I've been hearing rumors about the next Xbox functioning more like a PC. I don't know if that's wishful thinking bullshit or what but it could be a clever way to shoehorn Windows back into some people's lives that would otherwise switch to Linux at least for non-gaming purposes. There's lots of people out there who use a cheap PC to do PC stuff, and game mostly on console.

It's not difficult to back up all the pieces and parts of a game installed in Steam on Linux. If it's a Linux game then everything will be contained within some Steam data directory, except probably your save files. If it's a Windows game, everything is absolutely in a small number of well-understood directories, including the runtime. Better yet, most of those are happy to run without Steam, except of course for notable examples which use it for something.

None of this is meant to crap on offline installers, which are great. If I can get the same game for around the same price on GOG or Steam, I choose GOG.

Recent US Census map data is fairly decent. OSM is generally quite good here now also. But I do think there are certain classes of road which are generally only updated occasionally at the federal level if municipalities do not self-report changes.

Sorry, but a sawtooth wave is full of singularities, not that we can generate a true sawtooth wave, but singularity doesn't tell us we don't know what's going on. You need a larger context to know if and what it means. IIUC Hawking believed that the black hole singularity would never actually be reached, even on an internal frame of reference...that uncertainty would prevent that from happening. A singularity just means that the projection you're making stops working. If we're talking about the space-time of a black hole, I think this means we can't predict what happens, but I wouldn't bet against Hawking.

IIUC, it doesn't actually have a singularity, it will just eventually have one after an infinite amount of time (as measured from outside). And when the singularity happens the laws of physics break down...so nobody know what it looks like from the inside. But the precursors to the appearance of the singularity are such that there won't be any observers, even in the Quantum Mechanics sense of observer.

Dark energy isn't a theory, it's just a name. A name for "something with these particular properties". My quibble is that those properties don't seem reasonable. We can't measure the expansion of the universe with one number if it's not expanding the same rate everywhere, and it shouldn't be. Also the measured rate of expansion is ... well, it has pretty large error bars, because our ways of judging distance aren't that precise. And don't always agree. And our ways of measuring expansion depend on sparse measurements...which is fine for a uniform surface, but that doesn't describe the universe. Remember that the rate at which time flows should vary with the density of the matter in the area.

If it did, I'd guess Aristarchus didn't account for Jupiter's effects.

FWIW, epicycles can match Newton's math for accurate predictions, it just gets a lot more complicated. And isn't as theoretically elegant. (I'm not sure it couldn't be made to handle the deviation of Mercury's orbit. It's quite good at ad hoc adjustments.)

If their IT security was this halfassed, then their physical security probably was too. They could have solved the IT security problem by hiring someone competent to do an audit, and then follow their recommendations. They obviously skipped at least one of those steps. That kind of sloppiness doesn't occur in just one area, it has to be systematic.

Yeah, but what is the certainty? I'd ask for error bars, but that doesn't directly apply to a theory.

There is, indeed, evidence that the universe used to be expanding quite rapdily, but "inflaton" particles feel quite ad hoc, and thus not to be trusted. And while the expansion theory is consistent will all the evidence, I'm not sure what the error bars are on a lot of those measurements. Perhaps it tends to expand sinusoidally, or even at random times and places...how would you test? Different groups using different measures have come up with different answers as to the rate/consistency of the expansion. This makes me feel that any strong belief in any explanation is probably at best premature.

In fact, I believe that any universal rate of expansion is incompatible with general relativity. Not only would it need to vary with the density of the matter locally, but it seems to require a universal frame of reference.

Google used to tell me to drive up someone's driveway and take a bridge that didn't exist in Kelseyville CA. What's frustrating about this is that one of their street view cars had passed by that driveway, so they had enough information to know that it wasn't a valid route, but they didn't bother to process it in that way and kept recommending a route that didn't exist and which would have saved maybe one minute if it had.

Google spent a lot of money gathering the data it needs to dramatically improve their routing information, but doesn't bother to do so.

Lithium batteries are extremely recyclable.

Of what?

What about your missing words?

???

You need an editor even more than Slashdot.

I only use Steam (The software, as opposed to the store, which can be used through the web) because I'm forced to do so. I'd rather not. While it's possibly the least crap of the game store apps, it's still crap. It shouldn't even have a browser in it. It should be calling out to your browser. AFAICT the Steam updates still don't resume if the download is interrupted, which is weird AF to say the least. This isn't a problem on a healthy modern connection but if your connection is flaky then you can't even get Steam installed, or updated. Game downloads resume so once you get it installed you can do game updates over even a poor connection, but not a Steam update.

I buy games on Steam and then do all this stuff to make them work better on Linux. But I also buy games on GOG. And I have games on Epic and EA too, and Lutris does all those too.

I initially got ProtonUp-Qt specifically for use with Steam, because it is the best (easiest) way to install steamtinkerlaunch.

I approve of this campaign, which I'm just now hearing about. I have complained about their intentions regarding side loading here previously. I am frankly boggling about it, as it is really the most meaningful difference between the platforms.

Steam is definitely not literally a monopoly. Most people don't seem to know either of the most important things about monopolies, which is 1) what one is and 2) that it's not necessarily relevant whether they are, because antitrust doesn't require a monopoly. It only means you're abusing a somehow dominant position in a market.

With that said, I've been using Steam for a lot of years. I've had many technical problems with it, but I'm not aware of any way in which they are abusing their position. I haven't exactly been looking for this information either, though, and I do see that the article mentions a lawsuit I seem to remember something about.

I think 30% is a lot, but I don't think Steam is really doing anything to prevent anyone from releasing anything else anywhere. They also allow a whole lot of content that is frankly surprising for a mainstream game site, they are ultra-liberal about permitting whatever and I think that's pretty amazing. I do worry about the whole thing packing up one day, but that's a whole other discussion. Are there really any complaints about Valve that have legs?