I think much of Geocities remained accessible until 2013/2014 before going completely (apart from Japan 2019 or so).

It’s on the tip of my tongue; there was a whole series of ghost pirate themed “hidden object” point and click puzzle games. I’ll update the post when it comes back.

Edit: Nightmares of the Deep

Apart from a brief detour in the mid to late 90s, Iron Maiden have been fairly consistent over the course of their nearly 50-year existence - you can usually tell if a track is one of theirs within a few seconds.

Here’s a link to a newspaper article that refers to this study.

The previous research they refer to is entitled “Evaluating the 35°C wet-bulb temperature adaptability threshold for young, healthy subjects (PSU HEAT Project)” and is here.

It’s funny because it’s true.

I work in a field where the vast majority of the work done requires an on-site presence. But meetings? I log into those. Even when the physical venue is a half dozen offices from me.

I have a few; the main one right now are mechanical wristwatches - learning about them, acquiring them, wearing them, taking them apart, trying to put them together again, modifying them, all of it.

They really struggle to understand that all businesses have departments that consume money and departments that generate profit (cost centres and profit centres); not every part of the system makes money, but the parts that do (Sales) need the support of departments that don't (Human Resources, Accounts, Legal) - get the balance right and you have a resilient organisation that will do well.

Public spending and the public sector are a bit like the cost centres of a business. Having high quality public education, healthcare and transport creates and supports an environment in which free enterprise has access to a skilled, healthy and mobile workforce; the profits naturally follow. Balance that properly with appropriate taxation and the system trundles on...

Can’t see this image without mentally autoplaying Welcome

Welcome to Americana Please make your selection Followed by the pound sign now

Half-Life was my introduction to FPS gaming; I loved every game in the series that I had the pleasure to play - Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Half-Life 2 (Lost Coast, Episode One, Episode 2). I never got round to playing Alyx; I didn't have hardware that would cope!

Half-Life also spawned the CounterStrike series; I sank way to many hours into them.

My favourite game remains the original; I enjoyed the narrative and the occasional puzzle. I purchased the upgraded graphics pack (which also fixed a few glitches) and prefer the original with this pack to the remastered version of the game (Half-Life: Source).

Someone shared this with me years ago and I find it increasingly helpful in remembering how much bullshit our economies are built upon.

Link to the Financial Times here - “The parable of the ox” by John Kay

That’s a shame. I’ve never owned one - the ones I borrowed as a teen were generally well put together, sounded good and were fun to play.

I have little doubt that the above setup is overkill for my purposes. My difficulty is that I am so far behind and out of date in my knowledge of what constitutes a decent baseline specification that I am having to approach this from a position of embarrassed ignorance.

A couple of folks have recommended PCPartPicker so I will give that a go.

Super helpful; also thanks for the channel recommendation.

Dual monitor; this is because my workflow requires me to use two very different tools together and having them on large and wholly separate monitors helps maintain the separation while retaining a pleasing aspect ratio.

When I had a single ultrawide it worked but it always felt awkward even though technically it wasn't cluttered.

This looks like a lot of work - but I love the idea of this.

Seems a great way to explore music I’ve never heard before - and revisit some classics.

Thank you.

Was that the one where the physical copy came with two lenses (for glasses) that were built into the packaging? Or was that a different Tool masterpiece?

I’ve certainly been tempted by pre-build (thank you for the link) but with parts costs (gradually) coming down some are becoming less competitive.

“I don’t wanna be me” off that album was my introduction. I joined late.

Your work and effort is very much appreciated. I had noticed the live version thing (I'd posted Burn by The Cure as a rare live performance) but having the studio recording is enough - those who want to see how a track might have sounded live will be able to find it (e.g. for some of the Alestorm tracks that have been shared recently, there is a very good live mix available under their label on YouTube).

Not being able to access all music via just one streaming provider seems to be a feature of the services these days. Sad and frustrating, but it doesn't detract from the value and quality of this playlist.

Thanks again.

They posted this little history; amazing to have come this far (and still going) but the talent was always there it seems.

TBM are pretty neat. I wouldn’t let my post hold you back from posting your preferred track!

Thank you for the link; will take a look at that as well.

Holiday soundtrack for one particularly memorable break. Nice to revisit.

Interesting. What physical size and resolution are you working with?

I kind of felt the same way; posted the news article as a way of breaking down some barriers.

I found out about her through the trailer of a video game years ago; ended up listening to a lot of her music.

The video game trailer was for The Witness.

They tried to sell me a game and I bought the music instead.

Bought the game more recently and found that was pretty good too; I like puzzles and don’t mind the repetition.

Well that was a pleasant surprise. Thank you for posting!

Sorry, I should have specified; I already have the 4K monitor that I would like to use.

The draw is the mechanical intricacy of it. I was fortunate to be given a Speedmaster at a crucial time in my late teens; if it had been a car I would likely just as easily have become a petrolhead.

There are a number of enthusiast communities out there - some superficially might seem to be brand specific or oriented around buying / selling but most have quite a lot of technical know how on them.

The stuff I play with is cheap (broken or damaged items bought second hand) and the tools are second hand too.

I’ve never actually tried VR; a friend has offered to let me try their console VR at the end of the week so I’ll be taking notes.

Well that was a refreshing listen. Thanks for posting!

Thanks for sharing the playlist. Dance with the Dead feature; that’s another confessional from me. Heard Riot for the first time a while ago and found it kinda fun.

Looks like I know what I’m listening to for a few days…

actively avoid it

Lol

I like it in small doses. Discovered this kind of stuff during my one proven COVID-19 episode; used to joke that transient loss of sense of smell had ruined my taste in more ways than one.

Makes a change from my usual diet of various metal flavours.

I did want to tag it so that I could spare folks that particular disappointment.

I think they do mean Something in the Way - and I find it an oddly comforting listen.

Thought this too. About to read the article; half-wondering whether I’ll see the likes of Monsanto or similar in amongst the study sponsors.

I forget which map it was, but Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had a particularly broken area where a medic class (machine gun and 4x scope) and assault class (ammo drop) could pin down the opposing team at their spawn point, from a distance, indefinitely.

Took me and a buddy around a minute to find it, so we weren’t doing something particularly unusual.

Good design could have rendered this tactic inoperable. I don’t know if it ever came.

The above build (with a suitable NZXT H7 case) can be built for around £3,800; such a generous budget might be doable but deep down I know this build is over the top and that I cannot really justify ploughing that much into something like this. Thank you for the PCPartPicker recommendation; I will try that.

It’s a sound that permeates much of the post-collapse footage; when a much younger and less experienced me first heard it, I thought it was car alarms - I didn’t connect it with the fate of hundreds of fire crew.

Here’s another clip that captures the “chirping”.

Sniper Elite 5. I played V2 way back and fancied an updated experience. Going reasonably well so far and that x-ray cam experience remains gnarly.