I thought like you and looked into setting up Tor to cover all outgoing connections, and it seemed possible last I checked years ago, but the connections are too slow for it to make any real sense to replace why most people opt for a VPN.

Your computer is hopping through multiple computers to create a hopefully secure tunnel that hides your true identity over Tor.

But when you think of using this for downloading something like a torrent, your speed is cut by every connection in this layered network. Your speeds are lowered just because it’s having to go from you in the Netherlands, connecting to some computer in Egypt, connecting to some computer in Idaho, US, and then connecting to the file’s location in the UK. This is also not taking into account the different speeds of each connection, where your connection may be a Gb in speed at home, but Idaho’s connection may be 100 Kb speed which contributes to a much slower download.

Whereas a VPN connects you from the Netherlands to a server, maybe even one in the Netherlands, and then to the UK. This server almost always has a guaranteed high speed attached to it and is always available to you at your choosing and minimizes the speed drop due to hopping.

Tor was designed mainly for information to be shared in as anonymized of a possibility as possible. Hence why it’s always connected to a web browser and not acts as a service that covers all outgoing and incoming connections for your entire computer. It is best used for someone in a restrictive place like North Korea to write up a news article or blog post to share text quickly and securely. The added benefit is that it reduces the leakage of identity of you because you’re not paying for it with something that can tie back to you. And some Tor browsers are portable, so there’s no need to go through the process of installation which can be restrictive or throw a red flag.

It’s generally seen as discourteous to use Tor for downloading large files as well because you’re negatively impacting the network for others who rely on this service by further lowering the speed of the connection. And many people know whistleblowers use Tor, so it can be a literal life and death situation for someone who depends on as fast of a connection over Tor than you to get some free movies.

A VPN is great when you need a specific location too. When you use it for something like Netflix, you’re using it because Netflix blocked your region from watching a specific show, usually. So Netflix won’t let you see Rick and Morty in the Netherlands, but they will show it to someone in the UK. If you use Tor, never mind the slow, awful performance of such a stream, you’re not guaranteed to get a connection to the UK in Tor. Tor is randomly deciding how to route your connection for you. You may come out the other end in the US and have an even more restrictive catalogue to choose from.

If I’m reporting on something the US government is doing, I may want people to know I’m in the US, but not know my actual location, so I’m coming from South Carolina but I’ll make it look like I’m in New York instead. Or I may want to throw someone off entirely and the VPN will ensure I’m choosing something way off course like a server in South Africa. Something I specifically know I am choosing and not depending on a random hop at the service’s choice.

The other important part of this are the computers in between your connection. It’s not a secret that various American alphabet agencies have Tor nodes set up. You may be unlucky enough one day to have the entry and exit nodes in your connection be FBI computers capturing everything about your connection for that day and you’d not necessarily know it. But you get a VPN that’s been around for years and has an established track record in another country where the US is unlikely to be and you can be a little more assured that your information is safe from US authorities. Mostly safe, but the risk is still there in some capacity, to be accurate.

Edit: made a few corrections for accuracy sake

Hopefully they get hit with a massive lawsuit and lose 😊

Just another reason I don’t want another console. Fuck these assholes.

My hype was already at a low for GTA VI and I found that it could get lower.

Have you thought about doing a software emulator?

Or is it that you want the console experience in the real world and real hardware?

One point against that is the pricing on some games, especially the more popular games. Go to a local retro store or check eBay and you’ll see some of the prices can be insane for some games you may want. I’m talking $100+. I remember one retro store having a game that was $200, but this was one of the more rare ones like Pikmin for GameCube. I’m not too familiar with N64’s catalogue, but I do remember some extreme pricing on some games like this. The stuff that’s under the glass counter. I want to say Conker may be one of those.

I don’t think anyone can give you an answer yet since the game has not officially released so no one has played to say whether it’s a good game or not, let alone if it’s worth the price they want.

Spy X Family is a good one too

A VPN is kind of like sending a letter through the post office using someone else’s address. Like if you put the grocery store’s address on it and then stuck it in with their outgoing mail.

