On duckduckgo those are only suggestions that shape the results. They aren’t “ignored” but also aren’t enforced. You can search for things in quotes that don’t ever show up and put a minus sign on things that do show up.
It fucking infuriates me, but it is still better than Google.
In 1999 Amazon applied for and was granted a US Patent for One Click Purchase. Before then, everyone had a shopping cart that you had to go into to check out and pay. Amazon realized that a huge percentage of people would add stuff to their cart and then leave without buying anything, either because they decided they didn’t REALLY need that thing or because they found it cheaper somewhere else or whatever. They allowed you to save all your credit card info plus shipping preferences, then just hit “1 Click Purchase.” It was convenient for shoppers because they didn’t have to go through the whole checkout steps or add everything then come back later to check out. They could just hit a button and be done. For Amazon, though, it prevented the dreaded “items left in cart.”
Other sites like Borders and Barnes & Noble, etc also implemented the feature, since it made a lot of money. Amazon filed for a business process patent (I think they also tried it as a software patent??) and forced the entire internet to go back to normal shopping cart purchases. They ended up losing the patent lawsuit in the EU, but that didn’t stop them from enforcing it on US websites. Borders and BN both implemented “2 Click Purchase” to get around it, but the damage was done. In everyone’s minds, Amazon was the place to go for convenience and speed. Amazon made more money, while others started losing money. With that extra money, Amazon was able to move into the “niche” of Walmart, since Walmart hadn’t yet figured out e-commerce. Amazon out-Walmarted Walmart on the web and became the trillion dollar behemoth we have today.
I was an edgy college kid who was raging against software and business process patents. Their 1-click patent started me on a 25 year grudge.
I started boycotting Amazon back in 1999 when they pulled the 1-click patent bullshit. I loved them before that.
The only search worse than Amazon is probably Wayfair.
If I see something on Amazon that I want, I just go to the manufacturer’s website and order it directly from them. If they don’t have a site that sells it, then I try other online stores besides Amazon. If they only sell on Amazon, then I decide I just don’t need it.
Do they have an electric truck that isn’t the size of a small house?
That design choice was revolutionary at the time.
Is this game still playable on modern systems? Can you still buy the peripherals?
EDIT: I searched it myself and found the answer is Yes to modern systems, but No to peripherals. You have to buy overpriced adapters at retail and used equipment on ebay/craigslist.
I am an expert on all of this in general and worked on Vulcan specifically for a long time. You did a good job of summarizing. The only correction is we don’t say “the ULA,” just ULA. It’s a company name, not really an alliance. Boeing and Lockheed have no real say in how things go at ULA (though they might have financial stakes??). It’s more of a new company created by spinning off both of the two respective launch divisions into one company.
And in a city like Los Angeles, it is an honest debate as to whether a flying car is safer than biking.
No.
I honestly have no idea if I ever finished Skyrim. I finished a ton of quests and became an unbeatable bow hunting dragon killer who yelled all the time. I’m pretty sure I got to some castle where I had to choose a faction and just didn’t bother. I explored for a couple hundred hours and never played again. 7 years later I played Morrowblivion and then replayed Oblivion (I couldn’t get Skyblivion to work if I remember right). I’ve debated playing VR Skyrim, but I don’t want to repay for the game.
That’s the point they were trying to make. It was a facetious question.
Most of the time I’ve raged about RNG is from WoW, not other games. In WoW, I’m not raging about misses or crits. I’m mad because I’ve done the fight as well as I can and succeeded, only to have the same damn leather boots drop every damn time that neither I nor anyone else needs. Or having to kill bugs to get a specific quest item that could drop on your first try or your thousandth.
RNG in this game can also be infuriating, but in a different way. It’s not game breaking, just fight delaying. Or I might not be able to deceive the guard to let me in, so I just have to fight my way in.
I don’t know the answer to this, but I thought lucid dreaming still counted as getting rest as far as your brain was concerned. I lucid dream about once a month, and I never felt tired after it or like I was missing sleep.
One of the best indicators that you are in a dream is if you can’t read something that you are trying to read. For whatever reason, reading is impossible while dreaming and most people don’t even have writing in their dreams to read. I do have writing in my dreams, but only rarely and am not able to read it. I’ve definitely used it to trigger lucid dreaming. I also use stuff like, “wait, how am I breathing under water?”
Are they going to fix the fact that all the realms of oblivion are basically one of six basic maps?
TIL LOTRO is still a thing. I remember being so excited and hopeful that it could compete with WoW so I could have an alternative scratch for my MMORPG itch. I just never found it very fun or as intuitive (to me).
I’m pretty sure it was Pong on a dedicated console from Sears. I remember playing Pong when I was super young, but I don’t remember if that was at the same time as us getting an Atari 2600 or not.