TwinIon

OLED makes such a huge difference. I use a 48" as my monitor and have a 77" as our primary TV. I can't wait for our terrible Roku kitchen TV to die so I can replace it with an OLED.

4 long years since it was first announced, the Tesla Cybertruck is finally shipping. The unique shape, stainless steel body, impressive specs, and overall Tesla hype have definitely made it one of the most talked about vehicles since that 2019 reveal, but Tesla has been oddly quiet about it until yesterday. While prototypes had been rolling around for a while now, Telsa wouldn't even update their pricing or specs on their website, which is pretty strange for such a hyped product launch. Finally we have production pricing, specs, and people are getting their hands on real Cybertrucks. Hagerty has a great video, and MKBHD got to play with one for a while. First things first, to the surprise of no one, Tesla did not hit that sub $40k as first announced. The cheapest Cybertruck will now run $61k, and even that price is suspect given that they're still not expected to launch until 2025. If you want a truck sooner, you'll need to drop $80k for the dual motor version or $100k for the tri-motor. The range ha stayed the same for the bottom two (250mi for the single motor, 340mi for the dual), but the the tri-motor has gone down from the promised 500mi down tot 320mi. You can get nearly 400mi if you spend an extra $16k for an optional giant battery that goes in the bed. The speeds have actually improved since launch, promising 4.1 and 2.9 0-60 times for the dual and tri-motor models. There are some interesting design quirks in this thing that go well beyond what we've seen so far from Tesla. For example, check out the gear select in the center of the windshield (~21:51) near where the missing rear-view mirror should be. The doors (13:03) are also pretty odd, completely lacking door handles. You need to push a button on the B pillar, which will partially open the door, allowing you to grip it and pull it open. This just seems like introducing a complicated problem where simple solutions already exist, but we'll see if owners end up struggling. They continue the Tesla tradition of putting all functionality into a center touch screen, but at least the buttons on the steering wheel are physical buttons and not just touch sensitive areas. Still no stalks though. There are also some genuine advancements in the Cybertruck. It's the first fully steer by wire production car ever, and early impressions are good thanks to four wheel steering. It's the first fully 48V production vehicle as well. While 800V architecture isn't new in general, it's showing up in a Tesla for the first time here. It's also the first Tesla with powersharing, allowing vehicle to load functionality and even vehicle to vehicle charging. Overall first impressions seem pretty good, but we'll see if that holds up long term. We also have to wait and see if Tesla is up to the task of making these at scale, or if there will be some Model 3 like growing pains in the assembly line. Those potential issues aside, I think that if this truck had launched closer to it's announcement date at closer to the announced price, it might have been something of a hit. It would have been the only electric pickup available, and probably converted a decent portion of those 2 million reservations. Now it's launching after real competitors from Rivian and Ford, at a price higher than the base Fords and comparable to the Rivians. I have a much easier time imagining people opting for the quirks of the Cybertruck when it's the only choice for an EV pickup. It might turn out to be a decent vehicle, but it's a harder sale when you have less abrasive options.

I think it's hard to re-capture the magic of watching Fury Road for the first time. For being the fourth film in a franchise, Fury Road doesn't care much for plot or world building; it's a film about vibes. While Furiosa seems to recapture the aesthetic, I get the impression from that trailer that it wants to do more table setting and storytelling. It's probably for the best that Miller isn't entirely trying to re-create Fury Road, but I do worry that any follow up might try to do too much. I'll see it. This looks like it'll be a blast, I just don't expect it to measure up.

I didn't think they'd actually do it. Does he end up with a show on Fox News? How about Newsmax? Or does he just end up a podcast host?

Tears of the Kingdom takes the prize for me. It's just an incredible sandbox to play in. There is an awesome array of toys to use however you please and so many treasures to be found as you keep on digging. I just love approaching a problem and finding my own solution given the toolset Tears gives you. It's the most rewarding and exciting game I played this year for sure. Spider-Man 2 is my runner up for just how well polished and fun the whole experience is. Everything about that game sings along as you swing from place to place, story point to story point, mechanic to mechanic. It's overflowing with stuff, but never overwhelming. It's such a well edited piece of open world game making that also really rewards players with both an excellent Spider-Man story and experience. Alan Wake 2 gets a lot of points for being a unique treasure among AAA games and such an absurd leap from its now ancient predecessor. It's exciting to play a game and not really know what they might throw at you next, but also have it be presented so well. It has more holes and rough edges than many big games, but it stands above many of them out of sheer creativity and novelty. Starfield is one of my most played games this year, but I think it has too many issues and is too backward looking to be seriously considered. Jedi Survivor was fine, but never a revelatory experience. Much the same can be said for Final Fantasy 16 Diablo 4 surprised me with both how much I enjoyed it and how quickly I fell out of it. Dave the Diver is a great little game that I'm really enjoying on my Steam Deck, but as nice as it is, I don't think it's quite GOTY material for me. The big missing piece for me is Baldur's Gate 3. I suspect that I'll really enjoy it, I just haven't made time to dig into it yet.

