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Physical media is irrelevant. You can have physical media that's so locked down that you don't actually own it.

What's actually going to make a comeback is media that you control. If you have a Sony rootkit CD or a DRM-free floc file, the latter beats the former every time. If you have a physical disc of the video game spore which requires you to call into Central servers before writing your video game, or you have a drm-free copy of a similar game that you bought off of Gog, the latter is the only one you actually own.

To that end, I've got a multi-disk NAS in mirroring mode with all my media, and I host jellyfin so I can watch it or listen to it using my own personal hardware, without any need to ask a corporate overlord permission to listen to my own music.

I do have a large library of ebooks, but I've also got a a very real library of paper books on shelves, and short of coming around door to door, nobody can change the contents of either, but particularly not the dead tree books.

It's a big contrast to physical media like what you can get on playstation, xbox, or the Nintendo switch. You can own the physical media for any of these consoles but without an internet connection be totally incapable of playing your games.

Something that you increasingly need to pay attention to now is whether the hardware itself requires internet access and access to a central server you do not control. There have been a number of instances where for example people owned thermostats in their home and could not operate their furnace because the servers for the thermostat company had been shut down. Anyone with a Google video game unit should know that since the streaming service has been shut down they can no longer ever play any of the games that they bought for that. Even someone with an old Nintendo Wii my plug it into the wifi today and discover that many of the items on the home screen are like an old shopping mall that's about to shut down -- the old signs are there, but the real estate has been vacant for years.

I was fairly lucky because I got to experience with this looks like firsthand over 15 years ago. Around 2008, there was a video game streaming service called gametap. It proposed that you would pay a subscription fee and be able to get access to an entire game library on your PC. Had some really good games on offer too, including the original fallout games. Two things occurred: first, is that streaming service lost the license for that video game, you could not play that video game any longer. Second, if you stop paying the subscription fee, you will lose access to all of your video games, and they also locked your saved games behind a paywall as I recall. That was a very early lesson for me how about the dangers of outsourcing ownership.
xianc78 boosted
>There was an attempt at a Sega Genesis web browser back then and it was FULLY FUNCTIONAL according to the dev

Whew
xianc78 boosted
@RustyCrab @Inginsub @sendpaws
>Azure is a complete meme
Such is almost every new "cloud" product that replaced the "good" old things that worked. InTune sucks, Azure AD (previously Entra) sucks,...
xianc78 boosted
_The Most Sophisticated Apple Scam Attack of 2025_

It's critical that you ALWAYS check the domain names of the senders of any e-mails pretending to be from a legitimate service provider or vendor, and also of any URLs (web links) you are sent. For example, make sure you see <whatever>.apple.com, and not <whatever>.support-apple.com (Key fact: A period in the URL separates domains and subdomains, underscores and/or dashes do not!)

Finally, do NOT call any phone numbers sent to you, nor visit any web pages sent to you as URLs (web links.) Instead, independently go to the official website of the service provider or vendor (your bank, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc,) and follow the official links from there (log in to your account, if necessary)—or call the number on the back of your credit or debit card, if you have one.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/the-most-sophisticated-apple-scam-attack-of-2025-post-5959114
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God's Disdain Version 1.0.17 Patch Notes 

-Fixed the behavior of Joe's bombs so that they actually do hit only two enemies instead of every enemy.
-Fixed a bug in the Hurdles' Descent dungeon that would prevent the rock falling trap from working correctly.
-Added better descriptions to elemental armor.

xianc78 boosted
Seeing the full page redactions in today's #Epstein release will be familiar to anyone who's been following the #ufo subject for the past few years.

I'm glad that more people are being exposed to this practice. Overclassification has gotten way out of control. At a certain point, we don't really have freedom anymore if unelected Spooks get to decide what we as a people do and don't get to see.
xianc78 boosted

Decided to have the player be able to actually jump as I realized that it would be much harder to dodge certain enemies and projectiles if he can only flip gravity. The gravity flipping mechanic is still there. As of now, it is done by pressing the jump button while in mid-air.

I guess this is a Metal Storm clone now.

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I'm surprise to see that people actually hated this game. Sure it's stiff and awkward compared to the rest of the N64 library and it looks like a 3DO game in some respects, but I had fun memories with it.

Though most of the hate seems to stem from the fact that Nintendo lied about the arcade version running on N64 hardware and it being technologically inferior to Ridge Racer and Daytona USA, the games it was meant to compete with.

yewtu.be/watch?v=ZJLJyNce30Q

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Even if you don't want to purchase the Supporter Pack and throw a fedi game dev a few bones, I would still be really appreciative if you would try the game out! It's totally free and I'm always working to patch bugs to make the game better. I've technically been working on the game for over 10 years now, it's been a huge passion project of mine for a third of my life.

There is even a version of the game you can play on Newgrounds right inside of your browser! Though I would recommend exporting your save files after every play session just in case since browser saves aren't very reliable.

newgrounds.com/portal/view/100

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xianc78 boosted

It's also available on Itch.io for those who don't want to download it through Steam for whatever reason. Regardless of the platform you get it on, the game is DRM free, unencrypted, and there is also a native Linux version. The Steam version just has Steam Cloud support and automatic updates.

after-midnight-games.itch.io/g

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xianc78 boosted

Yo dudes, the Supporter Pack for my video game God's Disdain is on sale for 50% off during the Winter Sale. Steepest discount yet. Only $3.50!

store.steampowered.com/app/358

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Decentralized YouTube Alternative PeerTube Adds Creator Mode

“PeerTube is a free and open source video hosting platform that serves as an alternative to YouTube. Unlike centralized platforms, it allows anyone to create their own video hosting instance while connecting with others through federation. It is dev ...continues

See gadgeteer.co.za/decentralized-

#opensource #Peertube #technology

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xianc78 boosted

>"if AI is so goos how come nobody ever admits using it"
well maybe because you organize literal witch hunts over the most menial use of AI?
dozens of pointless drama video's about artists "supposedly" tracing AI, harassing average normal artists who have been drawing long before AI was able, trying to boycott a videogame studio for actually properly using AI as an idea generator
no shit people are not disclosing AI usage

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! FUCK!!!

xcancel.com/DiscussingFilm/sta

xianc78 boosted

The fact that the 'AI industry' went from "It's not a bubble, AGI any moment now!" to "Yeah this sector is too big to fail, so we're going to need bailouts" without revolt is part of the reason things suck so much.

xianc78 boosted

Digital ID could lead to “the worst data breach in UK government history”.

Despite fierce opposition, the UK government is embarking on a digital surveillance infrastructure that has fundamental cybersecurity holes in its foundations.

We must say #NotoDigitalID.

Read more about the whistleblower revelations ➡️ itv.com/news/2025-12-18/whistl

#digitalid #dataprotection #cybersecurity #privacy #surveillance #ukpolitics #ukpol

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