[1]: https://projecthawkthorne.com/

It is now available to play straight in the browser(I guess using LÖVE Web Builder?).

[1]:https://schellingb.github.io/LoveWebBuilder/

This engine has really come a long way and enabled such a memorable game for me.

I'd kill for the building in Denver. Instead I always get some extremely compressed voice connection in the Philippines.

I’m someone who bought three generations of AirPods Pro, as well as an AirPods Max. All four devices have been absolute headaches.

The first AirPods Pro had the rattle‑gate issue. I was able to get it replaced under warranty, but it was a pain to deal with until the recall program came out.

Ok I chalked it up to a first gen product and I generally liked it when it worked so I decided to upgrade to the second generation because it offered more features and I hoped that it improved reliability.

I upgraded, and I immediately got the rattle‑gate problem again, this time right past the warranty period. There was no recall program for second gens, and when I went to the store they told me the headphones were damaged and I was out of luck.

I try to maintain these devices extremely carefully, but I guess my use of isopropyl alcohol to disinfect and clean them damaged the ANC microphone. I’ve never dropped the AirPods, yet they still failed.

While being super frustrated with the Pro 2 I ended up buying the pro 3 but reconsidered after what I was told about the status of the Pro 2 but I missed the return window by a few days. After these Pro 3 fail, I just don't want to give them any more money for headphones.

I saw the Airpods Max on sale for Black friday a while back so I gave them a try as I was getting ear issues wearing in ear devices for so long each day. While they are very comfortable, the ear caps are a pain to clean.

They absorb sweat and oils over time and do not make it easy for them to get released when cleaning with detergent and water. it’s a massive effort. Im scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean, disinfect and then extensively drying them with a heater. All of this is taking 1+ hour each 1-2 weeks.

I am someone who is trying to maintain all my equipment as much as possible and this "woven texture" feels great but is not great for maintenance lifestyle.

Luckily ive accepted that the cheapo 20$ ear caps on Amazon are good enough and I just toss old ear caps after they become too hard to clean and buy another replacement set. I also have to disassemble the headband and use a special cleaning solution I found on Amazon, which smells like its just laundry detergent to prevent the headband from darkening from regular skin oils.

Now I’m starting to get very occasional "tinny" type of rattling with ANC enabled, as other people have indicated here as well.

These damn things are too expensive to have all these stupid issues. I’m really desperate for something more repairable and maintainable than this junk.

I had a sennheiser wired unit before this and those things lasted years with the only replacement being the ear caps like once a year.

As it stands, I may have spent close to $1,000 on this over the years, and I am just sick and tired of it. They’re not bad products when they work, they’re absolutely GREAT when they work. But man, all this headache when they dont work is just ridiculous at this point.

There have been times where the AirPods Max have sort of crashed, and I cannot get them to connect properly. I find that forgetting the AirPods in the phone/computer and then resetting them by holding down the button allows them to start fresh with a new state. Maybe that can help resolve the issue for you. But Im constantly switching them between three nearby devices so maybe thats why I have this problem. Just throwing it out there in case you haven't tried a reset.

I am reminded about a question I posted in a Vintage Apple subreddit. I described the problem and all the steps I took to try and resolve it. In the middle of the text I also hinted that I asked AI and that it gave be a wildly strange answer which I dismissed but that it gave me hints to continue onwards.

The majority of answers were focused around that one sentence and completely ignoring the rest of the post(and even the problem I was posting about). I was ridiculed (sometimes aggressively) for even considering trying the AI. Eventually someone finally answered the question, I thanked them and continued to get downvoted massively.

While I get that the vintage community can attract some colorful characters this was an interesting observation at how badly they reacted to the post. I've since refrained from mentioning AI and furthermore, trying to limit my involvement with communities like that and ironically working on better ways to use AI to solve problems so as to minimize dealing with them(finding ways of providing more system level data to the AI in my prompt).

While I generally agree that Israel is on shaky ground, I'm not sure this is fully accurate. Ok to be fair, yes a lot of liberal educated Israeli seem to have left a while ago but if you look at their demography they are one of the only few countries that has a positive demography. As other countries begin to degrade from this population decline many more Israeli's may return as well.

[1]:https://www.populationpyramid.net/israel/2026/

>Turns out, nobody likes living in a military state, except for a bunch of ultra-orthodox emigres and Hasidic Jews, who are both growing like crazy and have zero inclination to serve in national defence, and have piss poor technical aptitude.

This contradicts the timebomb narrative and yes this will definitely cause problems just like the decline in education in the US will rear its ugly head years down the line....but having population means possibility, it does not matter how educated a person is if they don't exist.

>This is the biggest change. The Gulf states were completely blindsided by the war, and are now rethinking their alliance with the US. Expect to see more Chinese and EU bases in the region - China already has a military base in the UAE. Al Udeid is going to be massively downsized. And these guys are going to be shopping in the EU for weapons systems, not the US.

Its really unbelievable to see how the US has destroyed many relationships in real time and the Trump loving crowd continues to pretend like nothing is wrong. They are gearing up to blame the other side as well once things become visibly painful. Just like the Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden I suspect this mess will become visible after Trump is long gone and the successor will get all the blame.

