There’s always the exceptions, but they’re rare, and getting more rare.

The vast majority of works are owned by a few major corporations, even smaller, more indie games often get published through a major studio, which then retains a good amount of the profit. Almost all media, TV and movies, is owned by one of a handful of companies. Music is largely the same.

It goes the same way for so many other things too. It’s not just games and media.

There are always going to be exceptions but on the whole, it’s vastly more likely/common that the people profiting from something is a large, faceless organization, which only answers to their shareholders.

Yeah, why the fuck not?

Obviously, something made in a specialized vehicle manufacturing plant will be better/more durable/whatever, but given the option between downloading a car vs spending a year’s salary to buy one… I’d rather download one.

Unless my wages get better (which they are not) or cars get cheaper (which they won’t), I’ll continue to have this opinion.

There’s a nontrivial number of cars that cost more than a house did in the 80’s and 90’s. So it’s entirely possible for someone to spend the same dollar value on their home, when purchasing it in the 90’s, as they do 25 years later, buying a house in the 2020’s.

Stupid.

The only damage that exists from piracy is to the copyright holders profits…

Since the copyright holder is usually a corporation that is owned by shareholders, the majority of which are richer than all of us combined, ask me if I give a shit and I will show you my field of shits to give, and you will see that it is barren.

Eat the rich. Or Luigi them… I don’t care.

I’ve been there, done that. Welcome to the club my friend.

The only reason I got through my last layoff without stooping into a deep depression is that I’ve done this dance so many fucking times that I’m tired of it all.

Luckily I had a new job about a month later, which I 100% acknowledge is luck.

I still miss my previous job, it was much better than the one I have now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not angry at being employed, I’m just sad that I didn’t get to remain employed with the last workplace.

I get it, 100%. Nothing you said is really all that abnormal. You clearly liked the job, and there’s no good way to express that loss. It’s just something you have to go through all the stages of. Eventually the whole ordeal will seem further and further away and you’ll settle into a routine and get your life back to where it should be. You lost something and it’s okay to be sad about that.

What isn’t good is if you start getting any worse than where you are at now. If you start sliding deeper into it, or you feel like you’re drowning, please seek help. The people who care about you don’t want to lose you.

My advice for the future is: never invest more than you’re willing to lose, whether you’re taking about money or emotional investment, the reality is that you can lose it all in a snap. Make sure you know what you’re risking and ensure you can sacrifice what you’ve invested if there’s a sudden change from management. Take care of yourself first, then worry about everything else.

As someone who lives and works online. I wish.

It seems super consolidated, right up until you start listing the “handful” of big vendors that run the Internet… You get passed the first 3 or 4 big players and end up with a long list of “of yeah, these guys too”…

Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, CloudFlare, valve (and every other game publisher), Netflix, PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Apple, Yahoo (yes, they still exist), xitter, Rackspace, zoom, Dropbox, Etsy, Pinterest…

The list is super long.

And that’s just companies that people would have heard of. The companies that actually make the Internet work is a much longer list, and GoDaddy plays a surprisingly large role as well. There’s also entire business sectors that most people aren’t aware of, for network transit services, and interconnects.

It’s a pretty deep topic.

Spear phishing disagrees with you.

If you’re targeting a specific individual, cloning their SIM or performing another number hijack or even intercepting their SMS in flight, are all viable.

For broader, more general attacks SMS is usually enough to keep anyone out.

Honestly, probably not much less secure than SMS.

I was gifted a 2080Ti about a year or so ago and I have no intention on upgrading anytime soon. The former owner of my card is a friend who had it in their primary gaming rig, back when SLI wasn’t dead, he had two.

So when he built a new main rig with a single 4090 a few years back he gifted me one and the other one he left in his old system and started using that as a spare/guest computer for having impromptu LANs. It’s still a decent system, so I don’t blame him.

In any case, that upgraded my primary computer from a 1060 3G… So it was a welcome change to have sufficient video memory again.

The cards keep getting more and more power hungry and I don’t see any benefit in upgrading… Not that I can afford it… I haven’t been in school for a long time, and lately, I barely have time to enjoy YouTube videos, nevermind a full assed game. I literally have to walk away from a game for so long between sessions that I forget the controls. So either I can beat the game in one sitting, or the controls are similar enough to the defaults I’m used to (left click to fire, right click to ADS, WASD for movement, ctrl or C for crouch, space to jump, E to interact, F for flashlight, etc etc…); that way I don’t really need to relearn anything.

This is a big reason why I haven’t finished some titles that I really wanted to, like TLoU, or Doom Eternal… Too many buttons to remember. It’s especially bad with doom, since if you don’t remember how, and when to use your specials, you’ll run out of life, armor, ammo, etc pretty fast. Remembering which special gives what and how to trigger it… Uhhh … Is it this button? Gets slaughtered by an imp … Okay, not that button. Reload let’s try this… Killed by the same imp not that either… Hmmm. Goes and looks at the key mapping ohhhhhh. Okay. Reload I got it this time… Dies anyways due to other reasons

Whelp. Quit maybe later.

Good point.

… Compared to what?

If you compare to MacOS, then yeah, maybe.

Oh, I didn’t think you were disagreeing.

My entire point is that since task paralysis can be a symptom of an executive dysfunction, it is worth the time for OP to talk to their doctor about it.

I don’t think that the previous poster said, nor implied that OP definitely has an executive dysfunction because of this one symptom.

Neither of which I think you have refuted at any point, in any capacity. :)

I’m still not a doctor, but as a first-aid certified person, signs and symptoms can be extremely useful in helping someone. It gives you a starting point to try to figure out what’s happening.

Further investigation is always required.

Medical diagnosis is a science. Things need to be proven. You can’t just go on vibes or feelings or whatever.

Since OP describes some symptoms that can be associated with executive function disorders, doesn’t mean that they definitely have those conditions. Only a qualified doctor should be making that kind of conclusion.

Days in lieu, from working OT on salary… IMO, is required.

I don’t work for free; if you’re paying me to be present for specific hours, regardless if it’s salary or not, then I expect to work during those hours and not any other time.

If, as a salary employee, I’m paid for results and as long as I meet my deadlines (and deadlines are reasonable) I can work whenever, then yeah, I’ll probably put in unpaid OT sometimes. I’ll tell you something though… With my level of experience, it would be unusual for anything to take so long that it requires that I work more than what is typical.

As someone who works for a living: praise is nice, but pay is required.

… Fuck you, pay me.

Oh… Uhhh… Hyperactivity in the name, isn’t behavioral hyperactivity. That can certainly be a symptom but the naming comes from hyperactivity in specific brain functions, as in, your brain works too much on things inappropriately.

While that can manifest as hyperactive behaviors, it doesn’t always.

… Which is probably why they qualified their statement with “might”.

OP might have an executive dysfunction.

I am not a doctor, but I agree that the possibility that OP has an executive dysfunction is nontrivial. Depending on where you live, finding out might be free. Just saying.

Making you pretend to like it is HR’s kink.

Researching the company used to be a thing you did when selecting a career/lifetime position.

… Since that doesn’t happen anymore, I couldn’t give any less of a shit about what your company is all about. I can do thing, you want to pay me to do thing. It’s as simple as that. All the rest of this crap, I just don’t have the time, effort or shits to give.

Same. There’s so much here that’s just excellent.

If I’m working late on something, I expect to be paid for that time and the company can provide a meal.

You’re not paying me? I’ll see you later then.