“These counterfeit phones, Cohen said, were either out of warranty or contained counterfeit parts, but Apple “wrongly” believed that they were real phones under real warranties”

So not counterfeit. Just real iPhones that were out of warranty or has been repaired by a third party.

I just went cold turkey because I can’t/won’t watch content with ads, and already felt the cost of our streaming services was too much for what we get out of it.

What I’ve found myself doing is if I do buy from Amazon and it’s below the free shipping amount, I try and buy from a marketplace seller who ships themselves for free. Often this ends up matching the Prime price, but it’s buried further down the result because it doesn’t have Prime shipping. Or I buy the same product via eBay, which is mostly cheaper. But main thing is, I’ve found I just buy less. Like A LOT less. As a family we’d often get 3 or 4 Amazon deliveries a week. That’s not been replaced with orders from other retailers. It’s almost as if having Prime encourages you to buy stuff you maybe don’t need!

We are halfway through it!

I unsubscribed in January and still have too much stuff to watch. Although that is helped by being in the UK and having iPlayer I guess. I’ve also spent way less on impulse buying crap because of the free shipping. Absolutely do not miss Prime.

I think it’s just the two Mana games that are going to be on Game Pass.

DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake $59.99

Ahahahahahahaha

Can’t say that heat loss is a big issue with my 10+ year old Aeropress. Still going strong. Although to be honest my £65 FB Marketplace Gaggia Baby gets way more use. 150 bucks sounds a bit steep for what it is.

The phone number requirement is a recent change I believe to deter people from creating multiple accounts, so any old timers probably didn’t have to use a phone number to sign up.

Username checks out

To be honest I’ve got a bunch of CDs, DVDs and game discs etc. Never stored in a shed or attic and many have rot. They tend to be particular labels, publishers or manufacturers. For example I have a few BBC audio CDs and most of those within a certain range of years have succumbed. I personally wouldn’t store these in a shed but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happened under any conditions. I now use ODEs where feasible or FPGA. My game discs are mostly for looks now.

Is it though?

Fair point. I get that this isn’t aimed at me. I’m not a sugar fiend. But the big food manufacturers will just replace it with artificial sweeteners, which to me at least taste awful. I used to enjoy the odd Fentimans Ginger Beer, but now it tastes like hand soap and all I can thing about is that Godfather meme… “look how they massacred my boy” 😥

Let’s not. They’ll just fill them with sweeteners instead and everything will taste like ass. Personally, whenever I have the odd fizzy drink I buy the stuff with sugar and pay the extra. The rest of the crap can get into the sea.

Me. I work in video games, and I have kids.

As a game studio - a developer rather than a publisher - it’s very much hand to mouth. You are paid by the publishers on delivery of milestones. Milestone reviews can sometimes be subjective. You’re basically the lowest link in the food chain and can be subject to a publisher’s whim, which can often be a bit random depending on your external producer. Keeping such a studio open in the long term is about chasing new contacts, and any gaps between contacts is expensive because you aren’t generating any income, but are having to pay wages. One or two project cancellations can easily shutter an independent developer.

In some cases studio owners may simply want out, or they might legitimately see a sale as bringing stability to the studio… Or it might just be greed. But I think it’s hard to say whether a studio would have a safer long term future being independent or being sold.

Most games, especially so called Triple A games, have too much text and NPC dialog. The last thing we need is more of this crap that the developers don’t even care about enough to write. How about we focus on making the gameplay good and not how we can fire more developers?

The whole Internet?

When I was in the office and buying beans for our automatic machine the Lavazza beans were the most reliable, consistent and highest quality “supermarket” beans I could find for a reasonable price. Personally I liked the Rossa. For myself at home I do use a local small batch roaster and get a subscription. It’s about twice as much cost wise but still works out at only 40p (I’m in the UK) for an espresso, which I’m happy with.

I used to have a bean to cup machine and this is basically the only way I could do it with a single hopper. I didn’t weigh it. I just used a scoop and got it down so I could eyeball the amount of beans per serving. It’s not too onerous. The thing to keep in mind is that most of these machines use a timer to dose the beans, so it’s not by weight. It also varies by beans, roast etc. Some beans will take longer to grinder than others. Finally I’d always aim to put slightly less beans in the hopper than the machines timer called for, to make sure there wouldn’t be any left for the next cup.