One of the other key issues (besides FOV which was mentioned) is the size of the virtual space relative to the speed your character moves at. So for example, Half Life 2 has you moving around in a lab building pretty quickly > instant nausea for me. Meanwhile running around outdoors in Skyrim might not bother you at all.
Visual complexity ups the ante. Think of walking through a grocery store with high shelves filled with a variety of products -- this can cause migraine in some people and, to a lesser extent, also affects vertigo. So you may not want to play, say, grocery store simulators (although I have no idea who actually does anyway, why are those things popular!?).
Yeah I utterly despise using Google Maps now because of this. In my neighborhood, there are restaurants that will only appear at a very specific zoom level. Zoom in OR out and they'll disappear.
I see things when I'm out and about all the time that just never appear on Google Maps -- cafes for instance. You can search cafe, coffee, restaurant, etc and they won't appear. Search the exact name and it comes up with 300 reviews. Sometimes, they'll come up in general search in week 1, disappear in week 2, and reappear in week 3.
Google is not good at consumer software and not a responsible company in many ways; Maps really deserves to be replaced with something, but unfortunately there's no competitor to speak of. Apple Maps is nice but listings don't come up because they're literally not in the database.
I left over a decade ago, but I actually considered coming back around 2024, so I put some research into it. The result was grim.
- I'm now married to a non-American who is not white. We're not confident in the immigration process, to say the least
- Both of us are self-employed; the quote for decent (not good, I mean aggressively mediocre) insurance was very high
- Housing costs in any city we wanted to live in were very high; YMML on this obviously, but it covers a lot of cities
- Any social ill, irritation, etc that was annoying me around 2010 is unsolved with no signs of progress
- Extreme political polarization (actually a both sides thing)
- The rise of aggressive Christian nationalism (very much a one side thing)
- A horrifying pace of growth in political corruption
Everywhere has its bad points and none of these are necessarily worse than a randomly chosen second country. I think the final deciding factor is just vibes; I feel like America is declining, the culture I was born into is warping, and I don't particularly want to watch it happen from the inside, now that I'm already on the outside.
I think you've misunderstood the idea. Tim Bray and the OP of this thread aren't afraid to visit the US; the key phrase used in the post is "as a matter of principle".
>there’s a significant risk of an extremely negative outcome. I have a family to support and really can’t afford that risk.
I can understand the principles and the bit of Canadian pride, but ultimately it's rather hyperbolic. Even on principle, the fact is Canada and the US are strong and long lasting allies with a very obvious power imbalance, and this sort of pouting over commentary is more fitting to members of an elementary school kickball team than a professional organization on the cutting edge of technology.
> the fact is Canada and the US are strong and long lasting allies
As historical fact, yes; but this is degrading in real time. As a Canadian, I can’t name a single family member, friend, peer or acquaintance who regards the U.S. as an ally. And on an official level, our PM has given multiple speeches, at Davos and elsewhere outlining Canada’s new status with respect to the U.S. In that void, Carney is actively seeking new economic and defence partnerships with Europe and others to replace the relationship that Canada and the U.S. previously enjoyed.
When one powerful neighbouring country repeatedly threatens your sovereignty it does predictable things to the ability to call yourselves “allies.”
How would US citizens feel about Mexico if it had 3 billion people, 20x the military size, a history of annexations, and a deranged president joking about annexing the US? Still funny?
This is a naive response to the concerns Tim has expressed, and displays a deep lack of critical thinking around how the decline of the US' status in the world is impacting it's role as the home of "cutting edge technology".
That's probably correct,because I really don't see it, it's not like Canada can just move to Europe or something. They don't really have much of an option and neither does Europe for that matter. Is Canada going to let China have a military base or some other drastic measure?
> But there’s also the issue of entering the US; if I roll up at the border and am asked to disclose my social media output, there’s a significant risk of an extremely negative outcome.
Its no longer the question of supporting "terrorists", we have seen what people can critcizing Trump, the dear leader, might have to go through.
Trump is are destroying American credibility all over the world and its others who are being hyperbolic?
Your naivete is the reason America will decline. You guys, well-intentioned and optimistic as you all are, are the frogs in the boiling pot, unaware of how much America has declined in the global eye. Fun fact, America ranks below China and even Russia in the latest perception polls.
