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scops

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North Carolina Supreme Court Secretly Squashed Discipline of Two GOP Judges Who Admitted to Violating Judicial Code (www.propublica.org)

Last fall, out of public view, the North Carolina Supreme Court squashed disciplinary action against two Republican judges who had admitted that they had violated the state’s judicial code of conduct, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the decisions....

scops ,

Your third source also includes a transcript of the conversation which led to the defendant rushing the judge. Very helpful for understanding the story here.

scops ,

It was hugely freeing for me to realize this. I didn’t really care for Death Proof and I absolutely hated Inglorious Bastards. My friends thought I was crazy. After loving Kill Bill and everything I had seen before it, I thought Tarantino had just gotten too far up his own ass. Then Django came out and was just fun and cathartic and I realized I just needed to take each project as it came

scops ,

Out of curiosity, how old are you? I hold up Scott Pilgrim as the Fast Times at Ridgemont High of my generation (older millennials). I could see it not hitting the same for older and newer gens.

Of course it’s a perfectly valid opinion even if we are in the same gen. I’m sure Fast Times had its detractors, too

scops ,

1, given to me in a Secret Santa exchange. I’m not following the connection you’re trying to make between a goofy action movie and a toy line.

scops ,

My mother’s my sister!

scops ,

My work laptop is a brick until it establishes a VPN tunnel back to the home network. There are ways to ensure the device only works how the company wants it to.

New Louisiana law will criminalize approaching police under certain circumstances (apnews.com)

Critics of a new Louisiana law, which makes it a crime to approach within 25 feet (7.6 meters) of a police officer under certain circumstances, fear that the measure could hinder the public’s ability to film officers — a tool that has increasingly been used to hold police accountable....

scops ,

I can’t wait for someone to try to justify fleeing the police with this law. “Officer, you were executing your official duties. I was trying to obey the law by staying 25 feet from you but you kept pursuing me!”

Guess I’ll cross New Orleans off my list of possible vacation destinations. Not a big fan of voluntarily entering police states.

scops ,

Bro, a real bro doesn’t ask these questions.

scops ,

I highly recommend one with a heated seat if you’ve got a reasonably accessible power outlet nearby. Just be aware that it will totally spoil you and make pooping away from home even less fun than it already is.

scops ,

I have an ex with the same name as one of my sisters. You do that once, and it gets confusing and awkward. Twice? People start coming to really odd conclusions.

scops ,

Because many of us remember before that, when Valve revolutionized the single player first person genre again and again with the Portal and mainline Half-Life games.

Any other dev would have capitalized on the massive interest in a sequel or at least sold off the property so someone else could have continued those franchises.

scops ,

…Irish car bombs have Bailey’s Irish Cream and possibly coffee liqueur in them. Many people would say that’s a pretty sweet drink.

You sure you’re not thinking of an Irish Boilermaker? That’s just a beer with Irish whiskey.

scops ,

As someone who has seen property values shoot up in my area even more than the average, it is such a relief to get out of the rental trap and start building equity. I know it’s more complicated than this, but knowing each mortgage payment gives me a little more claim over my property and more buying power if I ever need to sell it is such a good feeling.

I hope that we can get conditions to change so that more people can access home ownership if they want it.

Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says (www.cbsnews.com)

Kevin Roberts remembers when he could get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a drink from Five Guys for $10. But that was years ago. When the Virginia high school teacher recently visited the fast-food chain, the food alone without a beverage cost double that amount....

scops ,

After trying a few grocery store deli sandwiches, I will avoid fast food sandwich shops unless there’s simply nothing else available. The deli is there to get you in the store to spend money. They don’t have as much of a financial incentive to skimp on the ingredients. It wasn’t uncommon for me to get a sandwich so stuffed I couldn’t close it

scops ,

(First off, the last gen versions were a shit show and I fully believe CDPR should have bit the bullet and cancelled those preorders. That was a failure at the high levels, not with the devs. This is about the PC version:)

Hey yo, I’m one of those idiots that gave it a good review, and that was day one. Yeah, it had a bad launch, but I’d argue it was no worse than No Man’s Sky, or Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines, or The Witcher 3. All of the above are some of my favorite games of all time.

If you don’t like the core game, cool. Agree to disagree. But the things that people love about the game now have been in there since 1.0. Sure, there are genuine criticisms to be made, but most of the hate this game got has either been patched out or was pure bandwagon hate to begin with.

scops ,

On old gen consoles, yes. On PC, it was merely a rough launch, not the industry shattering event it was made out to be.

scops ,

As a gamer who has owned every Xbox from the OG to a Xbox One S, I just don’t understand Microsoft’s strategy for this generation. Vanishingly few console exclusives, and most of those shipped on PC, too. As someone with a decent PC and enough income to buy 2-3 consoles per gen, they just haven’t given me a reason to buy an Xbox Series console.

