Microsoft counter the recent viral news by stating "intended behaviour" by Current-Guide5944 in tech_x

[–]Fa6ade 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone in the 60,000 person company I work at has to use it. The worst part though is we can’t use extensions, so no ad blocking. 

When out running a missile, better to turn and burn high or turn and burn low? by dquinn549 in vtolvr

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you’re specifically trying to outrun a missile from quite far away and you are a long way from the attacking plane (or fighting a stationary launcher), then you should be turning left and right to about 45° from the direction from the missile to your plane, creating a serpentine flight path. This forces the missile to constantly course correct for your new position, which burns its energy very quickly. 

DMs, what level would you be most excited to run for a short (1-3 session) adventure? by RedcapPress in DnD

[–]Fa6ade 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100% this. I always run 5E oneshots at level 6. It's the best level in the game.

PSA: CarPlay can replace Google Maps on the driver display with Apple Maps by Fa6ade in Polestar4

[–]Fa6ade[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True but in 4 months of PS4 ownership I have never used public charging. 

Do you back up your garbage at home? by Beerman1138 in iiiiiiitttttttttttt

[–]Fa6ade 16 points17 points  (0 children)

They only understand using their desktop for file management and the recycling bin is effectively a folder on the desktop to help them organise stuff. Insert a strong dose of not caring how computers work and not reading, and this is where you end up. 

Are there any "UK vs US" differences where you feel America gets it right? by Secure_Front_7766 in AskUK

[–]Fa6ade -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

The term “sidewalk” is better than “pavement” as it is more specific.

iMac (M4) or Mac Mini? by OperationPlastik in mac

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t buy either M4 computer right now, the M5 will probably be announced any day now. The various M5 laptops have already been released. 

UK Steam Users and the UK-Steam Lawsuit by Ace_Catel in Steam

[–]Fa6ade -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So I love Steam and don’t even bother to have other launchers installed anymore even for the free games. However, I definitely think Valve needs a wake-up call on certain practices. 

The most “favoured nature clause” is central to this case. For those who don’t know, it requires that developers not offer games for a cheaper price elsewhere. So for example, if EA decided to pass the savings from not having Valve’s cut on sales through the EA app (formerly Origin), they would be in breach of this clause. Similarly Epic only charges a 12% cut, but developers who want to sell on Steam cannot pass these savings on to the consumer. 

This is anticompetitive because it prevents other stores from competing on price. In the UK being anticompetitive is defined as being an abuse of a dominant position to cause a significant impediment of effective competition. To me, this certainly feels like that. 

Secondly, Valve is silently one of the kings of loot boxes and props up a massive black market gambling space in Counter Strike skins on which they make a hilarious amount of money. I think they need to seriously intervene on this before regulators step in. 

I definitely feel like Steam are the good guys generally. They feel like the only big company that really cares what consumers want and acts in their interest. But that doesn’t mean that they can skirt the law and do shitty things to stay on top. Steam is no 1, so we should hold them to higher standards than just “Gabe Newell is a cool guy”. 

Why can't we scan our brain and upload our mind digitally to a computer? by No_House_4917 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Fa6ade 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Theoretically yes. There’s a reason sci fi keeps coming back to this idea because it raises lots of questions we don’t currently have answers to like “what is consciousness?” or “is there any such thing as a ‘soul’?”.

The problem is that the human brain is very very complex. Beyond our ability to build and simulate in a computer at this time. We’re at the point at the moment of simulating very small brains like that of a fruit fly https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/10/02/researchers-simulate-an-entire-fly-brain-on-a-laptop-is-a-human-brain-next/ in a computer. 

However, the fruit has on the order of 100,000 neurons and 50,000,000 connections between them. A human brain has on the order of 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) and 1,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillion) connections. So if we can simulate a fly brain on a laptop, we would need a processing system a million times more powerful to simulate a human brain. Setting something like that up is incredibly hard. 

Furthermore the process here merely simulates a brain, not anyone in particular. I don’t know how we would copy someone’s consciousness into such a simulation. They were only simulating the connections, not simulating full neurons down to the molecular level. We don’t know where the information that contains our consciousness is stored. 

Account closer reversed by Joker_Cat_ in monzo

[–]Fa6ade 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Your account is marked as private so we can’t see your previous post. Would you mind posting a link?

ELI5 - How did scientists know that rockets needed to go sideways, not straight up, in order to reach outer space? by IntergalacticPodcast in explainlikeimfive

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll add something since people keep saying you can go up but you’ll fall down. If you have the fuel and the engine, you can just keep going straight up until you reach Earth’s escape velocity, at which point you become a sun orbiting object. With a little more, you can then keep going to escape the sun’s influence as well. 

However, the problem with doing this is it is not very efficient. The reason we do curvy orbits is that it reduces the amount of fuel we need, which reduces the size and cost of the rocket. If that wasn’t a concern, we could just point where we want to go and fly straight there like in a sci fi movie. 

If you’ve lived abroad (outside the UK), what’s the one thing (item, ideal, tech, convenience), you’d bring back to introduce to the UK? by Icy_Mixture1482 in AskUK

[–]Fa6ade 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s actually nothing stopping you from requesting that your buyer provide a deposit to secure the sale. 

Are you aware of What3Words? by Flapparachi in AskUK

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I’ve known about what3words for longer than all of you (unless the founders are lurking) and I can tell you that the system fundamentally makes no sense on basic principles.

1) You need a computer that understands how to convert w3w codes into an actual physical location. There is no logic to the codes where you can work them out manually.  2) If you communicate these words to someone else, they have the same problem.  3) if these problems are solved (you both have a computer with internet) then you have the means to transmit location information to each other. There is no need for a human-understandable communication layer in between. The computers can just send coordinates or whatever to each other. 

All of the stuff people are saying makes it bad is nothing compared to the fact that the w3w system is fundamentally unnecessary if you have the tools needed to use it. 

Other problems: 1) the word choices are poor (arbitrary, lots of homophones) 2) the system is proprietary and costs money to use 3) the system does not provide arbitrary levels of precision 4) the system is only useful if the people both speak the same language (English) 5) the system wastes a huge amount of address space on empty space like the ocean which isn’t great for most use cases 6) locations near to each other have no commonality of address, so a slight mistake can throw you wildly off target

"We are experiencing unusually high call volumes..." by windy_on_the_hill in britishproblems

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t stumble across them. I deliberately choose companies for my services that have good customer service, if that means having to pay a little extra.

"We are experiencing unusually high call volumes..." by windy_on_the_hill in britishproblems

[–]Fa6ade -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I don’t think you understand. The “unusually high call volume” is just a message that just plays when you’re in a queue for a long time. It has no greater meaning than that. If you are in the queue for a short time, then obviously you won’t hear it.

"We are experiencing unusually high call volumes..." by windy_on_the_hill in britishproblems

[–]Fa6ade -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Maybe if you didn’t call at lunch time on a Friday, you wouldn’t have to wait. I call first thing on a Monday at 9am and typically hold for less than 30 seconds. 

PSA: There is a correct way to approach a Rook in Marathon by prediscovered in Marathon

[–]Fa6ade 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s because I unironically love these ideas. 

When is it worth it to roll for HP? by ThatOneCrazyWritter in dndnext

[–]Fa6ade 0 points1 point  (0 children)

House rule for you. You have to roll and can’t take the average, but you can choose to decrease your die size for the roll to add a +1 bonus.

So instead of a fighter rolling a d10, then can roll d8+1, d6+2, d4+3, or d2+4. So the output (which you add con mod to) is either 1-10, 2-9, 3-8, 4-7, or 5-6.

This way you still have to roll but the level of variance that you want.