icedterminal

Call of Duty was one of them. Disc contained less than 100mb of data. You still had to download the entire game. If you bought it to only play a campaign offline, too bad.

Same. My jaw dropped. Absolutely loved it.

Steam uses the Chromium embedded framework in case anyone doesn’t know. This renders the web pages in the Steam client. As mentioned, there’s no point in Valve maintaining the code base themselves when upstream Chromium drops support for 7.

This is similar to when browsers dropped support for Flash. Adobe stopped developing it and the major browser vendors removed their in-house flash plugins.

Someone made a mistake here. It’s not getting your IP address. An IP address is assigned by the gateway when you’re connected to an access point. An IP address is not an identity. They are always changing and can be shared. This has already been tested and upheld in court.

It’s actually collecting your MAC address. Which is exchanged when your phone or tablet scan nearby WiFi points or Bluetooth devices. However, this can already be defeated. By default iOS and Android both have the option to randomise the MAC address in intervals. Making it extremely difficult to prove anything. This feature exists because the devices real MAC address never changes. It is unique. Alternatively, users can disable WiFi and Bluetooth scanning entirely. However, your device no longer participates in the Find My Devices program by Apple and Google, location does take longer to acquire in some scenarios, and accuracy may take longer to triangulate.

Nothing has changed sadly.

30 was the standard up to PS3 and X360 at 720p. With the complete rework of the hardware design for PS4 and XOne, both consoles targeted 60 at 720p and encouraged developers to reach this. If the resolution is upped to 1080p, games will more often than not target 30. There are exceptions to this such as Gran Turismo. To this day, in the era of PS5 and X Series, a majority of games still target 30 because it’s easier to do so and they can crank up the graphical quality.

This is definitely meant to make it less painful for the players of those games.

By being ripped out and sandboxed the same way other apps are, Google services isn’t free to siphon battery. This means you can restrict battery use and cut the constant communication down. Thus saving battery. If you allow it, yes it is not different than if it was preloaded.

From their own privacy policy they outline what they do:

For research and development purposes, we may use datasets such as those that contain images, voices or other data that could be associated with an identifiable person.

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees, such as maps data providers, may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.

Apple’s websites, online services, interactive applications, email messages, and advertisements may use “cookies” and other technologies such as pixel tags and web beacons.

We also use personal information to help us create, develop, operate, deliver, and improve our products, services, content and advertising

At times Apple may provide third parties with certain personal information to provide or improve our products and services, including to deliver products at your request, or to help Apple market to consumers.

Apple may collect location, IP Address, network information, Bluetooth information, connected devices, accessories, personal demographics, browsing history, browser fingerprint, device fingerprint, search history, app data, usage data, performance, diagnostics, product interaction, transaction information, payment information, purchasing records, contacts, social graph, watch history, listening interests, reading list, call metadata, device information, messaging metadata, email addresses, salary, income, assets, health data, ad interaction, in-app purchases, in-app subscriptions, app downloads, music downloads, movie downloads, TV show downloads, Apple ID, IDFA, Random Unique ID, UUID, IMEI, Hardware serial number, SIM serial number, phone number, telemetry, cookies, Nearby WiFi MAC, Siri request history, Web sign-in, songs played, play and pause times, playlists, engagement and library.

Literally all of this is what Google does. The only thing Apple does differently is hinder 3rd party apps to a greater degree, whereas Google is more permissive. But to be fair, Google has been improving the Privacy features of Android with each version.

https://tosdr.org/en/service/158

Security cameras are everywhere in and around buildings/homes. Dash cams are pretty common these days and some even record when the car is off and alone. Someone is filming a vlog or some snap/insta/tiktok clip in the area.

Fingers crossed. Kaz has been displaying interest in a PC version. His first early demo of Ray Tracing at a conference years ago used a PC fork of Gran Turismo because it didn’t exist on consoles at the time. With all of the relevant competing franchises existing on PC, they’re missing out.

Skin is an elastic organ. If you start putting on fat, your skin stretches. The foreskin can be stretched with regular motion. Retracting it on a daily basis would encourage it to stretch. Infections occur only when the foreskin isn’t cleaned well. I don’t know your circumstances personally. Teaching you how to keep clean and retracting the skin is a viable method. I’m not discrediting your parents. Just sharing the logic behind why circumcision is not absolutely necessary or should be the first choice. If this was the informed decision they made for you, I’m glad it was successful with no complications. That’s the best possible outcome.

When a baby is born, the doctor may ask if you’d like to have your baby circumcised. If this is the case, it happens before they leave the hospital. This is where that time frame comes in. Otherwise, circumcision is “recommended” within the first two weeks after birth.

