donogh

In his defence, Monkey Island is Ron’s creation and the ending is probably what he always intended. It felt like a fitting conclusion to me that neatly tied a bow on the whole saga.

I appreciate this is intellectually lazy but is there a tl;dr? It’s a clickbait headline followed by a conversation that’s, at least initially, not good at conveying context.

This minor deterrant to adoption scales up with lots of other minor deterrents. Users want "it just works" and that's the experience they get with Microsoft and Apple (however bad it is in other ways).

Desktop Linux must match or exceed that base level of experience if it wants to drive meaningful adoption.

Let's be practical: give users a brief explanation of the downsides before they make choices like installing proprietary codecs. Treat them like adults. Let them have an easier life in favor of getting them on board.

I suppose it's a little like UIs. Old school, green screen UIs have a learning curve and can result in very efficient usage. Modern, friendly UIs sacrifice speed for presentation and accessibility.

Agreed; Ireland is very similar

That’s a good point. I visited Latvia a few years ago and was struck by how large a section of society there identifies as Russian, to the extent that in some places you were more likely to hear people speaking Russian than Latvian.

Poland would be a more difficult target to justify than the Baltics; only 0.1% of Poles speak Russian; 30% of Latvians are native Russian speakers. I could see Putin going there next.

I struggle with the constant stream of fad terminology, the latest being Metaverse and Web 3.0.

In some ways, Metaverse appears to be simply a new way of describing what we already have —- aren’t social networks themselves already metaverses? In others, the likes of FB and Apple are pushing technologies to enhance “Metaverse immersion” (made that up), none of which is gaining significant traction.

VR and AR headsets continue to improve, and yet still fail to extend beyond the realm of tech demos for most people. (I understand AR has decent uses in industry: hardly a metaverse.) This criticism is coming from someone who was an enthusiastic early adopter with Oculus, and who currently owns a Quest 2, which is excellent at gathering dust, and at occasionally wowing VR noobs (who are amazed but never end up buying one).

Then you have iOS AR, another technology devoid of practical and compelling uses. I love the Measure app with the LiDAR sensor —- is that a metaverse, an electronic tape measure? I guess so.

My take: the Metaverse is the new chatbot.

What those four countries have in common is their use of Sinopharm. It seems safe to assume that the efficacy of Sinopharm has been significantly exaggerated.

It is unfortunate that it has been elevated to the same level as vaccines that have been rigorously tested and validated.

For countries using US/EU-approved vaccines —- Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, and Astra Zeneca —- increasing vaccination rates are clearly showing a “decoupling” of cases and hospitalisations. That prevention of severe disease is their stated objective, that’s all we need to end the pandemic, and they are clearly a huge success story.

Thanks!

URL is timing out. Anyone have a cached copy please?