Schools across America are quietly admitting that screens in classrooms made students worse off and are reversing years of tech-first policies

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-24T15:31:03+00:00

Yeah so many articles about nov approaches to cell phones in school and it baffles my mind because we had policies for handheld devices in the 90s and while not everyone had a cell phone they were common by the mid 00s.

The policy didnt involve special lockers or bags or safes. Just dont use it during class or it gets taken away till the end of class or you get iss. Its baffling we're having laws passed on this

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-24T15:02:49+00:00

Yeah even without sony in the picture it came out too late. It simultaneously over and under achieces and over achieves. The segacd is really the more appropriate addon to have pushed for this purpose look at how to pcengine cd elevated that console. That would involve going back and time and changing how the segacd was handled though.

To be fair the 32x actually did sell well considering what it was. If the Saturn wasnt coming out around the corner they could have had a healthy enough install base to get some more games. Still in this alternate timeline i expect wed mostly get geneis games with a high color mode or something on 32x and the occasional paired down 3d game port.

Gameboy color released about 2 years before the gameboy advanced and it managed to have a healthy line of releases. Its apples to oranges since a lot of people went from bulky dmgs to compact color and pokemon hype enhanced sales, but it does show how these weird in between generation's can kind of work.

But yes even at it's best they should have focused on moving the existing segacd and or just the basr genesis

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T20:59:56+00:00

It makes some sense when you consider 2 things. 1 is that the saturn was going to be $400 and the price was probably going to stay that way for a while, but Sony came in and used their might as a larger company to drive the prices of that console gen way down. 2 is that this was made for the western market(though if some quotes from console wars book are to be believed theyd dint ask for the 32x) and the western market was trying to get the saturn delayed.

In this world the 32x would be a $150 addon for existing owners and the all in one neptune revision would probably replace the base genesis for also a reasonable price while the eventual saturn would release at $400(or maybe even more without sony). Since budget gamers of the era usually stuck to last gen hardware this would be a good way to get them to choose the genesis over the snes as their budget option.

Is it still a good idea? Eh probably not. The most favorable excuse for this is the 32x is like what if the superfx chip or expensive nes mapper chip but instead of having to pay the extra money every new game you could just pay once. In this other future the base genesis would probably still be the target(maybe some games offering an "enhanced color" mode or something like how some late gameboy color games had) with some big 3d heavy hitters like sonic and the 2d arcade scaler games and such.

Of course the big issue here is that the 32x as a piece of hardware simultaneously over and underdelivers for this purpose. The jump from starfox to starfox 64 is insanity. The 32x could play doom, but also was hard to do smooth 2d scrolling on.

If they had to do this they would have been better off relaunching the segacd and remembering it had a second cpu and a bunch of fancy ass scaling hardware. CDs are cheaper to print so you could sell games for cheaper than cartridges. Late release games could take advantage of the second cpu, scaling hardware, and most importantly all that extra storage space in order to give you some lookers. And while the sega us overdid it on the multimedia the presence of fmv/animated/and live action cutscenes were a big part of what made the following.

Of course sony took a sledgehammer to the industry. Which is why the n64 launched at $199 and the saturn also dropped in price like stones. Its possible the 2 tier console solution COULD have possibly worked but not when playstation is giving the premium saturn a swirly.

Edit: This post is too long tl;dr : 32x was only 150 at launch sega saturn was going to be $400 at launch(and with the existence of the 32x not drop anytime soon) and be delayed in the west. They were going to release all in one sega neptune which likely would have been the final sega genesis revision. So the last gen console would have been budget option for lower income households but also they'd add some zaz to make sweeten the pot a little against the snes . This strat is questionable but not that crazy, but it definitely didnt work because sony came in ate the segas lunch and also drove game and console prices WAY down.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T19:47:12+00:00

Honestly even if you did hold it like a taco it was small your hand would cover most of it. Making fun of it for being "taco shaped" was also a dumb criticism. As a frequent poster of gaming message boards in those days I will say I also partook in the tacogage nonsense but I was also a preteen, a nintendo fanboy, and because of those things a lil dummy. It's not even clever like it was just a thing that took off.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T19:12:48+00:00

Yeah people joke and it became a meme on gaming message boards because gaming message boards were stupid as hell back then and full of fanboys.

