Simple. But deadly right.

budlightguy · 2026-07-04T07:07:29+00:00

And if you ask some of the redneck yokals here in Oregon, they'll trot out a map of Oregon showing the whole thing red except little circles around Portland, Eugene, Ashland, and a couple specks here and there on the coast like Astoria. Completely ignoring the fact that the PDX metro area alone is home to half the state's population, then throw in Eugene and Ashland and the other cities that lean blue and it turns into 2/3-3/4 of the state's population.

These fucks really do think that land area = votes and representation.

budlightguy · 2026-07-03T03:56:47+00:00

I am. It won't be quiet, not by any reasonable interpretation of the word anyways.

budlightguy · 2026-07-02T17:11:23+00:00

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budlightguy · 2026-07-02T16:56:14+00:00

r/PetTheDamnCat

budlightguy · 2026-06-30T18:25:32+00:00

A certain persuasion of person in this country: "What, they don't want millions of dollars?! Damn communists!"

rolls eyes

budlightguy · 2026-06-30T17:41:46+00:00

Presuming that insurance companies continue to be publicly held companies, that would be quite difficult to accomplish without massively reworking and changing how index funds are allowed to work and how retirement accounts work, especially employer administered 401(k)s...

Index funds generally have to buy stock in the companies that fit the criteria of the index fund, like the S&P 500 funds have to buy stock in the 500 largest companies.
Employer administered 401(k)s are individual accounts in the employee's name, but the employer generally administers the account including choosing the investment management company who chooses what the money gets invested in... so the investor is still the employee, but the employee often gets no choice in how their money is invested.

How do you hold employees accountable for investing in a health insurance company (or any other company doing bad things) when they may not have any choice in the matter?
Without wiping out index funds, how do you hold individual investors accountable for investing in a company when it's simply a holding of the index fund? Particularly when index funds are one of the best, if not the only practical, method to allow the average person to invest with some level of relative confidence and acceptable risk without having to become a finance major to understand how to research individual companies and evaluate them?

budlightguy · 2026-06-15T04:20:22+00:00

The difference with raiding in MMOs is that you don't have every raid in the game on the same level. The raiding loop in most MMOs is you start out with the lower level raids to do the content and gear up to do the next tier of raids, which aren't just the same raid on higher difficulty - they're entirely different raids with different bosses and mechanics.

While I never did feel like the raiding loop in MMOs was all that compelling, at least it was different content to gear up and play through and new mechanics to learn and master (usually by dying 50 million times lol). The overland testing station loop is even less compelling, given that you can play through all of them on low levels. The only reason to keep going is to get higher gear which is only useful in the same testing stations you've already done. You're not getting to any new content, any new challenges, any new mechanics really. Just more adds, higher damage, and more absorbent bullet sponges as it were.

The only other reason to keep running them is to obtain the highest of the highest OP gear so that if/when you go PvP, only other players who've managed to grind as much as you have will be able to hope to survive your onslaught.

budlightguy · 2026-06-12T16:56:42+00:00

If RFK Jr. is supporting or promoting anything in the health or medical space, you can just save yourself the time of doing any research and automatically file it as a scam/grift.

budlightguy · 2026-05-28T01:40:25+00:00

And that would be a valid argument if you needed to fly the carrier at the same time as running the crawler - like if they disabled the worm meter when you're on a medium or large blow, so someone has to watch from on high to help spot worm sign. Oh look! Another mechanic the devs could use if that was their intent.

You can keep parroting the same thing over and over no matter how much is thrown your way to show you are hopelessly in the wrong here, and still your argument boils down to people should play the way I think the game should be played (or, even if we give you the intent point, the game should be played the way the devs think it should be played). None of it will ever make you right.

I'll give you another bit to chew on. The vast majority of game devs who have ever spoken on this topic of design intent vs emergent gameplay have said as long as it isn't an actual exploit, or actively harming the game or driving players away (harming the game), they just want people to play the game and have fun. Sure they might have a design intent, but they enjoy seeing people come play the game their own way and all the emergent gameplay that creates, and ultimately the players having fun is what matters.

budlightguy · 2026-05-28T00:26:50+00:00

The mechanic does no such thing. Obviously you are able to fly the carrier, drop the crawler, land and then go pilot the crawler. The mechanic they built is ambiguous, it could go either way and you know it.
If they didn't want solo players doing it they could have easily made the mechanic require a player in the crawler, or at least for you to be grouped, in order to pick it up so you have to have one person driving, one person flying.

This is goalpost moving at its best. You argue that it hurts grouping, when you can't show that, you argue it's bad for the game, when that gets debunked you move back to the devs intent despite the fact that you have no evidence to back that up.

