At the point, I would consider the author’s scepticism being true a best case scenario, with every new piece of information I learn about Shadows.

It is baffling that it required so many years and attempts for Ubisoft to realise that their modern day storyline sucks. I would argue that it was a glorified side quest even during Desmond’s arc though it went downhill soon after that arc “closed”.

There is absolutely nothing that Ubisoft can say or do to win back my trust. This game is going to be as shallow as any of their recent entries, if not more.

I have gone through the links, and I still cannot find the answer to my question on what makes UPI “absolutely horrible when it comes to privacy” when compared to the other options in your original comment.

I still maintain that all practical means of digital transactions are inherently poor for privacy, regardless of the channel/medium. One is not less private than the other.

Of course, mediums like cryptocurrency exists which “promise” privacy while transacting. But they are not practical in India, and also do not operate at the scale of the options we are discussing about.

Also, I really appreciate responding back with links, but a line directly answering my question would have saved some time, especially since the links you shared are irrelevant to our discussion. None of the links actually do a comparison of the options or even state that one is outright better than the other. If anything, some of the comments in the linked forum posts only echo what I am saying about the lack of privacy across all digital transactions.

Can you expand on why UPI is horrible when it comes to privacy when compared to the other options you have mentioned?

I would not be doing any sort of digital transactions if I am worried about privacy as I don’t think one is better than the other in this matter. It would be naive to think so otherwise.

Someone had to carry out a study for that? I thought that’s common with ADHD.

Stress just turns on a switch in the brain which would otherwise be off no matter how much a situation warranted it.

8AM!

I completed a marathon of all AC games last year, from the very first title, all the way up to Valhalla.

The games serves as a good reflection of Ubisoft over the years. The issues in the series and Ubisoft’s approach are amplified when one plays the games back to back.

The first title from 2007, albeit with clunky movements, had a promising story which was only elevated by its sequels.

The titles post-Revelations experimented a lot but the series settled at Origins, which was the last playable game, all aspects considered.

Valhalla is the worst of the series. It offers nothing new in terms of gameplay or story. It is just more of the same. Mundane and boring. It kept painfully reminding me that I am playing a video game.

Yet, I firmly believe that Shadows will be a lot worse with its live service mechanics.

Thank you for introducing me to KOReader and Kindle jailbreaking.

Fortunately, the Kindle Paperwhite I use is no longer supported, and is compatible with few of the jailbreaks out there.

A good rabbit hole to dive into over the weekend.

I have experienced this myself.

My main machine at home - a M2 Pro MacBook with 32GB RAM - effortlessly runs whatever I throw at it. It completes heavy tasks in reasonable time such as Xcode builds and running local LLMs.

Work issued machine - an Intel MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM - struggles with Firefox and Slack. However, development takes place on a remote server via terminal, so I do not notice anything beyond the input latency.

A secondary machine at home - an HP 15 laptop from 2013 with an A8 APU and 8GB RAM (4GB OOTB) - feels sluggish at times with Linux Mint, but suffices for the occasional task of checking emails and web browsing by family.

A journaling and writing machine - a ThinkPad T43 from 2005 maxed out with 2GB RAM and Pentium M - runs Emacs snappily on FreeBSD.

There are a few older machines with acceptable usability that don’t get taken out much, except for the infrequent bout of vintage gaming

It isn’t.

He uses a version of Emacs called MicroEmacs.

I recall seeing his MicroEmacs configuration a while back when I was exploring options to start using Emacs.

Refurbished ThinkPads are available in countries where Framework, System76, and Pine64 do not ship.

Besides, ThinkPads are really well-built machines that perform well for everyday tasks at a fraction of their (or the aforementioned competition’s) original price.

I love my two machines, which are from before Lenovo took over completely. Their keyboards, port selection, and repairability are almost unparalleled compared to today’s competition.

Pardon me if I sounded dismissive. 1Blocker is good, and so is AdGuard.

I remember those being one of the first ones to do the job well, back when Apple launched content blockers. Wipr came much later, and I only recently switched to it (around late 2022).

• Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, 7 spanning a decade and a half.
• Ubuntu 10.04 going up to the release where Unity became the default DE (11.04, I think). Came back to 10.04, as it was an LTS release.
• Linux Mint Maya because of Cinnamon, and it was terrible.
• Fedora 16 to 25 or 26.
• Linux Mint 19

Been with Linux Mint ever since. It just works. LM19 was also around the time when I stepped into Apple’s walled garden with iOS and macOS.

On Safari for iOS and macOS, I prefer Wipr instead of 1Blocker.

It’s lighter, easier to use, cheaper, scores more on d3ward’s ad-block test (but that may fluctuate).

E: added specific browser.

some governments […] have been trying linux as a way to cut expenses

I have been hearing such news for close to two decades but not without news where many such organisations switch back to using proprietary software due to a mixture of reasons ranging from usability to politics.

Though I agree with your overall point, I can’t see why rounded corners (or the lack of it) might be a noticeable issue.

It is working now. :-)

Yikes. I am yet to play the game but I knew Joel dies in the second one, as it almost felt like a setup for his death was built-in.

However, I wasn’t aware of Sony going to such lengths to misdirect the game’s players.

Thanks a lot for sharing the context.

P.S. you might want to fix the formatting for the spoilers as it is currently not hidden.

I am unaware of this one. Can you share what is this about, or share the relevant search keywords?

Oh my…