cerebralhawks

@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Consumers sue Amazon for not refunding Trump tariff costs⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  They will probably lose, and they should.

  The problem with the class-action lawsuit is, only those who led the class will be “made whole”, as it were; the rest will get table scraps. That’s not justice, except for the lawyers, who are the real winners.

  Legally speaking, Amazon paid the tariffs to import those goods and sold them for cost plus a fee they determined on their own. They don’t owe the customer shit.

  The best thing the government could have done is cut every American a check for their share of the tariffs. The best thing Amazon (and others like them) can do is, use the money to improve their infrastructure and/or to lower the prices of other products. Paying 2-3 people what they’re rightly owed (if anything), lawyers millions, and hundreds of thousands of others a buck or two isn’t right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI chatbots could be making you stupider⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t that what they said about the automatic transmission, calculators, typewriters, and who knows how many other things they themselves use while shaming you for doing the same?

  I wonder why…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Gen X and the only streaming service I pay for is Apple TV (as part of my Apple One family plan), because Severance, Silo, and Foundation are awesome and they have the highest quality:filler ratio of any streaming service. Used to be the best value, too. Now it’s at least close.

  And I don’t buy video games at full price. EA wants $60 for the Mass Effect Legendary trilogy (the first three games with all the DLC except one they lost the source code to), but it goes on sale for $6 all the time and that’s what I paid. The first game is the worst of the four, but it sets up the trilogy and a lot of choices from it affect the other two (the fourth doesn’t care about anything you do in the trilogy, but IIRC it asks if you played a guy or a girl and then never references the choice). Oh, I got the fourth one for $4 because I opted for deluxe, the base was $3. Joke’s on me, Deluxe includes online content and the servers were shut down years ago. Still not mad, for $4 I still got like 20-30 hours out of it.

  If you like Betheslop games, those go on sale for $10 or less all the time (at least Skyrim and Fallout 4, anything after sucked ass and I don’t think Starfield even goes on sale). The better ones (Oblivion and Fallout 3) go on sale for $5 or less quite often, and that’s with all their DLC.

  Mostly I play Xbox 360 games on my Xbox Series X. I still think the graphics were good then, and IMO the games are better. More story, less slop. Oblivion started the DLC craze in 2006 with the Horse Armour, and Mass Effect 3 started the loot crate craze in 2012 (advantage to the Legendary Edition version of ME3, all that shit’s stripped out). Anything before then is going to be a lot better, because it was more about entertaining you and less about fleecing you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Everyone’s Picking Up a PSP Again in 2026⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Because they’re easily moddable and have a decent screen size?

  I recently modded my wife’s old 3DS XL, and that’s all well and good, but the screen sucks and I found out my MacBook can play 3DS games perfectly (via emulation) so now I’ve been dumping my carts through the 3DS (which also decrypts them) and just running them on the computer. Funny thing about Animal Crossing in particular, those games will generally ramp up to whatever hardware you have. Why they do this I have no idea since Nintendo hardware is so underpowered. But I have Animal Crossing New Leaf running in 4K (albeit in 4:3 or whatever the top screen was) and it looks almost as good as the Switch version (New Horizons). It’s insane how good this old 3DS game from 10-15 years ago looks today on modern hardware. The Switch couldn’t make New Leaf look this good if it wanted to. Maybe the Switch 2 could?

  Interested to see if I can push City Folk (the DS version) or Wild World (the Wii version) this far.

  But yeah, PSP is known to be an emulation beast. The problem was always the UMD drive, it drank battery like a frat guy drinks lite beer from a keg. But a modded PSP doesn’t need the UMD drive at all; it loads everything from the memory card. Including ISOs of UMD games. So the battery life goes way up, since the battery was intended to support the UMD drive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pollsters are now asking AIs to answer surveys as if they were humans and passing the results off as poll statistics⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They weren’t asking you before. What’s the difference?

  Before, you assumed they were asking someone like you, that your opinion was being echoed by someone else. Now, you’re hoping the AI is speaking for you.

  The web has the technology to ask most people. So why don’t they?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It More Expensive and Harder to Archive the Internet⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ever wonder if that’s the idea?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Notepad++ Creator Calls Out 'Fake' Mac App Over Trademark Violation⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Shame on that other site for implying the Notepad++ dev can code a text editor for macOS!