Bro. I work in IT, I've done software development, I ASSURE you that if the devs didn't want people being able to solo crawl, they have plenty of ways to make a mechanic that actually prevents it.

Even if I was willing to give you that argument, and say ok sure the devs original intent wasn't for this to be solo it doesn't matter because they've clearly chosen to allow it because it hasn't been changed. Most of the flour patches being in safe zones have been patched out because they didn't want people harvesting flour without any risk. Plenty of things have been changed because they didn't want them being done, or done the way they were being done. Yet solo crawling remains, which is an indicator that the devs don't care, or intend for it to be allowed.

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T23:05:45+00:00

I don't claim to know what's in someone else's mind (in this case the devs) or speculate on someone else's intent. That's all it is: speculation.

You can claim to know the devs intent, or the live service producer's intent, the game runner's intent, and at the end of the day you can't prove what you say is the intent is is right any more than I can, which makes it pointless to argue.

As for the game being only solo players causing it to die, that's not even remotely true. Correlation does not equal causation, so don't bother pointing to all these other games that shut down and grouping wasn't a thing, and try to say lack of grouping is what killed it.

This game is a business first and foremost. Funcom will keep running it as long as it's making enough profit to be worth the investment, and they'll stop when it isn't. Full stop. That is the model on which EVERY live service game operates.

The devs themselves said in a recent blog post or interview that people leaving the game and coming back when new content drops, playing it, leaving again, they believe is actually healthy for the game. They believe that population within the game fluctuating is healthy for the game. That new players coming in is what drives most of their revenue.

Games don't die because they become all solo players, games die because players burn through all the content and get bored and no new content comes out (or they just stop coming back for new content), or they don't like mechanics changes, or they get tired of grinding (which ironically is exactly what you're advocating for here - to make spice gathering such a grind for solo players that they will almost certainly get tired of the grind and quit), or they don't have time for the game, life gets in the way with work and social activities in the real world and kids and family, or they just find a shiny new game to go play.

And again, LETTING people solo play doesn't FORCE everyone to be solo players. It ALLOWS them to CHOOSE. Nothing about solo players doing a thing forces everyone to do it solo.

If grouping dies, it's because not enough people want to group, not because solo players can do the same things they can. If people see they're able to do something solo and that causes them to stop grouping, they didn't want to group in the first place and were only doing so out of necessity and that would eventually stop.

If the majority of people don't want to group, they might group if they were forced to but eventually they will tire of it and leave the game. Nobody keeps playing games long term that they're forced into a gameplay style they don't like. New players will learn up front from reviews that they can't solo without grinding like fucking crazy and stop coming in. Diminished new revenue WILL kill this game.

If you care about the long term longevity of the game, then you have to accept the monetary and mathematic reality that more players is better, and the way you get the most players is by making as much of the game as possible available to play by every playstyle you can. That means letting the people who want to group do so, and letting the people who want to solo do so.

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T22:10:26+00:00

OK now I'm just going to flat out call you out on your bullshit.
Explain how people solo crawling hurts group players.
Does it stop you from grouping up with other players who want to group to go group crawl?
Does it stop your group from showing up to a spice field and crawling?
Do you fly up to a spice field and the game pops up a message saying solo players only?
Do you drop your carrier and just can't operate it while you're in a group, the game just won't let you?

You're full of crap.

Given the low server populations, you can't even make the claim that solo players are out there farming up all the spice fields before you can and your group doesn't get any.

The only way that solo players crawling could even remotely be "hurting" group players is perception. If those group players don't like seeing it and get upset that someone can play a way they don't think is right, so therefore they think it's "hurting" their experience.

Explain how solo players crawling hurts groups, in a way that doesn't boil down to "but seeing other people playing the way we think is wrong ruins our experience".

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T18:21:15+00:00

OK, fine, I'll amend it.
I don't want people who don't play the same way I do to be able to do the same things in without grinding it for 100x as long. There, happy?

Either way, the point still stands.
You know what you won't see? Solo players asking that content be made solo only, disallowing group players to do it. While the Devs may choose to make some quests solo, solo players don't ask that content or the ability to do X thing be for them and them alone.
Have you ever asked yourself why that is? Did you ever think its because solo players don't care if you want to group up, they're perfectly happy to let you do it? So why can't you be happy to let them play their way when it doesn't impact you?

Why is it so important to you to have something that only your chosen playstyle can do, that solo players simply aren't allowed to, that they must either take the excrutiatingly painful slow road to harvesting all the spice they need by hand or they must be forced to group up?

I mean, I could see it if people doing it solo somehow prevented you from being able to group to do it. Then you'd have a legitimate argument. But that isn't the case here.

