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Grimpen

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Grimpen ,

I think if they hadn’t abandoned the CDL modern during the pandemic, they could have kept it going indefinitely. Even if it wasn’t likely fair use, it might have been. More than that, it would have been bad press for the publisher to make the first move.

Abandoning CDL during the pandemic was just waving a red flag and giving the publishers a slam dunk case.

I think if IA had just held the line with CDL, they could have over time just effectively established a precedent. Lost opportunity.

Grimpen ,

During the pandemic, Internet Archive very publicly announced they were relaxing their one physical copy per digitally loaned copy.

I think of they had maintained their 1:1 CDL method, the publishers would still be uncomfortable to be the one to sue first, especially since there was a decent argument and IA would have been pretty sympathetic.

Their pandemic policy was effectively not substantially different from a shadow library., and just set up a slam dunk case for the publishers.

Grimpen ,

Probably, but I think that every month that CDL went unchallenged was slowly building a precedent. I wonder if they had stuck to CDL if we’d still be waiting for the publishers to blink.

Grimpen ,

Filters out the casuals.

Grimpen ,

ISO 8601 ftw!

Grimpen ,

Apples to apples, I wonder how much that holds true…

When a console launches, buying off the shelf equivalent parts is probably a fair bit more expensive. After a couple of years though, the latest and greatest whatever is at least two years old.

I’m sure console manufacturers flatten out these prices by making long term contracts, but still a 4 year old machine is still 4 years old. AMD has released new chipsets since that are in turn themselves coming up on 2 years old.

Granted, console games are optimized for a specific platform, but that will likely be very game specific.

Grimpen ,

Veritasium just released a video about people picking 37 when asked to pick a random number.

Grimpen ,

Yep, can confirm. I used Xubuntu primarily for years, and never had an account on the official XFCE forums or Git, because why would I? I’m just a user, the software is very stable, and stuff tended to just work.

Grimpen ,

Can’t you use Proton on Mac? I’d think that would solve most compatibility problems.

Grimpen ,

On the topic of games with an online component, wouldn’t it be great if they could run indefinitely?

www.stopkillinggames.com

Grimpen ,

Still, Indie games continue to be developed. This will be gaming’s salvation when the big studios are fully committed to squeezing every loot box/DLC/microtransaction out of “Live service” forever games.

I don’t think Clash of Candy Shadow Tanks is going anywhere, but there will always be the next Stardew Valley passion project.

On that note, I think Indy’s have embraced a retro aesthetic because you don’t need a whole art team rendering your graphics. Combine this with AAA games being rather formulaic (can’t risk a big studio budget trying unproven ideas) and I think you have an audience willing to accept older graphics in retro games.

Grimpen ,

The classic joke:

Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. “Herr Altmann,” said his secretary, “I notice you’re reading Der Stürmer! I can’t understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?”

“On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we’re on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!”

I accept no credit, I simply copy-pasted from Wikipedia.

Grimpen ,

Wholesome thread of the day, thanks all! As an anonymous internet stranger, In hire it works out!

Grimpen ,

Just started using Thunderbird again a couple of months ago. Like it! I never really stopped liking it, just stopped using it because all the webmail interfaces and “appification”.

Was just trying to get K-9 Mail working on my phone again (after years of using umpteen different apps) and it’s not as smooth as I remember.

Warner Bros. is now erasing games as it plans to delist Adult Swim-published titles (www.polygon.com)

Warner Bros. Discovery is telling developers it plans to start “retiring” games published by its Adult Swim Games label, game makers who worked with the publisher tell Polygon. At least three games are under threat of being removed from Steam and other digital stores, with the fate of other games published by Adult Swim...

Grimpen ,

The developer of another game distributed by WB, Fist Puncher, commented on the Ars Technica story about this.

Found it, it’s the “Promoted Comment” now.

therealmattkain I’m one of the creators and developers of Fist Puncher which was also published by Adult Swim on Steam. We received the same notice from Warner Bros. that Fist Puncher would be retired. When we requested that Warner Bros simply transfer the game over to our studio’s Steam publisher account so that the game could stay active, they said no. The transfer process literally takes a minute to initiate (look up “Transferring Applications” in the Steamworks documentation), but their rep claimed they have simply made the universal decision not to transfer the games to the original creators.

