Fubarberry

Repair electricians definitely run into the work of install electricians, but my experience is they're mostly two different groups. Install electricians may come back to do repairs on their own work, or if there's a lull in new construction jobs they can pick up they might fill in the hours with some smaller repair jobs.

There are some some more specialized electricians that do a mix of both, for example my company is mostly generator focused. We're involved in both new construction and repairs for things that are generator/transfer switch/solar related.

30% as industry standard

That's the same as app stores/etc, and is still a common cut to take. I'm not convinced the cuts that Epic is taking are actually sustainable for offering downloads/updates/etc for a game indefinitely, but it's hard to tell since the Epic store is already bleeding money.

I'll also mention that Audible (which has a monopoly in the audiobook space) reportably takes a 60-75% cut of audiobooks sold on their platform (they take only 60% if you agree to sell exclusively on audible, but they take the full 75% if you want to sell the book somewhere else as well). Monopolies abusing their position is really common, but I haven't seen anything similar from Steam that makes me think they're abusing their position. I suspect PC gaming would be in a far worse state if another company controlled the popular storefront.

Being a small game dev has a lot of uncertainty and risk. I wouldn't blame any small dev for taking a guaranteed paycheck from Epic. Larger studios with safe prospects should be blamed though imo. Gearbox with Borderlands 3 for example.

Except they're trying to strongarm people into using it by using huge amounts of money to buy exclusivity rights.

People don't want monopolies because companies can abuse their position to hurt consumers. But steam provides a very user friendly experience with lots of benefits and features like mod hosting, remote play together, etc. Epic provides a store that people hate using, and people only put up with because epic abused fortnite's success to buy exclusivity deals*. Despite being the much smaller storefront, Epic already feels like the abusive monopoly in the PC gaming space.

*Many people also play on Epic because of free games, which is a valid and pro-consumer way to attract users. I'm 100% cool with this strategy, although giving away merchandise at a loss is also a common monopoly strategy.

A Chinese flagged ship disabled it's transponders (so that people wouldn't know where it was), slowed it's speed, then dropped anchor and dragged it 100 miles across multiple underwater cables. This is almost certainly intentional sabotage, although it's not yet clear what governments are responsible. The ship was loaded with Russian fertilizer, which is the main link to Russia.

Also:

The Yi Peng 3 joins a growing list of incidents fueling Western suspicions of Russia's covert operations. Last year, the Newnew Polar Bear, another Chinese vessel, allegedly severed a Finnish gas pipeline and cable while carrying Russian sailors.

Source

They need two walls, one to keep Americans out and one to keep emus trapped in the middle.

I can understand that, as an American, Australia is near the top of the list of countries I'd consider moving to.

This is mainly just looking at it being different consoles in the space. The Switch 2/PS handheld/Xbox handheld won't have to compete on who has the best hardware, for Nintendo games you get the switch, PS games the PSP, and game pass you get the Xbox.

As for future PC handhelds, there will be linear improvements (better performance, better battery life, etc), different UI options (SteamOS versus windows with some program slapped on top), and different use cases (smaller more portable devices, etc).

What? I don't follow you at all.

Honestly, I'm just excited for the possibility of NPCs that can have lifelike conversations. Should add a lot to RPGs.

They give you steam keys, they're legitimate though and not a key reseller.

I'm not sure how they buy their keys though.

As for the game, it really took off for me when I got back to the city, and started the persona cycle of managing my time combined with carrying out missions.

Yeah it's a pretty chunky demo. By the point you're at, I wasn't super invested in the game yet. But the demo is long, and I definitely was hooked by the end.

If you decide to buy it, fanatical has a great price on it.