I had some financial troubles recently, so I have not been buying any AAA games for over a year but I have bought some new little games here and there like Peak or some free to play games so my new release percentage is 22%

54% is 1 to 7 year old games.

24% is 8 years or older.

Still rocking Elite Dangerous.

I’m afraid I don’t know too much about that.

I use uBlock Origin in Firefox and that is basically all I use on my PC and Pi-Hole does the rest.

Pi-Hole has some default rules that do a decent job and most people just rely on those, you can add your own or apply additional rule lists but the more you add, the greater the chance you break or block something legitimate.

Whatever blocker or rules you use will need updating once Microsoft or whoever makes changes, and some might react faster to the changes than others and they will most likely never react instantly. Something will always get through.

I don’t think there is a definite solution that will always work, these large companies will always make changes and try and bypass our protections and all we can do is react to that.

The only way to truly stop all M$ telemetry is to not use their services but I am not going to tell anyone they need to move over to a non-M$ system because I know it’s not just that easy. I have software and games that only run in Windows so I am stuck with their slop for now.

Maybe someone will be able to suggest another method that will suit your needs.

It might be a more extreme method, but I use Pi-Hole on my home network running on a Raspberry Pi.

It’s more investment than tweaking some Windows settings or configuring a router, but it does a decent job of blocking a lot of telemetry and tracking.

Most of my denied queries listed on the Pi-Hole dashboard are Microsoft based.

I have to use my Pi-Hole as my DHCP server though, otherwise all traffic seems to only come from one device… my router.

If you have a server running at home, Pi-Hole can also be hosted in a Docker container.

I hit a wall at some point, the difficulty seemed to have ramped up or I was super weak.

Probably my stats and bad weapon and skill choices and I had not picked up certain items and pictos.

I left the game for a few months and picked it up again, started over and I just finished it now, about 30 minutes ago.

I’ll admit I used some build guides and it helped me along, I wanted to finally finish the game without struggling as much as I did before.

I tested a few launchers that were not to my liking, and then I settled on Lawnchair.

I might change at some stage, but so far it’s working for me.

Hot sap.

I saw some article mention that there has not been a Half-Life game in ages… completely forgetting about Alyx.

I’m just hoping for some good games moving forward that aren’t trying to milk us for everything we have with slop we don’t want.

Why Half-Life 3 can never be made.

I don’t think I ever watched that show… but I know that soundtrack.

It’s bugging me now because I don’t know where I heard it from, maybe I heard it a few times when it was on the TV as a kid.

Bruh, I used to play Team Fortress Classic.

Same, also a Nova refugee using Lawnchair.

One thing I don’t like though, is if you change the homescreen grid size it destroys everything and you have to start over with your homesdreen icons.

UBlock Origin works for me in Firefox, but the last time YouTube was at war with adblockers I had to retore default settings in uBlock every few days.

I can’t remember the process but I think I had to reset the settings and do something with the lists.

You can also try a desktop app like Freetube. There is no algorithm through, if you are looking for that. It sometimes breaks when YouTube makes changes and everything is stored locally, so you have to back up your subscriptions if you plan on reinstalling Windows at some stage.

See if you can default uBlock Origin, that method worked before.

I use Firefox and uBlock Origin and for the last week or more every Youtube video I open takes about 10 or so seconds to open, just sitting there spinning.

Nah, he gives me that creepy feeling.

He has that creep factor.

The reason I don’t buy booze and limit snack buying… if it’s in my house it is going to be consumed quickly.

It’s like a challenge, it’s there, it will be consumed.

Skunks are cool.

Cyclist meets family of skunks

Not me, but I used to work a role at a company that provided IT services and hardware/support.

We had a team that sat right behind me, basically they supported customer accounts, and they got a new team leader/manager.

She came in on a Friday I believe and the rest of the team were out, Thursday night is party night so most people worked from home Friday.

The next week comes in, IT puts all her equipment on her desk, she isn’t there. The next day or so comes around and she isn’t there but her team is and someone else strolls over to chat. He mentions he heard they got a new lady boss, where is she?

I say she was in last week, I saw her.

“Is she a looker?”

… this bloody place. Asks nothing about her other than her looks.

Later that week IT comes along and collects her equipment, she had left in under a week. I have no idea what happened but that was the quickest I have seen someone leave and on average we had a very short staff turnover time.

I’ve always found him to be creepy, just got that feeling from him.

I cringe every time I see him.

Battlefield 4.