Any complex data stuff they could need should be done on some database server, the rest of what they’re doing can be done by anything that can deal with minesweeper.

Honestly, I have no idea.

A full PC, no, but a set top box definitely yes. And a set top box is plenty of computing power for a thin client, think workstations for accountants.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php

As so often, the answer is found in scripture:

One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said YES?

“O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden from my heart!”

WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON’T SOUND WELL.

“I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe.”

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?

“But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it.”

OH. WELL, THEN STOP.

At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial and left The Polyfather stranded alone with his species.

Answer. I said answer. Not solution. Too much aspirin and your blood thins out and you need to move to Transylvania.

Yeah that’s a much too enlightened take for these parts it’ll never fly.

It can’t, municipalities and states can, and the EU law allowing for this requires showing they’re a threat to public safety (which is why it’s not a federal matter the federation doesn’t do public safety). The Berlin state government wants to expel some people, so far no other state has made similar moves, and it’s very questionable whether Berlin courts will let them do it. And then there’s federal courts. And then the ECJ.

The one thing to criticise about steam (and that they’re slowly, but surely, losing a EU court case over) is inability for customers to sell their games.

Their marketshare is organic, based on being the choice of store both from the customer and developer POV. As a customer you get the usual painless returns, great interface, community features and whatnot, as a developer you get plenty of store features which make life and customer acquisition and gamedev a lot easier (things like playtesting, next fests) and most of all you get customers because steam has lots of customers and a real, I mean real good, recommendation algorithm. Sure, Epic wants a smaller cut but you’re also not going to sell much, there, which is why they had to lure devs in with advances, guaranteed sales, etc. Larger publisher might not like steam so much because they have gigantic marketing budgets in the first place so all the discoverability/recommendation stuff is not as relevant but, well, fuck EA, Ubi, etc IDGAF, I don’t want to hear it, cry silently.

As to the “can’t sell games for lower prices elsewhere” myth: That applies to when you’re selling steam keys in places that are not steam. Which is fair, if you’re selling steam keys then that’s incurring costs for them (if nothing else, bandwidth) and they don’t even get their usual cut when you sell a steam key off-steam, least you can do is not undercut them.

Every time I read news about Trump I always wonder what his end goal is.

Be adulated. Get a nobel peace price because Obama has one (for not inexplicable but inexcusable reasons)

but most of the ultra-wealthy’s money is tied up in the market, too.

The ultra-wealthy have enough of a buffer to buy out all the middling-wealthy when they go bankrupt. They can buy the dip without themselves going bankrupt.

Oracle is not a tech company it’s a racket run by an army of lawyers. Obligatory link to Bryan Cantrill’s talk.

Berlin currently has a black-red government. I have no idea what your map there is showing. State elections wouldn’t show a federal map and the last federal elections don’t match, compare e.g. SH’s districts (northernmost state).

Berlin is kinda notorious for being a police state, and of the “IDGAF” nature, not “stickler for law” one.

“obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power”. Which is far above what being in NATO requires states to do. Which just btw also covers Greenland. Only ones off the hook are Ireland and Austria due to being neutral, the treaty still covers them though.

You can’t call a ship a boat. Shippy McShipface would’ve been a different topic. Or maybe Chipper McShipface?

The going rate is 1:1027 for an NCO.

May be the case, we’ll probably see when the dust has settled. OTOH, it’s still a war crime to abduct non-combatants so my point stands. And no, reservists aren’t combatants.

The hostages aren’t even particularly valuable because the Israeli government couldn’t give less of a fuck about hippies who do things like protecting the Palestinian olive harvest from settler interference. Nab an in-service right-wing IDF commander off the street and you have something much more valuable and it’s a legitimate prisoner of war.

Or, differently put: Don’t get your strategic and tactical advise from the Russians of all people.

Armed struggle != war crimes. One does not justify the other. The October attacks were like 5% achieving military objectives, the rest mindless slaughter, to the point where one can legitimately question whether the military objectives were not completely incidental. Hamas could have bee-lined for as many IDF outposts as they could, they didn’t, they shot up Hippie Kibbutzim of all places. (Which is also why Netanjahu and triply so the Kahanites don’t care about the hostages: They’re by and large lefties).

Same, of course, goes for the IDF and what they’re currently doing. If both sides kept to not even self-defence but only military objectives there might actually be peace in sight.

Yes. It’s rule #33, “Lurk more – it’s never enough”.