That’s pretty likely in Florida, they just lost a seat that was R+19 the election before. If they drop margins into the +5-7 range it could be a 2010 level swing in the Democrats favor this time.

Ravel and unravel can both mean to take apart something that was knitted or woven.

While you may not like the term, it is giving a name to a common set of actions that can cause real financial problems. Giving them a name can be a way to help discuss them, which is beneficial for both personal finance reasons and relationships.

Exactly like my example above. 1/8 implies +or- 1/16. While .125 implies +or- .0005, but it was only measured to +or- .0625, which is 2 orders of magnitude different.

The fraction allows you to communicate length and tolerance in a single number. A decimal implies precision to the last number, a measure with a fraction can show 1/8 as more granular than 1/16. 1/8 of a cm is less precise than a mm, but if you wrote 1.125 cm, you are now implying sub mm level precision.

This matters because the level needed in building generally doesn’t line up to 1/10 measurements. For example if you had a brick wall and a row had 1 cm height differences between bricks in a row it would be extremely obvious and look terrible. A 1mm height difference would be impossible to notice, but is also overkill to get that level. Ideal is about 5/8 cm or 6.35 mm difference over 3 meters of wall. The fractional measure often ends up easier to work with in practice.

Something major is going to have to change at some point though with game pass. This year is probably the last time we see a day one release of a major title. Cutting CoD is to test the waters for future cuts.

This is basically a rental model. The 2 game limit is just for the cheapest option, you could always pay more for more. If you want a reasonable quality catalog at a sub $10 price there needs to be some level of restrictions. If you want complete freedom it’s going to come at increased cost or a worse catalog.

Demos are rare today though. Not to mention some are outright misrepresenting the actual game. Spending some money to try a game without having to do a refund if you don’t like it is a reasonable value. As a PC player I would absolutely spend $15 bucks for a single month to try a few $40-60 games that I would likely purchase through steam after trying. I wouldn’t pay more than a single month at a time though, which also isn’t great for Microsoft.

It would be a hard limit of 2 games/month you could play, without paying more. This is a hard shift in model, but I think it makes it sustainable long term for developers to make their games part of it while allowing the price to be reasonable. Previously game pass was subsidized by Microsoft trying to grow their subscription base, so devs got big payouts to list their games. Publishers/devs aren’t making much if anything from being on game pass, especially indie titles that might only have 20 hours or less of gameplay. With cloud saves you could easily not lose progress if you took a month off from a game to try something else

This model creates a pathway that a developer could get $1-2 per install per month (or more for new/premium tier games) which would be reasonable income after initial launch sales. The vast majority of gamers also don’t play a lot of different games, so those that want more can pay for it while a lower price is available for the majority. There’s also the classic games tier that isn’t restricted as most the games aren’t really that valuable, but it’s a separate add on to keep the main price low.

For games as a subscription to work, it has to balance perceived value for consumers and developers. The unlimited model isn’t sustainable without a price point that makes buying games outright more attractive. I think a better scenario is allowing the subscription to create a funnel to direct sales, which I think this solution does.

I don’t think unlimited subscription models actually work with game development economics. If I had to do something I would make it this way.

7.99 game pass, access to a rotating library of roughly 1-2 year old games. Each month you can select 2 to download/pick and play. Can change selections each month.

+4.99 more games, 3 more games per month to download.

+4.99 classic games, allow unlimited downloads of older games, roughly 3+ years old.

+9.99 premium games, access to games roughly 3 month to a year old. Maybe select titles on day one. Still limited to 2 total downloads with base plan.

+2.99 discount club, receive exclusive discounts and general reduced prices on games that are part of other packages. Allow additional games to be selected/downloaded if one was purchased.

+4.99/9.99 streaming and premium streaming unlocked for any/most games in your library.

That’s the downside to a unified market.

It will probably be fine. Ammonium nitrate isn’t really needed for a garden, at least not in concentrated blends, unless your soil is fucked. Shitloads of nitrogen just makes plants bigger, which isn’t something you normally want for most vegetables.

AI is a lot closer to a revolution than to a bust. It’s already likely going to remain an established tool for software development and process automation.

It still remains to be seen if a company can be a single person managing an army of agents can actually become a sustainable company. This would be an industrial revolution on steroids type change that’s honestly terrifying.

An equally or even more likely scenario is we get most of the way there, but it only reduces the need for developer type jobs by 20-50%. From here lots of things could happen. The job market could stay somewhat stable as while companies hire less people, there are more smaller companies with direct hires as the barrier is massively reduced. The job market drastically shrinks and software becomes a less attractive discipline compared to other types of engineering or office work. An industry wide Cobol type situation happens as those that survive the job losses retire and laid off workers have moved on to other industries and no junior positions exist.

Apparently there’s a group that posts on motherless (which I’m surprised still exists) that posts videos of them drugging and raping their wives.

Most people criticizing Milei have no concept of what 300% inflation looks like. That means prices are going up about 25% every month. There central bank had a 133% peak interest rate, compared to the 3.5-3.75% rate in the US that Trump desperately wants cut.

Argentina was staring down hyperinflation like Zimbabwe or Weimar Germany. Bad things were coming either way.

The top 20 appears to be play time, but it would be nice if it was ever really mentioned.

The Alaska one North and West are obvious, but there are some islands that cross the date line, making them technically east.

Someone else posted a graphic, but basically Maine is significantly farther east which cancels out the North/South difference of other states.

I wouldn’t be surprised if drugs that failed quality control were labeled for animal use.

Some fun geography one’s.
Maine is the closest US state to Africa.
Alaska is the northern most, Western most, and Eastern most state in the US.

P is for Pterodactyl.