There’s a couple of pigeons that made a nest in my backyard two years ago. It’s located right next to a wall that’s frequented by cats. It’s also right next to the back door, so every time we go out the birds leave the nest in a panic, leaving the chicks behind. That is, if there would be any chicks - the nest has such big holes that the eggs just fall out onto the ground.

This distinction — between “design” and “content” — sounds reasonable for about three seconds. Then you realize it falls apart completely.

Bull fucking shit. This is not about platforms being held responsible for user content. This is about adding points and badges and achievements and all kinds of things designed to reward engagement with dopamine.

The author’s example of all content being drying paint would absolutely be addictive if the platform added an achievement for watching 10 different colours. Or: Congratulations, you’ve watched paint dry for 100 hours! As a reward, you get a new fancy emote! THAT is what these platforms do, and that is what is addictive. And that is what they’ve been convicted for.

Is not a loophole to get around section 230 as the author claims.

Most people are born on the same date their whole life.

Cookie-walled article.

Pretty much anything that’s considered “childish”. Apart from video games, Lego comes to mind.

But who will verify the parents’ age?

So… just the video, no ads, no comments, no text at all? Please block it for me too, YouTube!

You don’t. When Valve first started with Steam, everybody hated it. I myself held out for a long time, not wanting a useless program hogging resources.

But gradually it became clear that Steam was actually just a game store. Except having to go to a store and rifle through boxes, you could do it from your PC. Yes it launched the games, but that was just like having a single folder with all game shortcuts. Its main purpose was discovering and buying new games.

Other vendors saw its success and wanted a piece of the cake. I think they mistakenly thought the launcher was an important part of Steam’s success, when it was in fact the large catalogue and good discoverability. They use exclusivity to lure customers, but can’t possibly compete with Valve.

Now we are at a point where the landscape is divided again. The majority of games is on Steam, but enough have their own place that the “single folder with shortcuts” became relevant again. That’s where the likes of Heroic and Playnite come in. These are no longer stores to buy games, but are simply a convenient way to quickly start the game you want, regardless of its source.

I thought blu-ray would supplant DVD-RW for storing and transferring data, including for buying software. Much like DVD replaced CD, which replaced diskettes. Turns out both were replaced by cloud and streaming, with a short interlude for USB sticks.

Al still have their niches, but buying software and storing data is pretty much all online now.

What are you doing step pizza delivery man?

Kind of ironic: I noticed your comment saying you prefer Bellular because YongYea is too rambly, right after I commented Bellular started rambling too much :-D

Different tastes I suppose.

Bellular news. It used to be focused on giving gaming news. Now they use gaming news as an introduction for long ramblings, and added click bait titles.

You breathe through an octopus? Don’t they need that oxygen themselves?

Does it have VGA?

Your keyboard has more colours than your monitor :-D

That sounds awful. You get someone who doesn’t really know the company or product, they take a bunch of decisions that fundamentally affect how you work, and then they’re gone.

… actually, that sounds exactly like any other company.

This is the plan all along. It’s not about porn, it’s not even about control. It’s about teaching Americans a second language. You know who’s behind this? Duolingo and Big Language.

It’s still there, but turning it off still won’t let you associate txt files with the old notepad.

Simply uninstalling the app works fine though, then it defaults to the old one.

“I want to start with a blank slate”

There’s a setting for that.

“I don’t want tabs”

This one’s trickier: there’s only a setting to open existing files in a new window; you’ll still have tabs.

GW1 and GW2 are very different games. Don’t expect an MMO if you try GW1. You only see other people in cities, the world itself is made up of instanced zones. Only your party is there, and there’s a well-defined mission in each zone. Think of each zone as like a dungeon in an MMO.

That said, it is a great game. I prefer it to GW2, but I would guess that MMO players could be disappointed if they don’t go in with the right expectations.