My guy, that’s a common business practice. If the third party skewed the results to favor their client, they risk massive reputation and monetary losses.

That’s how any auditing works.

Look up Arthur Andersen and what happened to them.

Finance management major here, I’d argue that governments aren’t inherently inefficient.

On a local level, government organisations are essentially the same as non-profits. The only difference is in who they are accountable to. Even KPI are pretty much the same.

The inefficiency of a government in contrast to the free market is in its inability to adjust to people’s needs quickly on a global scale. Imagine a company that has to sell a little bit of everything and then some. What kind of resource does it need to have to fully satisfy the demand? It’s practically impossible to make a vertically integrated system that would do this amount of research, let alone organize all the production and supply chains. It doesn’t matter if it’s a government or an entity. They all will drown in beurocracy, except the government is usually stricter as they tend to play it safe.

Hence, it’s really a non-issue if a government takes control over parts of the market. And because they can’t facilitate it all, they take over socially significant parts of it, like municipality governance, military, and healthcare.

Also, you (the person reading, not the person I’m responding to) should never be mistaken in thinking that the free market is perfectly efficient. It isn’t. Creating points of inefficiency drives a lot of revenue. Think purposefully limiting demand to drive prices up. This is what’s happening with insulin in the US, for example. If you have perfectly inelastic demands, you can make your product infinitely expensive.

3 monitors for me

Simply because I want 2 stacked on top of each other with 1 more vertical on the side for apps like Discord, Notepad, etc.

It has a lot to do with my job, though. Otherwise, I would’ve just taken 2 monitors.

Ultrawides don’t have this versatility. They are great for immersion, however.

“One that will never let me see a frame drop again?” None, that’s just how it is.

As for one that will give you a satisfactory performance? It depends.

Personally, I mainly play Beat Saber, so even my 6700xt is capable enough, despite all the shortcomings AMD has in VR.

What you want to do is check what kind of games you’re playing, what resolution you want to play them at, what amount of money you’re willing to spend, and choose the GPU that fits all of that.

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Since we’re sharing links now

• Kino
• DDT
• Aria
• Chaif
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona
• Mashina Vremeni
• Sektor Gaza
• Korol i Shut

Although for Grazhdanskaya Oborona, I prefer that song in Louna’s version. It’s so good, man.

In Soviet Union, the rock genre was for a very long time existing underground due to the inability of artists to be properly published.

Only starting with the 1980s could the artists finally publish their songs officially. And even then Soviet government put a lot of measures to prohibit rock music in the country.

This resulted in the appearance of many beloved bands and artists, like

• Kino (tl. Cinema),
• DDT,
• Aria,
• Chaif,
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona (tl. Civil Defense),
• Mashina Vremeni (tl. Time machine),
• Sektor Gaza (tl. Gas Sector)
• Korol i Shut (tl. King and Jester)
• And many others

The history of Russian rock is actually quite fascinating. It was inspired by bard songs and often touched darker subjects as well as being satirical and judgmental of Soviet government.

Due to that, some artists, like Yegor Letov from Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Yuri Shevchuk from DDT, had troubles with KGB (Soviet FBI).

Nowadays, rock artists are still being persecuted for their views. For example, DDT is de facto prohibited from performing in Russia.

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Xiaomi has been doing that as well, except it’s whenever.

Now, the TV is forbidden to access my Wi-Fi because screw that.

Any info on how to make it dumber would be appreciated.

I was interested in VR for a very long time. Recently, I got to actually try it out.

I primarily view Apple Vision Pro as a proof of concept type of device. Sales being limited both in quantity and territorially indicate that. It has brought 3 major improvements to the table, compared to other headsets:

1. Quality of passthrough
2. User interface
3. Display quality

When you think about it, however, it’s not that much to make it an obvious choice over other devices.

Passthough is needed for navigating through space. It does not help with productivity as your vision would be focused on the interface and not the environment. Remember warping on Quest 3? Much less noticeable than on videos for the exact same reason.

There is no buts with the user interface and display. They are simply great, best that there is.

