That’s not true, otherwise Phoenix would be unlivable. It’s close, but not quite there yet.

More likely it was all a false flag plot, to what end I don’t know, maybe just to show how “tough” he is…

All of those things are possible, but statistically, being distracted is far more likely than any of them… More likely than most of them combined, even.

You just want to legalize murder!

/poeslaw

DVD is better than Blu-ray in that regard - I’ve ripped DVDs that look like they fell off a truck and got run over multiple times and had no problem, meanwhile about 1 out of 5 Blu-rays I got from Netflix would have problems despite looking pristine. It has to do with the data density, Blu-ray packs so much more in the same amount of space, one microscopic scratch wipes out so much data…

Of course some DVDs suffer from bad materials. I was re-ripping my collection recently, and I have a few that have sat in a closet untouched for years, not a scratch on them, but the drive won’t even recognize there’s a disc. Probably oxidation of the reflective layer.

VHS was kind of 2.5 thanks to macrovision…

Yo ho!

That’s just single layer - dual layer is something like 8.4 if memory serves (which it often doesn’t…)

Wow, I don’t even remember that. I’ve been playing DVDs on a computer basically forever, which rarely obeyed such restrictions…

Tell that to my employer… We moved to a bigger office a little over a year ago. The old office was cramped, but it was reasonably quiet. Those of us who are on the phones were in a corner pretty well shielded from everything else. The new place is one huge continuous expanse, and we’re right in the middle of it. And it’s what I would call cheap and unfinished, but a commercial realtor would call it “modern industrial” meaning you can see all the wiring and ductwork and such- and bare concrete. Which makes sound carry throughout and echo. Just the other day my boss had to go hush a gaggle of developers that were congregating 20 feet away and laughing uproariously.

a more useless application of electrons

Microsoft is worse… Have a problem, google it, find a link that has a promising summary, click it- “try Windows 11!” Because that’s what dead links do.

under the age of 40

I’m pushing 50 and I won’t call if there’s a website…

My wife… She will never stop buying from Amazon no matter how shitty they become. She was refusing to go to Wendy’s for a while because they were considering surge pricing, she swore up and down she would not reward a company for doing that - so I said what about Amazon? How often does prime get you free shipping anymore? And with streaming, now you have to watch ads when you didn’t before… But of course that’s all “different”.

Surely nobody would go on the internet and tell lies…

Every accusation is a confession…

That’s how I am with the bat out of hell album… Get off my lawn.

you are now out $500 for missing work and other legal fees

Legal fees can easily reach into the thousands…

I did way back when I was 18/19… I was riding my bike home from work, and a cop directing traffic yelled at me to get out of the street. Without even thinking, I yelled back “go fuck yourself”. He called to his partner across the intersection, “Mike, get him!”. Mike was on a motorcycle. I was sure I was fucked, but I knew the neighborhood, so after salmoning up a one way street full of double parked cars, and taking a couple turns, one being into a narrow alley that’s almost invisible unless you already know it’s there, I got behind him - figured that was the best place to be… He never looked back, just slowed down, looking in doorways, between/under parked cars, until I got within a couple blocks of my house, then I hauled ass and locked myself (and bike) in the basement for the next half hour.

Dyslexics untie!

I think gen x did that… You’re welcome.