This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users’ libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which will all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it. We could just rerelease Fist Puncher from our account, but we would likely receive significant backlash for relaunching a game and forcing users to “double dip” and purchase the game again (unless we just made it free).

Again, this is really just disappointing. It seems like more and more the videogame industry is filled with people that don’t like and don’t care about videogames. All that to say, buy physical games, make back-ups, help preserve our awesome industry and art form. March 7, 2024 at 12:51 am

arstechnica.com/…/its-kind-of-depressing-wb-disco…

Grimpen ,

The developer of Fist Puncher has an insightful “Promoted Comment” now on the Ars Technica article:

therealmattkain I’m one of the creators and developers of Fist Puncher which was also published by Adult Swim on Steam. We received the same notice from Warner Bros. that Fist Puncher would be retired. When we requested that Warner Bros simply transfer the game over to our studio’s Steam publisher account so that the game could stay active, they said no. The transfer process literally takes a minute to initiate (look up “Transferring Applications” in the Steamworks documentation), but their rep claimed they have simply made the universal decision not to transfer the games to the original creators.

This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users’ libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which will all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it. We could just rerelease Fist Puncher from our account, but we would likely receive significant backlash for relaunching a game and forcing users to “double dip” and purchase the game again (unless we just made it free).

Again, this is really just disappointing. It seems like more and more the videogame industry is filled with people that don’t like and don’t care about videogames. All that to say, buy physical games, make back-ups, help preserve our awesome industry and art form. March 7, 2024 at 12:51 am

Grimpen ,

I stopped distro hopping around a decade ago, and just use default Ubuntu LTS releases. No shade from me.

I’m not going to pretend that Ubuntu is the coolest, hippest, trendiest distro around, but it’s good enough, stake enough, and gosh darn it I’m just used to it.

Grimpen ,

It’s been years since I used a private tracker (pre-Netflix), but your experience seems to mirror mine.

I’ll expand on the quality angle for video, I’m going to be watching on my tablet, anything beyond 720p is going to be marginal at best. I also wear glasses, so reality rarely reaches 4K. For music I appreciate FLACC, but I’ll be hard pressed to notice the difference between that and a 128kbps MP3 I encoded 25 years ago most of the time.

Still, a well seeded deep collection is something I miss. Public trackers are fine for popular stuff, but trying to load my wife’s MP3 player with musicals is proving the limits of public trackers.

On the other hand, running a seedbox is a bit more involved than a VPN. In order to maintain ratios, keeping a seedbox is highly recommended from what I recall.

I'm relatively unfamiliar with Linux. I'm getting a ThinkPad T460 and want to install Mint on it. Is there anything about the T460 I should know?

It’s probably been 15 years since I’ve used Linux and Mint seems to be the recommended distro for people who aren’t all that familiar with Linux like me, but I didn’t know if there was anything I should know with this ThinkPad model that anyone is familiar with. My searching around shows people saying everything from it...

Grimpen ,

I’m with you.

I sort of petered out distro-hoping 10-ish years ago, I’ve just used boring old Ubuntu LTS ever since. All the Unity/Gnome/KDE, Snap/Flatpak and systemd stuff I’ve successfully ignored.

I have no doubt that there are “better” distros out there, but Ubuntu works.

Grimpen ,

That is exactly the XKCD I pictured.

Grimpen ,

I think Samsung subs in their own “Gallery” software on their phones. Other manufacturers may as well.

Grimpen ,

Just finished the James Burke “Connections” reboot on Curiousity. It will probably be the last thing I watch as a subscriber.

The last few years have been nothing but price hikes, fragmentation, and reduced offerings among the streaming services.

I’ll pay for a seedbox again before I pay for another streaming service.

Grimpen ,

It’s the exclusive deals that fuel the fragmentation. If you could watch the same content on any streaming service, you wouldn’t need to subscribe to a half dozen (or turn to piracy).

