No physical activity has ever felt as satisfying as a handful of times I chopped wood when I was like 14. I feel like there’s a strong psychological element to it, I really felt like a man in a great way.

Just off the top of my head:

Steven Wilson, one of the most influential artists in my creative life. Turns out even some of the songs were even recorded there. I don’t even think he has a familial claim to benefit from Zionism, I think he’s just gotten roped in. At least I tell myself that.

Sacha Baron Cohen, IMO one of the most brilliant comedians. I don’t think he’s necessarily an extremist to the extent that Natenyahu is, knowing his politics, but that is the logical conclusion of Zionism and just being on that path is all the red flags in the world.

Quentin Tarantino, bro why

I actually can’t think of many. I’m from Lebanon and if it’s even a small part of someone’s public life we just avoid them, it’s been that way for very long. So there’s an extent to which these people are filtered out.

I also don’t use traditional social media at all so something like the Sarah Silverman meltdown you mention would be completely off my radar.

Ah. I was hoping I was holding on to some long-lost file, I think every one in my list is included in your list. I think the rare ones were limited-time exclusives.

If it’s not too much trouble, you should make sure there’s an up to date copy of all these files somewhere. At least the IA should have it, I’d think.

Best of luck finding the rest.

Here’s what I got in my old local archive folder, if it helps. Let me know if I have something missing, I’ve never been on this side of this interaction!

Not entirely sure if this is complete, or if it’s even all Maxis. I have a third party mod folder backed up somewhere (and one with those old text guides, loved those) but I didn’t find it with a quick search. This folder is from 2010, so it’s not exactly period-correct. In case Windows doesn’t like these older .exes they seem to just be archives with the .far files inside, so you can rip them open. Not exactly sure why some of these are .zips and others are .exes, but the .zips only contain the .far files.

One thing that sucks is that some disk content was just permanently gated behind these downloads, and there was every possibility that you wouldn’t know these downloads existed. Specifically there were Makin Magic recipes for child-only magic stuff that used ingredients only adults could gather. So the Magic Bookshelf was mandatory to see that stuff that came on the damn disk. I’m pretty sure I was using a third party reskin of that item before looking for the original, but I could be wrong.

Good lord, .far files. Remember FARout? Those really were the days. I still like to think I’ll revisit TS1 properly someday. That was a proper game, with unapologetic personality.

Not sure about that last bit. IIRC all of the EA TS1 downloads are archived pretty extensively, across many fan sites and the IA for good measure.

Then again the last time I checked was probably over a decade ago.

Possibly for 2029 when used Decks become cheap and readily available and great candidates for lightweight HTPCs. Hell, I can see someone who’s put a lot of miles on an original Deck doing this to their original one after getting an updated one/competitor in like a year or two from now. You don’t need to do any modding for that to be honest, but a small device with a screen (and an old lithium battery…) collecting dust probably looks worse than a box. At least that’s my impression from my Switch. I can see people finding a handheld upgrade more worth it than a PC upgrade (the first 5090 presale listings are up where I am and they’re north of 3000$).

Seriously, I’ve played lots of less-demanding games on my TV via a docked Deck, and it’s been surprisingly nice. A lot of these bundled games I wouldn’t have even tried. What the Golf is a silly mobile game that I got in a bundle that I ended up playing on the big screen. And I’ve bought a lot of bundles in the past, so I’ve got a lot of games to try.

For more demanding games that the system can play, you get tiny battery life. So this does make more things more playable. So I get it.

Would love to browse a list of games like this. I know there’s a FOSS game list but it’s not exactly easy to browse. No thumbnails or descriptions or tags or anything.

My eventual favorite game of all time could be in this list and I wouldn’t know how to find it.

This is exactly why I’d want a GPU in a home server.

That and transcoding. Wonder what the best option would be without breaking the bank/wasting too much idle power. All the GPU talk online seems to be for gaming.

How does OSM deal with Arabian Gulf / Persian Gulf? I’ve only ever seen it referred to by the latter name by western sources but only the former name in Arabic over here.

