You’re not alone. I recall getting sniped from every direction at some points, with very tough 1:1 battles and boss battles that just kinda “happen” out in the open.

Just automatically started uploading everything on my hard drive to an account I didn’t set up

Wait, what?

Real question here: has anyone else had luck side-stepping the Live365 signup during/after install? I’ve done this, and I’m very confused that more people haven’t.

Hate that my government is apparently dead set on all of us driving massive trucks and SUVs spending thousands to money lenders, auto manufacturers, and dealerships over realist vehicles.

Doubly so if those parties are campaign contributors. Always follow the money.

Exactly. And while we’re educating the forum here, Wikipedia has the details on the loophole that circumvents this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_show_loophole#Provenance

Sometimes referred to as the Brady bill loophole,[9] the Brady law loophole,[10] the gun law loophole,[11] or the private sale loophole,[12][13][14] the term refers to a perceived gap in laws that address what types of sales and transfers of firearms require records and or background checks, such as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.[15] Private parties are not legally required by federal law to: ask for identification, complete any forms, or keep any sales records, as long as the sale is not made in interstate commerce (across state lines) and does not fall under purview of the National Firearms Act. In addition to federal legislation, firearm laws vary by state.[16]

I am not a lawyer. I do not sell firearms.

The gist I get is that this opens up enough loopholes to permit unlicensed mules/fences on either side of the transaction. Depending on what political leanings and circumstances are in play, this legal framework might actually encourage that behavior.

To be fair, I think this is for gas engines and not jet engines. So big commercial airports, and the con chem trail generating traffic, are in the clear.

No, it’s just the smaller airports and tiny fields used for crop dusters. You know. The ones that are literally everywhere. :(

Wait, what?

lead in fuel that airplanes are still allowed to use

Oh shit.

So this is really more heeling than healing.

This goes especially for EVs. Wind resistance really chews up your power budget once you’re above 55mph or so. May as well run the heater with the windows down at that point.

Rules of the road:

1. Be predictable
2. Nobody else is predictable
3. Everyone is indifferent to your existence; you are merely a car to them
4. Your phone wants to kill you - leave it alone
5. The faster you go, the less of a difference 5mph makes - be safe, not fast
6. FFS maintain your damn car

Runner up is the assassin that seizes the traffic circle, instigating collisions behind them, just to let someone in out of turn. Only their MO is to delay or prevent a destiny altering meeting of some kind; an advanced tactic.

I found that the clowning/assholery in Seinfeld was just too close to plausible to clock as humor most of the time, while picking on small and petty things; it’s a little too real. I don’t think that comes from conceit, but rather, a generation gap and all the insensitivity that comes with it. Just add a little casual violence and it’s peak boomer-era humor. That said, Seinfield was its best when the stories were less believable and cruel.

The other shows you cite put these humor beats way over the top which is far more paletteable, IMO.

can also get a gun and blast these things before it gets out of hand

Honestly, I get the distinct impression that everything in the hunting section at your local Walmart is going to be woefully ineffective. May I recommend a defensive position with difficult to traverse stairs?

It’s even easier than that. Both of these genres have design features that require minimal balancing, making for an even faster dev cycle.

Roguelikes side-step the need for traditional game balance by providing meta progression and building inevitable-death-by-impossible-odds into the core game. For Roguelikes that actually have an ending, all the developer needs to do is provide enough meta progression perks to overcome the game’s peak difficulty, for even the worst of players. Everyone else gets bragging rights for beating the game faster than that. Either way, the lack of balance and “fairness” in the core design are features, not flaws.

Deck builders follow in Magic The Gathering’s footsteps: you never need to fully balance it. Ever. The random draw mechanisms, combined with a deep inventory of resource and item/creature/action cards, make it unlikely that a player gets an overpowered hand all the time. Pepper a few ridiculously overpowered cards in there, and it just feels more fun. Plus, if you keep the gravy train going with regular add-ons, the lack of balance is even further masked by all the possible choices. And yes, some player will min/max a deck at great personal expense and wipe the floor with their opponents because it was never fair in the first place, and doing so is a feature.

More like: it’s eventually going to break your weekend or even your whole week, but you don’t get to pick which one.

Edit: To put that in perspective, there are 260 working days in a year. Let’s say that you have just one of these hardware failures in a five-year career with the MTA. That’s roughly 1/1000 odds. If the lottery had chances like that, you’d play it every time.

My theory: the system they purchased was based on an older and proven design for railway automation and control. Add to that however said company/contractor was set up to support their customers (e.g. OS only ships on floppy). That said, I agree that ten years without so much as a drive upgrade is a bit long in the tooth for something that can kill people or become a logistic and/or political disaster if it malfunctions.

This is interesting. The longevity of this legacy tech may be secure if they use the right channels.

SoCal happens to have a very active retro-computing scene right now, much of which is in the bay area. If they can breathe life into an Apollo Guidance Computer, bog-standard floppy drives will be a piece of cake.

On the other hand, the same scene has modern emulation for just about every (popular) legacy media format imaginable. Upgrading the drives to use SD cards and USB thumbdrives is something they could buy off the shelf today: Apple II, C64, Tandy, misc. So there’s no reason to suffer through hardware failures when more reliable tech is available.

There are even commercial options out there. Example: https://www.shopfloorautomations.com/hardware/floppy-connect/

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk_hardware_emulator

So would many Americans. Check this out.

https://www.perceptions.eu/migration-in-and-from-america-current-statistics/

American emigration to Europe totalled [sic] 3,6 million people in 2005, and 5 million in 2019, whereas Americans emigrating to other countries counted 29,3 million people in 2005 and 40 million people in 2019.

There’s also the concept of “build to sell” instead of “build to last.” Longevity of a company is not a consideration when the vulture venture capitalists see a bigger return in pawning off their investment instead of reaping dividends. Sadly, this outlook isn’t always knowable by everyone in said company. In my experience, it’s usually impossible to tell unless the company is already in the red or is about to be.

I understand that the situation is not great and the stakes are very, very real.

At the same time it’s kind of amazing how this whole affair has this “improvised tube-sock & axle-grease sticky bomb” perseverance to it.