Neat, thanks!

So what’s the current state of emulation on Linux? I still have both Yuzu and Ryujinx installed, but has either been superseded by a fork?

Ooh, free biometrics!

What kinds of carcinogens a product actually contains can only be determined iff it is submitted for testing. Making the testing mandatory for all out-of-state products would be economic suicide. Assuming yes unless proven otherwise is the safest strategy that gives consumers at least some level of informed choice.

California requires products (I thought it was just foods, guess not) to undergo tests that prove they don’t contain carcinogens; otherwise they must include a warning about potentially containing carcinogens. Most companies don’t bother because the cost of getting a product tested is more than the potential revenue loss from the “may cause cancer” warning.

If the game comes in a physical cartridge, the plastic might contain a carcinogen, or it might be contaminated during manufacturing or packaging.

Proposition 65 requires businesses to provide warnings to Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. Exposure to these chemicals may take place when products are acquired or used. Exposure may also occur in homes, workplaces, or other environments in California. By requiring that this information be provided, Proposition 65 enables Californians to make informed decisions about their exposures to these chemicals.

Or Nintendo itself is the cancer. Whichever version you prefer.

Finally a publisher that knows their audience.

Low voltage: “Oh no, there is a tiny spot of corrosion on the contact surface, I think I need to lie down…”

High voltage: (rips line of coke) “I’M GONNA MAKE MY OWN WIRES WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS!”

Not, it isn’t. It was most likely a spam filter. Images and longer messages work fine.

“But they did it too!” will not fly with me as a valid defense coming from an adult person. Your behaviour is your own responsibility. If you disagree with something, either respond in a polite manner or downvote and move on. Do not accuse others, either individuals or groups, of having a mental deficiency, brain damage, or aberration; and the fact that you would try to minimize what you said shows that you understand why I have an issue with it.

Be nice, or leave.

You don’t get to speculate about that. Now drop it.

The Smorty situation is CRAZY

to bypass the guardrails the company had created

What a delightful way to say that those guardrails were worth, in effect, fuck all.

Not true. It was most likely a spam filter. Images and longer messages work fine.

I remember Mirror’s Edge getting praise for its runner vision because of how well it integrated into the already strong visual style.

But then I also remember Half-Life 2 using nothing like that. It used player training, framing, and visual/aural/mechanical cues. The Ravenholm chapter was particularly great at that.

You enter the chapter. It’s a long shot of a backyard. The way forward is marked by a flock of crows, a pair of legs swinging from a tree, and light coming from the building. The building is full of sawblades and propane tanks, and a zombie torso perched on top of a blade stuck deep in the wall. Your path forward is blocked by debris, which forces you to slow down, and you had just received the gravity gun, so your options are obvious. The game is telling you what to do in a completely diegetic way. When you first meet Grigori, you leave a well-lit area and walk through a dark alley, which frames your view and forces you to look at the introduction. You can’t progress until you figure out the fire trap mechanic. Then you disarm a high voltage trap, which is marked by a loud spark, and the effect of your action is immediately visible through a window with a strong contrast between the cold exterior and warm interior light. Immediately after that, you get inroduced to the poison headcrabs in a safe place where their mechanic is obvious, but can’t actually kill an unprepared player. The fast zombie introduction still gives me the creeps. Having them leap across the moonlit cityscape was not only absolute cinema, but it quickly taught the player what kind of enemy to expect.

The yellow adventure line is a crutch. It marks either the laziness or outright failure of a designer to train the player. If the player can’t find the way forward from diegetic clues, the design must be changed, and yellow paint must remain the last resort. Half-Life 2 was a masterpiece and the gold standard of environmental design that the likes of Naughty Dog can’t even come close to replicating.

CEO: “Why do we even employ 60 testers when our software have always been mostly bug-free on release and patched within a week?”

The QA who spent the last three weeks pressing the same button 4000 times in different situations:

We’re adding new, different symbols to the confusing mess of old symbols and keeping both? Neat!

LGA sockets (including AM5) have flat contacts on the CPU and spring-loaded contacts on the motherboard. No pins, no holes. You could take a small tweezer or precision flathead screwdriver and lift the CPU from a corner. As long as you don’t reach in too deep, it won’t damage either side. You should be able to lift it with minimal force.

Find the motherboard’s manual. It will have instructions for installing and removing both the CPU and the cooler. If the CPU uses a PGA socket, removing it might require a little force.

If you’re sure the clip and the retaining frame are released, but can’t/don’t want to lift it by its edges, you could use suction.

• If there’s still some moisture in the thermal compound, you can use a flat piece of glass or plastic. Press it against the CPU’s surface and lift gently. If the thermal compound is dry, apply a little from a new tube.
• A small suction cup might work.
• There are vacuum pens made specifically for this kind of work.

(edit) The MSI B650 uses an AM5 socket, which is an LGA package. The CPU itself doesn’t have any pins that could be damaged, so you can be a bit more forceful. You could even take a small tweezer and pry it out from one of the corners (as long as the retaining frame is off, of course).

The European mind tried.

I did pretty well with North Mexico, but South Canada and West Greenland are a total writeoff.

Looking at a real map… I think I may have misunderstood the assignment.