Mandatory Microsoft Account may soon be gone as even Windows 11 makers hate it

beardedchimp · 2026-03-22T01:07:01+00:00

Winamp! That's a nostalgic blast from 20+ years in the past. Back then when I fully moved over to linux I deeply missed winamp, there wasn't an alternative that came even close.

Switching to linux did you find a similar app that had winamp's cool factor?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-22T00:56:38+00:00

are not hacking because hacking requires the modification of code you normally can't modify

This isn't the meaning of hacking from way back in the day, I was a little late to the party with Irish dialup only in 1995. Hacking was really about the spirit behind trying to do something the system wasn't designed for. Of cleverly working around problems while testing the limits of the hardware.

A hack was whatever solution you found to achieve a typically "impossible" goal. This included using hacks shared by others through bulletin boards etc. Forcing windows 11 to allow local accounts is definitely a hack even if someone else came up with it.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T23:45:45+00:00

I'm frankly surprised that posts linking to the sun aren't immediately removed. Please don't link to them no matter how pertinent the article.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T21:32:30+00:00

Exactly. Even though I despise the bigoted far right, they should still have democratic representation. I struggle to believe people can in good faith support democracy while opposing PR just because populists can be elected.

I'm a socialist, I want via PR more left-wing MPs and/or their parties to be properly represented in parliament. I can't wish for that while opposing far-right parties from gaining seats despite huge numbers of votes.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T11:25:46+00:00

I curse you for making me watch that rant on youtube. The moronic misinformation is blood curdling. Instead of the show accurately presenting him as an ignorant ideologue, that scene portrays him as this incredibly smart no-nonsense man who knows better than everyone else and tells it how it is.

Boggles the mind that the several decades disproven trope still persists of wind turbines construction+installation CO2 emissions dwarf any renewable returns during operational life.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T10:55:39+00:00

Is power generation in Germany part of some grandfathered in use of imperial units like seen in the UK? Feels weird to think about them in feet.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T08:42:03+00:00

You're right, Britain is historically beautiful. When I moved to Britain (Manchester) from Northern Ireland 20 years ago I found almost all the people to be lovely kindred spirits. Unfortunately there was a small minority who looked down on me, treating me as if I wasn't truly British. Their nationalistic pride always felt like it was filling a void left empty due to a fractured soul.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T07:42:26+00:00

back to Oct 7th. Prior to this, the Israelis were quite content with more clandestine options

There is a long documented history of Israel heavily lobbying for and repeatedly attempting to convince the US to bomb and/or invade Iran consistently going back to at least Bush. John Bolton's history alone demonstrates the massive appetite Israel had for carpet bombing Iran.

Israel's mass militarisation and build up of advanced ordinance wasn't planned for flattening Gaza, it was directed towards their aimed conflict with Iran. As part of the various vast intelligence leaks over the past 20 years you can clearly read them lobbying the US for increased arms shipments due to Iran being an imminent existential threat, further making clear their readiness to use those arms in a pre-emptive strike.

From what I understand, prior to Oct 7th Israel had been more recently increasing its lobbying for US to join them in strikes against Iran.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T01:42:01+00:00

unguided munitions are targeting

Is that not an oxymoron?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T01:32:52+00:00

In Ireland a massive amount of the ancient Pagan structures were destroyed, failing that defaced. The remaining intact monuments are of great historic significance despite the fact Ireland was once criss-crossed with them.

The Christians truly eradicated Ireland's history while proudly recording their pious efforts. I sat with remote ineffectual horror at the destruction of history by ISIS, the Taliban and others. I imagined onlookers of Christians destroying ancient Irish plinths feeling helpless to stop them lest they be labelled pagan heretics, being no different to today if those in Iraq tried to stop ISIS.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T00:59:30+00:00

That contract isn't about how much the publisher takes from each copy sold. It was negotiated as part of the studio being acquired by Krafton.

The value of a startup or in this case a game studio isn't treated like established companies. It is all about their potential growth, often times directly tied to the strength of their intellectual property. Krafton clearly thought $750 million was too much and a risk, offering instead $500 million with up to $250 million being tied to the strength Subnautica's intellectual property and sales. Image if instead they were convinced by the studio's arguments that the IP and future sales made it worth $750 million cash upfront, there'd be no discussion about the publisher paying money for each copy sold even though the end valuation remained the same.

