Parmesan cheese shaker.

I did grocery retail for about 4 years. We had some less-than-great customers but honestly the worst part was dealing with corporate. Upper management and corporate decisions is what truly made daily work much more difficult. The store manager that was there when I was hired was really good and good to her staff, but corporate didn’t like that she ran some expenses for customer and employee benefit so they “relocated” her. The replacement manager was one of those “fixer” types and he so godawful that I walked off the job. Left my badge on my department desk in the office and went home. Because they had been cutting back hours and hires, my entire department folded after I left. My supervisor got reassigned and some of the other part-timers left.

And this is why any attempt to “fight” affordability that doesn’t include plans to kneecap corporations is effectively useless and a waste of time.

Good on them! Hell yeah.

Hey, zombies need homes too :D

Shared laundry too!

I don’t tip. Unless it’s a bit of cash to my Uber or cab driver for helping with luggage or something. Other than that, nope. It’s not my responsibility to pay your employees - and that’s assuming they even get the tip money which so often they don’t.

We are going to be seeing so many of these investor-backed, AI-focused, trend-chasing startups dropping like flies in the next few years as the interest (and VC money) dries up. The landfills of the world are going to fill with even more disposable trash as so many cloud-dependant gadgets go offline.

A few thoughts as a 3D modeller that has done hired work based off provided AI concepts:

• The usability of those assets will depend on the kind of game you are making. Are they 2D? 3D? Sprites? etc AI can generate 2D pictures but cannot generate 3D models that are useful in a proper production workflow/pipeline. Every generated 3D model I’ve seen is a dogshit mess.

• Will you be the only one working with these assets? Sending untouched AI content off to another artist in the pipeline can cause extreme headaches depending on what it is.

• Things generated with AI have a very inconsistent artistic style. This is fine for rapid prototyping and quick concepts but awful for finished products.

• AI content is extremely difficult to edit and work with and may not even be editable at all.

• Legality varies by location, region, and storefront.

• Your customers will notice and you and your product will be ridiculed for using AI, especially if you use a lot of it.

Lastly, and this is going to get a bit spicy: If you care about the work you do and take even a tiny amount of pride in your work then please, for the love of the Gods, use assets made by real people. If you do not have the skills or equipment to make them yourself then there are plenty out there that are cheap, reasonably priced, or even free and royalty-free. Using AI content in a public release just screams “I am cheap and couldn’t be bothered to hire actual talent.” and indicates that you do not care about your work.

Considering the amount of gambling, exploitative practices, dark patterns, etc that exists in modern live-service games - saying that comes across as rather disingenuous.

It is good to hear this particular live-service game is bucking some of the recent trends, but I think it is safe to say these types of games, in general, have done damage to the industry and the wallets and minds of players. Enjoy yourselves, but be cautious and don’t let your guard down because these companies will screw you if they think they can. We have seen it so many times.

I always get a good laugh when I see a giant “PROUDLY MADE IN USA” sticker that has a big US flag.

and it’s on a plastic tub. Or a bucket. I think the plastic brush I use to clean my cast-iron pan is from the US, but again it’s just a lump of plastic.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the most common USA-produced good I interact with is oil.

Nah, fuck them. They thought they could get away with this predatory debt-trap system that was marketed at children and they are clearly salty that they got caught. Not to mention the whole idea of not even owning your own PC or the data within which would set a bad precedent for everyone everywhere.

There are so many competitors in the industry NZXT operates in; it would be very easy to avoid ever buying their stuff again. And I intend to do just that. Get bankrupted, you pieces of shit.

It hasn’t been updated in ages, so maybe. It does still work well for now at least.

Not going to change unless Microsoft does a complete 180 on how they’re handling Win11 which I don’t think they will do because it’s just not in their corporate strategy at the moment. I imagine most people are just going to keep using Win10 after the support period ends.

Microsoft seriously needs an upper management shakeup. They have been dropping the ball badly in numerous areas and have their heads lodged too far up their own asses to see it.

If you are using iOS then there is really only one place to get them- the App Store.

I’ve used both Memmy and Mlem and both are decent apps.

“We heard your concerns”

More like: “Oops, someone actually stopped to read our predatory contract.”

And they are using paid influencers to promote said debt trap to those that don’t know any better, particularly children.

Probably the most insidious part of this to me. Seeing those clips of “influencers” pushing the idea of convincing your parents to get you a rental PC. Disgusting.

Elite: Dangerous, Tiny Glade, BG3

Thankfully there is a very simple, no-effort solution to this: Don’t play their trash.

I already don’t play their excruciatingly mediocre games and this just reinforces my avoidance is justified.

Also good gods they’ve been milking this tired franchise for almost 2 decades now.

He’s actually doing his own thing for once instead of parroting whatever the US does. I’m impressed.