where the prequels are an elaborate ad to sell more Starwars toys

This is clearly not true, Lucas cared a lot about his story and universe. I say this hoping it helps effectively communicate points later: statements like that detract from your premise because they’re obviously false to an audience that knows and cares. It would be better (from a rhetorical standing) to double down on the poor storytelling allegations by acknowledging it as true instead, then going on to say that they were cinematic incoherence regardless.

I haven’t seen a single one of the prequels in over a decade except RotS (which I thought was an interesting story but a poorly made film), but my dislike of the prequels is because they’re not good movies. My dislike of the sequels is that they were not good and were made to maximize profits.

THe orginals do hold up, because Starwars was about classic adventure story. The character of Luke Skywalker… It’s the sort of timless story, just with a spin on it beeing a sci-fi world… The prequels and sequels completley missed that aspect of basic stoytelling.

This is where I completely disagree. Movies should not be aiming to do only the classic adventure story over and over again, and the prequels weren’t bad because of the story. They actually had a pretty classic story too: an evil being corrupts a well-meaning but slow-to-react institution filled with self serving or incompetent representatives by manufacturing conflict to seize power. All the while the forces of good are distracted and unfocused by the chaos— and too sure that their institutions will not bend to tyranny— until it is too late. With a solid director, the prequels could have been excellent, and also perhaps a prophetic warning about complacent democracies.

I hope they bring back the same actors. I saw Duncan Birch in Always Sunny recently and it reminded me how much I love the cast of ONN.

They’ve made a stunning amount of progress in accepting credit cards in the past couple years though. I’m there pretty regularly and the shift has been wild. By spring 2023 I didn’t really need cash anymore. By fall, I used cash maybe twice.

There was one thing I was sure I’d need cash for— nope, the hotel paid them and added it to my tab. Back in the day, that mostly happened only if you skipped out on a reservation and the restaurant wanted to collect the cancellation fee. Which has never happened to me so I guess I’m not sure it worked exactly like that.

I know a lot of people here hate credit cards and only use cash, but it’s honestly a pretty large hassle to get cash in every country you visit. Using the same card everywhere is way more convenient and cheaper (exchange fee + no % back like with a credit card)

Oh lol. I said that cause I was inclined to believe it due to false advertising laws. Hence, it would be dumb to make such a grand claim and open yourself up to liability [if it weren’t true]. The anecdote after was worded as mostly unrelated because it wasn’t about the effectiveness, but the convenience of the little unit

Don’t think I saw this one yet, but Briggs & Riley luggage. Lifetime no-questions-asked repairs for all functional damage, even if intentionally inflicted.

They’re also just very good. The BIFLness is cool but I’d have gone with another if it weren’t also the best in general. Super practical design.

WOTA claims 99.9% sterilization via UV-C. Does Japan have false advertising laws? I genuinely don’t see how it can be that fast, but like, it would be dumb to make difficult-to-believe claims if you could be sued for it.

Anyway, mostly unrelated, I used one of these there and I didn’t care if it was that effective. Wasn’t gonna be holding my phone for that span, so any sterilization is nice.

I’m pretty sure Quibi didn’t even last three years so I’m not too confident in his predictions

The previous one was because Dr. Gay was the President of Harvard, a school. And really it should only have mattered to people related to Harvard, most people don’t actually give a shit about academic honesty.

It matters here cause throwing stones in glass houses and all. Well deserved and pretty funny, even if you don’t care about plagiarism in general.

Would you care to share some? Can’t tell if this comment is a setup

Takashi Saito, his choice. Damn near impossible to get a reservation, but I’d also like enough personal attention to ask for tips.

I’m very pleased. Been following this since the original arrest and his defense was engaging in some shockingly vile behavior trying to discredit the victim.

The man is trash and, after what I’m sure will be an entertaining downfall, I’m looking forward to forgetting he existed. I know there is some fear that he will overcome this, but I would be shocked if he ever had a single major role again— he was dropped by multiple parties pre conviction and others he worked with called him cruel and abusive (imagine how awful you’d have to be for a director, who you know professionally, to say that). I’ll try to remember this comment if he ever rebounds and return to admit I was wrong and lament the state of Hollywood, but I would bet against it.

Until then, may he and his team have a miserable time filled with regret.

