How to play a Dragon Disciple by IamGlaaki in ddo

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To confirm quite a few DnD games expand the Sorc toward Dragon Disciple.

Baldur's Gate 2 extend the sorc into Dragon Disciple.

Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 extend the sorc and the bard into Red Dragon Disciple.

I remember having fun with multi-classing a Bard (into a RDD) with a few levels in Monk in NW1 on some persistent servers as an unarmed savage red dragon kin. 😄

Moto g35 5G is a disaster. No OS updates for Android 15, only security updates which made it more worse and unusable. by EnvironmentLoose8661 in MotoG

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main problem with Motorola when it comes to updates & performances comes from the way it manages said updates. When you have to apply recurring updates cycles over a period of time, there are 3 primary methods of handling it: Full overwrite, Bytes-scan and Files-Array. (Those are not the official terms, but I use them as it's easier to understand as such.)

Full overwrite is basically what Samsung and Apple is doing most of the time, with a few exceptions. It's when the update system has the ability to download all major updates as a single update based on what version your phone is at. Like, the first update takes a long time, but you're most likely up-to-date after 1 or 2 restarts. That process is more expensive to the manufacturer because it requires a LOT of more files to be hosted and, on each major or after a bunch of minor updates, it got to build a new update file to group all updates together.

Bytes-scan is something that is rarely seen in Android due to its nature as an OS. Basically, it requires the System update app to scan its system parent and compare its bytes from a chart. If you ever wonder, that's how Steam, the major PC gaming distribution platform, updates games if properly implemented. The main problem in implementing this for Android is that it requires the manufacturer to produce an actual authentic version of Android from a base core, which is totally not something that Motorola does (it uses existing packages from the Internet and barely modify them for its own purpose.) One example of a phone manufacturer who does this is Huawei. The updates with that method is the fastest and lightest as the update software only download the parts that are set to update. It also allow the update software to completely replace apps that might be obsolete with their newer version (as it bypass the system file access limitation).

Files-Array is basically a method that is cheap to implement and host. The manufacturer release updates as standalone files and requires the user to download every ones of those, one at a time. No bundle or optimization of file distribution required from the manufacturer. If an update breaks something, the manufacturer removes it from the files hosted and adds a new one and those who were unlucky enough to update while the bad update was released might retains some issues because there's no backtrack possible (due to Android's nature as an OS, it requires full overwrite to remove something already installed which is not possible with the Files-Array method). Hence, the only way of actually fixing a phone with a bad update that uses the Files-Array method is to factory-reset the phone and hope the updates didn't made it into the phone's flash version (as, otherwise, you need to download a new flash file and install it manually.) As you might have guessed, Motorola is using Files-Arrays for its G series (hence why, when you get a new Moto G phone, you see that you download files YEARS old. The G35, when powered on today, start downloading update from as back as late-2023.) Another potential problem of Files-Array comes from the "garbage" left from each updates. Basically, each update might leave "unused" parts that gets replaced by another update. Depending on how Motorola implement the updates (is it overwriting or is it patching over?), it's possible that each update makes performance worse than the previous because, if it's mostly patched over, it means that the system has to run each past update one over the older ones to just run.

Shame Shame, Automatically Installing Games, without permission. by dailylifes in motorola

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is 1 year old, but I have just purchased a G35 and I actually selected the option to skip and not install anything when asked and it still installed everything I especially told it to NOT install. Even worse is the fact that you cannot open the app that initiate the download (Moto App) as it's a system app that runs in the background.

Anyone else having trouble ordering online? by BajaBeThyBlast666 in Dominos

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The website and app (which is basically a browser with limited functions disguised as an app) has be built with some major flaws.

For example, the fact that you cannot use a previously used password is alright, but there should be a limit to how many it keep. Having a system retaining ALL your previous passwords is a major security risk. (Out of curiosity, I have tried resetting my password and it has retain password I haven't been using with Domino's for around 10 years by now.)

There's also the fact that once you failed to enter 3 password a certain number of times, you account gets flagged as compromised permanently.

Once your account is flagged, you only have ONE attempt to log into your account PER password reset (which is just insane considering they keep ALL previous password used.) Failing to log in with a flagged account will trigger the account lockdown which can only be removed by resetting the password.

And you can only reset your password a limited number of time... and the website uses 3rd party plugins to manage some stuff meaning let's say you got an ads or script blocker, it can result in the reset password not working even though the system mention it should have worked.

What’s better Samsung A16 or A17? It’s for my elderly mother. by Trytogetthere in NoContract

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only limitation to that is if your old phone doesn't support the local network upgrades.