Here is a medical reason at birth: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/hypospadias.html

Any medical condition after birth that requires a circumcision, needs to be performed by a doctor who knows exactly what they’re doing. Not every doctor does. So you end up with not-so-great stories shared around.

Edit: You describe the tight foreskin you experienced which is in the second link I provided. It is a medical condition that doesn’t require circumcision. In fact, you could still have your foreskin right now. The condition usually goes away over time. Believe it or not. Circumcision is an easy way out. But one that may cost. And in the case of that individual, it did.

Oh boy. You’re about to learn a lot.

A circumcision isn’t necessary when there’s nothing medically wrong with you. It’s literally mutilation when it’s done for religious or appearance reasons. Spoiler! These are the two most common reasons why this procedure takes place. You didn’t consent.

When you’re born, the foreskin is fused to the glans (penis head). A foreskin’s purpose is protecting the glans and keeping it moist. A circumcised penis is scientifically proven to have reduced sensitivity because the glans are exposed all the time.

This procedure usually happens when the baby is 24 to 48 hours old. There are over ~100 deaths a year from circumcision. If an infection occurs, this can easily get out of hand and cause the loss of all or parts of the penis… on a new born baby mind you. Complications later in life may include, but not limited to: pain or discomfort with an erection, erectile dysfunction, or abnormal shape or size of an erection.

Because a new born penis is incredibly small, the slightest mistake can lead to disaster. In some cases, can mentally fuck someone up. Unfortunately, I am personally affected by a botched procedure. Too much skin was taken off and the urethral opening was torn.

It’s an unnecessary procedure that can fuck up your otherwise healthy at birth child for the rest of their life. All for some religious reason or because parents “don’t like it” - every male is born with it. It’s there for a reason.

Whenever you connect your phone to any car with a handsfree system via any means (BT, USB, App) you have the option to allow it to access and store your contacts, phone call log, and text messages. If you install the companion app should your car have remote features, this app can collect even more data this way. If you say “call grandma” to handsfree or select her via the infotainment system, the car knows this and the manufacturer does too. The manufacturer can then save her number according to their policy and locate her. As a company they can perform a data sale/trade with their third parties and find out her real name if you don’t have it saved (Yes this is how companies have profiles on you even if you never used them.) Depending on the manufacturer, yes your car does actively send recordings back to the manufacturer from the microphone built in the cabin.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

It does. If you purchase a device from the carrier, it’s guaranteed to be preloaded with their apps. Verizon currently states

“we may change your wireless device’s software, applications or programming remotely, without notice.”

https://www.verizon.com/legal/notices/customer-agreement/

The solution is to get a phone from the manufacturer themselves. They don’t come with carrier bloat.

Think outside the box. Get a previous generation. Pixel 8 was about to be released. To move inventory, Google discounted the 7 series by like 30-40%. I got the 256GB 7 Pro for $600. Without the sale, $600 is the same price as the 128GB 7. I got a top of the range flagship phone for the cost of a midrange. My mom did something similar with a Samsung phone. She got an S20 when the S22 released. Huge discount when Verizon offered it for $449.

It’s a version of Windows 10 targeted at businesses that choose to run Windows on “Internet of Things” devices. It is a “Long Term Service Channel” release that receives primarily security updates (little to no features updates), because the devices that will use this need to be in service for a very long time. Enterprise Windows typically activates with a licensing server that’s subscription based. But you can use the “Microsoft Activation Scripts” to activate it as if it were a retail copy you pick up the store.

Exactly. The alias just points to the script which is executed.

The default power plan Asus setup is doing this. You change power plan settings.

so much for track day, I guess?

Stuff like this is likely planned in advance with sports and super cars. Since this technology has existed for a while. Assuming you visit a recognized track, wherever it may be, the limiter simply turns off. For example, the 2009 and later Nissan GTR is sold in Japan with a 112 MPH artificial limiter in the software. The limit is there by law. GPS / Sat Nav is standard on this car. If you visit say, Fuji or Laguna Seca, the car knows where it is and turns the limiter off. Allowing you to achieve the ~200 MPH top speed. Examples sold for other markets such as US and EU need not worry. The redline in 6th gear is your physical limiter.

On a slightly related note, clever people have figured out ways around limiters. Such as tricking the GPS or modifying the ECU. Unfortunately, these days it gets harder to do this as manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, VW, and a few others, are encrypting the communication network physically located in the car. It’s not the traditional low and high speed CAN Bus. FlexRay is becoming more commonplace unfortunately.