The only difficult part would be to install Linux. It would be more difficult the other way around, so it’s not like this part is a case of “Linux is difficult”.

You most just need the following:

• Get a hold of a small USB storage device you can erase the contents of
• Download an image of the Linux distro of your choice.
• Burn that image onto the storage medium
• Figure out how to enter into your bios, when the computer starts up.
• Change the boot order so that your installer gets preference
• Try out the Linux distro. If you like it, you can install it.

Not so much inside your home.

Yes

Anyone get stuck and confused by “insisted”?

What do you mean? If there are no guns… what… what would the shootings be done with? Fingerguns don’t count.

As for an example that comes close to what you’re asking for:

There is no silver bullet here tho. There are some pretty obvious directions that would improve things, and some that would make it worse. Adding more guns, is an amazingly stupid approach, and characteristically American. If adding guns makes things worse, could reducing guns help? Surprisedpikachu.

Gotta defend yourself against people with guns, with guns, so make it more accessible. Give gammy a gun, you never know! How about littly Timmy, he’s old enough to walk home… ah, that’s right, there is no infrastructure for walking. That’d be too dangerous… Meh. Enough Internet for today.

I’ve used both PS4 and Ps5 controllers. You don’t need to do anything except to plug it in.

I’ve only had issues in one game (Minishoot Adventures), where the solution was to disable controller support layer that steam comes with.

I haven’t tried Bluetooth, as I don’t mind the cable.

Fewer guns. Better mental health treatment. Fewer guns. More safety nets. Less extreme poverty. Fewer guns.

So, IT?

What a weird defeatist thought. We’re already in lala-land with 5% tax added, albeit measly, on the ruling class. So, why not lala all the way to a positive use of it?

Hm. He did have a part in it, but I don’t know how much. I haven’t seen it. I suppose I was too bombastic, and should correct it to “everything JJ has written, that I’ve seen, has been vapid shit”.

Last time I ranted about JJ, someone mentioned that he had made Person of Interest. So, I watched all of it. It was largely pretty good, except for the very weird filler episodes every season, that very much worked against the overarching plot. In any case, turned out that Jonathan Nolan wrote it, who is pretty good at that stuff. JJ is a decent director, so I don’t mind that part.

I’m sort of with you on S1 of the Expanse. Miller is such a good character. But, as you mention, it has a very different focus and vibe, and doesn’t give the right impression for what comes later. The acting also gets a lot better, as it’s sometimes a little bit rough in S1. If I remember correctly, the writers mentioned drawing inspiration from Aliens, which reflects on the more claustrophobic… horror like thematic. None of which stays after S1. So, I tend to plead for people to stick with it though S2.

If it was the opposite shift, that is, “fantastical” in S1, and detective noir in S2 and onwards, I’d probably say the same thing about sticking through S1 even if it didn’t hit home.

That said, I do enjoy the more fantastical theme… But Miller… Doors and corners… Mmm, I won’t spoil anything for anyone. I’m confident you know exactly what I mean.

Thanks for the clarification on the GoT/Expanse. Hadn’t thought about that.

Luckily, we’re still spoiled for choice. Or, I feel like I am. There are more quality TV shows and movies, than I have time to watch these days.

I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss Chinese media industry. They have made some amazing films. Infernal Affairs, comes to mind. But, I’m the wrong person to come up with examples. I’m sure there are plenty.

Other than that, I agree with you. It’s the enshitification equivalent in Hollywood. It’s just a bit less engulfing, since good movies and shows can still be made, in spite of some of the watered down drivel and ruined franchises for short term profit margins.

Ah, I loved Wheel of Time. I’m making an effort to forget about it so I’m suddenly surprised by season 3 being done. The deviations from the books didn’t ruin it for me, like it seems it did for many. I just found it unnecessary, and mentioned it more as an example of bad writing, and did not mean to imply that all of it was bad. Far from it. Great actors all around, and amazing visual direction, oh, and costume designers! The forsaken, especially Ishamael… the clothing. It’s so good, I want to figure out who worked in it. And I don’t even care much about that stuff either, usually. They did so many things, absolutely brilliantly. Ending of S1 was very anticlimactic, so I get why that that in particular put people off.