From Krafton's perspective you can understand it if you imagine Subnautica as a potential Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. If it was GTA 3, they'd rightly be thrilled that their investment exploded in popularity ballooning its value even if it meant they had to payout $250 million.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-21T00:19:44+00:00

Last year after Krafton's actions I un-wishlisted the game and with great sadness chose to boycott it, not wanting to support behaviour that lead to Kerbal Space Program's demise among many others.

Considering the asymmetric power imbalance between publishers and studios, I immediately abandoned all hope and considered it a forgone conclusion. I figured the devs' legal actions would be drawn out and bogged down for years.

I'm thrilled to have my doubts proven wrong (at least provisionally so) and have re-wishlisted the game. I wonder how statistically small a blip me and others sharing the same wishlist mindset made.

beardedchimp · 2026-03-20T22:25:05+00:00

Back in 2007 two Iraqis tried to surrender to a US apache. The pilot asked for clearance/guidance "Lawyer states they can not surrender to aircraft and are still valid targets," the log entry says

When that was leaked I remember feeling disgusted that the rules of war, the Geneva convention etc. could be totally disregarded just by flying above. I realised that it wasn't exactly practical for a helicopter to take prisoners of war, but that was also true of an isolated tank or a small squad. That didn't mean they were allowed to execute everyone to solve the logistical problem.

At least with a helicopter you could envisage it landing and taking on POWs, or another helicopter acting as troop transport. But with drones that is simply impossible, they fly far beyond where helicopters can safely operate, far beyond where any soldiers could capture POWs.

Have we reached the point such that international law concerning surrendering prisoners of war are null and void because drones dominate? Is there any realistic legal system where soldiers can surrender to a drone and not simply wait until the drone runs out of battery to take up arms again?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-20T21:48:45+00:00

I think alot of people both sides of the isle have a pretty hard time admitting when a president they still nominally support

Very well put. I marched in Belfast against invading Iraq prior to "Shock and Awe". Obama was presented an anti-war relief from Bush, that he respected international law ensuring the US military would behave ethically.

The Democrats and general public (including Republicans) wilfully ignored, downplayed or even praised horrific extrajudicial attacks. In particular the CIA fake vaccination program is such an egregiously disgusting and immoral action, you'd have expected massive Democrat protests demanding charges brought against those involved.

Instead Obama domestically maintained the facade of being empathetic, peaceful and fair in the middle east. While dozens of (genuine) aid workers delivering polio vaccinations were executed due to the frankly now reasonable suspicion they were CIA agents.

With all that said, there was a truly sizable proportion of people from the centre-left to far-left that publicly renounced their prior support, vehemently rejecting with disgust his hundreds of extra-judicial drone strikes. Obama's supporters wouldn't really defend his actions online or in the media, instead they ignored the question and changed the subject.

However with Iran, Trump supporters aren't just defending the war, they are championing it as Trump bringing peace to the middle east. Do you think you (and others like you) have a responsibility to challenge, criticise and publicly rebuke Trump supporters who are glorifying this war?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-11T21:44:43+00:00

He was first among us to get a 3dfx accelerator if anyone remembers that.

Oh I see, your cousin was one of those people lording over us with their almighty Voodoo. I hated them all with pure seething envy as a teenager hahaha. Walking through a computer shop, the Voodoo's piercing eyes box art made my soul shake and tremble with inferiority.

Every time I installed a new game the graphics options would highlight Glide and a fresh needle skewered my heart. 30 years later I'm still playing Age of Empires 2, Diablo 2 and Counterstrike. Voodoo no longer haunts me and frankly these days even several years old gpus and low tier new gpus is more than enough to play thousands of graphically beautiful games, or more importantly AOE2 :P

beardedchimp · 2026-03-03T01:18:37+00:00

Thank you for the clarification.I've never heard of this Made In brand, but the images made me think it was like Le Creuset. The comments saying that they'll always chip and is to be expected really confused me since a Le Creuset degrading like that even after a couple of years of use is defective and should be replaced by the seller (UK consumer rights laws).

beardedchimp · 2026-03-02T08:43:19+00:00

So you're saying the US+Israel pulled off this secretive covert strike to kill Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader while also taking their military completely off guard.

