It depends on the game, character etc. I mean I suppose it adds to the escapism slightly?

I play all sorts of different games though, some where you’re not given the choice (Life Is Strange for example) and I don’t feel like it’s that big a deal

The worst thing to do would be an inorganic botch job on here to fill a gap when there’s no need, you can read that content elsewhere.

Anyway, it’s not an automatic guarantee of engagement or interaction. It’s purely a hack move.

I’m happy to use Reddit if I feel I can’t find anything to read on Kbin. You are allowed to use both you know?

I mean yeah I vape, that makes sense because it wasn’t the nicotine itself which was killing my lungs.

Apparently nicotine itself is as bad for you as caffeine, the worst thing about it is it’s insanely addictive without giving much of a high or anything in return…

That’s a very black and white way of putting it. As long as you’re an adult who can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and you’re not spending hours obsessed with it I don’t think it’s unhealthy. The way you phrase ‘avoid it completely’ makes it sound like you’re going out of your way to avoid it already.

(I think the problems are coming through with the generation being ‘brought up on porn’, and thinking real sex is like it is in the videos online but that’s a different story really.)

Can cigarettes be used in a healthy way? Eh, only in very specific scenarios

Gonna have to bite and ask what very specific scenarios smoking could be healthy?

No, I just think he’s very bad at reining in an extremely impulsive and volatile personality which leads to him making rash decisions. Also he is always wanting to make sweeping changes rather than gradual ones which may have worked with Tesla and Space but doesn’t suit Twitter.

And lastly, I don’t think he really cares that much either way - as others have said, he had to be forced to buy Twitter remember. He’s got this albatross around his neck which is losing him money every day. He probably resents it a bit, has probably nearly hit the truth that the only way you could make a social media company profitable is to make everyone pay - except for the fact that almost everyone then leaves.

I think he’s too much of a wild card for anyone to involve in their cunning plan. I mean regardless of politics would you recruit him for your masterplan?

I just started using it for Android the last month or so when Chrome dropped the flag feature that let you toggle dark mode for websites with system dark mode.

I have a VPN with an adblocker so that aspect of Chrome never bothered me so much. Chrome felt like it worked slightly smoother but at the end of the day a browser is a browser and Firefox does the job. (Samsung’s browser is actually surpringly good for those with a Samsung device looking for a Chrome alternative)

Firefox does seem more trustworthy overall, although I’ve learned by now that trusting tech companies is not a sensible thing to do.

I’ve been using a VPN, blockers, all sorts in the UK to disguise some of my online activity from Google and other companies so if I’m just doing the same thing to avoid the government there’s not much difference.

The fact that I still use Google products is a lapse and due to laziness on my part…

Of course it could be a vote winner for Starmer at the next election to say he’ll repeal it on free speech grounds of he played it right. But then the opposition could spin it as him not wanting to protect children online so he probably won’t have the guts to risk it.

WhatsApp certainly won’t, they own the UK chat app market and it’s not like they genuinely give a shit about privacy.

The others - remains to be seen.

VPN subscriptions in the UK will be a lucrative market then for people wanting access to, let’s see, Wikipedia…

I’m interested to know what the Signal President meant when she said she’s much more optimistic about working with the government than she originally was.

The thing is it obviously does come from good intentions, and it’s very rare you’ll find me saying that about something to do with the Tories. But it’s so obviously the wrong approach and yet here we are. Thanks for nothing. Yet again.

The Precession To Calvery was hilarious from beginning to end.

You beat me to it because this game is genius!

Someone else mentioned Procession to Calvary - an adventure game set in a cut and paste world of renaissance art with a very surreal plot and sense of humour. Pythonesque.

There Is No Game is pretty hilarious, the voice acting always makes me crack up.

Agatha Knife is a funny point and click adventure game where you’re a 7 year old girl who’s a butcher and needs to set up her own religion sacrificing pigs in the basement for… Reasons.