I’m well aware that the name “declaration” of Arabian Gulf was a political move in the 20th century, but I’ve never seen the name Persian Gulf in Arabic. Never.

Just curious.

That second paragraph reads like a genuine slop-tier YouTube short you’d hear someone blasting next to you at half volume in public.

Narrated by an unnaturally upbeat and grating TTS voice, of course.

That’s funny to read. I remember loving Odyssey because I never felt too punished for not having amazing video game dexterity. I felt like I had a ton of objectives that went up in difficulty in a very linear way and eventually got 100% on everything.

Even the very very last section, with a string of bosses that I found pretty damn near impossible, was surmountable. As someone with no interest in HP-sponge boss games, it was the part that I felt was the most frustrating. But enough rounds and I got better/lucky and finished that section.

What’s also funny about “articles” like this is that the author, like most of us, has probably spent hours as a kid trying to beat one level. Usually nowadays I feel bored after less than an hour of repeating and failing the same objective. I have way less time and patience for hard games. So I do sympathize a little. Bloodborne’s an intriguing game but I’m not going to torture myself over it.

Never got into Splatoon but it looked like great fun and kind of perfect for low-stakes competition.

Fucks sake Nintendo

I was intrigued by this channel back when I was vaguely interested in geopolitics on a surface level but before I really started learning about history. Think Paradox player level interest in history.

When the 2022 round of fighting started between Armenia and Azerbaijan I was pretty appalled at this channel’s coverage. I’m Lebanese so I’ll definitely have a bias in that conflict as well, but it was pretty blatant and unapologetic. That half video was probably the last I’ve seen from them.

10K is a home solar investment. Where I live, people tend to live in multi-family buildings about 3-6 floors high, often split between siblings and their families. Depending on how many are in the country year-round, that might even be enough for the whole building with careful management. Obviously wouldn’t be the same if the neighbors are strangers. (I appreciate that the familial emphasis might seem a bit random in your culture). Ideally 10K might just be enough for one or two households.

The much more interesting prompt is 10B, imo.

10B? Oh man. I’m in Lebanon. We’ve effortlessly squandered more generous fortunes than a measly 10B grant, but here’s how I’d do it:

1B: buses, trams and parking garages to decongest some of the nicer (and underperforming, touristy) old town areas. Should give them a sorely needed boost 3B: modern seaside train running from north to south, with a small number of branches into the interior. Mostly freight. 3B: start phase of a Beirut metro. It’s not enough for a full metro system especially with our geological conditions, but the core city isn’t too big and one line should be feasible? 2B: functional army so we still have civilian infrastructure next time our noisy neighbor gets a hissy fit (infrastructure is worthless if it’s destroyed) 1B: modern fossil fuel power plant. Yeah it’s not green, but we generate a fraction of our needed power, meaning most people have to pay off a local generator mob for electricity. They use diesel and relatively inefficient smaller generators. Our existing ancient power plants use dogshit-tier diesel. I insist that some kind of LNG plant maybe would actually make the situation more green. As it stands the convenience of combustible fuel is more pertinent than the environmental cost

I think the table turning is in terms of what constitutes “content”, ostensibly the reason you’re on their service.

Standard tables: you sign up to this website to see stuff posted by people and pages you want to see, you can post your own if you wish

New and improved AI tables: bend over and enjoy the warmth of the slop cannon interspersed with Enhanced Consumer AI Personalized Advertising Experiences™

The user abuse was always part of the process no doubt.

The souls games weren’t on sale, but I’ve passed the message along about the mods. I think he’s taking a break after pushing those games to the absolute limit but I’m glad something like that exists.

Avant-garde is my jam, it’s just hard to convince people who aren’t into that kind of game to play. I love the Cosmo D games, for example, but I know most of my friends wouldn’t enjoy them if I recommended them.

I went with Ultrakill! I might get it myself. I think older style graphics boomer shooters are a core part of the current wave of PC games.

Unfortunately he’s never been able to get into Outer Wilds despite it being one of my favorite games that I always shill. I’ll still push for him to play it.

Absolutely, but at least for the type of builds I was looking at, which were all gaming machines, Asrock kind of seemed like the more unpredictable budget option.