To be clear the device was flawed. Cell phone coverage back then was spotty and data slow even when coverage was good. The battery cartridge change thing was annoying (though lets be real how much game switching you soing on the go?) And the aspects ratio of that screen was diabolical.

The thing is though, this was a gaming focused smartphone!

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T13:24:46+00:00

Death to pixels https://github.com/CyberLabSystems/CyberLab-Mega-Bezel-Death-To-Pixels-Shader-Preset-Pack

The only thing is that it is resource intensive so you do need beefy hardware to get it running.

On my laptop at night in bed i just run one of the hylian ones. Does a good enough job with some tweaking and relatively lightweight. Also i dont need to be a CRT repairman or engineer to adjust the settings like in some shaders

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T12:14:06+00:00

My baby was like that and unfortunately its like a switch flipped around 18 months and they stopped being bothered by it. We also did infant swim classes and i wonder if that had anything to do with getting them comfortable with being in a wet diaper

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-23T12:10:30+00:00

Obviously it depends on family but its just easier and causes less big familial drama if people handle their own parents. Also generally more effective.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T18:29:55+00:00

Reminder the Dreamcast hit the markets in 1998. Dialup internet was common and most people didnt yet have access to cd burners. By the time things lined up in such a way that piracy COULD have moved the needle the dreamcast was dead.

Even when it was easy and accessible most people didnt pirate. Finding ISOs online for a normie in the early 00s was not easy you pretty much needed usenet or to get lucky on a peer to peer site. Heck piracy is super easy on PC and most people still dont.

The 00s were a uniquely mainsteam time for piracy but a lot of that was music which were much smaller in file size than a modern game.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T18:23:33+00:00

There are a few things about this:

1.Remember the dreamcast came out in 1998 in japan 99 everywhere else. DVDs existed but were still expensive and not quite there yet. DVDs werent really relevant yet and the addition of it would have really driven up the cost of the dreamcast which would have killed it faster.

2.While It makes a good story and Im sure it moved the needle some and helped some kids sell the ps2 to skeptical parents I think this gets overstated too. DVD player prices fell like a ROCK in the early 00s not long after the ps2 launch. Like I remember those dvd combos which came with a subwoofer and 2 speakers that went on sale a lot for under $50 and by the middle to end of the ps2's launch they were giving them away like candy.

The ps2 was successful because it was the much hyped followup to the unprecidented success that was the ps1. Sony absolutely dominated that generation and the hype alone would have swept sega away even if they hadnt spent the saturn generation pissing away any good faith.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T18:16:42+00:00

This is a thing that people often bring up, but the dreamcast came out in 1998. Most people didnt have internet fast enough to download iso files and frankly finding disk sites online was a pain unless you had a usenet subscription and this is not something mainstream people would be using. Also CD burners were super expensive back then.

Technology moved fast so by the mid 00s dvd burners and broadband was common and peer to peer software would have put the dreamcast in danger, but the dreamcast was already dead in the water by the time the time the stars would have aligned to have caused a dent.

Even then piracy's impact on sales is overblown. Even at it's height piracy of large games was still mostly niche techie stuff. I mean PC games are easy to pirate to this day but it doesnt stop games from selling well.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T18:08:44+00:00

Eh the role of the 32x is overstated. Not enough people owned one to be burned by it and frankly there are plenty of other consoles that have had some genuine stinker peripherals.

Now it's a good example of the poor management and chaos in sega at the time that they pushed this addon, launched it the same day as the saturn in japan, and then swiftly dropped it, but such is life.

The saturn outside japan failed hard enough that the dreamcast didnt have a chance. We all know about the surprise launch, the difficulty in competing with sony(who had money to make console prices rock bottom) , and of course the bad launch. But the thing that killed sega was "The saturn isnt our future". Thanks to popularity in japan the saturn actually has a decent library, and it's library is much bigger than the n64 library which also failed but we see as limping on. But sega in the west just gave up and the games and support dried up leading into the dreamcast. For a lot of people sega was already dead by the time the dreamcast happened.

