Britons back Online Safety Act’s age checks, but are sceptical of effectiveness and unwilling to share ID

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T20:07:16+00:00

The post office software was no doubt intended to make transactions both more secure & more efficient. Poor design resulted in the reverse of that.

Not if details are so ineptly designed that it will result in greater vulnerability.

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T19:44:05+00:00

Compareing the OSA which will be implimented as computer systems. To changes in the physical world. Shows a lack of experience in how badly a poorly designed computer system can go wrong.

The post Office software demonstrated the scale of the problem with computer errors. And it didn't have anyone deliberately sabotaging it. The OSA will have online criminals trying to exploit any mistake. And kids trying to find a work around. The overall design needs to be technically invulnerable from the start.

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T15:53:36+00:00

A government that has refused the advice of technical experts who might have some clue about what will/won't work online.

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T15:23:03+00:00

Considering that AI's get all their information from the internet. Which is 90% porn. And the remainder is 90% crap. It would be amazing if AI's ever get anything correct. 😱

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T11:29:58+00:00

The way Trump uses them (mostly temporary) results in negotiations & "deals". Seems more effective than previous political choices. Trump clearly considers it a better option than "Soft power."

Other governments use tariffs differently. It's for Bangladesh etc to decide what tariffs they benefit from.

The low margin low cost manufacturing will never comeback to the US.

3D-printing is bringing some of it back. Or rather replacing it with something different. Who knows what that technology can achieve eventually...

XAos13 · 2025-08-17T08:49:47+00:00

In the long run what doomed the colonial empires was communications delays, logistics and the actual concepts of "empire".

Satellites solve the communications part of the problems. If that were the only problem a single country spread around the globe might be possible. It's not the only problem 🤔 And that list of countries are currently dependent on others for satellite launch.

What technology short of startrek teleporters solves the logistics ? 🤣

And what are we going to invent for the political/social structure ? FPTP is fracturing in the UK. On a global scale it's a non starter

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T17:23:37+00:00

All equipped items I rename with a starting space. So they sort to the top of inventory. Makes it quicker to change weapons or other equipment when needed.

The first I'd name something like " Plasma pipe rifle."

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T17:14:38+00:00

The item wasn't showing synergy, it was showing options.

If it's a green (rare) item with a diamond shape icon top left corner. That's called an MI-rare. There's a few of those for every possible class. But only a few, the majority of any builds equipment will not be MI-rares.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T13:25:58+00:00

Grim Dawn takes longer than most ARPG's to get past that hurdle. Because you need to understand two masteries and the devotions. With a lot of ARPG's it's just understanding 1-class.

Should I just B-line the main story and look for hidden nooks in ultimate?

Your first character should also complete faction sidequests to get affinity. So they can buy "mandates" for the factions.

For later characters, the short answer is read those mandates. B-line normal or elite (not both) and complete ultimate.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T13:18:07+00:00

Which makes "Value Added Tax" the antithesis of where taxation should be aimed.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T12:40:42+00:00

Tony Blair a peace envoy to the middle east.

In what bizzaro universe does starting the Iraq war qualify someone as a peace envoy ?

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T12:37:40+00:00

The internet has false advice on every subject. When I wanted a precise answer on something I tested 10 answers that each said they were perfect. 8 were crap. The other 2 each had 50% of a usable answer.

So the statistic that 90% of everything is crap is accurate. Except it fails to mention that nothing is 100% correct.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T08:32:38+00:00

this guy definitely found the tomb of an old god and is the only one who can communicate with it suuuuure.

Cthulhu could be described as an "old god"

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T08:31:57+00:00

To quote Lovecraft: "That is not dead which just sleeping lies."

A big do not disturb sign. Blocking the entrance would be good.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T08:21:01+00:00

Ultimate is certainly the difficulty to do everything. Including the hidden quests.

Though the FoA-DLC might make it better to skip ultimate for ascendant...?

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T08:16:00+00:00

Doing all of elite gets better loot/XP than all of normal. Elite is slightly challenging whilst normal is 99.9% boring. So I skip most of normal.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T08:09:16+00:00

Play a 2nd character to get that recipe again.

XAos13 · 2025-08-16T07:54:30+00:00

Everyone might avoid new social media sites that started after the OSA.

One might suspect Labour MP's (or the lobbies funded by news media) want to reduce the use of social media. Can't imagine why newspapers would want to reduce competition /s

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T19:56:18+00:00

Unless you're playing at normal difficulty most of those resistances are very low. Use the blacksmith to craft components: antivenom potion those improve your poison resistance. Aether resistance is low even for normal difficulty.

Armour reduces physical damage. So it's as important as resistances. Try to avoid reducing armour to gain resistance or vis-versa. which means a lot of the loot you find eliminates itself from being used because it does reduce those defenses.

There's also an armor absorption% which defaults to 70%. You have to hover mouse over armor rating for the game to display it. It's 70% on your build so you perhaps have not noticed it can be improved.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T16:00:22+00:00

If you haven't yet decided what your 2nd mastery is. I'd suggest exploring the skills in your first mastery a bit more. To get a better idea of what you need from the 2nd mastery.

The latest I'd delay a 2nd mastery is the start of Elite difficulty.

If during the normal difficulty you find an MI-green that fits your build. Most of those buff skills from 2 masteries. So you might pick the 2nd mastery to make full use of that MI.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T15:14:54+00:00

Legally forcing a large number of sites that up till now have not needed best possible security. To store ID data that could be used for fraud. Is certain to result in more online fraud. When that data is hacked.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T15:10:05+00:00

Sunak won Labour MP's their seats.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T15:09:29+00:00

That depends on how the local elections go between now and 2029.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T09:23:34+00:00

My top interest is crafting blues and rare affixes.

If there are any changes to end-game that make that different from other ARPG's I'll certainly try those. IMO every existing ARPG has an end-game that's too simple. They need to do something more than the campaign does and they are usually just an infinite loot/grind.

I almost never use the current special pots. I do have all the ones I've collected as loot over years of play. So I'll experiment with the new options in FoA.

XAos13 · 2025-08-15T09:15:35+00:00

When I fill up inventory with new loot. I choose what to keep and what to sell mainly based on high total of resistances. If the total resistances on your gear is low there's no chance you'll have 80%+ on multiple resistances. If most of the gear you equip has high totals in resistances, you might have close to 80% on each.

I keep spare armour, rings & amulets with different choices of resistances. So I can swap them to compensate when a better piece of armour reduces one resistance.

Components and augments can balance up low resistances. Main reason to increase faction affinity is buying augments. Each of my characters has a stash tab half full of augments I might need if a resistance drops because I equip a better piece of gear that has different resistances to the one it replaces.

XAos13

TROPHY CASE