s/gift/bribe/

Holy shit, can’t believe someone actually added this pattern to the coffeestains package!!

Smartphones ruined the internet.

When you needed to sit at a computer, use a keyboard, and spend a bit of time to write out thoughtful content, the quality of the discussion and community on the internet was so much higher. With smartphones, they had to dumb down the UI, consolidate content and reactions into likes and emojis, and generally just had to deal with smaller, more unsubstantive and rage-baity comments.

Plus, there’s just the undeniable fact that computer users are more tech-savvy than people who only know how to use a smartphone. Making the internet smartphone friendly opened the floodgates up to a sea of low-quality engagement.

Before smartphones, we would go outside, live our lives, then come home and see what happened on the internet that day. When the internet started following us around in our pockets on crippled devices that are designed for consumption and cheap-ass engagement, that’s really when the internet went to shit.

Internet tech companies have perfected the art of enshittifying a service. Internet services these days practically follow a playbook of, 1.) hook users, 2.) build a walled garden, 3.) exploit users. Basically the EEE of the user-driven web. Pretty much every company at this point, both old and new (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Reddit, TikTok, Discord, Twitter, Netflix) follow this exact pattern.

Modern UI design, dark patterns, deprecating services while raising prices, “install our app!”, etc. We didn’t have this in the days of IRC, Usenet, all that other good stuff before corporate web came around.

Remember when Microsoft was forced to give a “select your web browser” prompt when setting up a Windows computer?

Quaint times, those were…

Fair, he was due to retire.

But at the very least, there’s a good chance that Apple will start trying to shoehorn integrate AI in a lot of places. How much and where remains to be seen. Especially as a new CEO, there will be a lot of pressure to respond to all the criticism they’ve been receiving about their approach to AI.

That’s probably about to change with their new CEO too:

“It’s becoming clear that AI is not a fad, is not something that will go away in the next two or three years,” said Jeronimo. “It’s something that will dictate the future of most tech companies and indeed all companies.”

He reckons AI could be “the most consequential technology” for Apple because it could either help it maintain its lofty position or create a set of daunting challenges.

https://www.dw.com/en/can-new-apple-ceo-john-ternus-fix-the-tech-giants-ai-woes/a-78575898

It’s pretty likely that AI was the reason why Apple is changing CEOs in the first place, because they have been getting criticized for not being as hopelessly stupid about it as other tech companies are.

The magic damage meta is so much more interesting that right-click damage. Every fight, you’re on the edge of your seat wondering if they’re going to be able to burst down the main hero, or are they going to run out of mana/spells/cooldowns. Teams have to coordinate their spells and abilities which just makes for much more interesting analysis. It’s just much cooler than watching HP bars steadily tick down from right clicks.

You’re definitely right about all the saves in the game making heroes like Jugg unviable. The game has evolved a lot over the years with a lot more itemization, and the game continues to get better and better, but it’s also made many of the original heroes feel pretty unloved. A lot of the new mechanics in the game haven’t been backported to them. Look at Muerta for example - a viable carry because her ultimate goes through ghost scepter (right?) and she has a better built-in farming mechanic too. So yeah, Jugg does need a little more in his kit, but you could probably say the same about a lot of the old heroes too (especially carry ones).

Maybe. The thing about nullifier is that any of the other 4 heroes on your team can build it too. And even if you fix that issue, there’s still the fact that there’s still too much of a change that you jump away to different targets.

The problem with omnislash is that it’s just too RNG to be useful in pro matches. You don’t know who you’re going to hit, and you don’t know where you’re going to be when it’s over. That’s fine for pubs, but can’t work in pro matches. And then there’s the balance issue - buff it too much and Jugg becomes a smurf hero, or first phase ban in pro matches. Bounty hunter is another great example of this - it’s either in the dumpster or first phase-banned.

It’s hard to make a hero that works both at 1k MMR and in the pro scene, and at all MMR levels in between too. So we end up seeing a lot of bland heroes in tournaments because it’s really easy to balance the game around all the heroes’ HP pools. The tanky strength core meta (like carry DK that felt like it was meta for 3 years) was really what killed my interest in watching the pro scene.

Well, that was a bit rambly, but with all of that said, this year was a lot better I have to say - really refreshing to see all the magic-based linueups. Seeing teams trying to burst through heroes with just enough mana/abilities/damage amp was really what made all the fights fun to watch.

It’s solid because it’s so simple. And the documentation is great too - the handbook has everything you need!

Sounds like the distro is kinda of a clown show (see this comment: https://reddthat.com/comment/28643289), but it is really nice to see derivative distros coming off of Void. To me, it’s a sign that Void is gaining more relevance in the community which is great because I really think it’s the best distro out there these days.

As the casters were saying, Juggernaut basically needed 3 more item slots to feel like a good carry that game. He’s just not a viable hero with her ultimate being what it is. Halfway through the match, I found myself thinking that they should make omnislash a regular ability and make blade fury his ultimate or something like that.

They are sociopaths, so they thrive on making others insecure

And stop paying for Windows while we’re busy getting rid of it!

Very true, and it has a much stronger effect when there’s nothing around you. When you’re in a large Asian/European city with tall buildings and narrow roads, everything feels closer so a small amount of speed feels like a lot. On massive American roads where everything is spread out (like the one in the photo), a lot of speed doesn’t feel like very much.

That was such a beautiful game 4. The last pick SK was perfect and 9class’s itemization was also incredible. The doom on Collapse during the last fight in front of the radiant base was also genius. Such a high-level game. I’m probably cursing Team Vision by praising them so much but that was an immaculate performance.

I love this game.

Addiction to speed is a part of it. I think being trapped in a car actually creates a lot of psychological issues. Another one that doesn’t get mentioned enough IMO is claustrophobia. All these psychological issues are probably big contributors to road rage.

I haven’t been following dota2 much lately, but this game3 between liquid and falcons makes dota feel like it did 5 years ago. Love seeing how liquid adapted their draft (I don’t think void is meta anymore) and the fights are off the hook!