TheOctonaut
@TheOctonaut@mander.xyz
- Comment on Paradox date Stellaris 4.0, a "phoenix update" to attract new players and improve performance 1 week ago:
I’m pretty sure they mean The Company Formerly Known As Electronic Arts.
Because Paradox have a track record of buying studios and monetising their games in a similar way that EA monetised Maxis’s The Sims.
- Comment on "You should probably just throw it away" 1 week ago:
This is just replacing one unsupported OS with another?
- Comment on "You should probably just throw it away" 1 week ago:
Trade it in.
In other words, someone may be willing to pay you for parts, rather than you just getting nothing for it (recycling).
They are not going to recommend you use an alternative OS, and probably not because they’re worried about market share, but because they then have some responsibility for every time a person fucks up a Linux install.
- Comment on Cosmology (2025-03-12) 2 weeks ago:
In Ireland you can be invited straight to PhD. The whole process takes just as long though, and there isn’t a guarantee you’ll be awarded anything if not completed.
- Comment on would getting back with an ex be a bad idea? 3 weeks ago:
I’m not sure this even counts because the guy basically said let’s be friends and she has leapt to thinking about getting back together. This just sounds like someone with issues of their own, if dating someone who is obviously unthinking but falls well within the predicted bounds of normal behaviour for a teenager makes them think they might be a lesbian.
- Comment on Is there any hope for Ukraine to survive as an independent state now that trump is desperately wishing for a peace treaty with Russia, even bypassing Ukraine? 5 weeks ago:
Rockerface is Ukrainian, not American.
Being a seemingly temporary non-nation, Americans don’t always understand that people don’t usually just give up and accept conquest. If a people continue to distinguish themselves strongly enough without being literally wiped out or assimilated, they will survive annexation until the next opportunity for rebellion or freedom. Ireland resisted Britain for 800 years - a few years in the shadows of dictators until ordinary Russians grow balls/tits again isn’t necessarily the end of Ukraine.
- Comment on Wonder Woman Game is "Years Away From Release" As Warner Bros. Gaming Division Struggles 1 month ago:
How about if the idle animation is Gal Gadot in full IDF regalia singing “Imagine”?
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Quite the opposite, my workplace is pretty fun and we definitely don’t need to couch jokes in emotions for safety. Maybe this is the same thing that requires people these days to use sarcasm tags.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Please don’t wink in a work context
- Comment on Civilization 7's post-launch plans include free multiplayer and Age features and paid Ada Lovelace 1 month ago:
I’ve put hundreds or thousands of hours into every Civ game since Civ 2. I’m so fucking sad that I don’t care about this new release. I’m Irish and I can’t even enjoy Britain being relegated to DLC because somehow Ada Lovelace is a leader? Who is this game for?
- Comment on Isn't EU's "VAT" a regressive tax? Why do they have that, instead of something like, taxing the rich? 1 month ago:
No, not every purchase is taxed, and not every purchase that is is taxed at the same rate.
These rates are set by individual countries (because “Europe”, lol) and can change year to year. For example Ireland doesn’t tax books, basic food staples, children’s clothes, medicines. Heating fuel is taxed but was set to a reduced rate during the cost of living crisis. Other countries will have different priorities.
VAT ensures that even those who have a large amount of wealth accumulated without “income” also contribute to society.
- Comment on If a child went into a coma and woke up as an adult what would happen ? 2 months ago:
But nobody clapped and no atheist tried to abort him and the holy spirit did not enter her at her weakest moment
- Comment on Anon buys a TV without researching 2 months ago:
Why would this need “deliver ads over HDMI”. It’s on the telly, ie the HDMI signal has already been transmitted and now the TV itself is overlaying web-derived images in one corner, the same way it will overlay the guide or whatever when you open it.
- Comment on Anon's PC works 2 months ago:
My friend why are you acting like 5 years old is old. That’s pretty much the same console generation, never mind a serviceable age for PC hardware.
- Comment on Switching teams in middle of a match!? 2 months ago:
You said this so confidently but just to ruin your day: not everyone’s sex partners die afterwards.
- Comment on My VPN on Android fails to reconnect automatically any time the connection is interupted. Why? 2 months ago:
Terrible advice. Did you even read what he asked, about having to reconnect manually? Or did you just see “VPN” and had a story to tell?
- Comment on So is it "It just works" or "Shit just works"? 3 months ago:
The general trend of the behaviour of the userbase when it first began appearing. I’m pretty block-happy. I’m sure it’s an over-generalisation but I’ve learned over the years that I’d rather miss out than feel constantly annoyed.