I havent watched Rings of Power. Maybe I should, based on what you’re saying.

I didn’t understand what you meant by drawing on GoT for consolidating characters. Apologies.

PS: In case I gave the impression of being a miserable piece:

• I loved S1 of the Witcher, and largely enjoyed S2 and even S3, though that took concerted effort.
• 3BP was fine, and entertaining enough. It has the potential to be great, but not with the lack of… insight from D&D.
• The Expance is one of the best sci-fi series made, and anyone remotely interested should see it, and also keep watching even if the first season isn’t entirely convincing. OK to call it quits if S2 isn’t.
• GoT went down hill already from S5. The torture porn thing was just… unnecessary and… two dimensional evil that requires a telling lack of imagination.
• Arcane is a masterclass in… pretty much everything. Especially character development, and as a counterpoint to the above: nuanced “evil”.
• The Gentlemen TV series by G. Ritchie is a fun time, and imo underrated.
• Everything JJ has written is vapid shit.

I think you’re right.

It also annoys me that the explanation for how common bad writing is, is that it still makes a lot of money. JJ can jump on to any beloved franchise, shit on every established rule and character, make the dumbest imaginable plot points that serve no other purpose than to move you from one visually pleasing trailer snippet location to the next… and people will go see it, and it’ll make a pile of money. So, why should they care?

First of all, I agree with everything you said.

PS: spoiler warning for Thee Body Problem, so just skip that paragraph.

However, I think that deviating from the source, or adding stuff, etc, wouldn’t be so destructive, if the writing was actually good.

Three Body Problem adapted by D&D, still felt a bit meh, because they made a bunch of changes that were just terrible writing. They didn’t understand the source material, so they made the VR stuff alien tech. They made the stars blink, not the cosmic background radiation. The dimension folding fuck up leading to a giant eye over… Earth?.. Why did they think that made any sense? It happened on Trisolaris, and it was such a goosebump inducing thing… Did D&D just think it might look cool, and… Since you cannot easily show it without showing the aliens… They kinda went “let’s just do it on earth”, even though it made no fucking sense whatsoever, because, they wouldn’t have any reason to play a fucking prank on earth. Shits and giggles weren’t their thing… Gah.

The Witcher suffered because the writing was actually quite bad at times.

Game of Thrones… I mean… I don’t know why Dumb and Dumber get their hands on any work whatsoever. They have shown they know nothing of the world and systems they write for, nor characters or development. It’s just embarrassing.

Halo, I haven’t watched. And Fallout, I just know that Nolan and Joy are absolutely amazing writers. The only concern I had was to what extent people like Tod could fuck things up.

I think what I’m trying to add is that: Good writers can tell very engaging adaptations within the existing constraints of lore, world and rules, but it doesn’t need to be existing canon. You can always tell new stories, as long as it sticks to the established rules and world building people expect. Bad writers fail at that, and often need to add contemporary trends where it doesn’t belong. The fundamental issue might just be a skill issue.

Good writing is hard. It requires a lot of effort. You need to be congruent with the world and rules you’ve built so far. Not everyone will notice everything that deviates. Noticing bad writing is catching a lie given the presented imagined premise. Some suspension of belief is of course necessary, or risk being an annoying pedant. But, don’t pretend someone is a level headed strategist, who then sends half their army out of a defensive fortification… to fight an enemy who is known to make dead soldiers fight for them. So which is it, do the people in charge know what castles are for, or did they suddenly become dumb as bread to suit some contrived narrative, or perhaps lack thereof?.. Gah…

J. J. Abrams didn’t deviate all that much from lore. But my God what a grade A moron he is when it comes to plots points. Thousands of extremely talented master craftsmen, all coming together to tell a story… that only works if you don’t think about it at all. And you might wonder which franchise in particular I’m referring to, as both apply.

