Since this is retro gaming, I’ve got to go with Microprose (Civilization, Colonization, X-Com games and more). But my love also goes to other developers that EA destroyed, in particular Maxis, Westwood Studios and Origin. Special shout-out to three more studios I had amazing memories with: New World Computing (Might and Magic), Sir-Tech (Wizardry) and Blue Byte (Settlers, Battle Isle, Albion).

Mint is the best way to make a good idea for your foot feeling like a baby shark.

All three English games in knockout stages ended in heartbreak. I’m prepared for another one. Have enough Bulmers to drown my disappointment.

I’m always pouring the water into a cup or glass, and the attached cap tands to fall down into the path of the stream, lest I use my other hand to hold it. The plastic connestors don’t bother me.

I can’t complain about them. I just rip them off. There may be a law (EU regulation) for bottle manufacturers to tether the caps, but there’s no law againt ripping the caps off.

On my subscription page, it shows shorts from my subscribed channels. On my main page, it’s girls in bikinis playing on a guitar, violin or drums. I wantch a lot of independent musicians doing instrumental covers, but I don’t recall seeing any of them wearing skimpy clothing.

I guess it’s sort of like facebook, to increase engagement. I stopped visiting there about a year ago, but I didn’t close my account. I now get one friend recommendation daily, and it’s always sexy looking girls I’ve never heard of. These sites register me as male, so they always combine my interests with sexy females, to entice me to spend more time there.

This is rsa.ie. The main site works fine, but you have to wait to access the driving test registration portal. Mind you, this is even before you see the login or registration screen. And given Ireland’s small size, there are only about 4000 driving tests per week. That number of users is negligible for a normal scheduling page; it must have taken some serious skill and effort to make it non-performant at this scale.

I’m still on Reddit, and once in a while I manually overwrite all my comments that are older than a month. 95% of my comments don’t have a real value, and whatever I find interesting or insightful ends on my personal Web site. It’s my information, and if I think I brainfart something that would be helpful for someone, I add it to space that I control. This was true even before the whole API fiasco.

I haven’t used Photoshop; learned basic photo editing in GIMP (as a poor student, I appreciated a powerful, free editor). So, no complaints about the UI from me. If anything, I’d probably bitch about the Photoshop UI if I ever used it.

One thing that concerns me a little, however, is the third-party integration with Nik Collection. The second version, which I’m still using, was provided for free by Google. They later sold the software, and the new company commercialized it. I found it difficult to track down the v2 installer, so I’m now keeping it on multiple backups, in multiple locations, as one of my most treasured software possessions.

If it was taken by a cell phone, chances are that the exif data would have the GPS location.

When I was still buying new games, I’ve had development studios I preferred, and others I avoided. Those were simpler times (and simpler games), when one small studio did everything.

Later, additional external companies got involved, and some tried to hide their presence. I remember when The Adventure Company started using a very customer unfriendly sort of copy protection, and I started using a list of affectted games, so that I could avoid them.

These days, multiple companies are involved with game design. As a consumer, it’s only normal that I’d like to know who had their hands on developing a game I’d be interested in. I haven’t played any games Sweet Baby was involved with, but if I did and had a strong opinion (negative or positive) about their work, I’d appreciate a list of games they worked on, to make a purchase choice that would suit me best.

I saw it for the first time last summer. Did a little reading, and according to the news articles, it was a EU directive, but it had been heavily lobbied for by Coca Cola. If I remember right, all EU countries should have implemented the necessary legislature by June this year.

I personally just tear the caps off. Can’t get used to them.

You are indeed well-read, and I’m finding it difficult to give you an entire list, based on your tastes (which are remarkably close to mine). The two authors that come to mind, whom I haven’t seen on your list are

• Greg Bear. Anything from him, but I particularly like the The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars duology. You complained about sad books, and these may be depressing, but it’s some of the best writing that’s still missing from your list.
• China Mielville. Wonderfully weird and inventive books, in particular The City & The City and Perdido Street Station.

And since you mentioned Timothy Zahn, in comparison with Card, I take it you already read his The Icarus Hunt? If not, it’s also highly recommended for its unabashed fun and good plot.

Personal anecdote. My drinking days are long over, and now I limit my alcohol consumption to 1-2 drinks on Friday, right after work. The alcohol varies - a beer, a cider, 2 glasses of wine, or a glass of hot whiskey on particularly cold evenings. I also do a lot of fitness, so I’m monitoring my health pretty closely, in particular HRV at night, which is an amazing indicator of my sleep quality and overall health. I have a nearly perfect correlation between an evening drink and a drop of HRV into red zones, and the corresponding drop in sleep quality. The effect of the drink is so strong that I skip it altogether if I plan on having a long hard run the next day.

Agreed. I used to be the tech support for my family members. Everyone I switched to Mint Cinnamon stopped calling me. (That’s also when I realised my relatives never call me to share good news or to ask about me.)

I’m getting these messages occasionally, but usually they make sense, such as when I go to online gaming sites or torrenting portals. Didn’t try porn - don’t want a call from HR. In general, our IT policies are fairly sensible; this is one of the very few outliers.

All other MSM, even some more questionable like The Sun or Fox News, works fine. CNN is the only one blocked.

I found out that the best way to force Google Maps to update is to make the correct edit in Open Street Maps. Google seems to source its local information from there.

Just an anecdotal example: I live at the end of a cul-de-sac, and I’ve seen loads of cars drive up to my house, and then gingerly do a 15-point turn (the road is very narrow), and drive back. I checked Google Maps and found that it lists my street as open. I’ve filled reports with Google several times, and nothing happened. Then, I updated OSM to indicate that at the end of my street there’s just a pedestrian footpath to the next street. Within two weeks, the number of cars turning around decreased drastically. I checked Google Maps, and found that they fixed their map. A few years later, there’s still the odd car making the mistake, but the only map service I could identify that still didn’t update was Apple Maps.

Since then, I’ve done several edits in OSM (I live in a young estate, with loads of construction still going on, so maps are not very reliable), and Google always picked up these edits.

Funny… My company (over 100k employees worldwide) is blocking CNN as a security risk…

Dungeon Master. I refuse to use a guide, so even though I’ve been playing it for almost 25 years, I still haven’t finished it. Always run out of food…