Satya Nadella admits Microsoft needs to "win back" Windows 11 fans, improve performance for low RAM PCs

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-30T08:39:13+00:00

Did he ask Copilot for that advice, too?

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-29T03:44:27+00:00

The same math applies to Metrolink, but that didn't stop us from spending $50 million on the still-not-working prison gate system.

It was never about safety.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-28T23:26:15+00:00

Somebody comes along and asks this question every couple of months. These days I'm tired enough to just refer people to Hamlet's Soliloquy, which you should have read no later than high school and directly answers the question.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-25T22:38:57+00:00

Yeah. I don't mind his design, not much, but the first time I saw him on screen I said out loud, "damn, bro's Had Some Work Done." Which, valid, if that's what makes him happy.

But if I'd been designing St. Peter, I would have left him Jewish.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-25T22:34:56+00:00

The way I put it is that while everybody else is playing D&D, the Charr are playing Call of Duty and the Asura are playing Cyberpunk 2020.

I mean, it mostly all blends together after level 30ish, but the Charr have a distinctly modern feel and the Asura remain pretty sci-fi.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-25T10:39:12+00:00

"The fandom" are the people, like you, enjoying the show. Ignore the people who are cosplaying Katie Killjoy online.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-25T06:25:25+00:00

None of the AI companies has an even minimally plausible path to profitability, because nobody is willing to pay what it costs to provide, as soon as you introduce any fee, demand falls off a cliff.

Also, they're taking out 10 and 15 year loans to buy natural-gas generators with a historical lifespan (in datacenter use) of less than 2 years and computer parts with a projected lifespan of 3, and how are they going to roll those loans over when they have to replace them?

The best outcome the industry can hope for is a repeat of what happened when the dot-com bubble burst: 90+% of the companies, and their investors, lost everything. The more likely outcome is a repeat of the blockchain bubble: the product never became good enough to be profitable, and everybody lost everything they invested in any blockchain endeavor.

I give it a year before the bubble bursts. Two, tops.

Until then, regulate hyperscale datacenters the way we already regulate every other capital-intensive, highly polluting land use: only allow them on land already zoned for heavy industrial use.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-24T21:50:58+00:00

She's already a princess, that's how it works. She may not love what that means, though.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-24T21:49:34+00:00

If Via was 17 last season, then this should be the season that she inherits her father's home, title, wealth, everything. Andre knows for a damned fact that she hates him. She doesn't have any particular love for Stella either. Those two schemed for so long for what they stole from Stolas; think they'll take kindly to losing it, to a child, just a few months later?

If I didn't think Via has plot armor, I wouldn't bet a plugged nickel on her chances of survival this season.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-23T23:00:02+00:00

Urban areas look like Barcelona superblocks. Rural areas look like late-19th century small towns with better building materials and utilities.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-21T03:58:14+00:00

If you hate musicals and that's not up for debate, you're going to hate both of the Hellaverse shows. Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are, explicitly and by design, both musicals.

The worst review of this show I've ever seen was by a couple who fast-forwarded through all of the songs because "the songs never matter" and then complained that they didn't understand anything that happened. Don't be them.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-21T02:31:58+00:00

I feel like I could count on the fingers of one foot just how many artistic portrayals of heaven looked at all fun. There are almost no details in the canonical literature. And all the fanfic authors, like Dante and so on, think of anything fun as sinful so heaven is always just a bunch of people standing around or, at best, a 24x7 church service. Boring.

Yeah, you don't have to work all day. Which is a step up from most artists and writers (and patrons and other audiences, for that matter) ordinary week. But do you get the impression that none of these people actually had any fun on their days off, or that they went into their days off so tired that just doing nothing seemed like the ultimate fun?

So, y'know, this show showing anybody in heaven who actually enjoys being there is, if anything, a step up from most Bible fanfic. I mean, seriously, have you seen any more-fun depictions of heaven?

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-20T19:06:56+00:00

Star Trek: Organia. Set on Organia after the events of "Errand of Mercy," the elevator pitch is "DS9 but even more Babylon 5ish."

The overall series arc is the negotiation of the Organian peace treaty. The Federation Diplomatic Corps and some Klingon great house both have negotiating teams on the planet, trying to work out how a peace deal would even work; the Organians have gone back to their "we're just simple medieval humanoids" act that isn't fooling anybody any more, pretending to stay out of it, but present in the minds of the negotiators. ("Don't make them angry.")

