Unlike the Y2K scare (that hasn't come to fruition), it isn't a bug but a glitched update that caused the crash.

CrowrdStrike rolled out a bad software update which prompted Windows computers to crash and restart in an endless loop. As a result, the glitched update has caused a global outage disrupting banks, flights, markets, and other services running Windows machines. CrowdStrike has made a statement addressing the issue identifying the error as not a cyber security incident but related to the Falcon Sensor and posted their workaround.

I'm glad I got paid today when my bank has also posted a service disruption.

Breaking news as of July 13, 2024 at 9:00 PM Central Time, Former US President Donald Trump shot during the Trump Rally in Pennsylvania. Three to four distinctive shots could be heard from a video of Forbes Breaking News. Sky News posted on their YouTube an aerial video of a body and a rifle lying on a roof - the remains of what appears to have been the shooter.

The former US President felt something on his right ear and ducked on stage, when the Secret Service rushed to him and ordered him to stay low. Onlookers behind the stage were terrified. Trump could be seen with a wounded right ear and with spots of blood over his face after being escorted away. One could only imagine where the shooter was specifically aiming after Trump's bloodied ear.

Pieces Interactive announced on their website that they will be closing their studio. They've added their logo with the years 2007-2024 and a tag Thanks for Playing With Us. Pieces Interactive was acquired by Embracer recently and the closure may have been caused by the softer-than-expected performance of the Alone in the Dark reboot.

The Alone in the Dark series is arguably the "progenitor" of contemporary third-person survival horror. The original Alone in the Dark in 1992 was a survival horror MS-DOS videogame that featured pre-rendered polygons and a fixed camera third-person view. These influenced Shinji Mikami on how to design Resident Evil, especially the fixed camera. The Alone in the Dark reboot / remake was released this March 20, 2024 for the current-gen Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game received mixed reviews which is a rating that's shared among contemporary Alone in the Dark games.

Life By You was a promising life-sim game that was supposed to have an Early Access this 2024. The EA build has been delayed twice. A disappointing news however has been announced by Lilja Mattias, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive, that Life By You has been cancelled. According to the announcement, (unspecified) key areas of the game have been found lacking, and the overall result was deemed unsatisfactory.

The biggest selling point of Life By You was its open-world concurrent gameplay, similar to The Sims 3. Rod Humble explained that neighborhoods would transform as your game progresses.

The official statement indicated that incremental improvements during their builds. Which makes all of this a little confusing. There is clearly a demand in the Life-sim category of gaming. And none of the upcoming competitors such as Paralives, Vivaland, or Sims 5 are even releasing soon. In the end, cancelling Life By You is primarily the biggest disappointment among players especially those who have preordered the game.

Pocket Pair reveals the trailer to its Palworld summer update on YouTube. The Sakurajima Island update will bring more Pals, add more weapons, and grant more building pieces. And expect tons more feature such as, XBox dedicated servers, and the PvP Arena. Sakurajima Island inspired by the Japanese medieval era, will be released on June 27!

(Image and source by Government of Canada)

June 6, 2024 marks as the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. There's no public holiday in Canada (except for Quebec) in June. And this date should be remembered as on June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy (France) to open the way to Germany from the West. Victory in the Normandy campaign would come at a terrible cost. The Canadians suffered the most casualties of any division in the British Army Group.

It's true that We Remember on Remembrance Day (November 11), however that date pertains to WW1. D-Day was a monumental date in WW2 that should always be remembered and observed in Canada.

ASUS makes a public statement regarding Enhanced Warranty to their ROG Ally. According to ASUS, all ROG Ally (RC71L model) sold in North America will be covered by a two-year warranty. The statement made appears to be a response to the YouTube videos created by Gamers Nexus regarding their ASUS warranty issue for the ROG Ally.

The ASUS statement reads:
Dear ROG Ally Community
We want to express our sincere gratitude for your continued support and patience as we develop and improve the ROG Ally Handheld (RC71L). Since this is a new platform for us, we've learned a lot from your feedback and have made significant improvements.
To demonstrate our commitment to providing the best possible handheld experience, we would like to announce that all ROG Ally (RC71L) in North America will now be covered under the 2-year Warranty (WEP) program.

We understand that the ROG Ally is a new platform, and we appreciate your patience as we continue to take every opportunity to make it better. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we're dedicated to supporting and developing the best possible handheld experience.

Check out the latest details on our service site on ASUS.com/us, we will continue to reveal more support updates regularly over the coming weeks and months on this page.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Gamers Nexus is a YouTube channel that reviews the latest gadgets for gaming and PC components. GN created a video where they've sent their ROG Ally back for service under warranty due to a defective micro-SD slot and a drifting left joystick. They filled up an RMA form and indicated a broken left joystick. Part of the ASUS RMA repair form mentions that servicing may involve wiping the data off the device, so GN physically removed their SSD. ASUS then responded to GN with a $200 charge for a different defect (and not the left stick); ASUS followed up that the charge is due to a CID or Customer Induced Damage. ASUS customer service also added that should GN decide not to pay for the service, their ROG Ally will be returned disassembled.

ASUS sent a screenshot of a dent on the case which it believes as the CID. While GN cites the US Magnusson Moss Act that their device should be serviced under warranty. GN received the fixed ROG Ally back although only after making, what GN claims, a strong pushback to the ASUS customer service. ASUS sent a response letter on the GN second video. In the end, GN posted these videos as a three-part, with with part 3 seemingly serving as the tail end of the issue with tips on consumer protection. However, with this new ASUS statement, it is likely that GN may respond as well. GN's three ROG Ally warranty videos racked up approximately 3.4 million views as of today.

