And small blue creatures from alpha centuri where real small blue creatures from alpha centuri.

I’m old enough to remember when both released and I don’t have a good answer to this, assuming you mean the pink floyd movie and not some other I’m not aware of.

I just found out last week factorio is on a system that I own. Turns out there was a major addiction missing in my life.

As a programmer, I knew I would enjoy it. What I didn’t realise was that in just a week it would literally make me better at my job.

I’m playing the game, and solving problems for work, I’m working, and solving problems in the game, in a huge feedback loop.

Can a video game make you better person? I’m not sure, but if they can, this and Kerbal Space Program are the ones to do it.

I get it from my father. He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, but if you asked him anything, you better have a lot of free time cause it is going back to first principles.

I know his reasoning was that he wanted me to learn how to understand and find the answer, not just be given it, and now I’m guilty of the same thing.

I don’t do it at work, or at least I try not to, as they are paying me for the solution not a dissertation, but if friends or family ask for tech support, they are getting the whole explanation while I solve the problem.

I guess another part of it is that like me, he really didn’t have anyone to talk tech to other than his family, and really just enjoyed the time being able to share things he was knowledgeable about.

Is that for like mirrorop and such? I did not realise that.

Use windows + p to change the presentation settings on a laptop when connecting to a monitor or audio / video system. This lets you quickly change between laptop, dual display, and extended desktop.

Windows + x and then b brings up a menu where you can turn on “presention” mode, preventing the laptop from going to sleep during a presentation.

I am now the client of a company I worked at for over 15 years.

Because I handled a difficult situation leaving well, we still have a very good working relationship.

It’s a very niche industry, and I’ve worked for or with almost all the players in my region. My former employer, while small, is the best at what they do.

If I have legally purchased content or an application, and that content or application is no longer available for some reason, then I feel justified pirating.

A game that requires an online connection but the company took down the servers and won’t release the code for example.

There is no legitimate way for me to use the thing I already bought.

Other than that, I’m just too lazy to do it any more.

When I was young and poor, there was various software I did pirate, but now days there is nothing I need that the company won’t pay for.

Woman I liked borrowed money from me to buy a motorcycle, and in a drunk haze I told her to keep the bike as a valentine’s present.

Yeah, I went console when I realised I wanted to spend time actually playing the game.

Sure I’m missing out on the absolute highest settings, mods, etc.

However, I spend 55 minutes out of an hour actually playing the game.

I bought demons souls, could hardly pass the first level, and put it down.

I bought dark souls when it came out, and again, played a bit, didn’t get it, and put it on the shelf.

Dark souls 2, bloodborne, and darks souls 3, all the same story. I knew they were amazing games, I just didn’t get it.

Then on some reddit post someone talked about summoning a player to help, and the summon charged into the boss fight naked with only a katana like a freaking jedi.

Every time I had played the games, I was slow, with heavy armour, hiding behind a shield.

I put in dark souls 3, and went super light weight with a fast sword, and something just clicked.

Dark souls 2, it was the twin blade, dark souls one, a katana.

While I haven’t platinumed them all like my girlfriend has, I have beaten all the main souls games except bloodborn and Sekiro with a variety of builds.

Elden Ring was the first one we both got to play new together, and our first play through was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

I highly suggest going back to dark souls one and trying out the different styles. Magic, pyromancy, heavy weapons, fast and light, etc.

There is a really good chance one style will click, and the whole series of amazing games will open up for you.

This is one of my absolute favorites. Few shows get a proper laugh out of me, but him coming out in a jacket made of his tax receipts me ever time.

I have two main categories, pleasant distractions, and screaming at the gods.

Pleasant distractions are things I enjoy in my free time like video games, reading, juggling, lock picking.

Screaming at the gods are things I do because I need something so physical and dangerous that it requires 100% of my focus. Skateboarding, snowboarding, long distance motorcycle trips. These are things I do to get work and other stresses out of my head for a time, as I can’t afford to have my attention split.

I’ve changed jobs, and moved, to get my commute down to 10 min each way.

As much as I can I ride my motorcycle.

There is nothing I can do to actually be rid of a car, and people who think that can change in American society are just fooling themselves.

Sure it would be great to have high speed rail, and a variety of public transit options, none of that is going to change the suburban sprawl.

Skateboarding. I’ve been skating since 1985, and aside from a couple years in the military, never really took a break from it.

At 48 years old, with a slew of injuries, I can’t do the kind of things I did in my 20s, but can sure hold my own on a mini ramp.

Yup, this is a fantastic side benifit to my absolutely not ever having kids.

That I haven’t had? The two major ones are a sinus infection (1994), which in theory I could have again, and appendicitis (2007), which I will never have again.

As a life long skateboarder and snowboarder, I’ve had all kinds of brutal injuries, still do on occasion, but no pain has compared to those two.

It’s not so much a function of try, and yes, I’ve used it. It’s the fact that during lock down the whole company used Zoom and Teams, and changing systems now would take an act of God far above my paygrade.

Historically, Tandberg, later acquired by Cisco, was hands down the best video conference codec. I have no doubt their new line is just as good.

I can try forwarding this info to network security and see what they think.

Went to Infocomm this year, the audio / video trade show, to get the lay of the land on next generation conference systems.

The two main elements at almost every booth were zoom and teams. Those two platforms have completely replaced IP based conferencing, and when the tide turns like this, no matter how bad the idea, we’re stuck with it for five to ten years.

On both the hardware and software level, there just isn’t an alternative for corporate scale conferencing.

I may be able to make the argument against zoom for privacy reasons, but I suspect teams isn’t going to be any better.