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

Lol, where do you think?

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

I’d love them to spend even 1% of their zany marketing budget on improving the actual course content. 😬

I’m even trying a free trial of Max at the moment and… the video calls with Lily that now make up about 50% of the course (on Japanese, at least), are so useless. The questions seem totally random, there’s no natural flow to anything.

Lily: Hello.
Me: Hello.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Hello.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Do you like coffee or tea?
Me: I like coffee, you?
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Is that so? I also like coffee. Is Toronto lively today?
Me: (?!?) Um… yes, it’s lively?
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Is that so? OK, let’s talk again soon!
Me: See you later.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: See you later.

And then it doesn’t even give me any feedback about how I did??? It’s bewildering, who’s paying £20/month for this?

People do it without being required! I bet Alexa has seen some shit

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. 😍

Neurotypical person:

• May procrastinate, but can still “decide” to do the task if they put their mind to it
• Maybe some guilt about the procrastinating
• Does the task
• Gets a hit of dopamine, so they feel good and think, “why did I put it off?”
• Remembers that next time there’s a task

ADHDer:

• Get up. Get up now. Please get up and do the task. Why can’t I get up and do the task? I hate myself so much. I’m letting everyone down… Seriously, just do the task, I’m begging you…
• Major guilt spiral, RSD, feels bad man
• Does the task
• Doesn’t get a hit of dopamine, so they feel the same and think, “ugh, why did I bother?”
• Remembers that next time there’s a task

The latest ep of The Rest Is Entertainment was mostly about the Noel doc, and it sounds pretty interesting. Probably not as interesting as hearing Richard Osman trying to stay right on the line between “Noel Edmonds is the most talented presenter I’ve ever worked with” and “he’s a crackpot and a conman, and tried to sell people a magical beep machine to cure their cancer”. 😬

We welcome everybody.

Ew, no, not you.

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. 😭

This is one of those things where I assumed it anyway was banned. Although I feel like there are still crocodile-skin handbags, so I don’t know why I assumed that. 🤔

Use the Poop Method

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

Yep 😏

Poor bee 😔

Did anything ever come of Apple’s weird Instant Apps clone, where you had to scan a QR code in a Starbucks or whatever? 🤔

Not remotely shocking.

They also dropped their plans for new anti ultra-processed food guidance, because Coca Cola and Nestlé told them to. 😬

“Please do also let us know as soon as possible when you have clarified next steps for removing the reference to ‘minimally processed’ from the promotions guidance – as mentioned on the call, this is a particularly contentious issue for our members.”

It’s corruption all the way down.

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.)

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.