I've had to cave and use some services (for work reasons) that I'd swore I would never use. No matter how much we value privacy and look for alternative software/services when possible - we still have to eat and pay bills.

If you are in the same boat and you must use services like that, then my advice would be to keep it strictly business. Keep your personal details and personal social connections to a minimum unless where it would be otherwise beneficial for work purposes.

Good. Fuck that fascist and his companies. The only sad part of this story is that they used paint and not something that would etch or scratch the stainless.

Even with her guard up, Shadowheart's character is still more varied. Her reactions are more mixed and you can really see her bluntness and pragmatism come through. Her responses vary from indifference, apathy, rudeness, hostility, and moments of care and tenderness. Astarion in Act 1 is just an asshole all the time. I also feel that some of his reactions clash with his character and don't make sense. Don't get me wrong; I think he's a good character but I can also see why so many want nothing to do with him.

Astarion is particularly annoying in Act 1 for some reason, with 99% of his reactions just being him hating anything that is remotely positive. His reactions (and character in general) in the following acts is a lot more fleshed out and varied.

I've finished nearly all at least once.

But I've played Skyrim for thousands of hours and only ever completed the main questline once.

Same.

This is going to flop.

A big appeal of assistant devices was the barrier to entry was extremely low. So low that they could be purchased in multiples and given as gifts and were easy for the recipients to set up and use. So low that Alexa integration was common on many types of devices at many pricepoints.

Setting one up and being asked to pay a monthly sub might not go so well. People are getting burnt out of constant subscriptions bleeding them dry. I really don't know how many would be willing to pay for something that was once free and was basically taken away from them.

this is also not including the growing amount of people that are goddamn sick and tired of hearing about AI constantly being shoved into everything

Time for another anti-trust lawsuit.

Nobody can force you to stay here if you don't enjoy being here anymore.

That being said, your post history isn't that bad at all. We all say things that garner heaps of downvotes sometimes, and that is especially going to be the case in more heated communities like those related to politics. Honestly, I don't even think up/down votes should even be a thing here and copying them from Reddit was just importing toxicity, but that's just my two cents.

Valve is still a private company. If they ever made an IPO then they would be screwed.

Because they will. They literally will.

Adobe is one of the most awful, insidious, evil corporations in the software space and they have done absolutely nothing to claw back even a tiny shred of good faith.

Taking away parking must be done while also providing alternatives, or you just have a bunch of homes and businesses that are inaccessible. This is especially the case if you want to integrate something like rail/tram access which has to have infrastructure considerations before construction even begins.

"Build now, "fix" later" is exactly how we ended up in the situation we're in now where they just keep throwing more and more buses at the problem.

Several new major developments in my area have done this. They have underground parking for residents and businesses only and for everyone else you get 5 slots of street parking and nothing else.

The problem is that public transit in my city is horrible. It is expensive, unreliable, slow, and has poor service coverage. These developments are 100% completely inaccessible to me both by car and by transit unless I'm willing to blow away the next 4 hours busing there and back for what would be a 10 minute car ride.

Cars are a cancer on the world and I hate them as much as anyone else here, but cities must give proper alternatives if plans like this are to work properly. Slow, stinky buses that only come every 50 minutes and spend 80% of their time stuck in traffic help nobody and yet they are all our politicians are willing to provide.

This gives warm and fuzzy feelings.

You're not wrong! But at least for now I got a decent PS alternative for $45. We'll see how things go.

Good time to drop a reminder that Affinity's tools are 50% off right now and are buy-once software.

It's funny that you brought up application compatibility when numerous creative tools I use don't support Linux. I also did not buy my Macbook at full price.

I wouldn't mind having a Linux laptop to tinker with some day, but it would not be a primary or secondary device for me.

For anyone who wishes to cancel their Adobe plan(s):

• Change your subscription to another kind - either cheaper or more expensive. You the subscription will be locked for about 5 minutes while it processes, then it will unlock and you can now manage it. Go into the manage subscription page and cancel it. Because you renewed with a new plan, you can now make use of the fee-free cancellation window and any charges applied will refund.

• If that fails or you don't want to go that route for whatever reason, you can contact customer support and request the cancellation fee be waived. I've seen a few people say they had success with this. If they still decline you, threaten to report them to your regional consumer protections agency, the press, legal sources, etc. Companies hate bad PR and would rather just waive your fee than deal with you.

Why I got a iPhone: I detest Google and I have had very bad experiences with Android devices losing software support after only a couple years - some not getting any major updates at all. My cell carrier also had a clear-out special going for the last gen models.

Why I got a Macbook: the Apple silicon Macs blow Windows laptops out of the water in terms of horsepower and battery consumption. Second-hand M1 and M2 devices can be picked up now for reasonable prices. It is a nice change of pace as Microsoft is completely butchering Windows.

I didn't threaten. I cancelled.

I cancelled and purchased Affinity Photo 2.