Oh No! Anyway…

Once again, this is an opinion piece that (willfully?) misrepresents several arguments and mixes and matches them throughout. First of all, the problem of software you purchased being deactivated remotely didn’t exist in the first place. The problem was introduced with the (sometimes forced) reliance on online infrastructure. Second of all, service agreements for software are fine and very common for different sectors. These usually contain specifics about how long support will continue and even often include exit options for when the time comes to migrate. Putting video games on the same footing as most business software is also fine.

It must have been a terrible experience serving on one of these. The death rates were also very high.

I know. It still feels odd to me as a Dutchman though to know that there’s dozens of gun related crimes going on all the time.

That’s true. I used to travel to Saint Louis quite regularly for work about ten years ago. It always seemed fine, at least on the surface.

Still, even the safest US states would rank among the most dangerous EU countries in terms of gun violence and gun related homicides.

I absolutely cannot stand the kind of people who answer a brief and simple yes or no question with a wall of text or a two minute voice note. If it’s that complicated, because your pet chihuahua just had a stroke and you then fell in love head over heels with the veterinarian and that you’re currently at the airport to fly away for your spontaneous honeymoon, just say no and tell me about the details in person.

Thank you for this great answer! It’s something I intuitively felt but couldn’t put my finger on with the same surgical precision you just did.

Anyone who doesn’t have children is breaking a million year old family tradition. I regard it as willfully dying out.

While asking an LLM can yield results, it may just as well kill your OS entirely. Consulting old forum posts or engaging with a supposedly snobbish in-group also has issues. I see your point.

However, I believe the key drivers that make Linux more accessible for average users are the increasingly stable nature of out of the box style solutions like Mint, an ongoing trend to make applications browser based and therefore much easier to use across platforms and, finally, a real push by valve to finally break the gaming barrier.

The current situation is a lose-lose for both sides. The options that I can see are either an agreement for donation based payment with support from the publisher or CDPR just “buying”/“hiring” the mod and the support behind it. Other than that I don’t see any way that a precedent for a commercial product based on a game mod works.

I always thought that India uses both Bharat and India with English still an official language. Has the current government made the switch to only using Bharat?

There’s many such examples, just off the top of my head: Hungary, Finland, Greece, Georgia, Egypt and Japan.

Oman is an impressive country. Although it is most definitely not an island, it almost feels like one. Historically Oman was surrounded by an inhospitable desert and therefore looked outward at the sea. Omani influence can still be seen all over the coast of eastern Africa.

Back when I lived on Bickers Eiland it was really awesome to see all of these boats and ships pass by my back window. I really miss living in my home city every once in a while.

Speak for yourself, person who doesn’t require glasses.

What the fox? Great picture by the way!

The weirdest combination I’ve ever met was a set of female twins. One was named after their mother. The other had a different first name. Must have been really odd when growing up.

Exactly. Above all real world combat experience cannot be trained. Nobody can predict how you react when under fire, at least that was my impression in Charikar province, Afghanistan in ca. 2004. Knowing the basics will definitely be helpful though.

He’s right, you know. If you own an AR you shouldn’t slack on practice. Go to the gun range regularly. Train how to clean and maintain it. You may one day be facing people who are well trained.