It gets your letter there and the post office doesn’t know your actual address, they think it came from the grocery store. Likewise, the person receiving your letter thinks it came from the grocery store too.

And the VPN handles it in reverse by taking a letter from that person and even though it gets to the grocery store, it gets delivered directly to you and no one else except you and the grocery store know that’s not actually your real address.

For privacy, this is great at protecting you from websites you don’t want knowing your real IP address which can reveal things like your exact location in the world, say Facebook. You want to use Facebook to talk to granny but you don’t want Facebook knowing your real public IP.

Some people also use them for tricking websites into thinking they are elsewhere. When you subscribe to a VPN service, they often show you different servers around the world and you can choose to appear like you’re in the UK even though you’re in the US. A site like Netflix may show Rick and Morty only to UK residents so you use a VPN to trick them into showing you shows like that.

Starfield. I mean, I didn’t really, really enjoy it, but it was fun to me. It has issues I can’t overlook, like wish we had more factions and more NPC settlements. Player created settlements do not fill that void no matter what they add to the game. Hundreds of systems and only like 5/6 of them have major settlements that you can visit for actual quests. Aligning with the pirates is cool but then you’re only left with the Spacers as the only true enemy faction which sucks. I hate going to some world and there being friendly pirates. I wanted a firefight, not walk around and hear NPCs talk about being tough.

Bonus is Crackdown, the newest one with Terry Crews. I’m a big fan of the first game and semi liked the second, but the newest felt like a better return to the original without the dumb zombie invasion. Wish we had more gangs and all that. But open world mayhem as a supercharged cop is so much fun to me that I still go back and play the original in an emulator.

I had a similar but less severe experience when I was younger too.

I was standing at the refrigerator looking for something to eat when one of those fuckers ran out from under the fridge and ran up my leg under my pants.

+1 on all roaches dying.

Their computers are crap too. At least the cheaper end ones that people fall for.

Oo a $200 Windows laptop!

Yeah, don’t. It should be illegal to sell those pieces of shit with Intel Celeron, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC soldered storage running Windows 11. You’ll be using 80% of CPU sitting at the desktop, 60% of RAM, and 20GB of free storage after removing the bloat of Windows 11.

I don’t know about their higher end computers, but I always hate when someone brings me one of these pieces of shit and asks me to help them set it up.

I am also reminded of trying to get support for one of our HP monitors at work. We bought 400 of the same model monitors for our offices and one of them ended up going out. A director had two of them sitting side by side on her desk and one of them started going out. We hadn’t had these things for a full year when this happened.

Contacted HP support and they wouldn’t do shit for me until I formatted Windows to “confirm” it was the monitor despite me already saying I’ve tried multiple computers, other cables, even HDMI and DisplayPort, and even going as far as different power cables and outlets…no. HP “support” said they wouldn’t honor their warranty unless I formatted the computer. I lied and told them I did just so I could get the warranty I was owed. Still wasn’t good enough. They needed to see the receipt and the receipt needed to have the serial number on it. wtf…we bought these in bulk. This isn’t fucking CVS where the receipt is the length of a new movie’s red carpet with all the serial numbers. “Sorry, can’t help you.”

Fuck HP.

It better print money at that price lol

Gtfo with $2,195

That’s insane for a pair of glasses.

lol glad we could prove them wrong

Unfortunately I don’t think they care. They have long had the numbers and can visit any public forum and see the way we talk about this or check out any popular gaming channel.

They don’t care.

That you will own nothing and you will be happy we don’t care how you feel about it.

Hell no, fuck Windows 10 too. It’s what started a lot of the bullshit we’re dealing with today.

Looks like something straight out of the LEGO magazines I used to obsess over as a kid.

Thank you!

I love these shots. It doesn’t seem like we get a lot of views of the landscape from its side like this.

I do too, but even with it disabled, I still don’t open some messages.

Just opening it is enough even if the other person doesn’t know you did.

I legit don’t care which way it goes as long as they quit changing the clocks. It is so disruptive for that week.

Just put them one way and leave it that way the whole year.