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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • Typically, one of the first things I do to a new laptop is wipe it and install the OS from scratch. That lets me install system drivers ONLY, and avoid all the bloatware that isn’t included on the OS install image (and even then I can remove a lot of it with Tiny11). Laptops are some of the worst offenders when it comes to bloat.`

    That said, I’m strongly considering bailing on Windows entirely…




  • SparroHawc@lemmy.ziptomemes@lemmy.worldThe long game
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    8 months ago

    TF2 had a long and prosperous life. It’s 18 years old at this point. There are a few live service games (usually with subscriptions) that have survived longer, but TF2 had its run, and it was a good one. I bought it as part of the Orange Box and I absolutely got my money’s worth and then some from it.

    As for physical media - I don’t know if you were around for it, but there was a period before Steam took over the industry when most major PC game releases had CD keys you had to input and validate before you could play the game. Do something the publisher doesn’t like? The key gets revoked and you can’t play the game any more unless you buy another license. There were entire underground communities devoted to cracking the CD key validations in games. Now you just use Luna or Steamless and call it a day.


  • SparroHawc@lemmy.ziptomemes@lemmy.worldThe long game
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    9 months ago

    All it would take for Valve to lose their effective monopoly on PC game distribution would be for someone else to make a better product.

    Every other major PC game distribution platform (besides GOG, and they’re far more niche than Valve) has essentially started their attempt to unseat Valve with enshittification baked in, and it was obvious.



  • The word that always comes to mind is ‘literally’ which has come to mean ‘figuratively, but with emphasis’ and it drives me nuts - because it removes the word we have to say ‘this is a thing that you might assume is figurative, but it’s not, it actually happened’.







  • It’s almost certainly related to AWS.

    Get a dynamic DNS from afraid.org, they’re great. That’ll make it so you can always find your home network without needing to write down your IP address (especially frustrating if it changes).

    Then run a VPN server, like OpenVPN, on a computer that is always on and redirect the VPN connection port from your router to the VPN server. If you don’t know how to get into your router’s admin console, LEARN HOW! This is critical to maintaining home network security even if you aren’t running servers.

    It’s not easy, but it’s way, WAY more robust than depending on a 3rd party to keep your info (except for afraid.org and they practically NEVER go down).