stealth_cookies

There are advantages and disadvantages to all the control schemes depending on the types of tracks you play, the surface you play, and the car/environment you play.

Most good players play with controller because there are many situations you run into where you want the precision of steering a specific amount around a corner, or you are playing a track where you want to either speed drift (SD) at a specific angle (e.g. fullspeed or higher speed dirt/grass/plastic) or want to keep your steering under a certain angle to no slide (e.g. low speed dirt/grass/plastic).

There are techniques such as neosliding where it is much easier to do them in keyboard as it requires multiple taps in quick succession. It is also easier to play keyboard when you need to make turns where timing of a full steer is important (e.g. ice).

Considering cars other than the stadium car you start getting into situations where one control scheme is far superior than others. The snow and rally environments require smooth steering so wheel is superior there, but controllers are a good middle ground. Desert is faster with tapping movements over smooth steering so keyboard is a bit better there. I recall canyon is a bit better with keyboard as well.

This all applies equally regardless of whether you are playing older or newer games, analog and digital controls are available in all the PC games.

Seconding Trackmania, though I'd recommend playing the latest one released in 2020 rather than Nations Forever. A year's access to everything is $20 and you get tons of content to play.

For a game that is at its core can be played at the highest levels with just 4 buttons it is incredibly complex with an insane skill ceiling. I'm pretty good and the difference between me and the top players is absolutely insane. The game is a bit beginner unfriendly, mostly because you are going to suck against good players because there are tons of mechanics that the developer tells you nothing about and unless you watch a video you aren't likely to understand why players are leaving you in the dust.

This is the game where you get people who can hit a jump at just the right angle so they thread the needle through a series of holes barely larger than the car while travelling at speeds well above 300mph (welcome to TrackMania, I don’t think there’s a speed cap). They also do it using keyboards. Seriously. High-level TrackMania players use keyboards, not gamepads or, god forbid, racing wheels.

The max speed is 999 km/h, which is only acheivable with speed drifting, but speed in excess of 800km/h are not uncommon to hit in certain kinds of tracks. Your statement about controls also isn't correct, most of the top players play with controller, but there are some that are keyboard players, there is even a couple insane ones that play wheel (most notably Granady).

I feel like this article could be 1 sentence. Windows 11 is a piece of shit so people (including your IT department) don't want to upgrade, and those that would just accept the upgrade are frequently limited by perfectly good machines which aren't compatible.

Paul's online math notes are by far the best resources out there for the first few university level math courses.

https://tutorial.math.lamar.edu

It is a great shame that his linear algebra notes were removed years ago.

I think the tariff should come with a mandate to our domestic car manufacturers. They should have to produce an EV under some cost within a certain amount of time or they are going to cancel the tariff.

Does Gen Z actually have a tech savvy reputation? I was under the impression that the last few generations aren't that great with computers as they more grew up with mature technology. It is the Gen X and Millennials that are more digital native while having used computers where advanced skills were required.

Part of it is just getting a feel for Chinese goods and using that to determine what is a good deal or what is a scam. I've worked with a lot of Chinese suppliers for a long time so I have a sixth sense for their bullshit.

Generally I avoid anything that could be a safety risk (e.g. Mains power) , and keep an eye on the photos to see if they look too good to be true. Official stores are good, as are items with many purchases and reviews that include pictures.

That makes no sense. The 24MP RAW files from my camera at 25MB, no way a PNG or JPEG of a 4K (8MP) monitor are anywhere close to that big.

Yes we are pretty much in agreement, though I take some issue with your first paragraph that insinuates that men want to "usher in another go of fascism" rather than them just being manipulated by the bad actors that actually want to institute fascism within the western world. Nobody come out and blatantly says they want to institute fascism, they make positive sounding promises to those that feel like they have been left behind by society. You acknowledge it yourself with the dichotomy of supporting the NDP and the Conservatives at the same time.

I believe a large part of it is men don't have access to role models like they used to. Especially with millenials and after, so many people have both parents working full time and they don't have the guidance of their parents to the same level as in the past. Not to mention the many split up families where they specifically get even less time with male role models. As a society we have lost a lot of community spaces as well that would serve as a check to children that are going the wrong way. The irony of the explanation essentially being that things are fucked because of a change to traditional family values isn't lost on me, but I don't have a better way of expressing it.

As to why it affects men so much more than women, a theory of mine is that boys are just less able to do the things that boys tend to like to do in the past like getting outside and getting their energy out through play (that is sometimes rough). They instead bottle up energy and anger because there is nowhere to learn to express themselves in their daily lives. They have been pushed to a more femine way of play when many don't feel comfortable with it, not to mention society still not generally accepting boys and men who express themselves in a more feminine way.

Here is a video of the NDP convention I was thinking of. On rewatch it isn't quite as bad as I remember, but still is a really bad look and should have been handled very differently. Especially considering the NDPs traditional union worker base that would certainly find it insulting.

If you want wireless, one thing to be concerned about is the latency of the gamepad. https://gamepadla.com tests many controllers for their latency.

Personally, I've just gone with xbox with their PC dongle. I only like controllers with the sticks in the xbox/nintendo configuration and the latency is great with their dongle. I also like that it uses standard batteries so I just keep some rechargables at hand for when it runs out. On the downsides, there is no low battery indication on the controller, so occasionally it just dies in the middle of use.

I've heard nothing but problems about the reliability of these. One streamer for my main game is sponsored by them through their org and occasionally rages about how many they have broken just playing.

In some ways I don't even blame them. When pretty much every other part of society is telling young men that they aren't wanted, they are going to turn to whoever is willing to welcome them with open arms. Instead of turning them into allies for those who are disadvantaged they have been told, "No yo go the back of the line." (sometimes literally, looking at you federal NDP). This results in a large portion of society that is being "radicalized" by the far right because it is the space that welcomes them and makes them feel like part of something, even when it will harm them and our society in the long run.