The "once installed" is the rub. If you don't have Steam installed on your machine already, you can't play any Steam games. You can't install Steam without an internet connection. You can't install a Steam "Backup" without Steam installed, and if the game has Steam DRM, you won't be able to play it until it's phoned home once. So basically, all your Steam "Backups" are "worthless" if you want to do a fresh install when your internet connection is down, or after the eventual and inevitable demise of Steam.

I "have" a massive Steam library, mostly of very deeply discounted games, but I don't fool myself into thinking I own those games, nor even copies of them. If they weren't extraordinarily inexpensive, I wouldn't have bought them. The only Steam game which cost more than a few bucks for which I paid full price was Half-Life 2, and I will never pay more than a few bucks for any Steam DRM-protected title ever again, because of the DRM. I have personally encountered this scenario, and I don't want to encounter it again.

I wonder how they get a rip before the DVD comes out? I'm going to guess that the theaters now get digital copies and those get rippped. I wonder why they can't control that effectively. E.g. watermark every theater's version differently.

Haven't used Linux for ages. Under Windows I can have a deluxe NVIDIA driver installed right now.

It was a shill for a pay service. If you want to PAY for what is free elsewhere. Personally, I wouldn't pay for it. Chances are, the band who wrote it and plays it will never see the money, it goes directly to the owners of the song; the music industry. So, if you pay for music, you are actually encouraging an industry that steals intellectual property, rips off the artist and in most cases discards the artist after their peak of profit dwindles. Artists could do without the industry by simply giving away their music, as promotional, and charging to play live. No industry needed for this scenario. This is the age of the internet, the do-it-yourselfer, the tools are within everyones reach. A band doesn't need an industry, maybe a few friends to help is all, that is needed. Fuck the industry. Don't pay for music, it only encourages the middlemen to pump up the price and rip EVERYONE off, while contributing nothing of any real value. It is a parasite. Don't pay for music.

As rooftop solar gets cheaper every year, electricity won't be the biggest environmental impact of lighting.

if you have seen any FB icon, you're on FB