Without you guys taking action in your country, there is no hope for America.
No government has accepted Iranian tolls so far, but some shippers sure have; ships have been passing through the strait. Those shipments go on to countries with governments. I don't think you can actually know that there wasn't government support for any of those payments so far.
And cryptocurrency should be even better for deniability. In reality it would be a really good idea for certain governments that rely heavily on Middle Eastern oil (e.g. Philippines) to pay fees in the short term. More than a month ago the Philippines was already claiming to have "safe and preferential access", if that involves money they'll pay it. (https://www.rappler.com/business/philippine-flagged-ships-sa...)
This makes an interesting assumption: that being told by any member of government that you're legally required to do something, means you're required to do that thing, and that they're definitely not making those things up as they go.
But that's not the case, is it? The government can say that it's legally required to give Donald Trump a gold bar every Sunday. That wouldn't even be too far off from the outlandish claims we've seen over the past year. The Trump administration is, as Chapelle would put it, a habitual line stepper.
Minor correction, expat income is deductible up to (currently) $130k under the FEIE. After that it's taxes as usual. There's also an array of other mandatory forms like FBAR for foreign accounts, and the nightmare that is form 5471, with absolutely wild allowances for the IRS to impose penalties, often with no statute of limitations and per-violation fines. For example, a US citizen with multiple bank accounts and a mistake in FBAR reporting for multiple years running will be liable for the (iirc) $10,000 fine for each bank account, and each year (e.g. 4 accounts, 8 years, $320,000 fine).
Living and doing business overseas is as a US citizen is a high risk endeavor.
FEIE is only one of the options for avoiding federal income tax. The other is the Foreign Tax Credit, which has no such limit: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1116.pdf. If the place an American lives and works has a higher income tax rate than the US one, in practice he will not face any tax liability, regardless of income level.
Those AOL prices were insane. It has admittedly been so long that I'm not sure I trust my memory, but I seem to recall per-minute pricing that could rack up over $20 per hour just from playing any of their text based games. I begged and begged my parents to let me just try one for a few minutes and they very wisely said absolutely not.
A few years went by and suddenly playing MUD / MOOs was free. I honestly miss those days, text-based has a vibe that no graphical game can ever replicate.
My dad worked for a studio that sold a game to WorldPlay. WorldPlay games charged by the hour, but the developers received AOL accounts that bypassed this charge. Theoretically I could play any WorldPlay game for free, but mostly I played my dad's game, which was free anyway as some kind of "check out our new game" introductory promotion.
There was a small regular community which got wiped out when WorldPlay started charging for it. The studio got more free accounts and gave them to regular players so that the game didn't just evaporate immediately, which meant everyone suddenly had a minor name change. After that, the game evaporated.
Yeah, so many of us with stories of angry parents over too large an AOL bill. If I recall correctly, my month where I did that was in Modus Operandi, the detective themed text game. I don't remember exactly how I spent all that time in MO one month, but I know part of how I spent that many hours was logging into my AOL account from my grandparents' place and a friend's place, in addition to what I was doing at home, which contributed to why my parents hadn't tracked that much "screen time" in that era. Amazing to consider how many things changed since then, but also how many of those concerns are the same even if the reasons for the concerns are different.
Yes, it was crazy. $2/hour in 1997 dollars! Agreed… I think only Pubg has come close to replicating the intensity of emotion in PvP (which was my main interest in playing)
I assume TikTok and similar apps are always doing this stuff.
The thing I'm curious about is whether the GDPR / DSB complaints are likely to have any result. Is that likely to just result in some cost of business fines and TikTok goes on with life? Or could those complaints bring about substantial repercussions?
The expected result is that the complaints will rot in the queue for years and eventually either closed on a technicality or result in a token fine. That's the reality of GDPR "enforcement".
Visual complexity ups the ante. Think of walking through a grocery store with high shelves filled with a variety of products -- this can cause migraine in some people and, to a lesser extent, also affects vertigo. So you may not want to play, say, grocery store simulators (although I have no idea who actually does anyway, why are those things popular!?).
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