This one is a bit out there, but I feel like Backpack Battles is a series of self-generated puzzles.
It's an autobattler where you shop between each round to buy items and bags, and items affect other items in specific positions around them. So, you're constantly trying to react to what the shop is offering you to build a combo (and get balanced defenses), then rearrange your bag to try to maximize your item synergies.
It's completely free to play in early access until its full release in April. And the global leaderboards are very active. Good luck getting to Master Rank, let alone Grandmaster! (I've plateaued in Diamond... I need to work on my early game.)
When we're talking about asset categories, then the assumption is that we're talking about the full market. Sure , a company can go bankrupt, but an asset class can't. If the S&P500 "goes bankrupt" then money is worthless anyway.
Also not sure what you mean about price not mattering when you sell... The price you sell it for less the price you paid for it is literally the return on investment. They're the only two prices that matter.
And re: keeping an underperforming asset class forever I'm in complete agreement. That's why I said not to hold cash or bonds. Both those asset classes will underperform forever. If you aren't fully invested then, in average, you're losing out on the average gains if the asset class.
I think you might be alluding to timing the market? In that case you're "speculating", not "investing". Speculation is making a(n educated) guess about market directions. Investment is earning an expected return over time on capital.
Except that it is, categorically, different. AI doesn't "learn", it builds associations between data it samples. Incorporating data from the source itself is how these algorithms work, then they reproduce these pieces with permutations applied.
LLMs are easier to explain, so I'll use one as an example. The idea is that if you use particular words in order, that exact ordering of words is given higher weight in the model by a linear association between those words following each other in sequence. When you ask an LLM to "write like Author X", it can do so (partially) by pulling the weights it generated from that authors' works.
This is fundamentally different from how our brains learn and function. We can't hold databases of billions of pieces of information in our heads and compare them all in real time. It's not really comparable at all except as an inaccurate metaphor.
Edit: Too many replies to respond to them all, but our brains don't do linear algebra on matrices with billions of elements. Our brains work in fundamentally different ways. Conflating the two is a gross oversimplification and is incorrect. That was my entire point.
TL;DR: A vehicle was incinerated down to the engine block. There is no evidence that it was terrorism, but they are assuming it was intentional pending investigation out of an abundance of caution. There is now heightened security at border crossings, but there are no known threats on either side of the border. Due to the extensive damage to the vehicle, the investigation is expected to proceed slowly. Other border crossings are open, but not the Rainbow Bridge.
It looks like it might be a great game for me, but $45 CAD is more than I'll pay for any game. I think the last game I bought for over $40 was Diablo 3 (and I regretted that purchase).
I have literally thousands of unplayed games between all the various platforms, hundreds of which I'm interested in trying. The never-on-sale business model means I'll just never get it.
This whole thread was weird to read as a Canadian:
In Canada the title "engineer" is a legally protected term. You can't legally call yourself a software engineer without going through the Engineers Canada accreditation.
You are a software engineer if you are an engineer in good standing. Calling yourself a software engineer without accreditation is fraud.
Edit: I was curious, so I looked it up. The exact same is true in the US:
The title engineer is a protected title, that's protected in law, and it's been protected for over 100 years.
Edit 2: Don't believe everything you read online, lol. See below re: the US
Bill C-18 is remarkably bad legislation. Figuring out this was the inevitable outcome of the legislation wasn't 4D chess. I don't care enough to track down the discussions on Reddit, but people were saying this right from the beginning: social media won't pay for links it doesn't need, so they'll block them; news media revenues will decline; this will lead to government bailouts for journalists.
I'm not sure I agree the government bailouts are a problem, though... We need journalists for a stable democracy, but citizens aren't willing to pay for news in large enough numbers to fund it. Like all things with public benefit that can't be funded privately, it then should be paid for by government spending.
I think this is more of a challenge of psychology. You need to mentally flip red numbers from "losses" to that asset class "being on sale".