Now, for the part that makes Vision Pro from a great productivity device on paper into a “dev kit available to masses” (I like that description, it does feel that way a lot, ty Ghostalmedia)

Eye strain is a major issue. It is very difficult to use the device for more than a couple of hours without getting tired. This goes for all of the VR headsets out there. I guess you can get used to it over time, though.

Limited usability. Quest 2/3, Pico 4, Valve Index, they all do things you wish Vision Pro could. Primarily usage of physical controllers. Imagine sculpturing without controllers because I can’t. Hand tracking is just not up to par.

Battery solution is another issue. Not being able to swap what is otherwise a Power Bank without disabling the device and being unable to use any other battery than Apple’s own is at the very least annoying. Not exactly an issue if you’re too tired by the time it runs out.

Finally, the VR space itself is unfortunately not mature enough. There’s a lot of work still to be done. Even when talking games, despite some amazing titles like Half-life Alyx, the vast majority where controls wouldn’t make you dizzy are all pretty much like arcade mini-games, where you either teleport from point to point or not move at all. Developers simply have yet to figure out an organic way of user navigating through virtual space. (Doesn’t mean they aren’t fun, though)

Overall, I believe Vision Pro isn’t really a mass consumer product, but it did do a lot by bringing more attention to VR as a whole, as well as pointing out additional user-cases for the technology. Because of Vision Pro, Meta started paying more attention to details, which ultimately will benefit the consumer (in fact, it already has yeilded results).

CPU 3600, Mobo b450m, GPU 6700(xt), RAM 16Gb 3200mhz

Something like this: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/WC2VTY

Comes out at 637€. A little over budget, but that’s also all new parts. It’s definitely enough for 1080p, often 1440p even.

To get the most out of the budget, I’d definitely be looking at the used market.

Definitely used 3600 for CPU. They go for very little and will pair nicely even with 3070 class cards.

Used 6700 or 6700xt for GPU, but since they aren’t as robust as CPUs, do pay closer attention to damages, dust, performance compared to benchmark, and etc.

Used case, because they don’t matter unless for looks. Just make sure it allows for air to pass through.

Heatsink can sometimes come together with CPU. I’d be spending no more than 20$ to cool this one. (However, PA120 is kinda too good to pass on, despite being overkill for the CPU).

RAM may as well be new, they aren’t very expensive. SP Xpower Turbine, Ripjaws, or Kingston Fury 2x8Gb 3200 or 3600 are all good options.

Motherboard, wouldn’t buy used. And I wouldn’t be buying the lowest chipset either. b550m DS3H would be reasonable here or b450m (“m” means mATX, which are smaller than non-m, and usually cheaper), depending on if you need the extra features of b550 chipset.

Power Supply should never be bought used, look up tier lists, and go with middle range one for reliability. 550W and over should be enough for the build. Try not to cheap out on these.

Storage, also never to be bought used. Look for M.2 NVMes. SN770 is best bang for the buck imo, but even Kingston NV2 will do fine. 256Gb is enough for OS and some additional software. Imo, that’s too little. Get at least 500Gb. Ideally, 1Tb. Mind you, you could always add more later.

That’s not always true.

There are a few reasons as to why one would keep low/no profit or even completely unprofitable projects going.

It’s all tied to their value proposition. For example, if you can sustain a no profit project, it will bring you new customers despite creating no revenue. A glaring example of high-value yet unprofitable product would be Twitch, all because it brings in data.

Regular Galaxy S22 256Gb

Was choosing between S22, Pixels, and Nothing Phone. Ultimately, I went with the former because I happened to accumulate Tab S8 as well as Galaxy Buds 2. If not for those, probably would’ve saved a buck with first Nothing.

Pros: Easy cloud sync, good processor, nice materials, could be found for a very affordable price, and rest of the features that come with premium phones

Cons: No headphone jack, no SD card slot, some bloat you can’t remove, battery

Would’ve probably still rocked my Poco F1 if it didn’t get obliterated by a 0.5m drop onto a quartz floor. It never fully recovered from it.

In my experience, the longer you type, the faster you get at typing.

That’s like getting into the rhythm. If you do it a little and then stop, then you never become proficient as you never got into that flow.

Try learning a guitar by pulling a few strings a day. Try learning to read in a different language by reading a few letters each time. Try running by taking a few steps.