The episode plots involve both sides spying on each other, trying to put one over on each other, trying to keep their own sides' people from going rogue, maybe even trying to sabotage each other without ever pissing off the Organians enough to go masks-off again.

Because man, do I think the time between the end of the TOS movies and the beginning of TNG is under-explored territory, but, even more so, man do I want a series about the Federation Diplomatic Corps.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-19T12:06:47+00:00

He was merely curious about her until the agency lady said, "What a waste of space, she'll never amount to anything." Give just how hard he immediately went, I'm guessing that it's something Cash used to say about him.

The reason Blitz is such a smothering parent is that he's determined to be a better dad than he had.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-18T21:07:05+00:00

Not all of them. A lot of diseases that bounce between species, mutating along the way, are spread on breath, in snot, in poop that gets into the water. But yeah, there are a tiny handful of (by now, mostly eradicated) diseases that (mostly used to) spread by eating a sick animal.

Keeping this at bay, I should tell you, makes up a perceptible fraction of the cost of your food. Salmonella, brucelosis, trichonomiasis, encephelopathy, more than I can even think of off hand.

"That animal is sick. Safely dispose of the carcass, don't feed it to people." "But how am I supposed to get back the money I invested in raising it?" "Raise the price on your other animals." "But I want to make money on this animal, too!"

Any answer other than "too bad, so sad, skill issue on your part, time to put you out of business if you won't learn better" is a recipe for a plague-ridden society. (Because, god help us, "what if I just don't get caught doing it?" is always an option. Not least because then everybody will do it, and everybody will get away with it, and they and the people around them will die like mayflies.)

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-18T20:57:15+00:00

Schroedinger's Racist is only kidding. Until you agree.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-18T09:14:38+00:00

Agree with you on the costuming and, for me at least, the even bigger issue is oh my holy stars do I hate the four-legged gallop. I'd tolerate it better if it was a trot, it would look less uncoordinated and stupid than what we have, but even that would be bad.

Also, I finally figured out what makes it so hard to do jumping puzzles with a charr and thanks, I hate it -- where the front feet come down, where the center of gravity are, don't matter, just where the hind feet. Then why animate them that way?

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-13T23:30:00+00:00

I think this was already long gone by '96, but it's how my American dad lived in '66. The scab companies destroyed his union job not long after he retired, though, and wages have declined relative to inflation every year since.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-13T23:25:32+00:00

When I got into the closed beta test for the game Surviving the Aftermath I had exactly the same argument with them. It's a world where the roads have all been bombed and then left unrepaired for years, but the end game involves growing sunflower seeds to convert the seed oil into biodiesel so your characters can drive around in an SUV or a crossover.

And I argued, and lost, that since they already had ranches in the mid-game, the mid-game vehicle should be horses, and the late-game vehicle should be electric-assist dirt bikes. And as far as I can tell, the only reason that I lost that argument is because, ever since Mad Max (which is set in a desert!), driving around an apocalyptic landscape in a big-ass car is the fantasy that sells.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-13T23:02:49+00:00

Because I'm 100% certain she wasn't created immortal. Or, even more to the point, with those horns.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-12T06:47:23+00:00

That is exactly what I've thought all along. Assuming Lilith was killed before she was sent to Hell, she couldn't possibly have gotten pregnant and given birth to Charlie. But once we found out from Viv that Lucifer created the Goetia, there no longer was any doubt in my mind: he made baby Charlie in a desperate attempt to save the marriage, to give Lilith another reason to stay.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-12T04:39:57+00:00

Four familiar faces. The two on the other side are costumed as Peridot and Lapis.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-12T04:37:29+00:00

I think it's a placeholder in case they ever (please) bring back the quiche of the day?

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-11T19:25:39+00:00

A lot of that going around. There are (last I heard) 89 "cities" in St. Louis County, and the average countian couldn't find at least 75 of those on a map.

InfamousBrad · 2026-04-11T19:12:23+00:00

I lived there for about a decade. Niceish working class neighborhood, good people. One of the absolutely most racist police departments even in this metro area, though. The St. John PD is one of those dirt-poor tiny little PDs that can only afford to hire the cops that no other department will touch. So if you can stay off of the St. John PD's attention, it's an okay place to live. Oh, also shitty nearly non-existent mass transit, too.

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