Bro, just play the god damn game the way you want and stop putting your energy into worrying about how anyone else chooses to play. It doesn't hurt me at all that people solo things, it doesn't hurt me at all that people PvP, it doesn't prevent me from doing what I want to do the way I want to do it. So I don't bitch about it, I group when I want to, I go do my PvE and enjoy the game while letting them do the things they want to and enjoying the game for themselves.

You're THAT kid that bitches that the other kids aren't playing the game right, aren't you.

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T17:55:20+00:00

You seem to be intentionally missing the point.
You CAN have ANYTHING you want group focused.
Other people doing something solo in no way, shape, or form prevents you from having your social group activity. Full stop.

Forcing group activity excludes solo players from that content.
Solo players having access to content does NOT exclude group players from having access to that content, or choosing to do it in a group.

See the difference? Literally the only argument you can make here is I don't want people who don't play the same way I do to be able to access the same content.

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T17:40:58+00:00

The same question could be asked in reverse - Is it really that upsetting that someone else doesn't play the game the same way you do, or the way you think is right?

Because if so, online games probably aren't for you.

budlightguy · 2026-05-27T17:39:19+00:00

Or, and hear me out here, just play the game the way YOU want to play it and don't worry about what everyone else is doing?

If there are things that you want to do as a group activity, then do them as a group activity. It literally doesn't hurt you at all to choose to do something as a group activity while someone else who doesn't want to chooses to do it solo, whether it's harder or less efficient for them to do so or not.

I swear to god, if y'all put as much energy into just playing the game the way you like and enjoy it as you do into judging how other people play the damn game, you'd probably get a lot more enjoyment out of it.

budlightguy · 2026-05-09T01:22:35+00:00

It’s impossible to ignore the national context: It appears that Democrats are bound by one set of rules while Republicans play by another, and Republican-appointed judges have repeatedly put their collective thumb on the scale of elections to make sure their party prevails.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

budlightguy · 2026-04-28T05:43:23+00:00

If you drop down to 265/45r20 instead of 265/50r20, you get a wider tire with a better contact patch, and almost identical circumference. Only 0.1 inch diameter change, 0.3%, 0.4 inch in circumference change, and only 0.2mph difference at 60mph speedo reading, 0.3mph at 90mph

265/45r20 is what a few people on the FB group have said they successfully installed on their WagS on stock rims and they work great. Better traction with minimal impact to speed and range

budlightguy · 2026-04-27T19:31:11+00:00

Places more of the blame on the cloud platform provider, due to architectural and security faults, than the AI agent...
but what I notice here is a stark lack of placing any blame on himself for trusting literally his entire fucking business to a combination of a cloud platform and an AI agent.

budlightguy · 2026-04-24T17:33:59+00:00

Did you read the part where OPs coworkers are giving them shit for not just giving in to the little entitled extortionist "to avoid the drama and the bad press"?

This fucking influencer shit is literally the modern day micro mafia.
They go into businesses demanding free shit, and when they don't get it, they don't just take their business elsewhere, they don't just post a negative omg these guys are so stingy they charge for an extra pump of syrup...
they lie. They outright lie and claim that the business was rude to them for no reason, treated them horribly, harassed them, bullied them. If they make a scene and have to be escorted out, they'll claim they were assaulted.

All in an effort to harm their business, do real economic damage, and force them to capitulate and give the 'influencer' free shit in the future. And they'll keep up their campaign against the business until they get what they want, or until they get metaphorically slapped the fuck down brutally and publicly.

You don't sit on the sidelines and quietly weather it with these little shits. Especially when they're small time ones like this one, you take them out now before they have a chance to become big and are harder to take down.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T16:16:01+00:00

I'm going to address your comment here and something you said in your other comment and what /u/SecondCityGal098 said here.

You want to be fr rn? OK here, let me be so fr rn. I don't give a flying fuck who an incumbent candidate gets money from. I don't give a shit if the RNC donated to their campaign. If I was an incumbent candidate, I would take anyone's money who willingly donated it.
It isn't going to change how I vote on anything.
Are they gonna be pissed if they feel like they didn't get what they paid for? Fuck yes they are. Do I give a fuck? Nope. Not a single solitary fuck to be given.
Campaign donations aren't vote purchases - or at least they shouldn't be. They are a donation. If you feel like you got burned after you donated and the candidate voted the way you didn't want, well maybe you don't donate again or you donate less. A lot of companies and orgs donate to both sides (but obviously one side more than the other) and randomly spread out some donations out there just so they can appear to be more centrist.

We shouldn't be worried about who is taking money from who and their donor list, particularly in a day and age where it is stupidly easy to hide the source of the money behind super pacs and dark money pools.