Of course that’s exactly why Netflix, Prime, Apple, et al started making their own exclusive content that they totally control.

Grimpen ,

Correct. When people say “ChatGPT isn’t real AI” they mean it’s not AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). The term “Artificial Intelligence” has been the proper term for the study of machine learning since the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop.

It’s all AI, from the computer player in Battlechess to ChatGPT. It’s not all using the same techniques, or have the same capabilities.

Grimpen ,

#1, whatever is default. The main advantage of the terminal is that it’s just a terminal, fundamentally the same terminal since the dawn of computing.

Having said that, I do sometimes install a non-default terminal. I haven’t seen any of them mentioned:

cool-retro-termIt looks like an OG CRT! What other terminal emulator has this killer feature?

Byobu Technically a front end for tmux, but it gives some useful status info and multiple windows.

Grimpen ,

First computer was a Commodore Vic-20. Second was a Tandy 1000TX. I remember dialling into BBSes pre-internet, but not on the Vic-20 of course.

I can still remember the feeling of seeing my first computer in person. Even in the late seventies it was rare to see even things like Atari 2600’s. By the early eighties most of my friends had an Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 400/800, Coleco Adam, Commodore Vic-20/64, Apple II, Tandy Coco, etc. By the late eighties most of the people I knew had PCs of some sort (Tandy 1000TX in my case), Atari ST, or Amiga. Modems were still rare. It was the nineties when modems and BBSes seemed to really explode, quickly displaced by the Internet. Granted I remember connecting to Gopher before I personally connected to BBSes.

I look back on how things changed from 1980 to 1989, and it seems so much more sweeping than 2010 to 2019.

Grimpen ,

Stardew Valley stays on the list. I have it installed, but haven’t played it much on my deck (other than to test mods). I have met other people with Decks who mostly play SDV, and it is a classic.

Monster Hunter: World, played that. Played it with my eldest who also has a Steam Deck. Runs pretty well, but there’s a lot of text for smaller screens (and aging eyes).

Now Vampire Survivors, that game is great for the Steam Deck. Short, defined games. The sleep mode has never failed, and if it did, you are only loosing a ½ hour run at most.

Grimpen ,

Rarely. It has failed once for V:S for me from my recollection, and that was months ago. With the frequent SteamOS updates, it is likely that whatever rate edge case that caused it to lock up on wake has been fixed.

Thinking about it, I can’t remember sleep/wake failing in a month or two…

Grimpen ,

I’m surprised my youngest hasn’t told me all about it yet. Maybe I scooped him on a story…

Grimpen ,

But Steam is pretty dominant. Steam is also pretty well behaved and privately owned. If they ever went public, I could see all sorts of hijinx Steam could pull with their PC gaming dominance, between exclusive release deals, leveraging publishers to use Steam exclusive tools, etc.

That’s all hypothetical though at this point, but I still like to buy stuff on GoG and Humble Bundle at least sometimes, even though with my Steam Deck, and just Steam’s Linux support, Steam is by far the best and easiest way to buy games.

I think as long as Gabe and actual Steam employees continue to run things, we are okay. It’s when the venture capitalists and such get in, that they start to “maximise profit”, and everything gets enshittified, the service tanks, becomes a shell of it’s former self, and yet the vultures all take off with mad stacks. Steam has earned my trust, and they seem to continue to deserve it.

Grimpen ,

That’s why I still buy things on GoG and the Humble Store sometimes, even though Steam is such a good service. As much as I appreciate how awesome Steam is, and as much as I trust Gabe, things can change.

Grimpen ,

SATAN’s popularity diminished after the 1990s.

Wikipedia quote of the day.

Grimpen ,

It kind of makes sense. First I’ve ever heard about Ubuntu Christian Edition as well, but it seems to mostly be set up with filtering in mind, with the DNS tools and such. Add in productivity software aimed at preaching I guess, and you have a “safe” OS for kids and the laptop hooked up to the projector at a church.

Grimpen ,

Ubuntu was the distribution that had me switch from dual-booting with Windows as default to dual-booting with Linux as default.

