ascagnel

I checked CapFriendly, all four of the players in the NHL have contracts that expire at the end of the season.

Hart: https://www.capfriendly.com/players/carter-hart

Dube: https://www.capfriendly.com/players/dillon-dube

Foote: https://www.capfriendly.com/players/cal-foote

McLeod: https://www.capfriendly.com/players/michael-mcleod

Significant — you’d need to either get the old Linux build working (not an easy task today) or you can install it on Windows, copy the files over, and run it via Proton (but you’d need to manually add the registry key with your CD key to the Proton prefix’s registry).

Three thoughts:

• Valve doesn’t use physical media, so there isn’t a need to enforce DRM at the hardware level
• the Deck itself is sold at a small profit regardless of the configuration, so there’s no benefit to pushing users to higher-price configurations
• Valve enforces its DRM in software via the OS

The biggest reasons to lock down hardware aren’t really there on the Deck. On top of that, it benefits Valve to have other devices running their storefront, so using off-the-shelf parts when possible makes it easier for others to use the Deck as a template.

August-November of that year was headlined by a slew of all-time greats: Half-Life 2, San Andreas, MGS3, Halo 2, The Sims 2…

If you were into video games in any way in that time period, you had something great to play, regardless of platform.

Rainbow Six Siege is up there — there’s six dimensions of assholery in the game by my count.

• Tom Clancy games tend to attract right-wing assholes because they’re Tom Clancy
• competitive FPS
• one-shot one-kill gameplay
• friendly fire on by default
• character picks
• you need to play to a specific meta

Universal Paperclips! It’s an idle game that relies on you making smart planning decisions to optimize things, so there’s a degree of strategy that most of them lack.

I have a JBL Link Portable, which seems to be out of stock, but should fill most of your requirements if you can get your hands on one:

• supports Chromecast Audio, AirPlay, and BT
• sounds good
• has good battery (I get 7-8h of playtime against 8h quotes battery life)
• charges over USB-C (both via an included charging dock and a direct cable connection

The only downside is that it has Google’s voice assistant built in, but you can turn it off.

FOSS means he’s not tied to another capitalist’s platform, but it increases costs — a literal strategy tax.

These can’t be that old. There’s no way Half-Life 2 is … nineteen years old?!?!?!

The ergonomics of that keyboard (you had to reach past the raised chin of the phone) and my Motorola Droid (you had to reach past a 4-way D-pad style control) were not great for extended use.

At one point, someone was making a “shoe” with a BlackBerry-style keyboard that you could pair to your phone in portrait mode, but I don’t think they’re still around.

It’s great after a few days (I’m sure I’ll have more issues after a few weeks), but I wish it had notification support (which both iOS and Android support for PWAs you add to your home screen).