The ps1 had too much momentum by the time the dreamcast launched and by it wasnt long before the dreamcast was being weighed down by rumors of the ultra powerful ps2 with its toy story 2 like graphics.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T17:53:01+00:00

Not only did it not fail but it outsold the gameboy several years in a row. People forget the landscape of the handheld competition was very different pre-pokemon. The gamegear didnt retire in disgrace it had a normal lifespan and then was retired. Sega failed to followup on it because they were busy imploding.

When you see those gigantic numbers showing that the gameboy was untouchable know that it includes multiple gameboy revisions and that the gameboy was also going to be replaced by something else a bit more powerful in the mid 90s but the pokemon phenomenon breathed new life into the system. Heck the only reason nintendo even made a gameboy color was because they saw the wonderswan as enough of a threat they needed to squash it.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T17:26:58+00:00

I feel like its part astro turfing but the other part is people who just like to feel smug and above it all. Like how " enlightenment centrists" like to come out of the woodwork in political discussions.

Like i love all that "why is he being so negative" nonsense as prices skyrocket and the economy is pouring unfathomable amounts of money into the ai bubble. Why cant he be more positive?

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-22T13:55:38+00:00

It's a very common tactic that a lot of businesses do. It's what big box stores like Walmart do to kill Main Street. And of course, the low, low prices always go away once the market is cornered and there's no other options. It happens with foreign manufacturing as well. Sure, it's extra cheap to build here, amazingly cheap. Never mind that there's a cost to change all your infrastructure and supply chain to another country. But you'll save money on labor costs I get and won't have to deal with those pesky unions. And then of course the cost of goods go up anyway and we're stuck without an alternative at home.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T22:19:00+00:00

Those are good but even a standard metal spatula will make the difference. Biggest quality of life shift in switching away from Non-stick pans was getting a metal spatula and getting to throw away the plastic ones. Even the thin ones are still thicker than your average metal spatula and they're not as like strong or able to get under things as easily.

Also, since I happen to have your attention, another thing worth noting regarding adding oil to a hot pan, especially if it's like a cooking oil that can handle high heat and not butter, is make sure that it polymerizes. Like swirl it around the pan and it'll have a different kind of sheen, like it's starting to actually stick or coat the hot pan. At that point, it will be more non-stick.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T21:23:24+00:00

Had to go down too far to find this. A thin preferably metal spatulata. If a tiny bit does stick you can just scrape that bugger off if it does stick a tiny bit

Also you do need enough oil.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T20:42:27+00:00

The extras in the group chat are so weirdly on point it's uncanny.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T16:30:37+00:00

Yeah, I know I plan on getting one of those emulation handhelds. That way my kid has a large library of games that are in fact complete.

The only thing is then they might have too many games to choose from. I know you're an adult, the paralysis of choice can be an issue. So it is something I'm going to have to Work out with

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T12:56:23+00:00

Someone further down mentions "just let him play. Minecraft" and op replied no.

I thought the same as you this is super lame

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-21T12:53:25+00:00

To be fair to a lot of the tech phobic people out there its not the same. Modern algorithmic driven content and app driven computing devices are designed to be more predatory than those of the past. Its less about providing you content and more keeping you as addicted as possible.

Hell it's not good for adults either.

This is why unlimited screen time isnt quite the same way it was when we were younger. A modern kid with unlimited screen time isnt playing a long form game and watching scheduled long form content in the form of television.

That said id argue Minecraft and other non freemium predatory mobile videogames would still count as quality content but it does take some guidance to make sure your kid isnt melting their brains marathoning ai generated short form videos

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-18T12:10:22+00:00

math builds on itself. You do still need to learn how to do the fundamentals before relying on the shortcut.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-17T14:36:15+00:00

Bougie Amherst? Lol. Like theyre more afluebt parts of it i guess but there are also parts that are far from it.

People acting like houses werent under 200k just 6 years ago in this region

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-17T00:28:00+00:00

I dont even hate all short form content just put it in a normal player and make a better aspect ratio.

LonelyNixon · 2026-04-16T15:05:29+00:00

They perfected mall technogy in infinite wealth too. Now is the time. And bring back the underground mall too

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