System 7 Ready!

You only really need an account to get DLC, but I suppose it’s necessary these days. If you only have one switch for the family than you can make that account yourself. The kids would not have to have their own online accounts until they want to pay for their own content. (As I recall, Nintendo requires additional verification steps for accounts for under 13s, anyway. I think they require a $1 fee just to “prove” an adult approves the account.).

And one thing I forgot is that if there are DLC/digital copies active on a primary switch, all accounts can use it. So you can install those and anyone can play. Then, if they ever get their own devices and let you log in and download all that content, they will be able to use it, subject to phone-home provisions. Unless they buy their own copies on their own accounts – then they will be able to use the DLC without phoning home.

We got a switch when it first came out, that was the only switch we had as a family for a while. It was shared just like any other console. Games like Mario Kart are just as playable on one switch as they are on prior platforms, if you buy more controllers.

Eventually, as the kids got older, we got them switch lites so they could play games on their own. Physical cartridges are definitely sharable, the only catch is that (of course) you can only play one copy at a time and some games have an online/group play component that you can’t experience with one cartridge. So, for instance, Animal Crossing has one island per switch, so if you have two switches in the household you could swap the cart back and forth and both switches can play the game by swapping the cartridge, but characters from one can’t visit the other unless both games are running at the same time. We have bought an embarrassing number of Animal Crossing carts.

Digital copies are tied to a Nintendo account. You can only have one “primary” switch attached to the account. That Switch will be able to run the games on the account without phoning home first. If that account is logged into other switches, they do get access to the games, but only if the non-primary switch has internet access to validate that the game is not being played by any other switch on the account. (I ran into this issue whe I wanted to play the BOTW DLC on a second switch on airplanes; I ultimately had to create a second account to buy it a second time on that switch to prevent it from phoning home).

Digital copies also download the entire game into storage, while physical copies have the game in cartridge ROM and much less is stored locally. Getting a Digital copy of a large game might fill up most of your storage. This is why I still prefer cartridges, especially now that my kids are older and don’t lose them anymore.

How is it affordable? It’s not, we eat a lot of ramen.

Hope this helps!

I’m surprised the other ones did better

tardigrade-playing-violin.jpg

I’m particularly concerned about companies who have effectively outsourced their tech support to Social Media.

I am a Google Fi subscriber, and their customer support is so abysmal that a Google employee started up a “Reddit Request” system for Redditors to use to escalate support requests.

When I quit Reddit in a huff over the APIcalypse, the main thing that led me to not delete my account was the notion that if I ever had issues with Fi, and didn’t have an active Reddit account with sufficient karma to be believed, my issue may never get enough attention to be fixed.

Live Long and Prosper

Smishing is a phishing cybersecurity attack carried out over mobile text messaging. It’s also known as SMS phishing.

I had never heard that term before. Is it just a UKism, or am I one of today’s lucky 10,000?

V’ger has evolved

In order for an AI to pass the Turing test, it must be able to talk to someone and fool them into thinking that they are talking to a human.

So, passing the Turing Test either means the AI are getting smarter, or that humans are getting dumber.

I am so looking forward to asking Elon for his long-form birth certificate

I agree with you about not wanting to share a government document with a shitty social media company. But companies that tie your account to your identity are going to insist on this moving forward. You have a right to complain, but don’t be surprised if they insist. Their walled garden, their rules.

As a US Citizen, I have found that sending them an image of a US passport card is a decent compromise. The card itself is only useful for travel at land borders, but counts as Federally-issued ID. It has your name, nationality, passport card number, and date of birth, but not your address. The picture isn’t really good for much. And, perhaps most importantly, all the ICAO stuff that is normally on your passport page is on the back of the passport card, meaning that a picture of just the front doesn’t have all the info. Bonus points if you are old enough to have an expired one, then the card number will be useless.

There is very little damage a identity thief can do with just a passport card number. You are probably at more risk with your DOB being there. But, due to COPA, they probably have your DOB anyway. People can’t even book flights with it, as passport cards are only for land crossings.

The Twitter bird isnt dead, it’s just pining for the fjords

Found some more technical details here:

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/15/brothers-accused-of-25m-ethereum-exploit-as-us-reveals-fraud-charges/

Oh, they just left you some extra patch cables? That was nice of them.

The wavelength of the fiber might be printed on it. I know some fibers are color-coded based on their wavelength, but I don’t know if it’s universal.

You’ll need to match the modules to the fiber.

There definitely are optics available for single mode. The problem is that the wavelength will need to match what you are being sent from your provider. So we can’t really answer your question, you will have to ask them.

1310nm is quite common but we can’t assume your link is 1310nm.

This lock has a keypad, so the kid just needs to remember that. It has a key also, but if the kid never has the key, they can never lose it.

Maybe you can go a bit lower tech. There are “smart” door locks with a keypad that have Bluetooth, but are not otherwise cloud enabled. Then find a small device you can use as a Bluetooth proxy and position it near the front door, to keep tabs on it. Our lock is from Kwikset, and while there is an app to program it, once it is programmed it is pretty much stand-alone and won’t need the app anymore.

The lock does have Home Assistant integration but I haven’t tried it yet because I haven’t done the Bluetooth Proxy yet.

500 a day is $62.50/hr, that’s not very good for contracting, especially if they don’t take taxes and healthcare out. Any sort of key contractor like that ought to be worth at least $250/hr

I can’t imagine anyone that has decent prospects would agree to go back to Tesla after getting canned with those kinds of wild swings in decision making.

I can $ertainly think of a $cenario where I might con$ent to let bygone$ be bygone$ and go back to work for that a$$hole