I don't watch any cable news, but I liked many of the clips I saw of Mehdi Hasan. He would push on some of the obvious questions that made people uncomfortable harder than most.

Here's the SCOTUSblog piece about this: Justices divided over SEC’s ability to impose fines in administrative proceedings - SCOTUSblog WWW.SCOTUSBLOG.COM Wednesday’s argument in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy was oddly distant from the decision of the lower court and the briefs and arguments of the parties. The decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit – vigorously defended by George Jarkesy, the target of long-running It is reassuring that it seems unlikely that SCOTUS agrees with the fifth circuit on everything. I think it is an interesting question as to how you draw the line when deciding what government actions require a jury trial. I found myself unexpectedly sympathetic to Gorsuch's argument that we have a crime that would typically involve the option of a jury trial, but because it was brought by the SEC that trial isn't an option. Then I read a bit more about the Atlas Roofing case that Kagan kept referring to and I feel like that question has been pretty well answered by separating out the ideas of public and private rights. So cases where public rights are at issue (typically with regulatory matters) Congress can assign adjudication to an administrative agency without a jury trial. In cases involving private rights, those are subject to the seventh amendment and therefore entitled to a jury trial.

I really enjoyed their Top Gear run, and while TGT never got quite as good, it was still entertaining and I'll be sad that it's over.

Eve came out in 2003, WoW in 2004, FF XVI in 2010, TOR in 2011, Guild Wars 2 in 2012, and ESO in 2014. So we're a nearly a decade out from the last launch of a successful MMO? The only big MMO release in recent memory is New World, and that wasn't exactly a blockbuster after the first week.

Unless it's something different from what we currently know as MMOs, I doubt I'll be interested, even as someone who really enjoys the Horizon games. When I think about what I enjoy from those games, not much would translate to an MMO. Besides, what was the last successful MMO?

I'm definitely going to buy Oppenheimer on 4k, but I'm going to wait until it's a bit cheaper.

I enjoyed Loki well enough, and I do think the episodes he wrote (1.1, 1.6) were some of the better ones, but between those and Multiverse of Madness it still doesn't exactly make me thrilled.

This is so terrible and so much worse than what I've seen before. I've heard of newsrooms that were told about AI content getting posted, and I've heard of newsrooms where AI content was getting posted without consulting actual writers, but coming up with full on fake identities is wild. It also seems like it's inevitable that the digital trail that the Futurism reporters looked for will be easily faked too. How long before these fictitious writers actually have a Facebook account? I've made fun of cypto in general and worldcoin specifically, and I'm not backtracking on any of it, but I suddenly understand why they think an ID system that just verifies that there's a person would have some value. It's still a bad idea, and if SI is going to invent profiles for fake writers, the existence of some blockchain blue check isn't going to solve anything, but at least I can see what they might be after. This is also one of those times where I wish that government could be an answer. I'd love Elizabeth Warren or the EU to step in with some governmental overreach that would help this, but I just can't imagine it actually mattering. Yeah, you could try and force companies to label what is AI created, but there's no way to actually police it. Maybe it would help at least a little, to the point it would keep big publications in line, but really it would probably just end with these companies paying a patsy a few bucks instead of inventing them.

I've been seeing this as well and it's getting out of control. The thing I've run into a few times recently is looking for some piece of information, finding an answer on IGN or other site I mostly trust, but their answer is wrong or incomplete, and then finding nothing but pages and pages of generated content that is wrong in the exact same way. For low stakes stuff about games, it's annoying and disappointing, but it must be happening all over the place and serving audiences that don't understand what is going on.

Exactly. We see some of what made him an effective military strategist, but nothing about what made him an effective commander to his troops. Did they follow him because he had won victories? Did they love him or simply put up with him? Did he just represent an idea of France they yearned for or was he connecting directly with them? There's barely anything to go on and I don't think Scott even cares. By contrast we see Maximus win one battle to open Gladiator and the film ends before he's reunited with them, but throughout the film you're shown why he's an effective leader of men and you understand why they'd choose to follow him should he return.

It's very true to the comic. Very few deviations, a few nice additions, and nothing major has been cut. A few things have been reshuffled as the timeline has been cut down and a few major character beats have been jettisoned, but all in all I'd say it's trying very hard to be comic accurate. Also helps that it looks extremely similar.