I know they hoped to sell Game Pass to PC only players, but without the lock-in of a console, there’s just no incentive to buy it over a PS Plus subscription and individually buying the exclusives I want on PC.

Now they’re burning bridges with players by closing down beloved developers, even if their last title was successful. I wonder what Ninja Theory devs are thinking with Hellblade 2 a couple weeks out.

scops ,

Been following the NYT live coverage for most of the day. The defense claimed that they did not object more because there was intense discussion before the jury was brought in for the day about what the prosecution could cover in Daniels’ testimony. The defense believed that the questions asked were following what the prosecution and judge had agreed upon and that their objections would not be received well.

It’s a flimsy justification, but that was their response during the mistrial discussion.

scops ,

Yeah, I haven’t been clean shaven since I could first pull off a beard. Last time I saw my naked face was 15 years ago.

That said, I have started to put more effort into my beard to try to keep up with trends. Growing it out, oiling it, shaping the edges. It’s fun, but I still find myself trimming it down after too long just to make it easier to manage.

scops ,

I’m going to claim the family PC as my first computer. It was a 486 running DOS and Windows 3.1. I got my first taste of Windows 95 when my dad bought my sister a new PC to take to college. I remember installing Jedi Knight on there then having to wait years for an upgrade to the family PC where I could load Windows XP and play newer games.

First phone was an old blue Nokia, possibly a 3310, looking at old pics. I called it a Blueberry to make fun of the flagships of the day. I got it at 16 when I got my license and was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to use it unless I was hopelessly lost or wrapped around a tree.

scops ,

All computers were beige… unless you were a smoker, then it was an ugly yellow-brown color after a few months

scops ,

I’m curious how the stats look for 76 vs the rest of the games. I was thinking about it this morning, and I still have no desire to play 76. I don’t want a multiplayer experience in my Fallout, and the fact that I’m not free to heavily mod the game because of that forced multiplayer experience just kills any interest I have in trying it solo.

Given the popularity of the show, I just feel like the chances of us seeing another Fallout game without an Always-Online requirement and the freedom to mod it (without paywalls or outright charging for mods) get slimmer every day. I’d be willing to put up with that decrepit engine for one more game if it meant we could get a good mod scene going for it.

scops ,

Yeah, I just set it up because I don’t want Meta’s shit on my phone and my friend group insists on using WhatsApp. I still had to install the native WhatsApp client but I was able to remove it as soon as I had confirmed the account creation. It also means I can stop giving out my cell number when I want to meet someone from Facebook Marketplace to buy something.

They advise against removing the apps on your phone, but at the least, you can turn off notifications for everything other than Beeper and use it as a single interface. On the desktop app, it makes a bit more sense. I’ve stopped running the Telegram, Signal, and Google Chat apps. I just wish Google Voice played nice with integrations and could be added to the platform.

scops ,

Do bans typically only affect the multiplayer portion of a game? I could see my nephew fucking around and finding out with one of my games. I never play competitive multiplayer, but if I got locked out of the game completely, I’d be pretty cross with him.

scops ,

I recently plugged my PC up to my TV so I could game on the couch. It works well, but I had some kinks to iron out. Big Picture Mode can play a bit of hell with multiple monitors, and I’ve sat down on the couch with a controller just to realize Steam wasn’t the app in focus and had to go back to work the mouse enough times that I’ve got a wireless keyboard with trackpad on order. I also wrote a Powershell script to switch audio and display settings and bound it to a keyboard macro on my G910.

I’m happy with it now, but Steam Big Picture Mode is not quite plug ‘n’ play yet.

scops ,

hackers only need a simple $169 hacking tool called Flipper Zero, a Raspberry Pi, or a laptop to pull it off.

At that point, why mention the Flipper Zero or RPi? Just say it can be done without specialized hardware. I feel like they’re trying to piggyback off of the buzz from the Flipper Zero being banned in Canada recently.

scops ,

Honestly, I was taught that you should not use a signal in a roundabout, especially when the exits are so tight it’s easy to get confused if someone turns it on too early. I see now though that it’s the law in my area when exiting and I’ll start using it. I’ll be in the minority here.

