CatZoomies

My eyes naturally found Golden Sun in your comment, so I immediately upvoted before I finished reading your thoughts.

Now I’m curious about Urban Rivals and will check it out since I haven’t played browser games since ~2000-2006.

Wow, 7 TB in a month?

Slaps roof of internet router

You can fit a lot of Linux ISOs in that data cap!

Microsoft Edge: “Thank you, Chrome, for sharing the load.”

The ultimate gamer high is to take a deep breath from the Steam Deck exhaust, lick a Switch cartridge, hold your breath, and then chug down a G Fuel.

Remember when all three of these companies used to be great 20 years ago? Such a shame how far they’ve fallen.

I’m playing Beyond Good & Evil on GameCube for the first time, and this game is an absolute gem. Makes me miss how great Ubisoft used to be. They started turning into hostile trash somewhere around ten years ago.

Barges into room.

Them: “Are you hacking, son?

Me: “No.”

Them: “Cool. I’m just a hotel employee, and I only have understanding of computers at an end-user level. Plus, I see you’re not wearing a hoodie and sunglasses while being hunched over a laptop. Have a nice day and enjoy your stay at the Hilton!”

Exactly, and this is additionally why it is predatory: you can't opt out.

It's similar to Facebook. If you never in your life ever created a profile, well, Facebook has one for you regardless.

The only way you can opt out of bluetooth beacons is to not bring your phone/smart watch/etc, or have either a hardware switch that disables your network functions or put it in a faraday cage. Also, because of data profiles and associations, if you're walking into a store with your partner, expect that your partner should do the same or else it's all moot. You're associated with your partner and thus tracking and profiling occurs anyway.

No tinfoil hat needed. Retail stores are equipped with bluetooth beacons that tracks and monitors customer behavior. This in turn can be sold for targeted advertising. Another scary thought is that the tracking is so precise, it measures the distance your phone is from a product, including height. How high is the phone from the ground? The data points can be extrapolated to influence product placement: what products and prices influenced a customer to bend down and look at/interact with the product? How long were they in close proximity with the product? Based on the phone’s orientation, were they bent down to look at or passing by the product (indicating that they stopped for a separate reason and not necessarily for the product)? Did they buy it? Were they looking for coupons in my “retail store app” while next to the product, or somewhere else in the store? Where do customers often stop or gather in order to browse through coupons? Could we place Y products there? Where should we put the product in stores to maximize sales? What ads can we send to them as they arrive at the store? Based on aggregated data with the rich profile we built for this customer, are they likely to sign up for our rewards credit card? What is this customer’s income level? Have they purchased X product recently? What part of town do they live in? What products are popular there? Et cetera ad nauseum.

Tracking is so predatory. Makes me look at my smart phone with disgust as the years go by, and I periodically grapple with the decision if a smart phone is even right for me or if it’s time to stick to a computer and a truly dumb phone going forward.

Some public info about Bluetooth beacons: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html

Want to find Bluetooth beacons? Simply install a Bluetooth scanner app from your phone and head to a store to see them.

Here’s how Shopify engages businesses on how to utilize Bluetooth beacons with their software package. Bought anything online? That site was most likely powered by Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/retail/the-ultimate-guide-to-using-beacon-technology-for-retail-stores

Loose and lose bother me. When I see these words used incorrectly, I become mildly irritated.

I figuratively would of had fewer of a reaction if less persons made that missed steak… literally.

“Is he safe? Is he alright?”

There’s the official Jellyfin app for Apple TV. It works very well with only minor UI bugs when browsing libraries. Nothing that detracts from or reduces the quality of the service.