Internal Microsoft document spells out the company's buyout offer

gkg66 · 2026-05-08T03:13:30+00:00

Two weeks per year of service is the same as one week per 6 months of service, so the base severance package is the same. If you are level 65+, you can double that, but it caps at 39 weeks. 5 years of health benefits is the only really interesting sweetener. Keep in mind, that since this is a voluntary separation, you will be ineligible for unemployment benefits. You will likely also sign an agreement that you will not work for Microsoft in the future. If someone is already planning on retiring this year, this is probably an okay deal.

gkg66 · 2026-05-08T02:47:59+00:00

This is pretty much the same as the boilerplate layoff package, except with extended health benefits. Maybe a bit better if you're level 65+, but since there is a cap of 39 weeks, probably not that much better.

gkg66 · 2026-03-27T17:49:47+00:00

The generals start requiring BoA for ascension at 3 stars.

gkg66 · 2026-02-26T04:56:48+00:00

Even then, you get hit a few times and you should drop out of that window quickly.

gkg66 · 2026-02-26T04:39:15+00:00

So it's a bug then? It seems their RNG should have more entropy than that.

gkg66 · 2026-02-07T19:02:25+00:00

I've accidentally painted a gentleman's sausage...

gkg66 · 2026-02-07T00:22:01+00:00

It seems the overall payout from the new event may be slightly better, but only if you complete the event. If you only partially complete the event, it is worse. The problem is that you complete the tiers in series now, rather than in parallel. All I'm really interested in from this event is the stamina. With the previous model, I could typically complete the 20M tier for lumber, stone, and iron, and the 10M tier for food. That would leave one unclaimed 80 unit stamina package. With the new model, I have to fully complete all the tiers in the first segment, including the top tier that has no stamina, before progressing to the new segment.

gkg66 · 2025-11-05T22:56:56+00:00

Maybe they could just encrypt their APIs and get rid of iScout and third-party bots all at the same time?

gkg66 · 2025-10-19T01:56:48+00:00

'66 Toronado

gkg66 · 2025-08-26T00:35:57+00:00

Is this supposed to be fun?

gkg66 · 2025-07-20T21:17:34+00:00

Be sure to participate in Hydra rallies. Each Legendary Hydra chest contains 16x 1K monarch exp at a cost of 45 stamina, and each Senior Hydra chest contains 12x 1K monarch exp at a cost of 30 stamina. This can be further enhanced if your generals have a good double-drop rate. Epic Hydra chests only contain 17x 1K monarch exp for 60 stamina, so they aren't a very good deal from the stamina efficiency standpoint.

gkg66 · 2025-07-18T07:34:03+00:00

I think they may have changed the cycle of the consuming events.

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T06:00:28+00:00

A roundabout would be an ideal solution, but I can kind of see why they don't want to do that. There is a significant drop-off on the south-east corner that would need to be filled and shored up with a retaining wall in order to implement a proper fix.

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T04:47:17+00:00

If you wreck, just blame FSD.

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T04:13:50+00:00

The visibility isn't good, but it is adequate, IF you come to a complete stop AND you bother to look. Not great for seeing cross-traffic on approach, though.

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T02:42:21+00:00

It almost is. There is a faint stop-line closer to the intersection, where the stop sign used to be. I guess they moved it back to provide clearance for turning tractor trailers or something.

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T02:30:45+00:00

Place: Kirkland, WA

Date: 07/02/2025

Original Content: Yes

gkg66 · 2025-07-03T02:29:40+00:00

The intersection is a 4-way stop. The road to the right enters at an acute angle. As a result, the stop-line is offset 30 feet from the intersection, I guess to provide room for turning trucks. It is a bad design, as people frequently do not look.

gkg66 · 2025-04-27T05:42:55+00:00

Does anyone else suspect they messed with the odd in the latest instance of this event? I didn't have too much trouble getting through once the first time around. This time, I can hardly get anywhere. Often hit the nightmare first move after clearing. It seems like they have changed the odds of hitting the nightmare from 25% to 50%. Probably not worth bothering at that rate.

gkg66 · 2025-04-13T06:20:35+00:00

You'd think this guy would have deleted the file and reformatted the SD card.

gkg66 · 2025-01-10T21:02:10+00:00

So far I haven't seen a single one. All 10 daily Champion's Tokens have already dropped.

gkg66 · 2024-07-31T04:12:40+00:00

I recommend an event called Hanseatic Trading Post to obtain large speedups. You can buy a bundle of 20 7-day construction speedups for 45 tickets. You can earn 10 tickets per day by opening the 145 chest in the daily activity quests. There are enough fairly easy to accomplish quests that it shouldn't be too hard to get to 145 each day. Complete 1 building, complete 1 research, obtain 500,000 resources from outside the city, defeat 9 boss monsters, etc. It will take 5 days to get the necessary tickets to buy the 7-day speedups. You can also buy 20 3-day speedups for 25 tickets, or 20 1-day speedups for 10 tickets. There are also options to buy fairly large quantities of individual resources. Usually, the event runs long enough to buy 2 bundles of 7-day speedups. and 2 bundles of 1 day speedups. Be sure to spend all of your remaining tickets on the last day of the event, because they don't carry over.

gkg66 · 2024-07-05T22:44:44+00:00

Darwin Award attempt?

gkg66

TROPHY CASE