I’m still not going to enter a roundabout just because I see someone’s turn signal on. I never trust them when I’m the one merging into a lane.

scops ,

Unintentionally playing the housing market.

Using some first time home buyer incentives about a decade ago, I was able to buy a house on my own. I had to pay mortgage insurance, but it still wasn’t too bad. Cheaper than renting a two bedroom apartment. Five or six years later, my city keeps popping up on Most Affordable Cities lists and the real estate turns into a feeding frenzy.

When the market was at its peak, I listed my house for sale for about 70% more than I paid for it. I had an offer for it at 10k over asking and they’d buy the house sight-unseen within three days of it hitting the market.

Now, this was clearly a buyer’s market so you’d think selling was easy but buying would be a nightmare right? Well, you’d be right and it took 10 months of living with my parents and a shit ton of getting outbid on houses, but I was able to get into a slightly bigger house by putting half of the value down at closing for a house that was brand new, on a bigger lot of land and closer to my family, and I was able to pay off my car loan, resulting in lower monthly payments overall for a house much better suited to my lifestyle. Since moving in two years ago, it’s already appreciated another 15%, not that I’m moving out any time soon!

scops ,

This has been going on for at least five years now.

scops ,

The actors don’t look like they’re having fun. I commented in another thread that they seem to be attempting to make a Guardians of the Galaxy style movie, but chemistry between the actors and director were critical for those movies.

scops ,

It really looks like they wanted this made in the vein of a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I guess if you start with Borderlands and try to come up with an existing movie property that’s in the same ballpark, that kinda seems like a reasonable target?

Problem is, none of the actors look like they are having fun. I think this is going to land somewhere between the Suicide Squads, and not closer to the one you’d want it to.

scops ,

I remember mowing the lawn at home in the early 2000s when an Army recruiter pulled up and tried to get me to sign up. We lived in a cul-de-sac, so he was clearly there for me. I was 17 at the time.

The older I get, the more creeped out I am that they showed up unsolicited and talked to me without one of my parents present.

Broadcom-owned VMware kills the free version of ESXi virtualization software (arstechnica.com)

Since Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware closed in November 2023, Broadcom has been charging ahead with major changes to the company’s personnel and products. In December, Broadcom began laying off thousands of employees and stopped selling perpetually licensed versions of VMware products, pushing its customers...

scops ,

Well shit. ESXi was the best way to build a home lab when studying for the professional certifications I need.

scops ,

I haven’t worked with it before. The product is only supported on VMWare hypervisors, so no matter what, I’ll have to build on an unsupported setup, but I was leaning towards KVM for familiarity. I will make sure to check Proxmox out too though.

scops ,

Bro, we lost that fight. I was watching a Youtube video of a guy clearing games from his Steam backlog and introduced one with, “So, many of you watching probably weren’t alive when this game came out. Everyone talks about what a classic this is, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone who has actually played this game.”

I died a little inside when it turned out he was talking about the first Half-Life.

scops ,

I think it’s a textbook Your Mileage May Vary game (pun mildly intended if you’ve played it). You have to have the tolerance for Kojima running wild and doing his thing, and it only works if you are engaged in the core gameplay loop, but if both are true, it’s easily a 70+ hour game. The Director’s Cut was the second game I ever took the time to Platinum.

I don’t think this trailer will sell many new players on the experience if they weren’t down for the first one, but I’m excited to play the sequel. Seems like it’s going to land some real gut punches.

scops ,

There’s also an extended Gameplay Reveal on WoD’s Youtube Channel. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but the trailer hasn’t blown my mind. That dialog interaction looked so flat. Still, VtMB 1 had its own share of jank.

I’ll still reserve judgement until I can get my hands on it.

scops ,

On a hot day sitting in a parking lot, my Model 3 loses about 10% of its charge just cooling the battery. I am lucky to have the ability to charge at home so I don’t have to worry about it, but if I was living in an apartment, I’d have constant anxiety about it discharging and not being ready when I need it. It’s doable, but having to plan out an extra 20-30 minutes plus travel time to hit a charger, that’s a fairly significant change to routine.

That said, yes, more EV charging at gas stations please. It’s critical for road trips.

scops ,

Half? Bet that number is higher. Linux can run on a potato if you find the right distro.

