nucleative
@nucleative@lemmy.world
- Comment on For a while Microsoft was the King of PC stuff. How come they didn't just cozy up to the PC but had to do the XBOX and pretty much lose their ass with all the cash grabs? 12 hours ago:
The answer to the question comes from understanding the marketplace.
Microsoft’s vision in the '90s was a computer on every desk and in every home.
In the late '90s and early 2000s, devices like TiVo came on the scene and disrupted the living room. Microsoft started experimenting with Media Center which was a PC that would sit between your cable box and your TV.
Also remember that Microsoft has been in gaming forever. You certainly heard of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Microsoft’s acquisition of various game studios in the '90s cemented their presence in the space.
Anyways, at the time it was theorized that some company would eventually control media flowing into the household through the TV screen and Microsoft absolutely wanted that.
The media center only found limited success, and was kind of a kludgy solution. The first versions of Xbox attempted to overcome some of this by having some media capabilities. The peak of that effort was the first version of Xbox One which actually had an HDMI input and the ability to control your cable box. Had that reached widespread use, Microsoft would have had lots of data about what TV channels everybody was watching and who was watching (remember the first version of Xbox One rolled out with a camera that could recognize who’s watching) and for how long.
Unfortunately for them, that tech was too little too late and streaming services like Netflix were already catching on. Now you can see in later versions of Xbox Microsoft has pulled back and developed game pass which is a steam-like subscription service, and hasn’t really tried to be a TV media player to the same degree anymore.
When a company gets huge, like Microsoft, they can’t really waste time chasing business efforts that might only have revenue potential in the low billions. It just doesn’t move the needle. The problem is that innovating brand new ideas that will eventually become multi-billion dollar businesses is phenomenally challenging. And people who can do that don’t work for companies like Microsoft.
So the entrepreneurs who can potentially dream up multibillion dollar disruptive business ideas go do them on their own and then companies like Microsoft snap them up as soon as they’re able to (if the founders allow it), allowing dominant players to remain dominant without needing to innovate.
- Comment on Microsoft announces 50% price hike for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 1 week ago:
The only reason I’m paying for any kind of Xbox subscription is to keep a few older COD online unlocks available. I wonder if I could use my pihole to intercept that and replay something back to the Xbox so I can still use them
- Comment on McDonald’s CEO is grappling with a ‘two-tier economy’ as he slashes prices on value meals—and signals backing for a minimum wage increase 5 weeks ago:
Not if he wants to keep his job. The shareholders (hypothetically) control the board, the CEO works for the board.
- Comment on Good news. :) 5 weeks ago:
States have always been able to do these things.
Perhaps there are a few other administrative tasks they should collaborate on as well…
- Comment on If you argue for a cause like affordable housing for everyone, is it necessarily hypocritical if you also own investment properties? 5 weeks ago:
OP: constructive addition to thread You: nah
- Comment on Is it worth selling on eBay in 2025? 2 months ago:
eBay is a major pain these days for small sellers that just want to unload some stuff.
A lot of people go there first to run scams, and eBay just blocks sellers left and right.
Try apps like Mercari, Whatnot, Posh/Vinted (for clothing), and Facebook marketplace. I think you’ll find all of these are friendly to one-off sellers and easy to conduct business.
- Comment on Charging to tour rental properties... 2 months ago:
I agree, shitty landlords exist as well and try to scam people into coming. That’s why I’ll never rent out a place again, on either side, if I can avoid it.
- Comment on Charging to tour rental properties... 2 months ago:
This is wild, but I have at least one guess where they might be coming from with this idea.
At one point I had to move out of a house that I owned for a while so I wanted to let it.
People who want to rent can be super flaky and dishonest. Seriously 4 out of 5 or more are like this.
They make appointments then don’t show up and ghost you. Or they call 5 minutes late to say they’ll be there in 3 hours.
Or everything seems good until you do credit checks and find they were evicted from the last place and haven’t made a payment on their credit card for 3 years plus they have a felony conviction from a few years ago for beating up some guy.
Or when checking their income is sufficient, their boss says yeah, they used to work here but not anymore.
Potential renters never tell you this stuff until you already put hours into talking and going out to show the place to them.
I’m just a regular guy with a job (who does pay his bills) so this takes a lot of time, fuck that noise.
Basically charging people $5 will make them not come if they know they won’t qualify, saving everybody the time.
- Comment on Philz Coffee Being Sold to Private Equity Firm for $145 Million, Employees Reportedly Getting Screwed Out of Their Stock 2 months ago:
Whoa. Not recommended to buy something that someone with an opposing financial interest can “cancel”.
- Comment on Day 366 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing 2 months ago:
💪 2 years here we go
- Comment on Day 365 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing (One Year Anniversary!) 2 months ago:
Congrats!
- Comment on The signatures are still coming and it's already making an impact 3 months ago:
Do you mean Buying = believing Or Buying = buying
Because I think the real problem here is that people actually are buying=buying and that’s why they keep doing it.
- Comment on Has Xbox Considered Laying One Person Off Instead Of Thousands 3 months ago:
You might be right, probably worth looking into. I just have so little time to invest in new titles or any learning curve or really any game that takes a ton of grinding before it’s fun
- Comment on Has Xbox Considered Laying One Person Off Instead Of Thousands 3 months ago:
Let me share my Xbox experience? I’m mid-40s. Owned Xboxes since literally the OG Xbox 1.
I originally bought this thing to play with my brother split screen. Nowadays I want to play split screen with my son.
Yet somehow there’s no fucking split screen games anymore. The last two or three AAA games I purchased I played for a few hours and then never loaded again.
And the other day when I loaded up call of duty Black ops 3 to play zombies (this is like a 10 year old game now) I found that because I let my Xbox Gold live whatever the fuck subscription expire, I can’t play “online” and use my unlocked items even though I’m doing local play.
