I bought a Quest in early December. Link was what sold it for me. I prefer the standalone mode, but there are a lot of games that are still PC only. Having the option to use all that content without buying another headset is great.

Also, the Quest's internal graphics capabilities are good, but nowhere near what a PC with a high end graphics card is capable of. If you've played the same game through link and directly on the Quest the difference is very noticeable. So having that capability without buying another headset for PCVR is great.

It really is the best of both worlds. I agree though, particularly for games that are room-scale and involve a lot of movement, untethered is a much better experience.

That's not what sole source means. A sole source contract is one where the contract is not competed (opened for multiple bids) because there is only on provider who can meet the requirements.

3D content is the most expensive to generate and that expense isn't warranted for everything. 3D art is one of the reasons modern AAA games are so expensive. Sprites are much easier to make. This extends to most media outside games though. I think in terms of ease of production and cost the hierarchy goes something like this:

Audio recording (speaking)
Text document (website)
2D images (photos)
Video (recording from camera)
Video (3D recording - requires special hardware)
nteractive 2D multimedia (website/game)
2D images (art)
Audio (art/music)
Video (produced)
Video (2D animation)
Video (3D animation)
Interactive 3D (game/website)

Podcasts are one end of the spectrum, AAA 3D games (not necessarily VR/3D experience, simply 3D models) are the other.

First I've heard of it. Why exactly would someone want an Apple branded Mastercard?

Lego Minifigures have been around since at least the 70s. I had them when I was a kid. There's definitely not a 2000s or 2010s creation.

Too many "IMHO"s, exclamation points and @ symbols. Not nearly enough white space. 0/10 would not read again.

The world may be getting better, but the internet has gotten worse. I was around in the early days of the web (1996) and BBSes before that. I was also on slashdot in the late 90s (this isn't my original account). Part of what's happened is an influx of general population into what was originally small tech saavy communities. Often oriented around tech, but other communities existed and they were basically islands.

Now with platforms like reddit, twitter, facebook, etc. everything is visible to everyone and a more general population (basically everyone) uses them. So that's one part of it.

It's also pretty clear that people have realized they can use the anonymity of the internet to stir up drama and controversy for their own gain. Whether that's someone creating Twitter drama to get eyes on themselves/whatever they're selling or whether it's state level actors there's definitely a level of manipulation occurring. It use to be limited to "astroturfing" (shilling for products). Now it's a lot darker. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the APK crap was a state level actor trying to sow discord.

Maybe completely free and open communication between everyone in public forums just simply doesn't work at this scale (i.e., it will be abused). I hate to say that as I think the internet is a good thing and I don't like being cut off from information. On the other hand, a lot of people don't have the critical thinking skills to understand when they shouldn't take information at face value and to question a source. And some people are just easily manipulated. Just thinking out loud. I don't know what the solution is.

The amount of AC spam was way out of hand. It's much better this way.

I've never understood the point of "anonymous" posting anyways. The site is recording the IP, browser fingerprint, etc. Either you're hiding that through other means or not. The public facing account name on a post just makes it easier to follow a conversation. A bunch of anons yelling at each other is difficult/impossible to follow and has little if any value.

Great explanation except for this part. Whether or not there's any motion blur depends on how it was filmed. Your explanation assumes the camera shutter is open for a full 1/24 of a second when filming (or at least long enough for there to be blur) and that's almost never the case. Motion blur depends entirely on how long the shutter is open and the film speed. Often there is no blur at all because of high shutter speed and it's just a jump between clear still images.

Closer to 20. Voyager ended 18 years ago (2001).

You're really twisting that to fit your view. By "staying relevant" I mean reaching their intended audience. What's the point in putting something where no one will see it? Going to where people are so they see your message isn't being an attention whore.

As for a snail mail provider that wouldn't deliver junk mail, sure that would be great. We still use the post office because it's what we have. Same with any of these social media services. We can fantasize about the ideal, but nothing better currently exists.

If you want to get your ideas out, you use the platform where the audience is. Someone could create their own forum and spend years building an audience (and there's a place for that), but not using the platforms where everyone is makes you way less visible. Right now those platforms are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

I use to think people were silly for jumping to the next thing. The truth is, the people who do aren't wrong, they're trying to stay relevant. Twitter and the like aren't the problem, it's the content that's put into them. But you have control over who you follow and get info from.

The cesspool you mention are mainly people that comment. There are way more people that use those services as a news feed and likely never comment. You're essentially suggesting the equivalent of not using the USPS because companies use it to send tons of junk mail.

Your comment seems aimed at the post yesterday about a lot of the work for the Apollo missions being done by hand, not this one about sweepstakes.

Are you sure you commented on the right post?

"Don't try to catch a falling knife."

Maybe, just maybe, there's a reason other than inability that no other car manufacturer with billions of dollars at their disposal is jumping headlong into electric just yet.

Social media refers to sites that are mainly about social interaction. That is - sharing things with a social circle. That's expanded a bit, but generally it means users subscribing to posts by *someone*, not about a topic or interest. Not all message boards / forums are "social media" as the term is commonly understood. Usually it refers to things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Those have a different use case than something like Reddit or Slashdot, which are mostly strangers commenting on a article, though they may have similar interests.