I also remember ordering an actual Ubuntu disc, with the extra donation to fund the mailing for free program.

Now years later after lots of distro-hopping I just run Ubuntu LTS, and stay on the very boring LTS branch.

Grimpen ,

I used to use PlayOnLinux for exactly this thing. It’s a front end/manager for WINE. Heroic and Lutris are similar, but have carried the concept further.

Grimpen ,

My monochrome Brother Laser is around 15 years old. Works great on Linux, as it should on any cups system. It’s still the same printer or was 15 years ago, drivers shouldn’t change.

I think I’m on the 3rd drum for that thing. Lord knows how many pages. Just keeps trucking.

Grimpen ,

Interplay, Microprobe, Sierra On-Line, Bullfrog, Dynamix, Origin, all long gone.

Activision is still around, but it’s something completely different. Same with Atari (although theres a nostalgia brand now, so maybe back).

Of them all, I think is have to say I’m most nostalgic for Sierra On-Line, although Origin gives them a run for most nostalgic.

Grimpen ,

Never finished most of the Ultima Games. Started U4 again a few years ago. Tried picking it back up, and I’ve misplaced that damn balloon again.

Grimpen ,

Have most of them still! I think all of them into the 20’s, and hit or miss after. There’s been a couple of reboots.

Grimpen ,

I loved Earthsiege! IIRC I got the game with an expansion card (STI Lightning 128?), and it really was fun playing with my first flight stick, a CH Products flight stick.

Grimpen ,

What does “20% attachment ratio” mean? Does that mean that 20% of the CP2077 sales are now CP2077+PL?

Grimpen ,

Thanks. Saw the same question in the linked conversation, didn’t see the answer, but then I didn’t scroll that deep.

This is pretty much exactly what I assumed from the infographic alone.

Grimpen ,

Exactly right! Maybe the EU will save us all. It seems somehow monopolistic that Disney+ is the exclusive official streaming service for so much. I guess this is why Netflix put so much into Netflix originals.

I’d like to at least see some requirements for open licensing of shows, such as maybe a sunset period or something.

Anyone knows about calm Windows games with 1-finger touch screen support?

What I am searching for is for games that support touch screens and can be played with 1 finger / one hand. No action games with fake joysticks on the screen, just games that work with a single finger or at least one hand while lying in bed and trying to wind down. One very good example is Civilization V, which has a dedicated...

Grimpen ,

I’ll double check on my Steam Deck, but from what you described, many old point-and-click game would also work, since a mouse input without right clicking should translate well one finger touch input. This might make SCUMMVM and all the compatible classic adventure games potential successes. More modern adventure games might also work well.

Like I said, I’ll have to test, but tentatively I’ll suggest:

  • SCUMMVM + numerous classic adventure games (Amazon Queen and Beneath A Steel Sky are available for free for the SCUMM project, completely legally).
  • Beyond A Steel Sky
  • Broken Sword 1, 2 and 5
Grimpen ,

Got so many good games through Humble Bundle. I remember the early days when all the games were Linux compatible. That was around when I stopped dual booting and just ran Linux full time.

Grimpen ,

There are some remakes of adventure game classics out there, Day of the Tentacle specifically comes to mind. Not sure if it’s “one-finger friendly” though.

Got distracted playing Beyond A Steel Sky, and it seems designed more for controllers, with one stick for looking, b add the other for moving. Granted I didn’t force it to use mouse inputs only.

Steam Deck Owners: What’s been your favorite game that you first discovered on Steam Deck and now you can’t seem to put down?

Looking for those games that you may have heard about but never tried until you got a Deck. Or old games on systems you never had that you’re trying for the first time. Or new AAA games that just released in the last year or two that you picked up for the first time specifically to play on Steam Deck and have kept you glued to...

Grimpen ,

This happened to me recently. I’ve slowed down now that I’ve got all the unlocks, just a couple secrets to go though…

Grimpen ,

Good to know. I was joking since they sponsor so many YouTubers.

I usually recommend looking at TorrentFreak’s VPN reviews.

torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/

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