditions were, tried out, got in, and have been loving it ever since!

I had sung in church choirs growing up, but now regret very much not singing during high school and college. A lot of my fellow choir people have great memories of singing in school choirs.

Turns out choirs are a great way to meet a significant other. Other than my wife and I, there are several married couples who met in this chorus (including a couple of married men)! As I tell guys looking to meet people: if you can carry a tune, have a vague understanding of music notation, and live near a medium or large city, you can probably find a volunteer choir. There are a lot of them, they always need people (especially tenors and basses), and are often full of very intelligent and interesting women, some of whom are probably single. 😂

I’m a semi-professional choral singer! I very frequently sing on a volunteer basis in a symphony chorus with a professional orchestra. And also sing with a smaller 12-person choir, really tight harmonies and blending. It’s a lot of fun.

Sometimes I get paid, but that’s rare.

I’ve gotten to sing some pretty awesome stuff (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, video game concerts, Verdi’s Requiem, etc. etc. etc.) and gotten to meet some pretty cool people (including my wife)!