Generally speaking, populations keep their heads down and try to avoid change or effort so long as they have a choice.

The few in position to force a direction on the mob are usually short-sighted and selfish.

In other words, it seems likely nothing's going to happen until people are ready to riot. As long as we're comfortable enough, it's status quo even as the 1% gather more wealth and the environment becomes more hostile.

Prior to Broadcom, I had no hesitation recommending VMWare, either ESXi or Player. The current trajectory for the product line would make choosing it a stupid decision now.

Given that everything to date looked like the new model was squeezing the locked-in customers for everything until the business finally collapsed, I will admit to not understanding this move, even if it is just PR bullshit.

VMWare is a zombie product, nobody with any brains is going to hold on longer than they have to.

Definitely not my kind of thing, but at least they're paying to see people perform at a level most people can never hope to approach.

D&D though? Maybe you don't have what it takes to be a DM, but anyone who can communicate can be a player.

Electric is now better than hydraulic, and humanoid robots are a decent form because they can use any tool designed for humans wherever humans would use it.

We've designed the world with places we go and tools we use there.

Naw, the robot is primitive by current standards and they'd have to start over and play catch-up. 10 years might as well be a century. It is entirely plausible they decided it wasn't a good direction for them any longer.

It's code for "censorship". Because if you don't, people will make videos you don't like.

My only sympathy for that position lies in the fact that once those uses have happened, it'll be the company that allowed the download that gets hassled, rather than the individual who created and published something objectionable with it.

For instance, look at Hallmark movies. They could all be original, but they're so formulaic they may as well not be.

The real problem is that it can be difficult to draw a sharp line between what is original and what isn't. I tend to see it as nothing is, or has been for a long, long time. Basic story elements don't change, and the details mostly exist to get you to miss the fact you've already seen the plot or character a million times before.

Climate change has taught us all what external costs are.... Someone else's problem.

This same issue is why botnets of all varieties exist. If you're not paying for the hardware, power, or bandwidth, as far as you are concerned they are free.

We got into this position because people like you didn't want to be inconvenienced. We knew about the greenhouse effect of CO2 released by fossil fuel burning almost as soon as we started doing it at significant scale.

We know what the excess heat will do and we're already seeing it. We know what removing it will do, too. But you keep on saying we don't know because it means you don't have to do anything, and that's easier. Except for future generations, you're fucking them, hard.

It's not the ticket price; it's the idea of paying to watch other people play D&D.

To enjoy someone else's game you listen to it being retold after the fact, which takes out hours of game mechanics and leaves you with the entertaining stories.

It's a social game, cooperative storytelling... and people are paying to sit passively in an audience and watch professionals pretend to have fun at it. Just sad.

You think by 'mouth stuff' I meant kissing? Maybe you thought 'hand stuff' meant a friendly handshake?

You'd think, but an experienced lock picker can get through pretty much anything - especially the locks you see advertised as 'unpickable'.

Locks don't stop people, they keep out the casual / opportunistic people and slightly inconvenience the serious ones. Which doesn't mean they're not worth having... but you do have to think about just how much they do when thinking about throwing more money at them.

Hellgate: London?
This is not a new concept (and yes, I know about the "re-release")

Look at it this way - you own the game, but most of it required a server that you did not buy.

It should be illegal to have a single player game require an Internet connection, and it should be a requirement of discontinuing server support to release a free private server and a final game update allowing connection to arbitrary servers. In fact, the required code should exist in escrow from the very first sale.