I generally try not to believe in conspiracy theories but is the US being set up to fail by multiple advisaries (including Israel) or is it really just stupidity and a broken system of accountability?

>The right strategy is for the Asian countries to stop quarreling between themselves and forge new defensive alliances.

Thats the thing, I don't know if they are capable of this given their poor demography. I was thinking that maybe the correct move is to swallow their pride and try and patch up relationships when Trump is gone while also doing more themselves(whatever they can). In fact that might end up being the default move for the EU as well. Bringing in more of China so as to not be completely dependant on the US but ensuring the US is still part of the game in a significant way. I have not seen anything other than tepidness and strongly worded letters from EU since Trump came back and it makes me think there isn't a real life and death motivation for them to become independent. Its much easier to patch things up and hope for the best.

Sick and tired of this old argument: Its still adding to the debt, so its socialism to increase military contractor stock prices.

I don't buy that at all. Mamdani's election is the latest example of a progressive left that is slowly making inroads and provides an extremely positive vision for the future based on inclusion and respect for all peoples. He is definitely rising to the occasion as well. His win was a 15 years of struggle starting with an extremely disorganized movement in Occupy Wall street, with many events in between to him getting elected as a democratic socialist in the finance capital of the US. His vision pursues economic justice as a way to empower people to build a positive future.

But we don't need to just use him as an example. AOC was also pushing an extremely positive message in her famous campaign ad: a positive vision for the future: Green New Deal, efforts to invest in people and not just corporate graft and the same respect for people of all backgrounds(given her district has 50+ languages spoken there). She knocked out the guy that was the Democratic party's main money man link to the financial institutions that bribe both parties.

[0]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq3QXIVR0bs

Her victory followed decades of struggle of Bernie Sanders's vision who went from being a completely dismissable vision back in his days of trying to become Mayor of Burlington to now being a figure that the Democratic party is forced to recon with because he has built a solid movement in the next generation that has the drive to implement his original vision.

> Call me paranoid, but I think it's due to one of our greatest strengths being hijacked. Our free speech laws and the openness of our society, the total non-filtering of information - which I support - have created a fertile ground for sophisticated propaganda from China and Russia, Iran and Qatar, to overwhelm the brains of a lot of people on both sides of our political divide through massive social media psyops that have gone on for a decade.

Yeah this exists but at the same time are you seeing whats happening on the ground off the internet? Its people using whatever strained institutions are left to slowly hold people accountable and also driving towards a new vision by raising people like Mamdani. Everyone was surprised by his win...except the people on the ground who saw him go on a hunger strike years earlier to help taxi drivers committing suicide because they were trapped or working through the corrupt system to actually get a free bus line funded and helping real people.

[1]: https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/mta-five-bus-routes-fare-fr...

This does not accurately describe the picture.

When the US went to Iraq the approval rating was in the 90s(correction I mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraq was 70-80s) because the US had been attacked, and Bush took the time to sell the war to the Americans (with lies) by the time all the disasters kept coming in, support dropped to the 40s.

This war started in the 40s approval rating. If bodies start coming home in mass, I don't know how things will turn out for Trump and his party but its already looking like a disaster for them and it hasn't even hit the really ugly part yet.

This entire saga has been a wake up call to the middle eastern states. They thought all the money they paid to the US over the years got them a first class ticket when in reality they are sitting way back in economy.

There aren't many options on the table. Cozy up to China? Maybe the middle eastern and OECD countries can do it but not the Asian countries. The right strategy would be to join forces to try and help the US get back on track because what other superpower is there? And that means somehow dealing with Israel as they are going to continue causing trouble for everyone.

I'm not entirely sure I buy this. Everything you said feels true, and it's happening in the moment. But I think you're missing the forest for the trees. The way you wrote "hyperfinancialisation" makes me think you are European (German?)

I'd imagine a vision for the country would be explained at places like World Expo right? In 2025 their booth (developed during Biden years even though it launched during Trump) gave a "semi" okay idea of where the country is placing its vision. Was it expressed well at the Expo? Not entirely sure, but it was there.

Historically, they didn't need to really do much at these Expos because who doesn't know the U.S.? And who doesn't know what the country is about? But I guess with the increasing decline of the U.S., they now have to 'advertise' themselves and explain to people what the underlying vision is.

In the end, the underlying theme seems to be "optimistic collaboration led by American innovation". Yeah I know its hard to picture this in the moment after everything that has happened in the last year but as the Biden years ended this was the thinking among government officials.

[1]:https://youtu.be/NVCcdeYMzpU?t=183

Watching this video a year later, it just seems so comical that this whole vision of "collaborative innovation": of the future being a collaborative project, with America wanting to lead it but not alone, and the slogan 'Imagine what we could create together' just seems comical after everything that's occurred in the last year. I guess it remains to be seen if this vision will hold once Trump is out of office.

How do you rebrand after people have already associated your product with past failed incumbents?

I wonder if AI can help bridge the gap and provide the missing support that these vendors don't wish to provide.