Samsung's native Messages app keeps crashing recently? You're not alone. Samsung smartphone users posted complaints of their Messages app crashing. The Messages app comes pre-installed on Samsung phones; note this is a separate app from Google's Messages app (the Google logo appears on the Google Messages app).

The error was due to an update to Google Meet. As a temporary remedy, try setting Google Messages as your default message app, or disabling / uninstalling the Google Meet app.
Go to Settings > Apps > Meet > Force Stop, then click uninstall updates.

Google has issued a patch on fixing the random crashes. With the Google Meet patch issued, be sure to update your Meet app. Otherwise, keep it disabled or use Google Messages.

I just got my prompt on my PC. Windows 10 will retire on October 14, 2025 when Microsoft will no longer release security updates or technical support. As a result, users will need to upgrade to Windows 11 if the computer is eligible; the upgrade to Windows 11 is usually free. As for myself, my specific machine is incompatible with Windows 11 so I will need to replace this computer - which was purchased in December 2019.

Windows 10 computers will continue to function after the OS retires although without those future security updates. Yet again Microsoft announced the Windows 10 ESU (Extended Security Updates) program which is a paid service supposed to extend their support service so that it can still function in a secure manner. The price for ESU has not been announced yet and will be revealed closer to October 2025. Windows 10 was released in July 29, 2015.

On a segway, Microsoft ended their support to Windows 8.1 in January 2023.

This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct…

— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) May 7, 2024

Nintendo will announce the Switch 2 announcement, but will not make any Switch successor announcement this upcoming Nintendo Direct's announcements and instead will announce the Switch successor announcement later this year.

Introducing The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: The Adventure. Or Skyrim on your dinner table. I mean Why not? This makes more sense than the Skyrim Very Special Edition with Alexa. Such an adventure in your home will have you rehearsing your Fus Ro Da!

The table top game can be played by 1-4 (unlike your unmodded Skyrim). A 5-8 player expansion is also available. But then the Dawnguard expansion is also available. Board game adaptations of my favorite videogames aren't new (such as Resident Evil or Fallout). The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: The Adventure is available now on Amazon.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has been announced and will brings us back to Bohemia. And players will reprise Henry in the sequel, a young lad coming of age forced to live his adventure. Perhaps it's the reason why it's entitled as a direct sequel (unlike a Kingdom Come II for example). One thing's for sure, there will be things to do in Kingdome Come: Deliverance. And the sequel touts as twice bigger than its predecessor.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a true medieval RPG. It's not medieval fantasy, but a fantasy of life in the medieval ages as a son of a (famous) blacksmith. You're not superhuman. But you can play enough to gain fame and make a name for yourself.

KDC II immerses you in medieval life. The combat is a challenge but worth mastering like any abled knight. KDC II sandbox is not Bannerlord or Skyrim. But Kingdom Come: Deliverance has its own charm. Especially its picturesque graphics. The realistic grasslands, dense forests, and the quaint hamlets are simply charming. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will be planned to release this year.

First of all, Palworld has become my new staple game on the PC.

Palworld will introduce Bellanoir, the newest Pal, with the upcoming Bellanoir raid. But more importantly, a worker management feature will be implemented as well. The worker management will be big as it is an essential (and fundamental) function needed in managing who's doing what in your base. For example, I have tons of berries, so I need to reassign my Pals on skipping on planting.

They should add the task priority system immediately.

List of optimizations and QoL improvements:
1. If a Pal goes past the base radius, teleport it to Palbox. Or allow Pal to be able to move back to Palbox.
2. If a Pal has low SAN, Pal must prioritze heading to an open Hotspring.
3. If a Pal is distant and not engaged in combat, teleport to player.
4. Be able to get off a Pal when directly in front of a shrine.
5. Fix base building regarding not too much support on platforms.
6. Fix assigning Pals by way of targeting the facility instead.
7. Fix animation when assigning Pals to a hotspring.
8. Auto-move.
9. Add the interact function to furniture.

Here is my quick wishlist:
1. As mentioned, add a user interface that lets us see the pals in the base, and edit their available tasks.
2. Introduce weather. I want a rain ambiance while inside my house. (Fallout 4 did this and it was refreshing).
3. Vanila setting to increasing the base radius.
4. Vanilla setting of host to increase number of bases to more than 3.
5. Add 6 slots to a Pal party.
6. Add more potted plant assets and clutter (emphasize on the POTTED PLANTS)!
7. Add another facility to increase SAN.
8. Add items to revive or restore health.
9. Character re-creation tool.

Yes, I'm still playing Palworld. Some folks may have burned out from it, and that's fine. As for me, I'm still having fun with it.

I paused for a moment figuring out the unfamiliar image of why I had to log in to Facebook on my phone. I entered my password, but it didn't work. I tried again and it said that my password was incorrect. I tried to check my password manager and make sure it's the right password. Then I prompte for account recovery mode. Nothing worked. I started thinking that my account was hacked. Then my cousin sent me an text (to clarify: SMS) asking if my Facebook is down.

Facebook was down. Including Instagram and Threads too. Everybody flocked to X (Twitter) hashtagging #facebookdown. Thus another reminder how much Facebook has affected much of our lives. However, making Twitter apparently the fall back social media platform. Elon Musk made a snarky tweet about it. Honestly, I wasn't bothered; I don't think anybody was. Facebook was back around 11am (Central). Though I sure wish that other people join me on other platforms such as Parler, Minds, Gab or Rumble.