- Comment on So is it "It just works" or "Shit just works"? 3 months ago:
I pronounce it “this post hidden due to instance block settings”.
- Comment on This seat reservation doesn't reserve any seats 3 months ago:
The only way to understand their comment is that they think it’s a ticket that they only printed as many as they have seats. Otherwise its a non sequitur as it doesn’t explain the purpose of printing a second slip that days you don’t have an assigned seat.
- Comment on This seat reservation doesn't reserve any seats 3 months ago:
Read the full text. This, despite appearances, is not in itself a ticket.
- Comment on Anon plays spin the bottle 3 months ago:
It sounds like he joined (sat down into) an existing game, which if this story was true, which it isn’t, because it’s 4chan, would be pretty different?
- Comment on Nintendo has lowered its Switch forecast after sales fell 31% 4 months ago:
I love my Steam Deck. It’s literally beside my hotel bed right now, while the Switch is at home with two kids under 10. But:
- the docking and detaching experience is frustrating as hell
- it is significantly heavier and yet feels more fragile.
- it has profiles but not comparably to the Switch in terms of use and UX
- and the controller experience is very hit and miss. ** It spent 2 months just literally randomly shutting off bluetooth - you had to go into desktop mode and re-enable with a Linux command until they patched it - but that’s not even it - whenever it did that, it also disabled the sticks!. ** I have multiple entries in the controllers screen - none of which can be renamed or show indicators as to which controller they are - where every now and again the Deck decides sorry, I don’t recognise that controller anymore. Please come walk across the living room and awkwardly stand in front of the telly pressing buttons on the switch to re-pair things. ** Oh and controller layout schemes are a cool and powerful feature but way too complicated for me to explain to an 8 year old.
If “I just want to pick up a controller after work and forget what Philip in Marketing said he thought the project was going to look like”, or “I want to buy games once and share them with my kids” or even “I’ll throw this in my bag to kill 20 minutes at the waiting room” are factors, the Steam Deck is very much not superior in every way.
Again. Love my Deck. Almost exclusively buy “Verified” games now. Halfway through a Nintendo game that somehow is easier for me, a software dev to find ajd emulate on Deck than on a Nintendo console. But the Switch has been a remarkable console to have in my living room. The first console I bought (actually now that I think of it, that my wife bought for me) since Wii and before that since PlayStation 2. I’m not really a console player. I have 1000+ games on Steam. Still Switch excels at many things and the sales figures should make that obvious.
- Comment on What is the current best smart TV software/brand/ecosystem option? 5 months ago:
Get the android app “Unified Remote”. Works perfectly, and you’ll have several options, from cursor control to buttons programmed with hotkeys.
- Comment on Anon plants a seed of doubt 5 months ago:
There’s a height on your driving license?
I’ve never seen one on a passport.
- Comment on stars & sharks 5 months ago:
He’s thinking of penguins
- Comment on Anon watches an old concert video 5 months ago:
At a Limp Bizkit concert, possibly
- Comment on Anon tries to impress a girl 5 months ago:
Well the more appropriate term is “gravid”.
Although there are many species of fish that give live birth and therefore are usually described as pregnant.
- Comment on Anon quits their job 6 months ago:
No, why you got fired does not in fact affect your need to eat food and house your family, so it’s not a factor.
And if you are “laid off”, ie the company says they don’t need your job anymore, you are usually entitled to a pretty nice redundancy payment too - plus the usual.
- Comment on Vance Says He Will Keep Calling Haitians Legally in Springfield ‘Illegal’ 6 months ago:
Something many Americans don’t seem to be educated about properly is asylum/refugee status. It used to be considered a good thing that a first world country would provide asylum for those in danger.
Both require the first entry to be an illegal entry, or to have an overstay. If you can enter or stay in a country legally, you don’t need asylum there. You can just, y’know, stay.
America even recognises this by having asylum application stations some way but not very far inside the border, because if you have a massive continent sized country and expect people to go to an immigration office or something, they may not find it or may just not apply even if they have valid reason to.
This deliberate lack of education feels very like how some Americans were never properly educated on the actual purpose of the UN, or how taxes work, or uow “we’re a republic not a democracy” is nonsense, or even what your president does. And they all feel like very deliberate political decisions to make this so.
- Comment on Anon has a special request 6 months ago:
Also… what awesome displays? Does he think knight armour in museums has bones inside it?