Doesn’t it sound ridiculous?

Have you ever tried learning a different language? You don’t become proficient by reading one sentence, then stopping and then another one. You do it by struggling through many, and the more you do it, the faster you learn.

Note, I’m not writing this because “boohoo, bad parenting.” It’s the first essay, who cares. (although her being 13 does make me raise a brow. I’d expect it with a 7 y.o., but 13? w/e, you do you). I just think you have a misunderstanding in how learning core-level skills work. Continuous repetition is the key.

Another glaring example is how toddlers learn languages. In a span of a couple of years, they are capable of learning a language to native level with absolutely no prior knowledge, just by listening and trying to repeat the sounds day in and day out. Just think about it.

They may not matter in a sense that you can’t elect anybody but Putin.

But they do matter in a sense of showing the incumbent they aren’t stable.

After successful re-election of incumbent, they fall into a sense of euphoria. This leads to creation of some absolutely horrific and unjust laws.

However, when the re-election is deemed unsuccessful (say 55% voted for “the right candidate”, but the second place got scary high 30-35%), they become timid.

That’s how informational autocracies work. And that’s why elections there absolutely do matter, as they directly affect quality of life. It’s the safest and loudest way of showing the government your middle finger.

They guy did his research, and he did it right. Even mentioning the “social contract”, that’s not something you hear from an average youtuber.

There’s only a few things I’ve noted

Although the monthly rate can be calculated as yearly÷12 and is acceptable, it is inaccurate. Doesn’t change much, but still. ( (1+monthly rate)^12 = 1+yearly rate <= this is the accurate conversion)

Next is “failed pension reform.” It’s failed in political sense. The intent of it was to temporarily lessen the depletion of pension fund, which it technically did do. But, yeah, it was absolutely not popular. Not to mention that it didn’t solve the root of the problem, which was obvious from the start. Back during his first or second presidency period, he promised not to raise the age for retirement, yet in 2018, he did exactly that. Needless to say that his ratings have been falling ever since then and up till February of 2022.

The one thing I would’ve liked him to also mention is “quality of foreign exchange earnings,” which is a relatively new term. Essentially, companies now need to pay attention to wether or not they can exchange earned currency for something that they can trade with other countries or within Russia. Previously, they traded in dollars, so it was never an issue.

An economics student from Russia here, here’s my perspective.

First, is that a country’s economy is a lot less volatile than we expected. There is also another factor that played into it. During covid, Russian companies amassed a sizable amount of inventory that was already inflated compared to European companies due to how volatile our economy is. This has given them enough time to reroute supply chains once sanctions hit.

Basically, the so-called “grey import” plays a major role in assuring the stability of our economy. Companies either route their import/export through neighboring countries or through affiliated companies.

Second is the competency of our central bank. After most of the major banks were cut off from SWIFT (used for international transactions), they raised the key rate, limited the amount of money you can cash out at one time, and did some other stuff. Higher key rate = higher deposit interest rate, but at the same time, credit became more expensive. All of this was needed for preventing banks from defaulting. Once panic died down, the changes were reverted. Now, they’re dealing with inflation.

Lastly, the majority of our budget comes from oil and gas. Since Europe didn’t want to buy it, Russia started selling it to Asia at discounted prices. Quantity of oil/gas sold drastically increased, which mitigated reduced prices and led to a surplus budget. Not to mention that they started pushing on large companies to reduce the amount of dividends and instead re-invest the money.

I wouldn’t call it “thriving,” however. All of this has definitely led to a slowdown in growth, which, as time goes by, will only get worse. But for now it’s fine.

Can confirm, surprisingly effective.

Icy roads is a huge issue that often gets ignored or insufficiently addressed in Russia.

You’d be surprised how much changes from sole rotation of personnel.

Mind you, people wouldn’t be calling Putin a tyrant if he left after his second term. Yet he didn’t, that mofo rigged the system in his favour during that presidency, and… well, you know the rest.

Rotation is unimaginably more important than actual personas.

More than that. We have a giant demographical pit starting down from 25 y.o. and bottoming out at around 20-22 y.o.

It’s WW2 stacked on top of the economic collapse in the 90ies and now this. It is ugly.