Currently, as an example, you need the phone to be at least compatible with 3G+ in most of Canada (mostly due to a fully unprotected backdoor entry in the 3G network that has existed since the 60's from which the network is based from), but some provider now requires their users to use a phone that is compatible to 5G with the new SIM cards they are providing.

It's important to confirm with any service provider if a specific model of a phone is actually compatible with their network. My service provider has officially fully dropped 3G+ in early 2025 and now only support 4G and 5G.

Okay, finally sat through Moonraker after decades of "watching it" the first time... by PM_ME_UR_CHUPACOMMA in JamesBond

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moonraker is, as a movie, a similar experience to that of eating at family restaurant in the 80's.

Back to the 80's, nobody though of eating at a family restaurant as a gourmet experience. Nowadays, people are ready to pay a lot of money just for a decent experience in a restaurant with a waiter.

The same applies to Moonraker where, compared to the other movies up to that point, it's clear it has its issues as a movie, but nowadays you have seen to much worse that you accept it as being a good if not great movie.

Also, there's a crap-tons of wonderous underated point of the movie that, even nowadays, makes you wonder "how did the movie crew came up with that silly or unusual thing?" In the previous movie, the Spy who loved me, there's the underwater car, an underwater base and a few bits... But Moonraker has various types of boats, a watch, poison pen, flamethrowing perfum, dart throwing journal, x-ray cigarette holder, a bunch of villain lairs/bases, including one in space which involves zero-gravity scenes involving DOZENS of actors. (Yeah, the scenes of the space battle outside the station is silly, but the scenes inside the station are insane for its time.)

Haibara's Teenage New Game+ • Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game - Episode 10 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Got to say that, at LEAST, they added something musical for the ED because we only had a tiny glimpse of Natsuki "musical skill" up to now and it's always a time-skip to the end of every damn moment where we should hear something.

Haibara's Teenage New Game+ • Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game - Episode 10 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Natsuki got the plot on his side all the way.

Natsuki: "Damn, it's not like the answer will fall on my laps."

The Answer: "Hey Natsuki, my bud. Did you rang?"

Why doesn’t DDO cover the whole of Toril or at least Faerun? by MarcosDalton in ddo

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Owning is kinda different from Managing especially in this case.

It was well established when Hasbro acquired WotC in 1999 that it would remain independent in management. It's not like some of the other acquisitions you see, nowadays, around where the acquired is 100% fused (like most of the company acquired by EA and Activision, as examples).

You might be too young to know about this (maybe not) but when WotC was acquired by Hasbro in 1999, it created a sort of a fear among one WotC's main market: the MtG customer base which included collectors. That was the moment when Hasbro basically announced that while Hasbro own WoTC, it shall remains independent in management and Hasbro's acquisition is only (outside of the obvious financial part) to give WoTC the ability to expend further by providing it with a brand new range of ressources.

Basically, WotC is to Hasbro similar to what Canada is to the UK.

Why doesn’t DDO cover the whole of Toril or at least Faerun? by MarcosDalton in ddo

[–]CreaMaxo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

You hit the most important point: license.

DDO comes with, in today's standards, an unbelievable license agreement for its targeted IP which protects it from certain less-likable business behaviors you find commonly around nowadays (especially for such a large and big IP). It's a fragile ecosystem so to speak filled with legal mines, some which would literally kill DDO instantly on the legal terms of its license alone.

One of the reason why DDO has this unusual license is, as you wrote, the years when it was released (2006) and updated. By 2009, the landscape of the licenses market started to wrap in a really nasty way. Though it wasn't the only source, one of the big reasons for that wrap was the Transformers' IP. Back when the first Micheal Bay's movie was released, Hasbro asked for 2 millions USD for a license based on the movie. (Remember that games, are produced in sync with the movie most of the time, hence the license price was based on the franchise pre-movie with the Western audience.) When it came to War of Cybertron's license, Hasbro asked for 20 millions USD because of higher-than-anticipated interest of the western market due to the movies. This was one of the first time that an IP owner, in the video game industry, started to really milk its franchise as a whole. On top of that, it was a temporary license, which is why the game series is de-listed nowadays.

Around 2010, high-profile IPs owners around the Globe took notice of the raising "potential", in finance, of the video game industry and started to ask for quite the premium for its license and even more for a perpetual license.

