TestSIM1

Valve added macOS support somewhere around 2009 if I recall correctly.

I imagine a number of people with Apple Cinema display connected to their PC would be really limited.

The Direct X version supported by GeForce 4 couldn’t even display the real pretty water textures at that time, or at least mine couldn’t on my GeForce 4 + amd64 laptop.

If I remember correctly you needed Shader model 3.0 support to get those fancy graphical effects which required GeForce FX series & 6th Series (6600/6800 etc).

My dad bought me HL2 back in Nov 2004. At the time my PC spec was: P4, 512 RAM, GF FX5900XT, HDD 80Gb, Dial up 56k, LCD BenQ 1280x1024, Win XP.

The game was in English and I didn't speak it at all at the time so had to download the translation (700Mb audio files). Took me a couple days. With constant disconnects as dial up wasn't really reliable. Luckily, Steam allowed you to resume the download.

Still using that Steam account.

The game ran well. Although, my friend had Radeon 9600 Series and it performed noticeably better on his PC (or maybe I'm confusing it with a different game - Far Cry).

Some VPN sites and apps (Google Play and App Store) are banned.

Still for now getting a VPN isn't that hard.

Both lalaland1125 and duxup are correct. It's for the Western audience.

But my point was along the lines: Kremlin's bans Twitter since they can't control it in Russia (e.g. hard to remove content or prosecute the users.)

And they still keep using it despite all their recent "fuck you West" rhetoric.

Here in Russia it's a total clusterfuck at this point.

1) Roscomnadzor bans Twitter in Russia.

2) Russian embassy posts on Twitter claiming Mariupol hospital bombing was faked.

It's like:

Should we ban Twitter in Russia? Yes.

Should we keep posting Russian propaganda on Twitter? Also yes.

Russia's central bank said all Visa/MasterCard should keep working in Russia.

Siloing Russian cards to work only within Russia would surely be annoying

I guess it depends. I can't use my card on foreign websites. I can't use it abroad.

IMHO, that's more than annoying for me.

somewhere else

Could you be more specific?

Russian MIR isn't even supported in some places in Russia.

Chinese UnionPay isn't really relevant outside of China.

I should have perhaps mentioned in the original post:

1$ = 152,3₽ (buying 1 US dollar)

1$ = 85,7₽ (selling 1 US dollar).

Just because you pay 152₽ to buy 1$ doesn't mean you can sell it at the same price. At least banks won't buy it.

According to banki.ru the best price for selling US dollar now is 94,00₽.

Hope that clarifies it.

different banks? - Yes.

different times - No.

Yes. You can purchase dollars in exchange of Rubles.

Previous week it was aprox. 80 Rubles per U.S. Dollar.

Now due to the White House's statement that there will be sanctions against the Russia's central bank (they shouldn't able to use the reserves to keep Ruble stable) it is predicted that Ruble will collapse tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow we'll witness the economical suicide.

Sberbank - 1$ = 110,49₽

Tinkoff - 1$ = 153,75₽

And the markets are not even opened.

For the reference, before Putin started full-scale war against the Ukraine:

1$ = 78.66₽ (23rd Feb)

Is it too much to ask you to stop reposting this nonsense again and again.

You're not contributing to the discussion (besides Putin did nothing wrong. It's all the West's fault anyway).

+1 to this.

Stay calm people and don't make any rush decisions.

The time's been worse. We'll make it.

if Putin never would have allowed an independent Ukraine, why would NATO reject his demands to reject Ukraine's NATO application?

Euromaidan happened 2013. Putin already lost the Ukraine back then. By annexing the Crimea and sending Russian troops now he is taking the Ukraine back.

I may be mistaken but I think whether the Ukraine was actually joining NATO or not wasn't really relevant in this conflict IMHO.

If Russia was going to invade anyway, why not at least try to de-escalate and negotiate for a sovereign Ukraine?

For the couples months there were negotiations. Was there a possibility to avoid the current conflict?

I think unless you're the U.S./Russian diplomat it's impossible to answer this question.

I think it boils down to this:

1) Some parts of the Ukraine (the Crimea and Southern regions of the Ukraine) have a significant pro Russian population, e.g. they wouldn't protest a lot against Russian influence.

2) On the other hand the Western parts of the Ukraine are more EU/Western aligned, hence they don't want to do anything with the Putin's regime.

