Too bad burgers outpaced inflation then. It’d be nice to have a $1.50 option commonly available.

I agree about everything in your first point. I hadn’t previously considered that the novelty of a new technology would necessarily increase have disproportionately high initial cost.

That said, I feel like any calculation of cost against how many hours played is entirely subjective. Your suggestion of $0.75 / entertainment hour is quite different than what I consider ideal. Games will vary genre to genre, person to person, platform to platform.

A person with limited time might exclusively play shorter titles, or maybe just multiplayer titles. A person with significant free time might spent hundreds of hours replaying an RPG.

To be incredibly broad, I would say that games shouldn’t cost more per entertainment hour than half of what any given person earns at their job - but even that is quite subjective and should be taken with salt.

You make a good point, and I agree. I wasn’t thinking that it was the only thing on the market and therefore the price is whatever a new technology costs.

I tend to think of video games - being a form of entertainment - as a great way to be entertained while also being an incredibly low cost option for the amount of time I spend enjoying them.

Buying a $600 console just to enjoy a single $60 title is an extreme example but to me, if that game provides 100 hours of playtime, that seems well worth it. Cheaper than going to a theatre or most other forms of entertainment.

To be sure, I don’t do this, but I’ve always viewed gaming through a $/h lens, and could never understand why so many people saw it as a waste of time. That’s what I was thinking when I wrote that comment earlier - it seems to me that you get more playtime with some RPG from this decade than you would playing Pac-Man. Though perhaps I feel that way because games like Pac-Man don’t appeal to me.

Thinking about it, your point might be valid again, with the Atari being a new technology, people were likely to sink far more hours into a title than they might do with modern games since we have so many to choose from now. I’ve never thought about it that way. Thanks for pointing this out.

Conversely, I’ve spent close to zero dollars total by employing the great trick of not maintaining my road bike at all for years, and now the entire drivetrain needs replacing.

I certainly should not have done this. I imagine it’ll be quite the price tag when I go to take care of it.

The Atari 2600 released for $190 in 1977. Or about $1000 today.

The best selling title, Pac-Man released for $28 in 1982. Or about $95 today.

Compared to so much else that has risen dramatically over time, vastly outpacing video games comparatively, I think it’s a bit hard to argue with the value proposition of modern titles.

Given what Lumon has done with Gemma, isn’t it plausible that the marching band is an amalgamation of severed staffers from all the other unknown number of departments?

Last time I tried Simplex, the battery drain was unbelievable. Maybe I’ll give it another go and see what happens, but I’m not optimistic.

Inglorious Basterds, 2009.

I like the Telo, though it is about twice the price of the Slate.

A bacon egg vehicle?

That comment is a bad take to be sure, but it isn’t really about eliminating every vehicle in existence. We’d still need individual vehicles to serve for delivery and emergency services, as well as a bunch of other stuff.

The main thought is just that it’s a bit silly to have half the population driving a two tonne vehicle to the grocery store. There’s already communities where golf carts are used instead of cars.

The whole concept of ripping out every road and installing solar tramways is just as much a nonsensical extreme not worth taking seriously as ‘what do I do if I order a computer and I work from home’. I get your use of the example though, it is the equivalent counterpoint.

I’ve been going through Asimov’s Foundation novels. Would you say Ancillary Sword is on a similar scope? I think I’ll check it out once I’m done with Asimov.

I did of course mean ecologically friendly and not economically friendly.

That said - less than ten times the price to help the environment and of course make the country smell like a pancake breakfast? Sign me up!

They run on maple syrup though, which means they’re eco friendly.

‘Gish gallop’ is the perfect descriptor for this onslaught of every hour insanity we’re going through.

Professor Santiago Gallino specializing in retail management was interviewed last year by NPR for a piece about these tags.

While the labels give retailers the ability to increase prices suddenly, Gallino doubts companies like Walmart will take advantage of the technology in that way.

“To be honest, I don’t think that’s the underlying main driver of this,” Gallino said. “These are companies that tend to have a long-term relationship with their customers and I think the risk of frustrating them could be too risky, so I would be surprised if they try to do that.”

Rather than seeing an opportunity to use surge pricing, Gallino says retailers are likely drawn to electronic shelf tags to ensure consistency between online and in-store pricing.

What a prophet.

Again, you repeat the same words as the Americans did some hundred years ago when Hitler was rising to power.

I hope for the sake of your neighbours that you are correct and that the Nazism of the west does not bleed beyond the borders of the United States.

Do check in four years down the line. Best of luck.

Given the noise Musk has been making surrounding the political landscape in Germany, the United Kingdom, and lately Canada, it stands to reason that the richest person on the planet is actively trying to make the world revolve around him.

Sentiment similar to yours was undoubtedly stated a century ago throughout Europe; ‘You overestimate the impact Germany has on the citizenry outside of it.’ Look where that attitude got the world, and here you are saying the same thing.

I still have installed a dozen or so clients, so I opened Voyager to remind myself what it is in comparison to Jerboa, which is also my preferred client.

Suddenly my android device has an iOS user interface. To me, this is lazy development. I’m sure it’s fine for someone accustomed to it, but even having a static header and footer seem out of date.

I’ll stick with Jerboa for the time being.

Some time ago, I was given a tub of everything bagel hummus. Same thing as your cashews, I was quite surprised.