I’d say their search results have been in decline for some time now, though quality has taken a particularly big hit the past year or so. I’d switch to someone else, but I haven’t found a decent alternative yet. As poor as DDG’s results are, they are still a few rungs above the rubbish Google spits out.

I suppose the space battles could sort of some sense given the technology in the Star Wars universe.

Your spaceships have two engines/drives. You have the hyperspace engines which are fast but you can’t engage in fight in hyperspace (well…mostly), then you have the regular ion engines for use out of hyperspace which are slow as shit. Capital ships can barely get out of their own way, and even the Millennial Falcon isn’t terribly quick when not in hyperspace. Now combined with weapons like blasters which have the problem that blaster bolts are also slow as shit. As in considerably slower than bullet fired from a conventional firearm. So if you fire them from a distance from a target, they can see the blaster bolt coming and move out of the way (or jump into hyperspace) long before it gets there. Crappy, slow engines combined with crappy, slow space weapons means capital ship battles might involve the ships having to get close to each other and just slugging it out. That can also sort of explain the small fighters since they can get in really close and hit the ships at basically point-blank range. Though the lack of hit-and-run tactics involving jumping in and out of hyperspace is a bit curious.

The rareness of the hyperspace-suicide maneuver might be rare as the rebels don’t have a lot of ships, and if they start plowing them into Empire ships, they’ll quickly run of ships and no matter how many Empire ships they take out in a battle, the Empire will always have another Star Destroyer. Though the big problem with introducing the possibility of this sort of maneuver in the later movies is the rebels would have absolutely plowed a ship into the Death Star with completely devastating results in the first movie. And anyone building a Death Star would have been well aware of an attack like that and would have known it would be almost impossible to defend against when you’re building a moon-sized target for it.

That’s more or less my take too. The world of the Star Wars universe feels huge and expansive, but in reality by the end of the original trilogy they had basically told all the interesting stories that were to be had about it. And even then, they were starting to run out of material for Return of the Jedi. They tried with the prequels, but as you say it mostly fell flat and ended up boring. The sequels started off more or less rehashing the original trilogy so they were at least entertaining, but that wasn’t enough for three movies and it turned into an absolute mess by the end.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Valve pulled support for Steam at the start of January 2024 for Windows 7/8. I thought that was the end, but apparently it actually just meant “Steam may still run but we don’t support it in any way”. Which surprised me when I booted up the old Windows 7 PC a few months ago and discovered that Steam still ran and seemed to work.

Apparently this update is actually incompatible and now Steam won’t run at all.

Depends on how old it is. Mine’s a 1995 model. I’ve measured its energy usage and a new fridge would pay for itself at around 9-10 years if I bought a basic model*. That’s around the lifespan I’d expect from a new fridge. So I’ll just keep using the old one until it dies.

(*) Current fridge is a basic, low end model, so assuming I replace with a similar basic, lower end model. Payback would be much longer if I upgraded.

I have a Jansport that’s about that old from the college days. It’s held up pretty well I must say. No idea about newer ones.

When I was in college, I would have thought it crazy to be using a backpack older than I was.

You’re not getting anymore security patches, but as long as you keep your browser up to date and generally be careful about what you download and run (as you should already be doing) you’ll likely be just fine.

I’d estimate sometime around 2029 or so the major browsers as well as security software will start dropping support for Windows 10 and at that point you may need to start thinking about moving to something else if you haven’t already done so.

Essentially, no. If you don’t care about the cost, maybe with a MSDN subscription.

It’s either that or the baseboard heater right behind the TV stand.

It’s just typical Disney. Take a popular franchise, and then milk it for everything its worth. To Disney it’s not “bad” if it’s bringing in more money than it cost to make it. Sure, some of it maybe didn’t make as much money as they would have liked, but I don’t believe Disney has actually lost money on any of it (ignoring the Hollywood accounting tricks). So expect Disney to just keep cranking Stars Wars stuff out until everyone is thoroughly bored with it.

Other than hoarding up the houses, everything is pretty general Monopoly strategy I figured out a long time ago. Basically try to get a monopoly ASAP and then develop it ASAP. I’ve found that strategy to be good, but it depends a lot on luck. Sometimes despite everything you try, the only monopoly you can get are those horrid green properties and you’re pretty much doomed.

Right. If you were to attempt something like this, you’d be better off with something like a chunk of granite than plutonium.

My favorite are some of the work systems that I need to access, but only infrequently, yet still have ridiculous password expiration rules. Nearly every time I log in, before I can access the system I have to change my password because of course it’s expired again. So I change the password, write it down because I’ll never remember it months from now when I need to use that password exactly once to login and change my password yet again.

aren’t you still limited by ambient air temp because the hot side of the Peltier needs to be cooled by air anyway?

You can certainly get subambient. Put some electrical current through a Peltier and one side gets cold, and the other side gets hot. Use the cold side to cool your components, and get the heat away from the hot side, and you can make it work.

It can be a bit tricky. The hot side is right next to the cold side and it gets really hot, so if you can’t get the heat away it’ll leak right back over. Peltiers use a lot of power so you need a beefy power supply, and that’ll be another source of heat. Assuming you can figure that all out, you also have to be careful that the cold side doesn’t get too cold or you get condensation. Electrical components tend to not like moisture very much.

I remember people experimented around with it back in early-mid 2000’s. General consensus nowadays seems to be is that it’s not terribly effective or practical and not worth the trouble.

You’re using a weird definition of profit, which to most people is some sort of financial gain. Saving money isn’t the same as profiting. You’re not turning a profit when you use a $1.00 off coupon on a package of Oreos at the grocer just like you’re not turning a profit if you download a movie.

Also, go look up criminal copyright infringement. That’s what is defined as a crime legally, and downloading a movie or a CD doesn’t meet that threshold unless maybe you’re torrenting it and therefore distributing it. Morally, well you can argue that, but not everyone is going to agree with you.

Well, you can think that but realize that you’re in the minority if you think breaking copyright for personal consumption is the same as breaking copyright for profit. That’s like saying stealing a loaf of bread because you are hungry is exactly the same as stealing a car so you can strip it for parts for resale.

Also, despite what the RIAA and MPAA would like you to believe, downloading a CD or DVD for personal use isn’t illegal, which is why it’s a civil matter when someone is busted. There’s a line that needs to be crossed before the criminal justice system gets involved, and it’s above that sort of thing.

Actually, it’s the other way around. 100 degrees F weather is really hot. Driving 100 MPH is really fast.

In metric we have 40 degrees C weather is really hot, and driving…uhhh… (gets out a calculator)… 160 km/h is really fast.

That may be how you see it, but that’s not how the law works.

The pirate is looking to save money with their copyright infringement.

These AI companies are looking to make money from it.