1potato

Exactly this, although I'm on Plus rather than Pro. I love the fact that I can run out of Codex usage without it affecting Chat. This is really looking to me like it's going to be a major price squeeze.

I do have to agree on that. Garak was really a standout character on DS9.

Agree. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that they gave Captain Sisko's character -- not to mention Worf, O'Brien and others -- a lot more room to develop and grow.

I really enjoyed TNG as well, and DS9 probably wouldn't have even happened if not for TNG's excellence. I never really felt like the writers gave Picard's character a lot of room to change, though. A lot of the time, he was almost like the sitcom dad who was mainly there to teach the kids a lesson at the end of the episode. That's not a knock on Stewart's acting ability; I'd say he was almost certainly the best actor on the show.

Also agree about Bashir.

Darmok was wildly creative, I thought. It's one of the only times I've ever felt just utterly amazed by the quality of the storytelling on a television show.

For anyone who may not be familiar with it, SDF is actually pretty amazing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDF_Public_Access_Unix_System

Among many, many other services, you can get your own Gopher or Gemini site there.

I really like the Lagrange browser, which works with both Gopher and Gemini: https://gmi.skyjake.fi/lagrange/

Another excellent Gopher resource that hasn’t been mentioned here yet: https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw

Gopher is still quite active, and there’s lots to read. Gemini, from what I’ve seen, is less so. A lot of what I’ve seen is just cross-posted between Gopher/Gemini or even Gopher/Gemini/WWW, so there’s not much point to it.

You’ll also see a lot of “I’ve just discovered Gemini! Here’s why I think it’s awesome.” And then, they never post again. There's a good amount of that on Gopher as well, but you'll also find lots of Gopherholes that have been active for years.

Still, though, I think Gemini has a lot of potential. It’s a much more pleasant browsing experience than today’s web, but it’s had trouble finding a niche so far.

There’s one group of people who think that it doesn’t really solve any problems not already solved by Gopher, and there’s another group that just cross-posts all of their content to the web to maximize its potential audience, which kind of defeats the point.

Gopher is plain text and can actually look surprisingly attractive. If you're getting CSS, you're viewing it through a web proxy.

I do exactly this with my IQAir filter, which does an excellent job. It's the one with the coarse pre-filter, activated charcoal and HEPA stages. At high speeds, the sound is a broad, pleasant "whoosh."

Unfortunately, the replacement filters cost way too much. The IQAir unit itself, though, is still working great after 15 years.

I watch Blue Jays games sometimes. The gambling ads are even more pervasive than in US teams’ games. It really damages the viewing experience.

The Cringely story was great. the Google story, also great. I click over to to the home page, ready to settle in for some more interesting reading, and -- there's a total of three posts.

Oh well.

I find it interesting that Sam Barlow was interviewed for this piece because, before I saw his name, I was going to comment that I’ll happily buy his next game at whatever the asking price is. It’ll probably be on GOG, which means the installer is mine forever. It won’t have an online component, it won’t have loot boxes, and it’ll most likely have a fun core mechanic and an engaging story.

I noped out of AAA games a long time ago because I don’t like where the industry has been heading. I see a lot of the same gameplay with new window dressing and persistent nickel-and-diming of the player base. The smaller studios are the ones doing the really interesting things.

The advertising is a big part of the problem, and I think that banning it would probably help. The casinos make so much money that — just like the cigarette companies back in the day — they can pay more than other advertisers and plaster their ads absolutely everywhere.

You see it in SEO, too. Online casinos’ budgets for link building are effectively bottomless.

As things are currently going, it’s only a matter of time before a major-league sport sees another Shoeless Joe Jackson or Pete Rose.

Came here for the NIN puns. Did not leave disappointed.

It's a badger badger badger badger badger badger

What is the use case for IRC these days? Honest question.

There's a related Famicom game that's quite (in)famous: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi%27s_Challenge

This really gets at the heart of the whole thing. Cringely was wrong to be dishonest. That didn’t make it okay to hound and stalk him.

This link is from the actual funeral home and sadly looks like it's probably legitimate.

https://www.hillandwood.com/obituaries/Mark-Stephens?obId=49...

What was the game?

The problems come from companies becoming so large that competing with them is essentially impossible. Fix that, and the rest will take care of itself.

Tried this with gpt-5.6-sol. Lantern!

Tell that to my circa-2000s WD MyBook that clicks and fails to initialize after ~17 years in climate-controlled storage in its original packaging. I'm about to attempt surgery on the heads to see if I can get it going again.

I also have a binder full of DVD-Rs, of about the same age and containing mostly the same data, that all read perfectly with no issues.

You're asking for trouble if you count on just one backup solution to keep your data safe.

To anyone who hasn't played text adventures before, I highly recommend giving them a try because there's nothing else like them.

Everybody has their own recommended starting points, but here are a few of mine for anyone who might be interested.

9:05

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=qzftg3j8nh5f34i2

Can complete in a few minutes. Illustrative of how text adventures can do things that other types of games often don’t.

Violet

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=4glrrfh7wrp9zz7b

Fun and logical puzzles. Lovable narrator. Can complete in an hour or two.

Shade

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=hsfc7fnl40k4a30q

Made by Zarf / Andrew Plotkin, the guy linked to above. Can complete in 30-60 minutes.

Counterfeit Monkey

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=aearuuxv83plclpl

As good as any Infocom game — maybe even better. Great puzzle mechanic. Engaging story. Easy to get around. Absolutely everything you can think of to do has an implemented response. Can complete in maybe two or three evenings. This is my favorite text adventure.

Photopia

https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=ju778uv5xaswnlpl

I wouldn’t call this one of my favorites, but many people consider it one of the most important works of modern IF. It does have one moment that’s really, really cool. The story is a downer.

If true, this is very sad. I’ve read Cringely’s work for around 20 years — not as long as some here, I’m sure — and always appreciated the perspective of someone who had been involved in the industry in some capacity since the beginning.

Unfortunately, the site became more difficult to read in later years when it turned out that a lot of what he was saying was evidently false. Even more so when he switched over to AI-generated content.

Still, Triumph is an amazing documentary that I’ve watched many, many times.

That one is on my list to read very soon!

I just finished Ra by qntm. It's available free on his website.

https://qntm.org/ra

I'm guessing that many people here are familiar with this work already since HN was where I found out about qntm in the first place. If you haven't read Ra, though, I greatly enjoyed it and would strongly recommend it.

Makes me sick that all of the major-league sports are in bed with companies like Draft Kings, completely ignoring the fact that the next Pete Rose-style scandal — or worse — is absolutely going to happen any time now.

I’m going to express what seems to be an unpopular opinion and say that I actually quite like Liquid Glass. It reminds me a bit of the Aqua design language, which made me quite envious back when I was using Win98SE.

Many people have complained about how hard it is to find a safe place to grab windows in Tahoe when you want to move them, though, and I absolutely agree with that complaint.