So it was torn down around 2009/2010?

Why is Crypto.com listed as a Republican donor but Coinbase is a special interest donor? Is Crypto.com only donating to Republicans but Coinbase is donating to both parties?

MicroSD cards

I didn’t know King was a Microsoft subsidiary. Kinda weird for Microsoft to own Candy Crush

Maybe Pierce would’ve done it for marketing class and said something misogynistic about making the Asian woman thinner

Stuff survives reentry all the time. A lot of times things will be targeted to an area of the South Pacific known as the “spacecraft cemetery” because it’s the most distant point in any ocean from any land. Of course, a lot more stuff has an uncontrolled reentry and just lands wherever. As we launch more spacecraft and more people have smartphones and social media we’ll probably see more examples of space debris landing around the world.

No, they recovered the bodies. IIRC the postmortems showed they were all dead before the ship broke up. It seemed it happened so fast they weren’t all fully in their suits; one person didn’t even have his helmet on. I’ve never been able to find if this was that unworn helmet or it was ripped off somebody, but I also haven’t looked that hard.

They already have authorized resellers, who they link to on their website. This problem would only come from unauthorized resellers, who would not qualify for warranty service. It might not help software support requests, but I don’t know how much support they offer for software since I don’t think they’re supplied with any. Anything hardware they should be asking for a receipt from an authorized reseller, and if the customer can’t provide it then it’s not covered by the warranty. And even if the customer can provide a receipt from an authorized reseller in their name, if it comes in for repair and has the wrong RAM then it’s not a warranty repair anyway (although I’m guessing for something this inexpensive they don’t repair individual units, they probably just send a replacement, so the counterfeit parts might not get noticed).

I appreciate the implication that hamsters are constantly spewing profanities in their language

Didn’t know about that, although it makes sense. That does complicate things!

That’s a good point, there are still a lot of those information/alert radios around and they’re basically all a low powered AM station. That could be important for people driving by and not having that option reduces safety. I have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-off. It’s probably not something that gets used often, but when it’s needed you want people to have it.

I guess the crosspost I commented on was deleted. Anyway, about the missing game I’m hoping to find, I haven’t found it yet, but if I ever do I’ll be trying to find appropriate places to post it. Maybe I’ll be able to find the original developers, too.

So not construction workers? No reason for them to be inside a giant pipe while it’s being moved by a crane other than the photo op?

This reminds me of a lost game—two, actually—that I’ve been searching for off-and-on over the years. I can find no trace of them online, but still have hope that I might pull them off an old hard drive at some point. It was a little free multiplayer LAN game written in Java called Tank Killen, and the sequel Tank Killen 2. I think it was written by a couple Swedish guys and the website seemed to be just one of the guy’s web hosting shares from his ISP.

It was a top-down game where you would drive around a map with your tank and shoot at the other players’ tanks. There were various power-ups scattered around the board. Both games were similar but the sequel was visually better and had some improved power-ups like a guided missile you could fly around the map.

I actually got the sequel early because with the first game somewhere there was a note offering to send a level editor to anyone who was interested. I asked but they offered to send me the sequel they were working on instead because the level editor for the first game was very difficult to use. On the sequel it was fairly straightforward and I actually added a level into the copies I had and shared.

My brother and I played a little at home but it wasn’t as fun with just two people. It was much better at school with up to 8 players; that’s where I played the first version. There were computers networked all over the school (unusual around the year 2000), and for a while playing games was allowed after school in a designated classroom. I don’t know who introduced the first version, but I introduced the sequel. I think by that point games weren’t allowed anymore but IT never removed the files or blocked the network traffic. The game and the subsequent detentions might be my legacy at the school, probably even for a few years after graduating.

I’m sorry about your house and the insurance company sucking. Is there any way to appeal?

The use of generative AI in NHL 27 was first reported by ESPN sportscaster John Buccigross, who also serves as the play-by-play man for EA’s NHL series. “They’re using some AI stuff now,” he said on the Chirping Zebras Podcast last week (via IGN). “They played me some stuff back in my voice. It’s like, wow, that’s pretty good. If it means less work and the same check, I’ll take it.”

[…]

something else Buccigross related about the process: The AI is sometimes off.

“They were playing me back some of my AI voice, and they’re playing it like, ‘Score! And the crowd gets out of their chairs!’” he said. “I was like, no, they’re not chairs. I know, AI, they look like a chair, but we call them seats. Little things like that, you gotta go back and listen because those words matter in sports.”

So they’re not just having the AI mimic his voice, but even create the dialog? That sounds really lazy

Just the babies? No parents?

I’ve had those mutual jump scares with deer a few times in my life

Xbox was actively angering large swathes of the gaming community. All Sony had to do was sit back and let them implode. Instead they’re trying to outdo Microsoft.