This is an old story, except for the LA Times. The guy on Money and Macro explains the situation better in this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOSWQttmvU

Testing what they can get away with is my guess.

I agree with this post. Move on and build your life your way.

I’d like to add, in case it’s helpful, from my own experience the thinking about it never ends. My dad passed 40 years ago and i still have the same thoughts, feelings, arguments even (a little more one-sided now that he’s gone, though). I mean the dynamic might last forever, but you can separate that emotional internal dynamic from how you live your life. And there’s a kind of “this stops here” effect, because your own children will never have to deal with all that stuff, because you dealt with it and moved on. That’s something to be proud of.

Just by coincidence i’m watching a gameranx video about the 10 worst AAA games, and Falcon says the same thing about games as a service (subscriptions, micro-transactions, etc.): “it seems like they’re playing a game of chicken with the consumer to see what they can get away with”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8jDgkikylY

(start at 19:45)

Me too. This video helped a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Df5_cojAs

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I got them on Firefox with Ublock Origin but only with my VPN on US or Canadian servers. Then a few days later, even on those servers they disappeared. Haven’t seen one since those first few.

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After 911 a woman in my city (Portland Oregon) called the police because she saw powder on the hood of her parked car - parked under trees that were shedding pollen. She though fer sher that evildoers were targeting her with anthrax spores or something. The police are required to respond to those calls with full bio-emergency gear, so it was a huge scene, road blocked off, police vans everywhere, people in full body protective gear taking samples of the “anthrax” from her car. The end result was a public announcement from the police asking the public to please use common sense before calling. The drama going on in people’s heads sometimes … yikes.

True. I once considered subscribing, some years ago, but customer reviews of OST convinced me not to. Looks like i made the right decision.

Any of thousands of people can say this but i don’t see it in the comments below so: I’ve been using a Linux Mint / Windows dual boot system for over 10 years and love it. I think a lot of people see Linux as highly technical, but versions like Mint and Ubuntu are more carefree than Windows nowadays.

Is it about helping out workers any more? Or is about companies - often big, profitable companies - not paying their employees a livable wage and pressuring customers to come to the rescue? At the very least, the situation is so confusing now that it’s impossible to tell whether a tip is a legitimate thing to do, or whether it’s giving in to corporate greed and cynicism.

Just to clarify, I worked in food service as a tipped employee from age 15 into my late 20s. I totally get it, and I always tip waiters, taxi drivers, and other traditionally-tipped employees. But I don’t know what to do when everybody expects a tip. And when corporate money-lords add their voices to pressure me, it just sounds too cynical.

That’s the peat, Pete. If it’s too heavy for you, you’re drinking the wrong scotch. Try a light Balblair or a Speyside or something similar.