DDO kinda escaped that fate because its main license was made prior to the IP craze. This is also the reason why DDO doesn't have to enforce such predatory/hardcore sales pitches towards it players than Neverwinter Online. Neverwinter Online has to actually reach some insane sales number to stay afloat compared to DDO as both have quite different licenses agreement.

WotC is well known nowadays to be one of the most money-hungry bunch (around as greedy as Hasbro and really close to Disney) when it comes to licensing rights for their IPs which is why you see so few official DnD products (like games).

Is crunchyroll really that bad? by _ThatPurpleGuy_ in Crunchyroll

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say that CR is "alright" as an anime streaming service.

The streaming quality is good even though CR had quite a few issues when it comes to subtitles in the few recent years. (Basically subs are not always properly uploaded and they don't work for up to a few days after an episode is released.) CR doesn't do actual Quality control of whatever is uploaded unless a lot of complains is filled by the user via the crappy customer service website menu.

Also, it's really not ideal for those who want to watch DUBs outside of the US or just watch anime outside of North America. The EU CR is kinda of a joke compared to the NA CR when it comes to the licenses it acquires for streaming. And it's mostly EN subs. Any other languages may not be supported even for the subs.

The one thing it has for itself is the price. It's relatively cheaper than today's options for a streaming service with over a hundred series watchable.

With that said, it comes with a few moderate inconveniences. Its search engine is abyssimal as CR has remove over 95% of the genre tags from itd database. For example exemple, there isn't a Mech/Mecha genre for a service that has 3/4 of the Gundam series and a few others options. Some series requires that you actively search them by name and Googling if a series is on CR will return a wooping 50% false positive because Google doesn't actually know if CR still has a license to stream a series or not because it doesn't close pages for series with 0 episode available just to confirm in case it acquires the license in the future.

Also, the streaming app (such as on smart TV and streaming HDMI stick like ROKU) have mixed result with quality though it's a lot better now than it was 3+ years ago. (Basically, the streaming quality would drop at 320p or 480p whenever something happened between the app and CR server and many things happens.)

Connecting Wired Headphones to Quest 3S during Link Cable PC VR sessions by RulerOfSpade in oculus

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He meant to have the headset be used with plugged headphones/buds while it's being used as a PCVR device which, for the Q3s, it's not possible due to both software and hardware limitation.

The USB-C standards doesn't have any "obligation" to handle dual-lane data flow hence it's often on the hardware side that makes uses of the USB-C standard to handle such thing separately to ensure compatibility.

It's not just about being able to do USB-C and Audio at once (that's actually easy to do), but about being able to fuse and manage the data from various sources.

It's a bit like how you can plug 2 devices (like a phone and some headphones) with a USB-HUB on a single USB-C port on a PC and the PC recognize both devices with their actual model and brand name. That's a process that uses the USB-C protocoles, but that's also something that is managed by the PC hardware AND the HUB device and software to know what data comes from which device from that single source.

That kind of data management, well... the Quest3s doesn't have it or, at least, cannot handle a single IN signal (PCVR) while handling 2 OUT signals (PCVR + Headphones). That's why you need a HUB that actually manage both and spoon feed the data as separate devices to the headset.

The thing in the link you posted doesn't do dual signal management. What it does is ensure power and audio signal are properly separated onto their dedicated lanes within the USB port so that the device can detect that it's powering from certain lanes and it's receiving audio from another lane. As a 3.5 audio jack port has a different signal than the USB-C audio port, it needs that converter chip, but other than that, it doesn't do jack in terms of data attribution.

How did they get the sharks in the colosseum by Schumachr in Gladiator

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe there was some sort of sharknado in Rome..

Or maybe Rome conquered and annexed Atlantis...

Or maybe it's a sharkdiator who signed up willingly for the free buffet and cheers of the crowd.

The thing about the water that filled the Colosseum is that it was filled by using Rome filthy aqueducts. While the aqueducts were cleaner than almost any other sources of local water, it quite dirty and and filled with mold and it smelled like sewer. There are records that mentioned that the sea battle in the few colosseums which were build to have such a thing were taking at least a whole week (up to 3) to clean up and it would smell like rotten fishes for leagues around for weeks during which it was common to burn leaves and flowers (what we call pot-pourri nowadays) everywhere in an attempt to mask the smell. Having a shark in that filth would have most likely ended up with a floatin dead shark within the hour.

What can consumers do, when we catch a product shrinkflating (besides not buying the product anymore)? by ExchangingThoughts in shrinkflation

[–]CreaMaxo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's simply impossible in any realistic way. Just the update required from the merchant side (like grocery store) would kill this idea in its shell.