The Expanse TV adaptation is a master class in doing everything right. TV is a different medium, and you cannot tell the story in the same exact way. But the changes they did, still told the same story, and most changes just suited visual medium better. They even had to off a character because of real life reasons, which was a little bit abrupt, but even so, they managed to adapt to that just fine.

Wheel of Time… weird additions and focus on romantic relationships that detracted from the magnitude and seriousness of the story itself. Maybe I was just a bit too young when I read the books, but I certainly didn’t remember it like that, and it made the characters feel weird, and… immature. Also, somewhat intellectually insulting. Personal sacrifice, and love (? I’m looking for a better word…) for someone, doesn’t require romantic interest.

I’m rambling.

TL;DR: Good writing good. Bad writing bad. Bad writing != not 100% aligned with source material. Contemporary tropes for no good reason = bad writing. JJ, please stick to directing. D&D… Maybe take up painting? Pretty please?

You don’t really seem to understand the argument. It’s OK tho. And not your fault. Some people simply don’t have the ability to understand, or care about something like the common good. As long as there are few enough village idiots like you, society sort of works. It sucks a little bit more, because your little stupid preference is to the detriment to everyone around you. Describing that trait as a human shit-stain, seems pretty spot on to me.

It would be the same as if you had a thing for smearing shit on every lamp-post. We sort of tolerate the village idiot. It’d be nice if he had the capacity to perhaps… not go around and do that stuff, because, how important is it reaaally to go around smearing shit on things? I suppose we’ll never know. It seems pretty important to him.

Also, “go find your peace”, is such a fantastic dumb thing to say, I almost want to applaud you. What does that even mean? It is peaceful, except when little Dumb Dumb returns home from their usually like-minded friends at 2AM and still thinks its a good idea to make vroom vroom noises. It’s not a big surprise tho. They weren’t raised properly, or don’t have the social intelligence to understand why it’d be annoying at 2PM, so why would it be any different at 2AM?

I’d happily go find my peace. It… and this might blow your little mind… the level of “peace”, in society, is at the behest of the weakest little shitstains’ comfort level. You, and those like you, are the low bar.

Some time ago, I’d attribute it as being selfish. You don’t mind everyone else being annoyed. You simply consider yourself more important. People who work night shifts and get woken up during the day, or just people getting woken up during the night. Anyone with kids, etc. It’s just not considered… Now, I’m more convinced this isn’t so much being selfish… as just … either just having a shit parent(s) who didn’t teach you basic decency, so you simply don’t know. Which, isn’t your fault. The other explanation is that you might just be a little bit sociopathic, so you don’t have the capacity to understand it. Which… is also not your fault. The third explanation is that the lightbulb never shone bright enough to notice anyone around you… you like the vrom vrom, and everything else is just a bit too complicated, and anyone who tries to take away your vroom vrom is stoopid. Also, not your fault.

If it smells like a shit stain, looks like a shit stain, and talks like one… I guess it doesn’t matter which explanation fits you. It doesn’t even matter if you understand why. You simply are. Whether you want to do something about it, meh, odds are you won’t. But if you think you are anything other than a piece of shit that annoys everyone around you… lol. You don’t really understand much of anything, and I’m a bit sorry for anyone decent in your life.

Cheers. Be better. Shouldn’t be hard. The bar is fucking low.

The amount of time I’ve spent getting my MacOS to not be annoying… it’s such a shit experience compared to Gnome/Linux. Every single day I use MacOS, I find a new annoying inconsistency, or either poor or directly bad UX design decision or implementation.

Next time I look for a place to work, I’d consider Windows or MacOS to require at least 30% higher salary to be worth the annoyance.

Your argument seems to be that it somehow matters why you are being a human shitstain. To the rest of the world, there is no difference whether you like being a shitstain for some internal motivation, or whether it is explicitly for the discomfort of others.

In either case, move out to the fucking woods, and you can have your primal pea brain be stimulated by things that go vroom vroom for all I fucking care.

If they cannot report on things like this, you might wonder why they don’t report on important things like inequality, disappearing workers rights, etc, etc.

Maybe a mechanism for collective bargaining can help mitigate the problem? Something, something, Reagan.