I did end up getting mine in on Friday, and I have to say that I get it now. I've been a bit down on the deck since its release, but now that I've got one it makes sense to me. It's both bigger and lighter than I expected, but it feels so good in my hands. I've put maybe 8 hours into it so far and it is so much better to hold than the Switch or any other handheld. Not only does it feel great, but the controls are top notch. The trackpads have that very cool haptic feedback to them, the buttons and sticks and triggers all feel solid with just the right click to them. I think my only real complaint about any of it is that I wish they could steal the triggers from the PS5. More than just feeling like a solid gadget, it works much more like a console than I expected. I honestly expected it to be a bit more jankey, or at least feel a lot more like this is a mini linux computer running a custom Steam skin, but it doesn't. It's a proper little console package. The overlays and menus are really well done and tie the whole software portion together nicely. I would feel very comfortable recommending one to my less tech savvy friends. For myself, I think the Steam Deck has already proven its value by being well suited to the games that didn't feel as at home on my desktop. I've started with Dave the Diver, Hades, and Midnight Suns and all three are perfect for the deck. I'm not even mildly tempted to install Cypberpunk or Starfield, I'll leave that to my powerful desktop where games can command my full attention and push the graphics all the way up. The deck is an excellent companion for those smaller games to enjoy on the couch. For that reason I don't have any issue with 512GB of storage. I have a bunch of games I could throw on there, but I don't bounce between games fast enough to need all of them installed at once, and the games I do have installed hardly use up much space at all. I haven't really even gotten into using it as a gadget. I've launched into desktop mode and made sure my password manager was on there, just in case I want to do more, but I don't see myself doing much. I still might bother to find a way to backup my camera's memory cards while on a vacation, but I think the deck will have a spot even if I don't use it for that.

I also disliked the color grading and had the same issue with Napoleon's tunic, though I would consider the failure to be an excess of grading rather than a lack of it. They've got some hard core tone curves going on and it always felt excessive and degrading. The French flag is only three colors, the white was so cool it was almost blue, the red was unrecognizable, and the blue was apparently exiled. Poor choices all around. I think Scott didn't know how to play with the ambiguity of Napoleon's power or his "goodness." Scott's success in his historical epics has been in their clarity. Maximus and Balian are such pure characters in so many ways, and the evil they faced was so obvious and brutish. Even with Frank Lucas in American Gangster I feel like Ridley loses his way a bit and isn't able to cleanly put forward an anti-hero with the same gravitas as he can an outright hero. The the ending title cards reveal how this film views Napoleon. Here's a list of battles he took part in, and here's how many died. It sets aside the winning and losing, the brilliance or the bumbling and reduces it only to death. I think that outlook on the man dooms much of what might have made for a complex an interesting take. It could have read something like "Napoleon fought in 61 battles; he won 50 and is considered one of the great military commanders in history. Six million people died in his wars." That diminished and simple view of the man is obvious in those ending title cards, but it's felt throughout the film. There's a sequence when Napoleon had left Elba and was marching to Paris and he runs into his first bit of resistance. Soldiers take up their places against him to stop his march, but he approaches them and convinces them to join him. That should have been such a powerful moment, but it ended up falling so flat. I know that both Scott and Phoenix have within them to make me believe that this is a man who inspires and aspires to greatness; a man for whom his former army would gladly forget their new oaths in order to follow once again, but I didn't get that at all. It felt perfunctory. I don't think this is a movie that would be saved by another hour or three. I think it's a director that isn't interested glorifying his subject even in the interest of telling a better story. I'm not arguing that there isn't room for a dour look on Napoleon or that this film should be exulting the man, but it didn't show a very convincing or interesting portrait. It makes me think about how another octogenarian director might have handled the same material. I don't think Martin Scorsese is terribly sympathetic to Jordan Belfort or Ernest Burkhart, but he makes you understand how Belfort got people to buy into his schemes and that Ernest really did love his wife. Which is all to say that there's room for a Napoleon who both a sad sack and a convincing military leader.

Still no shipping date for me, but I went ahead and bought a bunch of games on sale that I've been interested in but never got around to that also feel like they'd be a good match for the deck. Picked up Dave the Diver, Hades, Talos Principle 1 & 2, Disco Elysium, and Oxenfree. Started Dave the Diver already and it's great. Fun little bite sized game that seems like it would be really at home on the deck.

The funny thing about this to me is that to operate a social network in Germany you need to be able to filter out nazi content. Use that filter and just don't sell ads next to that content and it gets rid of much of this problem.

We've basically been getting the Filoni take on Star Wars for a while now, and I'm at peace with it, even if it's not super exciting. For better and worse he's basically the closest thing we have to Lucas. I don't think that the creative success of Andor means that all Star Wars should become Andor, but I do think it showed that Star Wars can find success when not telling the typical Star Wars stories that Filoni seems keen on telling.

So Sam is back as CEO, and the new board will be bigger, less concerned with the non-profit mission, almost certainly include some MS representation, and likely allow Altman to do whatever he wants. Not a super entertaining outcome from all this for all this. I still desperately want to know more about why the board fired him in the first place.

At this point it feels almost certain that the board are just a bunch of absolute idiots. Either they had a good enough reason to fire him, which they can share with concerned parties (MS, Open AI employees, interim CEOs), or they didn't. If they didn't have a great reason for firing him, then it's just a matter of how much damage they do the company before they exit themselves. Right now I don't think any permanent damage has been done, but they're certainly at the precipice.

At this point I just kinda feel bad for the guy.

I'm sitting here refreshing the shipping status of my Steamdeck instead of just playing the games that I could be playing on the deck.