Steam year in review 2023 is up, if you want to get disappointed in how much you bought and how little of it you played. 😛 (store.steampowered.com)

Personally, apparently 71% of my gaming time was spent on FFXIV. Although in my defense, most games I’ve played this year were on GOG or old free stuff from Epic I finally got around to.

scops ,

Remember that a huge number of Steam accounts exclusively play Free to Play games and spend no money at all. 6 of the Top 10 Most Played on Steam right now are F2P games and only one is from this year.

scops ,

I played the balls out of the Dead Rising series through the third game. Definitely check out 2 if you like the first one. Off the Record is a fun retread of the second game if you take a break before playing it. 3 was a bit poorer received at launch, but on an SSD, it’s still a damn fun game.

Never got around to the 4th game. It sounded pretty soulless from the reviews

scops ,

Going to second Midnight Suns. I’m a big XCOM fan, and while there were a lot of differences, it still scratched that same multi-genre itch.

I also played (in no specific order):

Hitman - World of Assassination - A whole hell of a lot of game in one package. Definitely the highlight of the series if it is your type of game.

Horizon Burning Shores - A worthwhile reason to go back to Horizon Forbidden West, though it was over sooner than I’d like. I’d feel better about the length if it was easier to miss the story, but anyone who goes from Forbidden West to the next game without playing Burning Shores might be caught off guard by the new character. (And I’mma be mad if they don’t bring back the new character!)

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut - Another YMMV game that will suck you in if you like good progression mechanics and don’t mind a slightly slower pace. And Hideo Kojima being Hideo Kojima.

Crisis Core - FFVII Reunion - You know the old school parenting style of making your kid smoke a pack of cigarettes so they want to wretch every time they catch a whiff of them? I accidentally did that to myself with JRPGs during the PS1 era. I thought maybe Crisis Core could coast by on nostalgia factor because I was able to enjoy FFVII Remake. Crisis Core was a big stinker though. The story hits every bad JRPG/anime trope you can think of (fucking Genesis… WOOF), and the quest design seems designed to embrace pointless backtracking and tedium.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty - I will argue until I’m blue in the face that while the PS4 and Xbox Series Whatever was a shitshow, the PC launch of CP2077 in 2020 was only a bit rocky. All the praises that people have been singing about the game since 2.0 and Phantom Liberty? They’re praising the same elements that have made the game great since Day 1. It’s just not sandwiched between T-poses and occasional CTDs any more. PC veterans who lived through rough launches of great games (like Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines or, hell, Witcher 3!) were right at home. The Phantom Liberty Expansion was a great excuse to revisit Night City and remember why I fell in love with the game three years ago.

Slay the Spire - Because I’m going to hit A20 and kill the Heart with Silent eventually, goddammit.

Baldur’s Gate 3 - Because best $50 I spent in 2020.

No Man’s Sky - I waited until this year to pick up NMS and this was another one that sucked me in for a solid couple months. Hello Games has sunk years into making this game a great bang for your buck if you like exploration and building.

scops ,

He will not be the first. Here is a good run down. Ironically, Ali isn’t even the first Luke Cage villain to get a second role. Alfre Woodard played the grieving mother who convinced Tony to kick off the events of Civil War.

Gemma Chan was arguably highest profile in terms of plot importance if you don’t count Agents of Shield and the Netflix shows… She played a named bad guy in Captain Marvel, then Sersi in Eternals. You’ve also Michelle Yeoh who played a Ravager in Guardians 2, and Shang Chi’s aunt. A bunch more had voice/CGI roles for their second appearance, like Linda Cardellini or Benedict Cumberbatch.

scops ,

Well, half-elf. But yeah, pointy ears are a bit more appealing than green skin and short noses or red skin and horns, I guess. People are boring.

scops ,

Why fuck yeah? Credit Unions aren’t banks. They are owned by the members who keep their money there. This isn’t, “Big bad corpo gets a black eye.” This is “People trying to have a bit more control over their money get fucked over once again.”

scops ,

Death Stranding Director’s Cut via PlayStation Plus membership. I had a healthy amount of skepticism about it at launch, but it got its hooks in me deep. I’ve got 80 hours so far and I’m planning to Platinum it before moving on.

It’s one of those games that will either bore you to tears or suck you in. Half of my gaming sessions are just spent building infrastructure. The game progression is on point.

scops ,

Here is the KnowYourMeme page. Note the Alternative/Minimalist Interpretations section.

scops ,

It’s 0 to 200 miles in 15 minutes in ideal conditions. Really good, but no reason to set unreasonable expectations.

In my experience, it’s closer to 45 minutes to go from 15-20% to 90% in my Model 3. The supercharger’s fastest charge is when the battery is less than half full. After that, it slows down to protect the life of the battery pack. If all you need is enough charge to get home to your own charger, it’s entirely possible that you can be in and out in 10-15 minutes.

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