I think also the fact that AI subscriptions are generally quite expensive, when compared with other online subscriptions.

Copilot Pro: £19.00/month
ChatGPT Plus: £18.99/month
Gemini: £18.99/month
Claude Pro: £15.00/month

Compared to (just off the top of my head):

Microsoft 365 Personal: £8.49/month
Google Play Pass: £4.99/month
Adobe Photography Plan (Photoshop, Lightroom, and 20GB cloud storage): £9.98/month
Apple Arcade: £6.99/month
PlayStation Plus Premium (top tier): £13.49/month
Amazon Prime: £8.99/month

And it has a free offering, so there’s not even a pressing reason to upgrade for most people. 🤔

Oh my god I get it now. I genuinely thought he was pointing a hairdryer at a fancy podcast mic or something 💀

I’d love it if you did that! Thanks!

I think it’ll happen, but I don’t think it’s happening yet.

The unease is already there (“the internet used to be a place”/“why isn’t the internet fun any more?” sentiments and #OldWeb #SlowWeb hashtags), but I don’t think people are ready to do anything about it.

I’m only one guy, with a small internet following, but I recently had a go at launching a small “Gaymers” webring (well, a simplified version of one). I promoted it on my socials, I laid out why I think it’s a good idea, I paid to “Blaze” it on Tumblr – I even emailed some like-minded creators directly.

I rewrote the webpage multiple times, to try to make it more persuasive and more concise. I added a contact form in case people felt uncomfortable emailing me. I loosened the rules to allow commercial websites, as long as they were still independent. I worked hard on the widget and incorporated feedback (made it respect prefers-reduced-motion and made a static version for sites where animation would feel out of place).

I got some good feedback; lots of people said it was interesting, and a good idea. But literally no one joined or expressed any interest in joining. 🤷‍♂️

I’m going to have one more go at promoting it next time I’ve got money to spare, but I’ll most likely end up quietly deleting it along with any evidence it existed, because a webring of one is fucking embarrassing. 💀

I guess if you build it, they will not necessarily come lmao

Potentially also:

The Roottrees are Dead (Steam)
A genealogical mystery straight out of 1998. Scour the early Internet for clues, uncover hidden connections, and piece together the family tree behind the secretive Roottree Corporation.

The Operator (currently free on Epic Games)
Welcome to the FDI. As our newest Operator, your role is to use your detective skills to assist our field agents and investigate mysterious crimes. Use cutting-edge FDI software to dig for clues, solve puzzles, and uncover the truth.

Her Story (Steam)
A woman is interviewed seven times by the police. Search the video database and explore hundreds of authentic clips to discover her story in this groundbreaking and award winning narrative game. (Also has a follow-up called Telling Lies that I liked a lot less.)

Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (Steam)
Big Brother has arrived - and it’s you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you. But, be warned, the information you supply will have consequences. (Also has a follow up called Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength that I liked a lot less.)

I don’t know how these compare to Hypnospace Outlaw, but they’re all definitely “interacting with a fake computer desktop” games. (And thanks, I’ll look into your recs too, I’m always looking for more stuff like this)

I’m currently playing to a T, by the Katamari creator.

Not remotely similar, and hard to recommend to most people tbh… but it has the same joyful silliness that just makes me smile, somehow.

Honestly, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

The remaster got some attention, but it still feels pretty niche for a game made by the Ace Attorney guy. I never felt like it got its “moment” in the same way as, say, Blue Prince.

And yet, from the moment the 15-year-old announcement trailer dropped, I knew it was going to be in “top 5 of all time” territory for me. 😍

They know they already have a Bing logo they could use, right? 🤔

Not that this is out of character for Microsoft. Office became Office 365, which became Microsoft 365… unless you search for it online, because then all three names show up.

Likewise, Bing Chat became Copilot… but then the main Office launcher became Microsoft 365 Copilot, so there are two Copilot apps on people’s PCs and it’s not immediately clear what the difference is. (This joins the two OneNote apps and two Outlook apps.)

And, they finally finished retiring the MSN brand and changed everything over to “Microsoft Start” (not to be confused with the iconic “Start” button 😬)… only to make a new MSN logo and change it all back.

Meanwhile, there’s a Bing app for Android that has an almost identical feature set to Edge, but different branding and a different UI. There’s also an MSN app, which… has almost an identical feature set as the other two apps, but a slightly different UI to the Bing app. 😭

Use the Poop Method

“If this object had poop on it, would I wash it, or throw it away?”

I’ve been thinking a lot about webrings lately. Now that Google is basically cutting off traffic from the indie web.

I feel like everyone’s kinda having the same idea at the same time, which gives me some hope, but… it’s difficult enough to find a ring to join, that I think most people will give up?

I don’t know what I think the solution is. Centralising it and having a big, user-friendly “webring platform” is just inviting more enshittification. But the handful of webring directories I’ve found are really lacking.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or, does anyone want to team up and make, like, a Gaymers Webring? (That’s pretty much what I’m looking for.)

ETA: I’ve built one. DM me if you’re interested!

This is probably a bit “I’m 14 and this is deep”, but I was thinking the other day about how “pull down to refresh” is weirdly similar to pulling a slot machine handle. 😬

I don’t think that was ever part of its design (didn’t the Tweetie dev invent it?), but still.

Franziska von Karma. I was going to say Miles Edgeworth, but… let’s face it, there are plenty of foolish fools in need of a whipping right now. 😌

(I know she’s really a “game character”, but she was in the anime, so she still counts. 🧑‍⚖️)

Why would anyone opt in 😭

Is this just so they can wait a few months and say, “Not enough people were discovering this Great Feature, so we’re enabling it by default”?

I’ve already been getting the itch to leave Samsung and try something different. I’m keeping my eye on the upcoming Nothing Phone 3, if it’s genuinely a “flagship” for £800 I might jump ship.

To be fair they also said:

Talking on the phone, got an interview
With the Rolling Stone, they’re saying,
“Now you’re rich and now you’re famous
Fake-ass girls all know your name and
‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’
Your first hit, aren’t you ashamed?”
Of the life, of the life, of the life we’re living

So at least they’re self aware 😅

Drink once if they ban face coverings because of this.

Drink twice if they somehow link it to hijabs and burqas in a skewed bid to “win back Reform voters”.

Down your drink if they fuck up and do it around the time of the next pandemic.

There’ll almost certainly be new/expanded and altered dialogue.

I’m intrigued to see whether they’ll try to rework any of the more ‘problematic’ stuff, now that Katsura Hashino (P3–P5 director) has left. Or go for a truer-to-the-Japanese-version Teddy this time.

I hope teachers come up with crazy workarounds, like Miss Honey’s classroom in Matilda

Busuu is like what Duolingo used to be, but with native audio/video clips, actual grammar lessons, and the chance to write/speak sentences and have them graded by native speakers (other app users).

It’s free with ads, but the paid tier is also cheaper than Duolingo. 👍

SteamOS
SteamOS 2
SteamOS 2: Episode One
SteamOS 2: Episode Two
SteamOS: Alyx

Grok wouldn’t fuck up the spelling so badly