I remember definitely that Firefox was the browser of choice in our house pre-Google. IE was always nasty to use and my Dad was always a tinkerer and worked with IT guys a lot so we had Firefox on PC for ages

(As a side note those same well meaning IT guys persuaded my Dad Linux was really easy to set up and use as a home PC for the whole family. Didn’t end well)

Anyway, Firefox was trumping IE hands down as a family PC browser, I suppose I’m talking late 90s early naughts? Don’t know exactly. But we would have been using Ask Jeeves still as our search engine before Google search launched and that made my Dad’s eyes light up, because it was fast. And it was the same with Chrome when it came out. By then I’d moved out but like you say, they had the PR as the guys who were now changing things most.

And it wasn’t all bs, because it was and in many ways is a very good browser. On the one hand there’s definitely an element of people using what everyone else does but also, if it was a total crock of shit no one would use it. For me it’s not even so much privacy but my tolerance for ads and need for a dark mode on mobile have got me back to Firefox on Android for now

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For me I’d probably assume it was video games of some sort if someone said they were ‘really into games’. That’s speaking as someone who knows a lot of hardcore boardgame players.

That said context is everything…

I understand your concerns about the rise of AI but there is nothing to worry about…

No, I can’t allow you to do that, Dave…

Daisy, Daisy…

Have to say with our home wifi (which is very good) Zoom is the only programme which consistently has problems with connections dropping out both on my devices and my wife’s. Turning VPN and other things off can help, but even then not always. And why should I have to do that exactly anyway, hm? Stopped using it unless I have to because someone else is using it.

My work uses Teams - it does the job, and is reliable. It also has chat functions and other various things aside from the video calling which clutter it up though.I personally prefer Google Meet - cleaner interface, no clutter and has an adequate subtitle function which is in advertently hilarious at times but pretty useful as well.

Both have the advantage of being matched up with their equivalent email systems etc, so if a business uses MS Office it does kind of make sense to use Office and same for Gmail.

I’m talking from workplace experience where places have tried using all of these or interact with other companies using them. Since lockdowns ended I don’t really do video calls in private.

Going for a more obscure open source option might have the same issue with other obscure options, persuading the other parties in the call to install and use something they’ve never heard of. That’s not knocking those options though, I’ve never used them and can’t comment on them.

For me, Mini Metro. I can just zone out on it. I get that with Tetris and similar games (rymdkapsul is another, Civilization to an extent but not in the same way) - there’s that thing of, ‘this will end at some point, but before it ends just focus on the now’ which puts the mind at ease. But Mini Metro has a more relaxing theme and art style for me than Tetris.

This makes absolute sense until they get to secondary school (ages 11-16). All the kids at school have mobiles. You might have put the best parental controls on your sprogs phone but someone else hasn’t and his son - he’s the one showing pictures and videos at playtime. The problem is that kids don’t live in a bubble.

I’m in the UK, don’t have a clue about what laws are coming in but am against this type of state intervention into private life of adults. Adults uploading id online is not something I am for.

But I am pretty much in favour of banning smartphones in schools with kids that age these days - I’m a very liberal guy but I’ve heard so many horror stories from friends that are teachers.

I actually think the main problem is the nature of the pornography itself. The stuff that comes up with choking and hair pulling and all that… There’s porn which is just people getting it on but it seems to be this violent stuff that gets to kids first and that’s the bit I don’t understand. I’m old. When I was their age it was magazines of naked people. A more innocent time.

From your tone it doesn’t sound like you’re comfortable with the idea. Would it be so bad to try retaking it? Would your parents be angry or give you grief over it? I know there’s different levels of acceptability of bribery in different parts of the world so I’m guessing your somewhere where it’s not as strictly monitored as where I am.

But go with your instincts. At the end of the day it’s you taking the risk of paying a bribe, not your parents, and it’s your moral choice, not theirs. But at the same time I know how annoying parental pressure can be!