Let me explain:
In the long run, all asset classes will see gains. We know this.
The price of assets only matters when you buy or sell.
We know that different asset classes are partially uncorrelated—in fact, the less correlated the better.
Take those three points together and you'll realize that rebalancing a portfolio to sell off "winners" to buy "losers" is actually optimal. In the long run, the asset classes will see their average long-term returns, but when you rebalance, you're always selling high and buying low. And those assets you pick up "on sale" will, on average, outperform.
The less popular view I have is to keep 0% cash and 0% bonds on long investment horizons, which means all retirement funds. Even when you retire, you still will be drawing down for a long time. Long enough for stocks to outperform.
That stood out to me, too. Stripping out mortgage interest, inflation is at 2.1%.
It can't completely be looked at in isolation like that, of course; part of the reason prices are lower on most things aside from groceries and housing is because people just don't have money left over for these things after paying for essentials. If mortgage interest were lower, demand for other goods would be higher and prices would rise faster.
Still, this adds support for BoC rates to stay frozen in the near term and decline in 2024.
You could also try Twitch. Most smaller streamers are open to answering viewers' questions (and bigger ones probably would be, too, but they just can't because of volume.)
It's all to do with the terms of the contract and collateral.
Bonds are guaranteed by the collateral of the ownership of the company. If the company defaults on their loan, then ownership transfers to the bond holders, so the bond holders now own all the equity in the company (and previous equity holders get nothing.)
There are no collections agents for companies because once they default, all of that is essentially triggered automatically contractually. There's a bit of wiggle room with negotiating changing terms on the loans and such before a default happens, but that's the broad strokes.
I found it really interesting. As a Canadian, I always found it jarring getting an "mmhmm" in response to my "thank you".
Canadians are generally so conditioned to be polite that we both say sorry after stepping on someone else's foot: the person being stepped on saying sorry for getting in the way, naturally!
Saying "you're welcome" to a "thank you" is as automatic as a "you too!" after an "I hope you have a good day!"
Hearing that Americans consider "thank you" rude made me rethink my cultural biases. I literally just thought Americans didn't value politeness as much, but now I'm questioning that prejudice.
Was anyone else floored that Half-Life came out 25 years ago? I mean, of course I can do the math, but it hit me hard how long ago that was.
I remember reading a preview article in PC Gamer about the revolutionary AI in the game, how enemies would follow you if they could hear you and set up ambushes.
Then the first time I played it, having the story told right in the game with characters doing actions that you can look around and see and interact with ... It was clear to everyone at the time that this was the future of storytelling in first-person games.
I'm definitely going to need to try this on my Deck when it arrives and see if the gameplay holds up.
I've heard D2R is really good on the Steam Deck, so I think I'll start with that one. Or maybe PoE.
I've ordered an OLED Deck and I'm looking for games with fun gameplay loops that don't take too much attention since I'll most be playing while watching TV with my partner. ARPGs seem like a perfect match.
What is there to do in the end game? I'm at the point now where I can get 1000+ golden eggs and I don't even know how much gold per run, if I want to, but the whole thing is just fairly easy and repetitive. No matter which character I get, I can use pretty much the same OP combo.
I guess I could just go back to making the game hard again by disabling eggs, the OP weapons, and other things, but then what's the point since a lot of the fun is in unlocking things?
Or am I just "done" the game, now, and it's time to move on to Soulstone Survivors or Brotato?
This one is a bit out there, but I feel like Backpack Battles is a series of self-generated puzzles.
It's an autobattler where you shop between each round to buy items and bags, and items affect other items in specific positions around them. So, you're constantly trying to react to what the shop is offering you to build a combo (and get balanced defenses), then rearrange your bag to try to maximize your item synergies.
It's completely free to play in early access until its full release in April. And the global leaderboards are very active. Good luck getting to Master Rank, let alone Grandmaster! (I've plateaued in Diamond... I need to work on my early game.)