Once per device you will need to wait 24 hours before installing unauthorized apps. That’s all the new restrictions do. It will basically not affect power users at all.

For scammers, the 24 hour waiting period completely breaks their scams. They won’t be able to trick people into installing malware if they have to call back to resume the scam the next day. Google said that was their goal and their new solution actually does this without impeding power users.

Google found the balance that we were asking them for, yet people won’t stop complaining and even lying about it in posts like this. Maybe that energy is why the users won this time, but either way, take that energy and fight any of the thousands of real fights.

Th gb Mega Man games got colorized DX releases for the gbc, and they look and play great.

"Microsoft applied a data-driven approach to find out which features to add now, which features to add later, and which to completely avoid.

Unfortunately, for the enthusiasts who had a left-aligned or vertical taskbar in Windows 10, you would have to settle for the fact that Microsoft’s data shows such users are really small when compared to the number of users who are asking for other newer features in the taskbar."

100% of the users that are smart enough to care about moving the task bar are also smart enough to turn off all optional telemetry. This sadly a part of why tech companies are making products for the dumbest people and pushing away power users.

It’s an accounting thing. They can deduct the value of the hardware over its expected usable lifespan. So they have to replace it after 4-6 years even if it’s still working fine. Sometimes they sell it used, and you can buy it pretty cheap, but dollar for dollar, consumer grade stuff that’s current will usually consume less power and game better than a 6 year old server. Now if you need a home NAS or VM host…

Trump also changed the depreciation law as part of the BBB, so I think companies pay less tax by buying this year. https://www.bdo.com/insights/tax/one-big-beautiful-bill-act-expands-100-depreciation-expensing-opportunities

When the truth is paywalled and lies are not, is it any wonder how our democracy turned out this way?

Soul Calibur 3 has a campaign mode that’s really good. It’s single player, but my roommate and I played it co-op by each making our own characters, choosing their movements, and then playing the fights for our characters.

Champions of Norrath 1&2 were made by the same devs, but in the EverQuest universe instead of D&D and are worth checking out too.

Baulder’s Gate Dark Alliance 1&2

Edit: For a different vibe, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe is a lot of multiplayer fun too

ChatGPT is quite good and it’s not in my face at all, it’s just in a bookmark I access when I need it.

Copilot is hot garbage, and it’s plastered all over Windows, Edge, and Office.

I haven’t tried the Samsung AI, but it won’t let me forget it’s there.

OP absolutely has a point. The more in your face the AI is, the more garbage it is.

Do it from their website (settings then account)so that you can fill out the exit survey and tell them why.

Custom Android ROMs based on AOSP, which is the open source parts of Android. I used to use LineageOS back in the day.

Before buying a phone, make sure that it has an unlockable bootloader and a custom ROM of a recent Android version. Note that some phones have multiple versions for different regions and some might not be unlockable, while others are. For example many Samsung international phones are unlockable, but none of the USA models are.

Note that many commercial apps like Netflix, Pokémon Go, bank apps, etc. will refuse to run if your bootloader is unlocked. It also permanently trips Samsung’s Knox.

How? Having an unlocked bootloader or root breaks Safety Net, which disables many apps. You need an unlocked bootloader to install custom ROMs.

Magisck used to be a workaround, but Google has been sabotaging it at the OS and hardware layers, so it wasn’t working the last time I tried a few years ago.

Once updates end in October, Windows 10 won’t be secure and probably shouldn’t be allowed to connect to the internet. It will still continue to function though. You can buy a year of extended support for Windows 10 for $30, but it’s unclear whether there will be support after that.

Probably best to start switching to something else, or plan to run that PC offline.

Asus ZenFone 8

And they will purchase their next phone sooner if the battery on their old phones die early.

Check which codecs your phone supports and buy a Bluetooth dongle that supports an HD audio codec. LDAC and APT-X HD are almost indistinguishable from an aux cable.

But yes, even those codecs max out at a pathetic 900kbs, and only have a few feet of range at that quality/speed.

It basically only protects against hardware failure. It’s not going to protect you from ransomware or even just accidentally clicking delete.

Capcom just started adding game breaking DRM to their archive of old single player Steam games because an exec got butthurt over a nude mod for Street Fighter. Now Steam Deck support is broken and my mods don’t work with games I purchased years ago. The pirated version is now better once again.

At almost the exact same time, Valve sent a DMCA notice to Portal64 because for some reason they care about people playing a homebrew port of a $2 15 year old game on 30 year old hardware.

I used to think Capcom and Valve were two of the last good ones. Turns out there aren’t any good ones…

They spent $350 million making Secret Invasion, which was a bad show in every way. They have no control over their costs, yet they squeeze everyone as hard as they can.

You can get USB micro to USB-C adaptors for about 1 to $2 each. That lets you use a single cable to charge both types of devices, which is the best of both worlds.