You’re explaining because people know DJ to mean radio or in person, and neither are practical in context, so everyone is confused on how it’s relevant. People who use streaming service algorithms probably aren’t looking to go to a bar or event every time they want a recommendation.

Not to mention that bars and stuff with music usually cater towards upbeat music. If you’re sure these niche DJs exist, why not name some, or at least provide vague instructions on locating one? It would be a lot more useful to provide actionable advice to people looking for recommendations based on their taste

Honestly no, I think I reflexively lock it though. I also figured the app would let the screen turn off if paused, but if it doesn’t that makes more sense

Yes but I’ve never seen anyone watch a video in the process. But I was more wondering about the logistics I suppose, like whether the audio is played out loud or in earphones, and how it can be kept playing while set down and lost.

Curious, do you watch videos while out? How do you have the uninterrupted time?

I have gone too far in the headphone hobby and have exited the nice middle zone where the headphone jack has value. It can’t power my headphones and my phone has no systemwide EQ so there would be no point anyway.

Some people in the headphones sub talked about using qudelix 5k to power it if you wanted mobile but at that point the jack becomes useful only for charging while listening (admittedly useful!). I don’t really think compromise free mobile listening works though, if you have good wired headphones they are fairly likely to be open back already. For those people, a midrange priced Bluetooth Focal Bathys is probably as good as investment as any other closed back for mobile.

Hence why I believe the headphone jack is for those in the middle of the pack: they have closed back wired headphones that are good enough to not want to use Bluetooth, but not headphones too difficult to power or a strong preference for EQ. Which is a ton of people to be fair. I only commented here cause you said “people who dislike the headphone jack must not have good wired headphones,” but I have several and don’t need a headphone jack in my phone. I’m aware that those in my position are a very small portion of the population and agree with most of what you said, just wanted to provide a different perspective.

Oh also, if you’re using an adapter for 1/4” to 1/8”, may as well just use a USB-C or lightning adapter. 1/4 or 2.5mm balanced and a shitload of power would actually make a phone jack useful for my case though!

This is actually pretty crazy to me, I watch <1hr of TV a week but can immediately tell OLED from LCD. It’s the perfect absence of light on black screens, though I’ll admit I don’t see a lot of LCD and may just be encountering only mid ones.

I’m ex-tech so I don’t use my devices, barring my phone, a lot these days but I can’t unsee the difference. I always get OLED when available; had a “next best thing” miniLED iPad that was unbearable in the dark. But I’d rather not care like you do: objectively speaking you miss out on nearly nothing and don’t have to frown at remaining non-OLED devices like car screens or laptops. Even going weeks without computer usage I’ll still notice, and honestly after typing all this I’m kind of jealous.

And y’know, perfect black aside, I don’t think I’d notice otherwise. Really unfortunate thing that my brain notices without thinking about and it’s cost me thousands + fear of static screens causing burn in

I live in South Bay, masks are quite rare. Most of the time it’s just me. I wonder if healthcare professionals feel like they’re just saying “here’s the smart thing to do, go ahead and ignore it”

I’m not much of a gamer admittedly but I have no issues with touch controls. I played several GTA games (III, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories), KOTOR 1 & 2, and several shooters on mobile. Right now I play Genshin Impact almost entirely on mobile and am not noticeably worse than when on PC, and I’m starting Hitman: Blood Money as well. Mobile is severely underrated in capacity, and while there is a learning curve and it is more limited than PC, you adapt pretty rapidly.

But most mobile games suck now. IB has been gone for ages— slain by Epic Games on the plains of Koroth— and it’s hard to think of a good AAA mobile series that came after. Most mobile games seem like thinly veiled money grabs. Even Blood Money was preceded by a godawful sequel to an actually good Hitman: Sniper game filled to the brim with classic mobile microtransaction drivers. I have Apple Arcade included with my subscription and it’s better for not having MTX, but the games themselves aren’t too complex.

And well, maybe that’s because companies expect mobile players to lack the time for long sessions. So a lot of the games feel like they’re designed for brief sessions like that failed streaming service. The view on that seems to be changing, thankfully, as more AAA games are getting ported again so maybe mobile will get another renaissance.

Quite a jump from shoplifting to genocide, which makes for extremely poor rhetoric. You should’ve at least listed every next step, e.g.: shoplifting -> robbery -> armed robbery -> murder -> several other steps -> genocide. Which still looks absurd but like, less.