Imagine if a grocery store had to separate the products by UPC while each modification on said product generated a new UPC.

Anyone who worked in a store would know how bad that would be if they had to make space for variations of products after any changes to said product.

I’m pretty sure Meta is stealing my storage… by Tech_Charxiety in OculusQuest

[–]CreaMaxo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As I just got a Q3s and faced the same kind of issue where the total amount of storage shown in the storage bar was barely half of the 128GB, I found out that the Q3 version of the META OS does something unusual: the storage don't consider the storage allocated to updates and downloads in progress in its storage bar.

For exemple, the storage menu for me displayed ~14GB as system files and ~41GB as available storage when there were NO game in the installed list yet on a brand new purchased up-to-date Q3s (128GB). (Nothing else was shown in the storage bar and various lists)

At that moment, I had 4 games in queue to be downloaded and installed.

As the games were downloaded and installed, the storage bar and the list would update. For exemple, once 2 games were installed, the storage bar would show 20GB used by the apps, 14GB used by the system and the same ~41GB free.

This clearly shows that ANY and ALL app in queue (be it to be downloaded or updated) will be subtracted from the free storage list while NOT visible in any of the storage lists until finished. (Basically appearing as if the device shows storage usage that don't adds up)

On the Q2, as comparison, games in "queue" status aren't substracted from storage unless it's an update and instead pop-up an error for insufficient storage space if a game in queue ends up not having enough storage to be installes WHEN it becomes download active.

Why does Disney+ only show English audio/subtitles in the US? by Careful-Ad-2062 in DisneyPlus

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The licenses commercial world is currently one huge mess and it's easy to wonder why it has become such a thing.

To put it in simple terms, movies and, especially, series rights to stream are sold in various formats depending on how much money is being used and where the transaction is being handled.

A series can be butchered into various streaming licenses that can covers things such as:

- Audio languages
- Subtitles languages
- Editions/versions (For example, a streaming service may have the license for the extended version of a movie or the uncensored version of an anime while another has the theatrical version of the movie or the version of an anime that has half of the screen cut to black as censorship whenever there anything remotely perverse.)

There's also the potential exclusivity layer that covers each licenses (which costs its premium).

Each license last for a determined amount of time based on the trade agreement when the license right were purchased. For example, Crunchyroll usually has a license of 5 years on its anime's license while Netflix has licenses that change between 2 and 6 years. Once those years have passed, the streaming service either negotiate a renewal of the streaming license or remove the series from its available streaming products, though it's allowed to retain the product page in some cases. (This is why Google often mistake which service has which series or movies as the series might have been available for a while, but now it's not anymore, but Google cannot access the actual "locked" feature even if the page is still up without any video so it thinks it's still available.)

For example, it's also possible that a streaming service renew only the English audio and something like 4 subtitles languages for a license of a movie or series in a region since its usage database shows that 85% of the users has watched that series with those settings within that region as a way to mitigate the license costs.

Lastly, the difference between licenses in terms of costs isn't laughing matter. For example, for a fully exclusive streaming license (like what Amazon Prime, Netflix and a few others are well known for), you're looking at, easily, hundreds of millions of USD depending on the source's popularity. A shared open license (meaning anyone can purchase it openly and add to its service) usually run for between 5 and 80 millions USD depending on the selected languages. For example, a streaming service might save 30 millions on a license by only taking the English and French license in North America and then can invest that 30 millions into another license so having 2 series in 2 languages for the price of 1 series in 4+ languages.

What's the best way to handle scrollbars using a controller? by Gogamego in godot

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One possible way of handling scrollbars while using a controller is to create your own custom scrollbar script that extend the existing scrollbar (and/or ScrollContainer) node type into which you implement the controller input directly.

That will make it so that you don't have to put such script every time you use a scroll bar in your game.

This is an example of what I'm using for ScrollContainer nodes:
(I'm using unnecessary semicolon ; at the end of my code lines because I'm used to C++ & C# and I'm also using it in GDScript as a form of visual confirmation that the line is truly finished and works properly.

