Nuclear Monster

  • The “winner?” of the ongoing Apple portable keyboard saga, Casey Johnston, writes about the new repair program for Macbook keyboards:

    While the repair and replacement program covers costs and notes that Apple will repair both single keys as well as whole keyboards when necessary, it doesn’t note whether the replacements will be a different, improved design that will prevent the problem from happening again (and again, and again). Having become a one-woman clearinghouse for people complaining about these keyboards since I broke this story, I feel justified in saying that keyboard failures – dead keys, sticking keys, double-spacing spacebars – appear to happen early and often, and repairs do not permanently fix the issue. I also feel justified in saying that the design on offer as recently as February still presented the exact same issues as the design I purchased in the fall of 2016.

    Of course, that means nobody should be buying Apple’s modern* laptops until there’s some kind of hardware revision to stop the problems with minuscule grains of nothing destroying these delicate keyboard keys. It’ll be better when I have a reason to stop pining for an iPad with XCode, gcc, an official Terminal.app, and a clamshell keyboard case from Apple.

    *Apple will still sell you the 2015 MacBook Pro in various configurations online if you want more standard ports and a keyboard that won’t quit on you if a butterfly flaps its wings within the surrounding 200 miles.

  • Dresser While looking for video instructions on how to fix particle-board furniture, these videos of taranta06 fixing a broken dresser corner popped up. It isn’t at all what I would have expected and it’s extremely satisfying to see the end result.

    Part 1:

    Part 2:

  • Speaking of exploitative event and battle passes, here’s Steven T. Wright quoting Psyonix’s Scott Rudi about their Rocket League Rocket Pass in Variety:

    From Rudi’s perspective, the Rocket Pass is just another way for Psyonix to shower items onto the dyed-in-the-wool rocket-freaks who’ve already put thousands of hours into mastering the subtleties of their hit game. “We didn’t even really think about it from a financial perspective,” he says. “We have enough new players each month to sustain the game, frankly. It’s more about having a short-term experience that engages with players all across the spectrum. I’m a big believer in the one-more-turn compulsion – this idea that, well, I’m only one game away from getting my next tier, so let’s go again.”

    Perhaps the time to stop implementing part of a video game is when you realize you’re exploiting people’s vulnerabilities. Rocket League is fun, it shouldn’t need this.

  • 20180622013904 1
    If you didn’t feel like the random crate drops with various cosmetic skins that could usually only be unlocked with purchasable keys were already exploitative enough, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was just updated on Windows with the Sanhok map and this free-to-play style event pass.

    The game also has missions and login bonuses, but some of those are only available if you buy the event pass, which you shouldn’t. I’d been trying Sanhok before it was released, and it’s good, small, fun. For those times when you can’t devote 40 minutes to getting to the top ten before being owned by the silenced shotgun sniper xXxLuBu69xXx.

    They’ve also added a towed banner advertisement to the back of the plane that drops you off in paradise, lovely:

    Banner tow

    Of course there’s also an ad on the top of your parachute. PUBG Corp should at least go the Team Fortress 2 route and drop the cost to free if they’re going to switch to a free-to-play business model. Paying $30 and then getting this crap is a really bad look.

  • Nintendo’s skipped out on any kind of fancy stage show for a minute, so they’re back with this pre-recorded Nintendo Direct. It’s a hair under 43 minutes long, which is a wonderful thing.

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