From Putin's perspective an independent Ukraine is no-no. And the West isn't willing to start WW3 over the Ukraine.

Maybe because the U.S. military isn't bombing the Ukrainian cities right now?

And it wasn't the U.S.A. who sent troops to the Crimea and annexed in 2014?

Honestly, I'm not sure there a direct correlation between blocking Tor and rumours regarding the Ukraine.

Russian government has been implementing censorship measures for many years.

E.g. Tor would have been blocked in Russia sooner or later regardless.

Coverage of Apple in more exciting times (when it was basically a computer company)

I also miss times when Apple was all about Mac. Not much you can do about that. But back then lots of people complained that Apple is turning into iPod company. It's just Gruber didn't write much about iPod (initially at least).

And considering M1 chips I can't say this isn't exciting times for the Mac. Imagine if Apple used Snapdragon chips (or whatever) and the latest Macs were similar in terms of performance to Surface Pro X... (and SP X couldn't even emulate x64 apps at launch).

more humour, better reviews, more relevant links, less baseball and Kubrick BS, less politics for dummies, less "facebook is bad" for dummies, less open shill and more genuine enthusiast coverage, and so on.

OK, will not argue about baseball, politics or Facebook.

But I do remember lots of blog entries about how MS Windows is bad (viruses and inept marketing) and Mac is about being a better (and more secure) computer e.g. I wouldn't call that less open shill. Gruber was always (well, most of the time) on Apple's side.

Recently I re-read his PowerBook G4 review (Full Metal Jacket) and comparing to his other reviews regarding modern Intel and M1 Macs can't say I see a huge difference.

I assume we are just happen to disagree here.

Not much, but I used to read him quite a bit back 20 years ago.

John Gruber started writing in August 2002.

And back then it was mostly about Movable Type Script, OS X Finder issues, some jackasses who wrote how Apple is surely doomed.

I mean if you care about Apple products then AW Series 7 review looks like a good read.

Otherwise I just don't see what you found interesting about his blog 20 years ago.

Apple had an opportunity with OSX to take over a larger space of consumer computing by releasing it for clones and general intel/amd PCs. They flubbed that.

You're pretty much suggesting that Apple should have directly competed against Microsoft. And back in 90s and 00s lots of companies that tried to do that went out of the business fast. There is a reason why buying a PC means you'll get Windows OS in 99 percent cases.

I mean you may have a point but without time machine that's impossible to prove.

The ARM desktop lead will last about 18 months I'd guess.

1) There isn't a single ARM laptop that even remotely competitive with Apple's M1 in terms of performance and power consumption.

2) Microsoft already released Surface RT (a tablet using ARM architecture) back in 2012. It wasn't fast. Win32 applications didn't work. And Microsoft lost aprox. 1$ billion due to poor sales.

3) Their latest device Surface Pro X can't compete with Intel Core 5 laptops. You need Windows Insider preview to use x64 bit apps. And Surface Pro X isn't cheap. In other words ARM Windows laptops are not ready for the mainstream use.

What I'm trying to say is Microsoft has been selling ARM based devices for like a decade. And hasn't been exactly successful. Is there any reason why you believe they'll be able to turn things around in just 18 months?

To be honest, I would wait for Windows 11 RTM.

I mean if MS doesn't change the CPU requirements, then it means SP4, SP (2017) and Surface Studio 2 are not supported. Not mentioning millions of perfectly usable PCs out there.

FWIW you should never relay on Touch ID as a sole means of authorization:

>> You must enter your passcode or password for additional security validation:

>> after you restart your iPhone, iPad, or Mac;

>> when more than 48 hours have passed from the last time you unlocked your device;[1]

I mean sooner or later you'd run into issues unlocking your phone via Touch ID.

1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204587

>> I didn’t need to reset/wipe anything in advance

The probable explanation is that you have AW S3 Cellular model (which comes with 16Gb).

Usually it's next to impossible to update AW S3 (available at Apple Store) since it only has 8Gb without unpairing and resetting as the OS quickly builds up caches/system files which can't be removed by the user.

Hence, even if you didn't load anything (no apps or music, for instance), you'll have to go through the whole process.

>> If you have Apple Watch Series 3, skip directly to the steps to unpair and update your Apple Watch [1].

Notice how Apple tells the users "don't even bother trying to clear up the storage" and directs to the unpairing process straight away.

1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211283