Once you set it up, it’s fairly low maintenance. I’ve got one setup at my parents house with a cron job set to auto update blocking lists and software. The hardest part is finding the right combo of lists that block everything you don’t want but allow what you do.

The Pi it’s on also has plenty of power for a vpn server as well so I can hop into their network when they have issues or to do data syncing.

And yeah, I’ve brought it up with security and they’re thinking about network level blocking. They don’t like browser plugins that basically need access to inspect content on every single web page you crawl. Who knows what data might leak.

It’s on YouTube, broadcast tv, and I unfortunately can’t run adblockers at my job. At home I’ve got a pihole that works wonders. It’s amazing how horrible things are when I’m not behind it.

Cool, can I stop seeing commercials for it now? My God the media blitz is everywhere!

You used to be able to resell your PC games too, back in the day.

Why can’t PC games also come on discs? The last one I had the option to buy on disc I remember was Skyrim. When I put the disc in, it launched steam, connected my purchase to my account, and steam did the remainder of the install over the network. Turns out, it didn’t really have anything useful on disc.

I’ve had properly stored, professionally pressed, official DVD and CDROM’s suffer bit rot, become in playable and in one case explode into shards in my DVD-ROM drive. And it didn’t take decades, most were <7 years old. Don’t be so sure you have decades.

blasting my cargo into space

Well, that’s one way to put it, ‘eh?

I bought this months ago right after update 5. Figured I’d get my $20 out of it and move on… now that I’m over 100hrs, they throw this out and I’m back in there making aqua ducts.

Not to mention they opened it up to modding and custom maps, this update added quite a bit. If you like city building management sims this is a must play. I’ve honestly played more of it than City Skylines. Just struck a chord with me.

Does gog have Forbidden West yet?

They don’t have asmany sales, but I’ve definitely scored some good prices on games here and there. They often run 20+% off on first party titles and non-first party gets deep discounts (I scored Rabbids for $4 a while back). I just wish they’d do the equivalent of PS Greatest Hits for like $20.

For some situations a console is nicer than a PC. Solid, consistent, single unit I can just connect to a TV and play. I’ve got a PC and I prefer it, but the average console is cheaper than my PC was and simpler for non-geek family members to boot up and play on a whim.

Enter Nintendo. Crappy 9yo SOC, sure, whatever, here are some fun games that aren’t graphically advanced.

July 2024, just barely outside of 10yrs ago.

Seems like there should be a cheaper way to cull the population of Russia, but I guess I’m not that experienced with that sort of thing.