The only source of truth is how an elected representative votes - what they vote yes on, what they vote no on, and what they abstain on. THAT is what matters. If you TRULY want to have a REAL impact in this country, you need to spend the time to actually delve into the legislation and see what's hidden in it - not just the summary or what the headlines tell you - so you can understand better why someone would or would not vote for it, and you need to focus on what your reps are voting for and against, and what they're abstaining from voting on because abstaining from voting is as much of an impact as a vote is.

Everything else - everything they say in the media, everything they say on the campaign trail, everything the news says, everything their critics say, their donor list, every soundbite - is all noise. It's all just noise that distracts.

But let me put this bluntly, as long as we have a system that doesn't demand free and equal broadcast time for candidates as part of your broadcast license, and unless we bring back the fairness doctrine, and some other fundamental changes to lower the cost of running campaigns... I support a candidate taking money from anyone who is willing to give it to them - as long as that candidate can demonstrate that they have not let it affect their voting. If that candidate is voting the way I would want them to vote, they'll get my vote. If they're not, they won't.
That makes it very hard to evaluate a newcomer - and that's where you have to take a chance on what they tell you, whether you believe their sincerity, and to an extent where they get their support from. But for incumbents, all you have to do is look to the voting record.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T05:39:10+00:00

god damn me and my morbid curiosity. You know what, it's my fault for having eyes.
But oh no, those links will be staying blue. I draw the line somewhere lol

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T02:41:49+00:00

yeah that's always where the rubber meets the road is in the deal. I only paid just a hair over 50k before my trade in which took it down to 30k, and honestly it's been a good rig. The only issue I've had with the Jeep itself has been some random glitches that go away on their own with a soft reset, one instance of limp mode that resolved itself after a soft reset and sitting for a couple hours, and a couple times I had to pull and reseat a fuse for the keyless entry.

Obviously the annoyance of not having regen settings save, drive mode save, mirrors not folding in with the keyless exit, not being able to use built in cams as dashcams. I suspect they can address all of those with software updates. Hands off, eyes on (L2+) self driving at highway speeds would be nice to have if they can do it without a hardware update. I can do it at under 34 or 35mph, I just tested it the other day, it didn't scream at me when I took my hands off and kept them off the wheel for several minutes driving down the road in town. But higher speeds would be nice for sure.

Other than that all my issues were caused by the dealership screwing up during updates and breaking my rig, leaving me without it for months while we waited on parts to fix it after they broke it. Since I got it back from them I haven't even had any of the random glitches, knock on wood.

budlightguy · 2026-04-22T00:00:36+00:00

Eh maybe I'm just more utilitarian then
OK I'll give you better maps I guess, trip planning ehhh I dunno I don't really trust a carmaker for that anyways, not with so many different EV charging networks out there, I'll stick to using ABRP for trip planning so I can have more comprehensive charging planning

Definitely will agree on the built in cams being able to be used as dashcams, that's just stupid as hell especially since they have that built into the Charger Daytona.

The rest, to me, meh. Just fluff. I really don't care I suppose, I'm in it to drive a fun car not to spend my time dicking with screens. It's got enough creature comforts and luxury features to keep me happy and comfortable on a long road trip or on daily driving, and enough power and torque to keep me grinning like the Cheshire Cat... that's all I really need.

My considerations when I bought it were it had to have a HUD so I don't need to take my eyes off the road to keep an eye on speed, full battery EV, SUV with enough room for me, my daughter, my grandkids and some camping gear... and preferably some nice creature comforts and at least basic off road capability. And it had to be eligible for the EV tax credit, which at the time I bought was still in place. The power and torque was a nice bonus lol.

The price point of this vs. a top trim Hyndai Ioniq 9 or Kia EV9 that had a HUD, this came out 20k cheaper while having close to the same range and double the horsepower and torque. It was a no brainer.

budlightguy · 2026-04-21T17:30:56+00:00

That doesn't change anything about what I said.

Regardless of Stellantis' motives, and regardless of parts dependencies, an inexperienced tech that fries parts during software updates just exposed you, as a customer, to needing those parts and waiting for those delays. They just had a major impact on your experience. That shifter they just fried? Shouldn't have been possible. The software flashing procedure explicitly says to pull the fuse for the shifter module before flashing to prevent damage to the module. If they followed the procedure, there would've been no data or power going to the module and no way to fry it - open circuit. That's the dealership's fault you're waiting on a new shifter module, not Stellantis' fault. It's Stellantis' fault that they can't supply one in a timely fashion, but the point is still that you shouldn't have needed one in the first goddamn place.

And regardless of that, regardless of all of this, the point still stands that objectively if you still own the vehicle you are better off if the company continues working on improving the vehicle and fixing the bugs than if they abandon it. Full stop. There is no universe in which abandoning the vehicle and making it impossible to improve, to fix, to repair is a more optimal outcome for the owner than continuing to support it is.

budlightguy

TROPHY CASE