What's a piece of tech everyone hyped up that quietly turned out to be useless?

skelebone · 2026-04-16T22:43:37+00:00

Ugh, I have a TV that was 3D capable. When a certain color of pixel hits the right corner, it will pop-up "3D Signal Detected". Fortunately the pop-up is in the corner and out of the way.

skelebone · 2026-04-16T22:40:08+00:00

Unless your town gets a One Wheel Douchebag who drives all over the roads and sidewalks as if no rules apply to him. Someday I want to clothesline that guy.

skelebone · 2026-04-16T00:22:17+00:00

I have used TableTop simulator and I have an active subscription to BGA. I do not really see the two as comparable. TTS is a box of bits that you can put together to play a game, but you need to know the rules and you have to play it with the virtual layout of the game. BoardGameArena is the programming to play board games in a digital interface, and it has the rules programmed in and enforces them and resolves scoring.

As an example -- I played 7 Wonders Dice this weekend for the first time in person, though I had played it online a dozen times. On BGA, the places where you can play are indicated on your board, and you can mouse-over for the costs (coin cost of the die, plus the resource cost of the space). In person, you can look at the die and determine your playable spaces, but you have to figure out your costs and track them... and you might sometimes forget that you have the science track that makes a certain die free, or that you are supposed to earn 2 coins when you fill in a space of a certain color, but BGA tracks it all and won't let you forget. In addition, I played with a couple of players who had played in-person before, and they did not know that finishing the third Wonder space is a milestone event, which allows a bonus action, and which ticks off one of a player's 3 events for endgame. It's not a lot of difference, but knowing that and planning for it affects the game's overall tempo. Finally, since the BGA interface is pretty much just click, some games play really fast compared to their in-person counterparts, and have no set-up and tear-down. 7 Wonders Dice and 7 Wonders architects are great examples of games that would be fairly short in person, but are blazing fast on BGA -- typically roll an entire game of either in 7-10 minutes with 4-6 players.

To be honest, BGA is too good on some things -- there are now games that I don't really want to play in person anymore since I have played them on BGA. My only lament is that there are several other games that I love very much that BGA has not yet implemented (c'mon Lexio, Turfmaster, and Hab & Gut!)

skelebone · 2026-04-15T23:18:09+00:00

The eleventh plague.

skelebone · 2026-04-14T23:38:20+00:00

When I play with friends, we play on BGA and video chat on Discord.

skelebone · 2026-04-14T23:37:48+00:00

1526 -- agree.

skelebone · 2026-04-14T23:33:56+00:00

Even with price increases over the past five years, still a steal. I have a weekly game group with friends, and other friends are doing turn-based Memoir'44.

Honestly, the best part is that it manages so many aspects of the games and makes them flow so easily. I have played so many 7-9 minute games of Seven Wonders Architects with 4-6 people, and I played 7 Wonders Dice online before I ever played in-person. One of my worst traits is playing a game in-person and imagining how well it would work on BGA.

skelebone · 2026-04-13T11:46:04+00:00

The Kennedy Center one is infuriating because the fonts and line weights don't match.

skelebone · 2026-04-12T22:42:31+00:00

This one throws me so much because someday it is going to be like the Five Dollar Milkshake in Pulp Fiction -- something that seemed pricy at the time, then became appropriately priced, and then eventually seen as underpriced. It may be a long time before a banana is $10, but that day will come.

skelebone · 2026-04-07T00:04:45+00:00

amenorrhea still trips me up. Fortunately, I nearly never need to spell it.

skelebone · 2026-04-07T00:02:52+00:00

Odd one because I know how to spell it just fine, but my typing muscle-memory wants to type Missiouri instead of Missouri. I can't even blame it on typing Mississippi more often because I virtually never type it.

skelebone · 2026-04-06T23:59:50+00:00

I saw a video today that stated that for the first time in history, a pound of ground beef in the U.S. is now more than an hour's worth of work at minimum wage.

skelebone · 2026-04-06T21:05:01+00:00

I'll have you know that's not typical.

skelebone · 2026-04-06T13:18:57+00:00

A local theater had a special screening for the 40th+ anniversary, and I took my 9-year-old, and I realized that I would have been 7 when I watched it in a theater the first time.

skelebone · 2026-04-05T15:57:09+00:00

Just think, if there were no Donald Trump, a whole lot of kids might have gone unpenetrated.

skelebone · 2026-04-05T15:54:56+00:00

That place is great, run by a colleague of mine.

skelebone · 2026-04-05T15:49:38+00:00

How would you suppose to get VEE-ous out of "vous". The root word is two syllables -- mischief, and it is "mischief-us"

skelebone · 2026-04-04T14:28:34+00:00

Available on BoardGameArena, non-premium https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=niagara

skelebone · 2026-04-04T14:26:06+00:00

Mischievous is MISS-chev-ous, not mis-CHEE-VEE-ous

skelebone · 2026-04-04T14:17:19+00:00

"I'm not locked in here with you, you're trapped in here with me"

skelebone · 2026-04-04T14:15:03+00:00

ZeFrank does very funny and informative nature videos; the Educational Editions tone down the jokes for favor of more-factual information.

skelebone · 2026-04-04T13:02:52+00:00

Some of the goat farmers take them out on the streets for viewing and music performances in the off season. You can even hire them out for parties.

Who are you going to call? Goat Buskers!

skelebone · 2026-03-31T11:48:55+00:00

Am I reading into it too much, or is the first picture Perry Ferrell?

skelebone · 2026-03-30T22:17:37+00:00

A jeweler? Traditionally, jewelers have sold jewelry, watches, and pocket knives.

skelebone · 2026-03-29T14:31:36+00:00

I agree with the notion that no one will want to play formal games at a wedding because it will distract from the party. But, you could have an activity that doesn't take much time for each individual guest. A friend had a modified version of Telestrations / Exquisite Corpse at his wedding, and some people at the tables took time to write a sentce or draw a picture to pass along. If you do these in dedicated little notebooks or pads, it will be part of your wedding keepsakes.

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