  Is it really that lucrative being exclusive to Microsoft?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says that while there are legit types of AI content on the platform, the company is considering Face ID and other passkey verification methods to ensure there's human behind⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, and that hive mind is often accused of being leftist and progressive, but often seems to serve the imperialists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says that while there are legit types of AI content on the platform, the company is considering Face ID and other passkey verification methods to ensure there's human behind⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Guy also probably diddles kids and/or enjoys watching others do so, so I’m not sure we can trust what he says. They not like us.

  (I say that as someone who was banned from Reddit for suggesting child predators face stricter sentencing. Banned for hate speech. Figured it was a bot so I appealed, ban was upheld by a human, or so they said.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft patents system for AI helpers to finish games for you⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I get it. Hard games are having a moment. But rather than some kind of autoplay, how about some kind of built in cheat system?

  I’d rather gaming be accessible to everybody. I’m fine with some games being too hard for me, just so long as I know what they are in advance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And then Ars Technica used an AI to write an article about it, and then this Scott guy came in and corrected them, people called them out… and they deleted the article. I saw the comments before they deleted it. It wasn’t pretty. So this is where we are now on the timeline. AI writing hit pieces and articles about doing so.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course, this only applies to home users, not Pro/Corporate users… right?

  Right?

  /s if it’s not immediately obvious. In Windows 10, BitLocker required Pro. I’m not actually sure that is the case in 11, but I would assume so. Corporations almost always turn it on, the idea being if their computer is stolen, their data is not. Maybe the drive can be wiped, but the data could not be stolen. At least, that is the idea.

  Meta makes computers? You mean the Meta Quest VR headsets?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft CEO Begs Users to Stop Calling AI Content "Slop"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Right, the vast majority by volume.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Doom can now run as your Windows screen saver⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So it’s the maze screensaver from Windows 95 but with gore and violence? I always liked that screensaver. Wished it did more. Moved less predictably. The idea of a game being autoplayed seems like it should work, but there are a lot of games I’d pick over Doom. Zelda 3, for one. Myst comes to mind. Throwing it way back, Mind Walker for the Amiga.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What old or new game got you hooked in 2025? Happy New Year Everyone.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mass Effect — the Shepard trilogy. (I also bought Andromeda, but it’s gotta get in line.) So first off, Mass Effect Legendary Edition (the Shepard trilogy, remastered, plus most of the DLC) is on sale for $6 on Xbox. It was on sale for that a few months ago, when I bought it. Frequent sales tell me it probably goes on sale on PlayStation and PC as well. I paid $4 for the deluxe version of Andromeda — the base version was $3. That sale goes for about another week on Xbox, but check your store of choice if you’re interested.

  I started Mass Effect a couple times, and both times, I got my ass handed to me and I quit. The first time, I wound up on a space station and I could not get past the pirates who took it over. The second time, I couldn’t get past the lava planet (where you pick up best girl). It was frustrating because I had no problem with Eden Prime (the training mission) or the various side quests on the Citadel (which do include some combat). I got the Legendary Edition at such a good price, I decided when I got done with my fifth Cyberpunk run (and first with Phantom Liberty) I’d start it. Not only did I damn near 100% the first one, I rolled through the trilogy. I didn’t get the ending I wanted, but I was happy with the ending I got. I see why everyone was so upset. After like half an hour of exposition, they give you three choices, but they give you these three unmarked paths. And I guess you’re supposed to pause it and Google it? But I just took the path on the right and watched the cut scene.

  Of course what stands out most about Mass Effect is, it’s like this cross between Star Trek and Star Wars (the same people made Knights of the Old Republic, the best Star Wars game, so that tracks), but when you get done with the first one, you import your save into the second one, and it remembers a lot of your choices. Choices you make in the first one carry through to the second and third ones, and the third one will refer back to choices you made in the first two. You could start either of the latter two with randomised choices, but it’s cool when someone mentions something you said or did that long ago. There are even a couple of things you can do in the third one if you set up very specific things in the first two. Like brokering a peace between two races. I thought I did right by everyone, but my choice was to kill one friend, or let another one jump off a cliff. That was what I got for trying for peace without doing everything 100% right. So I had to choose. But some people follow a guide and get that extra special outcome. (I’ve looked at it and I can’t figure out what I missed, but whatever.)