So from this guy what in the fucking fuck xbox. This is some kind of device designed to clean out my wallet for eternity and not deliver what I actually want.
I pretty much exclusively use my Xbox as a YouTube player now.
- Comment on Using TikTok could be making you more politically polarized, new study finds 3 months ago:
Echo chambers and all, yeah it’s likely TikTok has this issue too. TikTok gives you content you want to see, because you’ll stay around and watch more ads. No surprise here.
conservative TikTok users tend to stick together. They rarely follow accounts with opposing views or mainstream media accounts. Liberal users, on the other hand, are more likely to follow a mix of accounts, including those they might disagree with.
That’s weird and somewhat descriptive of my anecdotal experience with many people I know. I wonder why this is.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
Ebay can be really really bad too, Google around and start with the ebay executive team that sent a bloody pigs head to a journalist who said some bad things about ebay
- Comment on The 11foot8 bridge opens another big can 3 months ago:
Yeah here in Bangkok the only rule is that there are no rules. I jokingly say that whomever believes in reincarnation the most has the right of way.
This system does work, but there are still way more casualties than necessary.
- Comment on The 11foot8 bridge opens another big can 3 months ago:
I’m American but live outside the US in a developing country.
Here, the situation on the roads is wildly unstandardized. Every turn, road sign, curb size, lane width, bridge height, traffic signal duration, etc may or may not be consistent with anything else. Not to mention drivers going the wrong way, motorcycles on the sidewalks, people stopping in the road and more.
Because of the weirdness drivers know they have to pay attention or else death and injury awaits.
The fact that the 11’ 8" bridge still takes so many casualties suggests drivers confidently think they can drive all over the USA and the road is engineered to an exacting standard. Except for this one bridge.
I think it’s actually time for the city to just properly fix this bridge and bring it up to standard.
- Comment on wtf 3 months ago:
So apex that most of us outsource our hunting and farming, which makes us fat and slow unless we purposefully burn energy for no other purpose than to burn it.
- Comment on Absolute unit 3 months ago:
Somebody must have had a rad cable label machine
- Comment on U.S. to Review Social Media Posts of Student and Scholar Visa Applicants 3 months ago:
If some applicant has been posting “death to America” or about how they plan to do some white collar crimes for years, or it turns out they are the brother of some guy who is on a most wanted list, we probably shouldn’t let them inside.
If they post some opinions about how things are going like “hey their president is kind of a blockhead and I think the people deserve better” then I would be against blocking them for that reason.
I’m American but live outside the US. I’m fully subject to their immigration laws which includes passing their screenings, and unless I were to disagree with their sovereigty I have to accept that reality. I can hide my social media but then I might have to go.
- Comment on Xbox Game Pass might be getting a price hike 3 months ago:
A bit pissed at this possibility. Games that I bought many years ago require me to be signed in to use my unlocks, even during solo play.
- Comment on Instead of asking all my stupid questions separately, could I just get a ton of "How to Adult" type resources in the comments? 3 months ago:
Learning how to do small talk will improve your social, economic, and relationship opportunities in countless ways.
Asking people questions about themselves makes them think of you as likable.
Remember the acronym f o r d: Family Occupation Recreation Dreams
Small talk can be learned and getting in some more practice might make it bearable, perhaps even enjoyable.
When you are running out of topics keep the acronym above in mind and ask a question related to one of those topics. Something like this example:
Q: So, have you always lived in (wherever you are)?
However they reply, follow up with it positive and encouraging response such as: “ah you’re a long timer. I thought there weren’t too many of us left!” and then go right into a follow up Q also related to the acronym but now attached to the new information you have such as: is your family from this area too? What brought you here initially? What do you do for work? Hey since you’ve been here so long, what do you think about (insert local drama that’s been in the news).
The goal isn’t to interrogate, but to smoothly and rapidly sort through topics until you find commonalities. Then you can lift off and the conversation will feel very natural and easy.
I heard about this 20 some years ago and have used it at the start and end of business meetings, on first dates, with strangers, and heck sometimes even with my friends if we’re catching up and I want to cover things that are core to them.
- Comment on Correct Grindr Response 4 months ago:
Well they are sure gonna have fun with all this equipment
- Comment on Game files are verified, House 4 months ago:
It’s never solvable with
sfc /scannow
- Comment on What is something you like to tell people? 4 months ago:
WTF she said it does!
- Comment on If it ain’t broke… 4 months ago:
I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this too. After finding a t-shirt style that I really like, I’ll buy 20 or 30 at once.
Same with pants, socks, shoes. In every pic I’m dressed exactly the same. I never have to think what to put on and I never have to think too hard about what to pack on a trip.
One less thing to worry or think about in life.
- Comment on Monty Python predicted social media 4 months ago:
If you came looking for the video: https://youtu.be/uLlv_aZjHXc
- Comment on Cloudflare CEO warns AI and zero-click internet are killing the web's business model 5 months ago:
I think Google can never really hope to disrupt itself. The entire company is oriented towards selling those ads. So any other internal division that tries to eliminate the ads division is going to have a very uphill battle.
IMO the industry is ripening for disruption and someone will come along with a new idea for how to incentivize content generation and it will very likely continue to involve some heavy commercial marketing.
- Comment on Why Do Sovereign Citizens Keep Pursuing Unsuccessful Legal Defenses? 5 months ago:
The state asserts its sovereignty and backs up the claim with the consensus of the people and a lot of guns.
A sovereign citizen makes the same claim but fails to convince or compel others to agree.
They very well might believe in some god-given authority but that’s not how any of this works.
But maybe an SC will uncover a deeply hidden loophole someday and win an argument. The law affords them the opportunity to try.