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They only give those out on Reddit. Sorry! 🤓

Google is definitely at a moment where we are seeing their true intentions; what they've always wanted to do: DRM for the the web.

The difference between this and Twitter though is that it isn't as visible to the average user. The average user probably doesn't even notice much less care about about what Google is doing because they just want to endlessly scroll Instagram.

That being said, I absolutely hate what Google is doing with this internet DRM proposal and everyone should be outraged.

At least Twitter and Reddit's meltdown only affects people who use those platforms. Google's DRM affects the entire web.

YouTube hasn't had the same meltdown as Twitter and Reddit, which might explain PeerTube's relatively small scale.

The meltdowns I mentioned brought a lot of attention to their Fediverse alternatives, but YT hasn't really had such a meltdown because Google is somewhat smart and knows not to rock the boat too much lest they have a Twitter or Reddit moment.

Sadly, with these locked down hardware platforms like Xbox, PS, Switch, or even something like an iPhone, the buyer doesn't own the hardware. You're at the whims of the platform holder and what they decide: case in point this story. These platforms, which have grown evermore popular because of their ease of use, are gilded cages. You just noticed the bars.

If they don't give you access to the bootloader and an option to install whatever OS you like, you're beholden to the company.

2

This video from a real lawyer explains the Dolphin Steam situation better than anyone I've seen: https://youtu.be/wROQUZDCIMI

That's true but a company like Sega using an outside emulator - something they, Nintendo, and Sony fought hard against in the 90s (and still do today) - is I think somewhat taboo for them.

Interesting idea. It sounds like a federated and open source version of the "everything" apps people like Elon Musk want to create with X. The only difference would be that this is for social media.

I think there are a couple of apps that already exist that let you sign into both Mastodon and Pixelfed.

I know that Fediverse apps can communicate with each other (like you can look at and reply to Lemmy posts from a Mastodon account), but it would be even cooler and more useful if you could use your Mastodon credentials to sign into a server that ran Lemmy for example in order to get the Lemmy UI that is better suited for large, organized comment sections that are organized with lines and can be minimized instead of Mastodon style where you don't have any of that organization. I think that an SSO-type feature like that would also negate the need for having multiple Fediverse accounts, account for Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and PeerTube, since in that scenario you wouldn't have to create a Mastodon account if you were already on Pixelfed just to get the Mastodon UI and style of comments.

I'm honestly very happy with Fediverse platforms like Mastodon and Lemmy.

The ample amount of servers to join I think scares off the worst people coming from platforms like Twitter and Instagram who only post random bs 99% of the time, and can't be bothered to take a couple extra minutes at most to understand how Fediverse services are different from traditional social media let alone poke around to find an instance that suits them. In that way, it acts as a filter.

(I don't mean to sound elitist, but I think all social media would be a lot better if people wanted to have enlightened discussions about things going on in the world, for example, instead of posting heavily edited photos of themselves or dancing in front of a camera. Is that really peak internet?)

What's left are more thoughtful people that genuinely care about the mission of Fediverse platforms (like how lack of a profit incentive means there isn't an incentive structure that leads to the enshitification of platforms), or at the very least took the time to understand how it works.

Now the only platform left to conquer is YouTube.

I'm glad their appealing. I mean the judge's son literally works for Microsoft. Talk about fair and impartial.

-https://open.substack.com/pub/mattstoller/p/will-the-biggest-tech-merger-of-all?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web -https://open.substack.com/pub/mattstoller/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

The reason ActiBliz + MS deal it is getting scrutinized more is because Lina Khan became head of the FTC, and she looks at mergers and acquisitions with the same dislike that everyone had towards Standard Oil monopoly and AT&T monopoly back in the day.

The Obama Administration had a very lax antitrust policy. For example, they approved the Ticketmaster + Live Nation merger despite it clearly being a vertical merger that gave a single company control of the majority of both the venues concerts were held at and the tickets being sold for those concerts, ultimately resulting in the Taylor Swift fiasco that was in the news a couple months ago. Monopolies like Ticketmaster are complacent because there is no one to compete against and therefore no reason to make things better for the consumer. Things have changed because the head of the FTC (and many other government agencies) changes when a new president gets elected.

People like to only focus on how prices change as a result of mergers, but until the 1980s everyone including judges also considered the political and social cost of mergers, in addition to the monetary cost to consumers. Maybe if we continued to do that and didn't largely stop in the 1980s we would not have too-big-to-fail banks or a mobile app store duopoly.

Hacker News discussion from someone at MSFT that has worked with Pluton: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25191319

Pluton was originally created for the Xbox One in 2013 for the express purpose of combating piracy. That should tell you all you need to know.

It does not stop one from running Linux or other operating systems, and it appears it can be disabled by the user (maybe in UEFI settings?).

It seems Pluton is an arm core that runs Linux itself. Support for Pluton has also been added to the mainline Linux kernel.

Either way it is a black box integrated into some AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm chips and therefore could be to restrict user freedom like what was seen in the screenshot.

Absolutely. It teaches you everything you need to know so don't worry even if you haven't played Pikmin before.

Microsoft needs to be stopped from acquiring ActiBliz and broken up. Otherwise they'll become even more impossible to regulate and be held accountable like banks.

While Nintendo's hardware is less powerful on every level, I think that the majority of their games have lots of effort put into them. While Nintendo definitely has had some horrible games (Mario Party 9, 10, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, Mario sports since the mid 2010s) or just plain average games (see New Super Mario Bros starting with the Wii entry) and their stance on emulation is horrible, I honestly think they put out some of the most creative games ever made (see Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario 64, Pikmin 1, 2, 3, 4, F-Zero GX). At least give them a point for not putting microtransactions in their $60, now $70 games like other publishers (looking at you Activision, EA, Microsoft).

As for their hardware, I would rather them put their games on PC (so I don't have to rip them myself). I like that they try new things with their hardware that few others do (see Wii motion controls (although a bit overdone at first), 3D gaming (3DS), a console that you can take anywhere (sure they weren't the first to attempt it but they were the first to pull it off)). That being said I would much rather also be able to play their games on my Android or Steam Deck. The only reason I'm excited for their new hardware is to see what (if anything) new they will try, and for them to jump at least a decade closer to where the industry is at in terms of computing power.

Yay to new Nintendo console. Nay to ActiBliz + M$.

Puyo Puyo Tetris