  You can’t save everyone. Despite all your best efforts, a few of your longtime companions have to die in the third one. Even in the first one, there’s a scene toward the end where you send one of your crew one way, and the other one with you, the other way. At the end of the quest, you can only save one. And it keeps coming up in the second and third ones.

  Oh, and it’s an old game. 2007, 2008, and 2010? Something like that. They all came out on the Xbox 360. I played them all on the Xbox Series X. On original hardware, they were known for their long elevator scenes, and whichever two characters you had with you would banter, and sometimes bicker, until they exhausted all their lines. (Garrus and Wrex are always the best to have with you.)

  I wouldn’t say it’s a masterpiece… but it’s pretty damn close. I know it’s gonna stick with me for a while. So I also bought the original, for $5. I wanna try it again because that’s the one that stumped me twice. So I’m hoping third time is the charm. 2 and 3 aren’t available on Xbox digitally for some reason, so I’ll be looking for used copies of those. I wanna go back and do it again but on the original versions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Riot Games is making an anti-cheat change that could be rough on older PCs⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t give BIOS/rootkit access to a game I like. I’ll just play it on Xbox.

  I feel like Riot is doing gamers a favour here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is collecting troves of data from downgraded Nest thermostats⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, anything made by Google collects “troves of data.” That’s their whole business model. It’s what we all agreed to in 2004 when Gmail started rolling out. Our privacy for 1GB of email storage (at the time; it’s gotten a little more). And we were fine with it then. And we were fine with it when Google made (bought, but whatever) an operating system and did the same thing. And it’s been that way for decades.

  You know what you’re getting with Google. Let’s not pretend Google isn’t collecting data from one of its platforms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has bad branding ever turned you off from software, FOSS or not?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Funny, I don’t even use The GIMP, and I think of it as “The GNU Image Manipulation Program” before I think of the BDSM meaning (or the handicap slur).

  I’m weird. And probably the exception.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft's decision to axe Windows 10 is driving Apple PC sales growth — users buy Macs instead of AI PCs despite Microsoft’s push for Copilot+ PCs⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s really no good reason to buy a new laptop that isn’t a MacBook. If you’re gaming on a laptop you have no real good options. None of them are real portable laptops, they’re desktop replacements and they’re just worse than a desktop in every way and cost more. Unless you’re streaming (e.g. GeForce Now) and then you can do that on a MacBook. I don’t think Macs lead laptops in affordability, but the value is there — they last for years, and they last a long time on a charge. And hey, I can run Cyberpunk on mine, so that’s neat.

  For a desktop, it’s a bit dicier. It’s hard to argue with the M4 Mac mini at $500, with 16GB RAM, but I think you can do a little better with miniature PCs. I don’t think $500 of PC beats the M4 Mac mini though, I’m just saying you can get one cheaper. Like there are mini PCs on Amazon for like $200-300 that look decent for most of what the Mac mini does. They do tend to come with Windows, but you can easily put Linux on it and then I can’t say anything about Windows and its bullshit.

  Honestly, if you’re not a gamer, consider a Mac. It’s nice over here. Just go to an Apple Store and play with one. They’ll let you. Best Buy has them too. And if someone does come up, don’t worry, they aren’t pushy, I don’t think they get commissions, or at least they don’t act like they do. Feel free to tell them what you want out of a computer. See what they have to offer. I just think it’s a cleaner OS, and as someone who has 30+ years of Windows experience, I’ve been a Mac user a little over 2 years, and I took right to it, and I love it. It really is joyous to use. But they’re more for creative types, and not really for gamers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨(Spoiler Thread) Your top 10 video game protagonist deaths⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The first three, so much.

  Also, I’m gesturing wildly and vaguely at the whole Life is Strange series. The one death in the first one I’m thinking of is just part of it. I feel like the whole thing is heart wrenchingly sad.

  Oh yeah. Johnny Silverhand. And in case you missed it, most of his memories are false. Morgan Blackhand did most of what Johnny is known for. And a couple of his friends sold him out. He wasn’t really killed per se, his mind was trapped in a digital hell and then he woke up in a crazy chick’s head who wanted him out and that’s basically the game. You play the chick. Johnny starts out as the bad guy but by the end you’re rolling to die for him. Because he’s basically Keanu Reeves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Snapchat allows drug dealers to operate openly on platform, finds Danish study⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wait until they learn what the platform was designed for