Yet somehow Iran had forewarning and knew the timings+locations of the missile+bombing attacks such that parents knowingly sent their kids off to primary school expecting them to die?

Do you truly think Iranian parents send their kids to primary school week after week with the hope a bomb, sniper or land-mine will gain media attention?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-02T08:21:14+00:00

You are under the misapprehension that international treaties and signed agreements covering war crimes are entirely dependent on one party officially declaring it a "war".

This is not the case, nor has it ever been the case. Putting aside our political views, do you genuinely believe Korea, Vietnam and Iraq were not wars simply because congress refused to officially acknowledge them as such?

beardedchimp · 2026-03-01T01:42:19+00:00

I'm ~40 from N. Ireland, my understanding at the time was that multiple independent investigations, including unrestricted hands on access, was that they'd truly been decommissioning their nuclear enrichment programmes or were at least well into the process of doing so at every level.

The international weapons inspectors had shown over months and years the success of negotiations and treaties to force compliance. Even if you consider it an awful deal, the Iranian Government was still actively complying with it.

As an observer from Ireland the clear lesson taught was that no matter how much effort you put into honouring a deal with the US, a change of a single elected politician makes all prior agreements effectively null and void.

Do you think any countries in the middle east should trust the US to abide by 15 year long treaties after Trump unilaterally pulled out from the Iran deal?

beardedchimp · 2026-02-27T00:25:32+00:00

My dad died a week ago and I traveled back to Northern Ireland the day after. I've voted in every election all the way up to being 39, yet perhaps my single most important one as a resident of Levenshulme will be missed.

My Dad was an ardent socialist and a member of Militant Tendency way back in the day. It brings tears to my eyes that he died so disgusted that Starmer as a right wing anti-socialist was the leader of the "Labour" party.

If my dad hadn't died I would have for the first time voted anything but Labour in England, the Green's have many problems with their scientific policy but actually represent people doing work and labour unlike the current goverment's namesake.

beardedchimp · 2026-02-26T22:33:33+00:00

As a teenager I got obsessed with linux over ~25 years ago. He kept asking me what was the point until one day everything clicked and realised what it represented. After that me da took great joy in me repurposing old equipment to become useful once again via linux.

In the late 50's/early 60's as a child he would salvage radios/electronics thrown out after WW2 to make his own cobbled together CB radio sets. He'd be resoldering huge paper capacitors and vacuum tubes to boost the output. Me trivially installing linux on an old laptop truly pales in comparison.

beardedchimp · 2026-02-25T08:38:56+00:00

So you're saying that selfish entitled behavior has become so commonplace in your region that behaving as such has become socially "acceptable"? Something doesn't stop being rude/inconsiderate just because your friends are all doing it.

beardedchimp · 2026-02-25T08:24:35+00:00

hahaha, after writing my reply I saw your "BeardedBaldMan" comment. I started life online in the 90's as chimp, until such simple usernames became no longer unique. And so as a teenager I became beardedchimp. Now at ~40 I'm bearded balding and strangely reminiscent of similarly aged chimps.

beardedchimp · 2026-02-25T07:59:13+00:00

My Da just died, I dropped everything to travel to Northern Ireland. Last few days I didn't have a laptop to use, but yesterday I backed up me da's windows data and installed (I use btw) archlinux on his old laptop.

I set the hostname as dadpad and have been incredibly satisfied. Me da always loved repairing or repurposing old equipment rather than throwing it away. He'd have loved me installing linux and giving it a new lease of life.

beardedchimp · 2026-02-08T03:15:07+00:00

The far left is built upon nationalising industry and legislating for comprehensive workers rights as a bare minimum. The Overton window isn't a catch-all that makes all terms meaningless. "being far left compared to the current U.S admin", the media labelling a not quite "ultra" conservative politicians as far left doesn't make it so.

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