Phone functionality is the least of my problems, I need an open source replacement for Android Auto / Apple CarPlay.

Not sure how that would work, you’d either have to emulate it to talk to the infotainment system, or get all the infotainment producers to add an open source layer… Sounds like a nightmare either way.

As a rule, we don’t handle the unexpected well. When my grandfather died from lung cancer, it was a long, protracted ordeal involving hospice care. Everyone was prepared, nobody was surprised.

When my dad died from a massive heart attack in the middle of nowhere in Nevada, a month after retiring, it was a shock, nobody saw it coming. He didn’t make it long enough for the life flight helicopter to get there. Reportedly his last words were “Oh no.”

It’s one thing to plan for a death, it’s another to be slapped in the head with one.

I’d buy that for a dollar!

FM transmitter and play it through a radio?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_transmitter_(personal_device)

There was a bullshit explanation, that as time went on proved to be a lie, yeah.

There wasn’t much thought behind it other than “is it fun” or “is it new”.

There was huge word of mouth whenever a new machine dropped and kids would ride their bikes from store to store to see the new ones.

This was before arcades started collecting them. Arcade machines were just at the local bars, Pizza shops, 7-11s, and grocery stores.

Bars would set them up in non-age restricted areas so kids could play.

Not in Europe, so I can’t help you there.

But I’d like to add, it’s not JUST about disabling games.

Bungie released Destiny 2 in 2017, in 2020 they started “vaulting” content, locking it away from people who had paid for it.

This included ALL of the story missions, essentially rendering the game plot-less.

Half of the original planet locations in the base $60 game, and the entirety of the first two paid expansions.

It’s literally impossible to play the game as launched even though, technically, it was never disabled and is still online.

The content has never been restored and cannot be accessed, even for a court case, Bungie had to rely on YouTube recordings of the removed content:

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/bungies-lawyers-have-to-use-fan-videos-of-old-destiny-2-content-in-court-because-well-it-doesnt-exist-in-game-anymore/

One of my favorite bits teaching Hex Ed was writing it on the board and saying it out loud:

0 - Zero
1 - One
2 - Two
3 - Three
4 - Four
5 - Five
6 - Six
7 - Seven
8 - Eight
9 - Nine
A - Ten
B - Eleven
C - Twelve
D - Thirteen
E - Fourteen
F - Fifteen

It is so hard writing the letter and saying the number.

I find it the other way around. I can’t play Vampire Survivors because of Robotron/Smash TV/Geometry Wars.

Of note:

"One of the notable issues is that this process also won’t delete all of your data — according to 23andMe’s privacy disclosure, your genetic information, date of birth, and sex will be retained for an undisclosed amount of time to comply with the company’s legal obligations, alongside “limited information related to your account,” such as your email address and communications around your data deletion request.

23andMe did not answer our questions regarding what specific data actually is retained or deleted when a user removes their account. Some posts have appeared online that encourage 23andMe users to scramble their data before deletion by replacing things like name, date of birth, ethnicity, sex marker, and height with false equivalents. This will supposedly render any information that is retained useless, but will likely be ineffective if 23andMe only stores the data that was used to create your account — something that the company also did not clarify to The Verge."

It also has no impact on research studies you’re already part of, all it does is prevent your DNA from being added to new studies.

I dug it up after seeing this story:

https://www.livescience.com/animals/sharks/octopus-spotted-riding-on-top-of-worlds-fastest-shark

Reminds me of a little known Scott McCloud book… you might know his award winning run on Zot! and Understanding Comics, or even the contract work he did for Google Chrome:

https://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.html

But he also did this massive 11" x 15" book:

The Nav system on my Audi Q7 BLOWS compared to Android Auto. It can’t seem to understand a damn thing I say.

I ran into this with my 2013 Kia Sorento ICE (which was subsequently totalled. :( )

When you replace the on-board infotainment system, there’s an interoperability package that has to be installed to make sure the existing functions of the vehicle continue to work.

Think of it like a translation layer, everything on the dashboard that went through the old system, has to be hooked up to the new system. Also complicated by steering wheel controls.

When it was all said and done, I had the full array of cameras that I wanted (turn signal cameras are amazing!) and everything worked…

Except the one little button that changed the interior lighting. It was forever stuck on red.

Now, for an EV, it’s essential everything work properly. I can totally see GM shutting that down.

This is kind of like the complaint about EVs not having AM radios… yeah, there’s a reason for that!

https://www.autosinnovate.org/posts/blog/not-cheap-a-3.8-billion-fix-for-am-radio-in-evs

Plus $95 for a “physical edition” with no disc. :(

I was willing to buy the game… for $60. But not a digital code. I get that they want to push people to Gamepass, but $60 is 3 months and at the end I actually own nothing?

The writing was kind of on the wall for Avowed when they announced they were dumping it after the holidays.

I was like “Oh, like Forspoken? Good luck!”

2 hour video, is there a tl;dw?

Yup!

See my “set 2” links above. (at the time) $3,200 8K television, “If you want the brightest image possible, use the default Dynamic Mode settings with Local Dimming set to ‘High’, as we were able to get 1666 nits in the 10% peak window test.”

HDR still trash.

Yup, yup. Highly rated when I bought them, but in actual usage? Not so much.