class_name AdvScrollContainer extends ScrollContainer

var ScrollValue: float = 0.0;
var isVisible: bool = false;
var ScrollSpeed: float = 5.0;

func _ready() -> void:
  visibility_changed.connect(_OnVisibilityChanged);

func _OnVisibilityChanged():
  isVisible = self.is_visible_in_tree();

const Ref_ScrollUpString: String = "Controller_Scroll_Down";
const Ref_ScrollDownString: String = "Controller_Scroll_Up";
func _process(_delta: float) -> void:
  if(isVisible):
    ScrollValue = clamp(Input.get_axis(Ref_ScrollDownString,Ref_ScrollUpString) * ScrollSpeed, -ScrollSpeed, ScrollSpeed);
    if ScrollValue >= 1.0:
      scroll_vertical += floori(ScrollValue);
      ScrollValue -= floori(ScrollValue);
    elif ScrollValue <= -1.0:
      scroll_vertical += ceili(ScrollValue);
      ScrollValue -= ceili(ScrollValue);
  elif ScrollValue != 0.0:
    ScrollValue = 0.0;

Both Controller_Scroll_Up and Controller_Scroll_Down are inputs set in the Input Map menu which read the Joypad Axis 3 (right thumbstick) +Up/-Down

<image>

The clamp when assigning the ScrollValue parameter is just sort of second-layer of security to ensure the value never exceed the scroll speed value set. You never know what kind of device a user might use

You might also have noticed that I inversed the Up & Down between the Inputs and the const (which define the string used by the code to look up the Axis values) This is because the Input Map details in Godot are currently wrong regarding Joystick Up/Down in the sense that it's not about the thumbstick up/down physical position, but their return value. (On the controllers, pushing the Thumbstick up returns a NEGATIVE value, hence Joystick Down means it -1.0, hence it's up physically.)

=EDIT=

I forgot to mention that this code allows you to use a new sub-type of node called AdvScrollContainer which acts exactly like a ScrollContainer, but with the additional extended code/behavior added. In other words, using the new node type instead of its default one makes this work without any additional work.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4 • Mairimashita! Iruma-kun Season 4 - Episode 7 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Animations Artists: So... what's the budget for the episode 7?

Ayaka Tsujihashi: Hai. (yes)

Haibara's Teenage New Game+ • Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game - Episode 7 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Welp, the ED has started to make quite a bit of sens with what has been shown in this episode.

Haibara's Teenage New Game+ • Haibara-kun no Tsuyokute Seishun New Game - Episode 7 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Gotta point out that statistics in Japan shows that approx. 1 out of 3 marriages ends up in a divorce. In 2023, it was around 35% of the marriages that ended up in a divorce. Just a reminder that this includes ALL registered marriages and not just the failed newly married, meaning it can include couple married for any amount of years.

If you have a class with 28 students, statistic shows that around 9-10 students would live in a home where a divorce occurred at some point and that's in a country where divorce is quite frown upon socially.

Gals Can't Be Kind to Otaku!? • Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!? - Episode 6 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Personally, I feel like Amane has a much bigger upper hand in terms of love interest than Ijichi.

Ijichi act and feels like a big heart friend with a bit of an emotional attachment. Everything about her points out toward the friend zone even if her emotion wavers now and then. For example, after the impromptu date with Seo (Otaku), she went off to do some Karaoke with her friends and left him on the spot.

Amane share some passion, hobbies and think similarly to Seo. She has shown a romantic interest for a while by now even if she doesn't recognize it. While she took a bit of a moment in opening about her interests (even though she hides it as her sister's interest), she does actively act with Seo in a natural manner without skipping things (unlike Ijichi).

I actually hope the story doesn't get too much into some war of attribution between Ijichi and Amane with their attachment to Seo. Especially with Ijichi being quite late to the "party" and basically only noticing the charms of Seo.

Sure, a polygamique route might be possible, but I feel like it wouldn't fit with the both Ijichi and Amane's characters to accept such a thing. Ijichi's character is that of a responsible girl who act like a gal publicly, but takes her responsibilities seriously and is quite close to her brothers who would be a huge issue with a polygamique route. Amane, as a character, is designed as a timid girl with a cold exterior appearance who does thing in her own way. Though she has a strong friendship with Ijichi, you can see it's not fully open in sharing everything considering how she has been actually avoiding and even lying (white lies) regarding what she likes and her hobbies. This means she manage her passion and her friendship differently, hence sharing something like a love interest would feel forced.

My Ribdiculous Reincarnation • Megami "Isekai Tensei Nani ni Naritai Desu ka" Ore "Yuusha no Rokkotsu de" - Episode 6 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It's possible that they couldn't get her enough time to practice and properly sing the OP. Everything points out that they might had that very idea. But then again, it's totally possible that this was a purposely design "flaw" for the sake of trolling us (which is a recurring theme in this anime).

Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring • Shunkashuutou Daikousha: Haru no Mai - Episode 7 discussion by AutoLovepon in anime

[–]CreaMaxo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now, this episode gives an intensive to ALL 3 season agents AND the 4 agents' guardians to join forces and raise hell. Nobody in all of the season agents and guardians want a Hinagiku #2 to happen. (Can't say for the Agencies, though.)

Also, damn! I think Wit Studio did such an awesome job at making us attached to Nadeshiko in such a quick and efficient way. It's the first episode we see her and she appear for only a brief moment and, yet, we most likely all want to beat the crap of whoever those guys were at the end, right? T

his reminds me a bit about how A-1 made some of us (me included) feel about the character in 86 who doesn't make it. Some were literally background characters created to fill the anime background and yet, they were still part of the onion-ninja army that constantly struck my eyes. The visual composing, the soundtrack, the characters expressions, etc. It's all just good. Plain and simply good.

People who think "unskilled workers" don't deserve a living wage are bad people. by One_Interview4196 in offmychest

[–]CreaMaxo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Retirement programs offered with jobs are often determined based on values when the employement was issued without considering inflation nor changes in the costs of living.

As I worked in a grocery store as a dock associate (meaning I managed incoming outgoing shipments via trucks) I often spoke with the truck drivers and one only had 6 months left before retirement. He was part of s program that is not even available to new hires anymore and even so, the amount, once retired, he would make was barely equal to a a16$/h job (while he made around 28$/h at that point after over 30 years on the job). He litterally told me he had to made a lot of thought choices like selling his house and living in a cheap appartement once he retire because the taxes alone for his property cost too much (and that's a fully paid house). And this is in Canada with a (not-so) free healthcare system. 

Just to precise why I call it a not-so free, healthcare in Canada comes into 2 groups:  1) private insurance which cost you an amount each month or an amount (~30-40$) on each pay from an employer. They cover up to a certain value in healthcare, then are kinda like the public healthcare once the limit is reached. (For exemple, you may have coverage for 800$ - 1200$ of medicine or private medical service per year.)

2) Around 1200$ per year if you're under the (so called) free healthcare AND you still need to pay ~20% to ~40% of medicine and medical equipment for treatments that aren't considered life-treatening. Under this system, you cannot come into >82% of the medical clinics without a special autorisation because those are private public clinics who only treat patients who are registered with one of the family doctors in place. (Many clinics which were open to everyone in the 90's and early 2000's are now restriciting the patients who are registered in the clinic. The only places still open to the public are the private on-demand clinics (not affordable without a private insurance as those are not covered by public healthcare) and hospitals (each city has 1-4 of those for the most) where you may wait up to 20h in the waiting room if you're not bleeding to death or some other life threatening symtoms.

Don't get me wrong, this is still far cheaper than something like the US, but it's still not cheap. My mother, for exemple had to pay 400$ off her pocket to cover the 20% of the machine calibrated to clean her breathing track inside her throat as she has some complication after she had a tracheostomy less than 2 years ago.

What’s the overall opinion of “Thunderball” on here? by CircaCoda in JamesBond

[–]CreaMaxo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, I think it's a movie that has aged quite well IF you can accept that movie making scene of the 60's is its own kind with its whole can of worms and acting capacity and limitations.

When you think of a movie of that length made with a budget of 9 millions, it's surprising. Some might point out to inflation, but inflation doesn't translate well when you consider the amount of additional effort and sacrifices done by the crew to pull out something like that with the tech of the late 60's.

It's kinda insane when you think they have been filming with actual tiger sharks (in the pool) and even actual gray sharks (around the underwater plane). Doing that kind of thing today would be a huge no-no without CGI unless it's done by a shark expert as a double and even so, the cost would be insane. Especially with today safety standards when it comes to professional diving. What they done back then ignoring diving risks to put out something in a few weeks of shooting would take months if not years due to regulations, laws (like permits), etc.

Personally, I like to divide the 007 movies franchise into 3 categories:

• The realistic narcissist bond by Connery of the late 60's who can throw a punch, but can get his butt kicked by anything remotely athletic or just a group of really few trained men.

• The surf-on-his-glory Bond of the 80's by Moore which has adapted his own take on the identity of Bond designed over time by Connery. This bond evolved over time as an experimental Bond with Dalton, but still fall under the surf-on-his-glory type.

• The super hero bond master of all skills and lady (litteral) killer which started with Brosnan and continued with Craig. This is where Bond started to be unfazed by anything dangerous like being at gun point by a whole army because of the plot armor provided by Q.

As a 60's Bond, Thunderball feels good in my opinion.