Same, the only thing talkings to the internet are my reverse proxy and the security cameras (only when viewing them from outside the local network, quite like what reolink does there)

Imo if you’re going to be the only one who would use the instance it is not worth it. Instead look for an instance that lines up with your personal interests (maybe check out the db0 instance).

Content federation basically works on a subscription model so you will only see content from other instances if someonen your instance went out of their way to subscribe to it. Smaller instances suffer under this as they might not even see popular communities from other instances.

Note: Moldova also has a bit of a infestation going on, might be interesting to see the Moldovan data split by region. I have a sneaking suspicion that the parts “influenced” by a certain Eurasian autocracy are mostly to blame for the increase

Manchmal kann man nur den Kopf schütteln…

I go out of my way to exclusively spend money with the one publisher I’ve found who does not put DRM in their ebooks. I spend lavishly with them because good practices need to be rewarded monetarily in capitalism or they die out.

The rest I pirate.

Robbing a store is illegal. Murdering someone is also illegal, however one of the two is for good reasons punished much more harshly.

At least here in Germany the bypassing of DRM is so legal they don’t even try to get you for it. The only thing they ever go after nowadays is distributing and consuming that cracked content (get logless VPN and that problem solves itself). But if you go and rip Netflix movies for your own enjoyment they have no leg to stand on in court unless you distribute it.

I will never stop being confused by this law. Just crossing the street cannot possibly be illegal anywhere. I’m fully convinced the entire thing is an elaborate joke by the americans.

Over here you can even make copies for personal use or sharing with a close group of friends.

I love the unintended consequences of declaring that the internet is to be treated under the same laws as radio broadcasts. Suddenly being allowed to make a recorded copy of anything as long as you yourself create the copy becomes significantly more important.

Between this and infinity nikki actively blocking non SteamDeck devices I have a feeling that Valve will bring the hammer down on this sometime soon.

When people buy a game, the store front says it should run and then it doesn’t they’re not going to yell at the developers. They’re going to yell at the store and I doubt Valve wants to bother with the extra support workload that entails.

There is a distinct difference between taking out a loan on your house and saddling it 100% with debt again. Obviously any loan taken out should under all circumstances be one you can comfortably pay back.

Taking out 20k on a 1m home is way different than taking out 20k on a 100k home.

Plus, at least here, if you lose your job the following happens:

• for 2 years you’ll get 80% of your previous paycheck (assuming you worked long enough to qualify, iirc 5 years. if not you get time deducted)
• at the same time as the end of your current employment you have the option to stop/reduce payments on the loan for a time due to special circumstances (technically not mandatory but not bank will give you a large loan without this added insurance, iirc interest will still accrue in this time essentially extending the length of the loan)

Couple that with not being stupid and getting a loan that eats your entire home as backing and you are pretty much safe from any short term disruption in your finances.

To touch on a few other points:

• yes blindly investing is dumb, if the market gives you an uneasy gut don’t invest. That thing has a habit of being wildly irrational until it suddenly and very quickly is forced to realign with reality
• if you have the luck and are in a union that negotiates your wages you will likely receive a “pay rise” aka inflation compensation every couple of years, in such a case a loan as I describe it also makes sense for personal use (in small sums) because inflation will further reduce the interest. Think taking out a loan to renovate a room instead of saving up for it, after everything is properly accounted for the loan backed by property variant will leave you with slightly more money (depending on general interest situation, if interest rates are high but inflation low things might differ)

And worst comes to worst, rent out a room in your house as a sublet and use that to pay exclusively for the mortgage. Any loan you ever take out against an owned home shouldn’t have higher monthly payments than that anyway or it, as you say, turns into an insane gamble no one in their right mind should take.

at least not without preparation, it’s insane that you have to figure out inheritance in advance or your descendants get screwed. If you set things up properly then here you can inherit a primary residence tax free, but if you don’t set things up then you’re just shafted.

One example: If you get to own a house (that’s paid off) not having debt on it is stupid because you get the lowest interest a regular person possibly can get. Even if everyone else has interest rates up to their mouth you’ll get a rate so cushy investing the money in any index fund will outperform your interest payments.

Can’t escape the hipswing allegations now

That is absolutely true and will likely be why this ends up being the one slow roll romance novel I don’t end up dropping. Too many others are just forever stuck in the relationship twilight zone where they’re a couple but not actually doing anything with it so the author needs a new source of drama every volume to keep readers from realizing that their relationship is not progressing at all.

The Angel Next Door Spoils me Rotten Vol. 5

Well not like anything ever happens in this story. Just more undiluted sugar straight to the veins.

The 14th gen didn’t only have problems with Linux and I still don’t trust Intel when they say they “fixed” the CPUs disassembling themselves. Given the money involved I’d definitely advise against 13th and 14th gen Intel in any case, just not worth the potential headache down the road. Either go with older Intel or AMD.

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Vol. 18

Rating: 11/10 Definitely not biased since this is certainly not my favourite series ever. Nope not at all.

Obligatory curse the editor for forcing this highly misleading title. Obligatory curse the author for introducing plot conveniences just to forbid us from enjoying more sugary Bell x Aiz scenes. I want more stuff like their dance.

That aside I’m not the biggest fan of the familia conflicts, I just wanna see my boy Bell survive some dungeon adventures. Not that the familia conflicts are badly written, I just don’t really get the same enjoyment reading them. The volume was iirc the longest we have got so far which was kind of needed, imo there wasn’t really a good spot where the story could have been split cleanly into two volumes. There are a lot of “side” stories going on with Bell taking a bit of a step back for the first half of the story. Despite not going where I initially thought it was going the Freya arc was sort of neatly resolved, the outcome is just a bit unexpected. The climax fight against Ottar feels a bit weird, I would have liked to see Bell dominate a bit more in his first challenge as a Level 5 but the story doesn’t allow for an “easy” fight right now and having Ottar be an obstacle far more insurmountable than anything before feels fitting. Unsurprisingly Haruhiume’s level boost comes in clutch to win that fight along with a very brief glimpse at just what it means for Bell to only ever level up with S and upwards stats. 2 Levels difference should be an insurmountable difference yet Bell managed to narrow it down to a surmountable one with his stats accumulation.

That’s that regarding the plot of the volume, I want to use the end of this “review” to mourn every Bell x anyone-but-aiz shippers some of whose ships were sunk with multiple broadsides by Bell refusing both Syr and Lyon’s confessions. Poor Syr, she even got rejected twice. Lyon also joins Hestia familia as their first and for now only Level 6 adventurer. Bell’s insane growth continues to force additions to the familia with higher Levels since no one can even hope to keep up with his desire to stand next to his crush. With the distractions out of the way I hope the way is finally paved for an unfolding of the long teased Bell x Aiz ship. Surely the author won’t throw us another curveball. Right? Right??

starts reading Volume 19 Oh ffs… I just want my ship to set sail already.

How anyone in leadership gave the OK for a connector this asinine is beyond me. That’s, on a technical level, a very real fire hazard

The Eminence in Shadow Volume 6 Honestly not much to say here, if you liked the story up to this point you’ll love this as it’s just more of the good stuff. We also get more glimpses into the Cult vs Shadow Garden allegiances forming in the Midgard kingdom and hints at an upcoming country scale conflict in which Cid will surely be yet again an unassuming background character.

Also we get to see more of Akane who might just be the first non Shadow Garden member to figure out the link between Cid and Shadow. She’s pretty close to getting there since she’s almost linked shadow to his Japanese identity.