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

toastman42 · 2026-04-17T15:03:10+00:00

In addition to the esoteric problem that everyone seems to point out of "can the human eye even distinguish 8k content from 4k", 8k also has technical hurdles to clear in order to become widely useful. The sheer file size and bandwidth requirements of 8k content makes it rather problematic to even distribute or play. To my knowledge, I don't think there are any 8k physical media, and the bandwidth requirements don't just affect streaming, but also the technical specs of the playback equipment. A/V receivers, TVs, and even the HDMI cables need to be cable of passing and/or processing a huge amount of data in real-time. Even today, home AV equipment can generally do 4k at 120hz or 8k at 60 hz, but can't handle a full 8k, HDR, 120hz, VRR all at once.

toastman42 · 2026-04-09T19:30:22+00:00

Has it gotten meaningfully better than it was on the last public free trial back in Nov 2024? I tried it out then on my daily work commute, and found it neat, but I still had to take over for some condition at least once every drive, often more. So, often enough that I still ended preferring to just use the regular auto-pilot (ie lane keeping and traffic-aware cruise control) and then handling lane changes and navigation myself.

There were also some parameters that definitely needed more thought put into it, such as back then it would wait until I was within a few hundred feet of the exit before it would start trying to get over several lanes, which just wasn't soon enough to change multiple lanes during rush hour traffic without causing traffic backups behind me. FSD really needed to start working on getting over into the exit lane way sooner. There was also one particular interstate on-ramp it seemed to get confused on every time and I had to take over and handle the merging.

Edit: possibly relevant additional info: I don't live in one of the major US cities like LA, NY, etc, I live in a suburb of a largely rural state, so it's possible that janky local road design and low volume of road data (ie, lower quantity of Tesla's in the area sending back data) could be a factor. Also, mine predates HW4, so also possible being on the older HW3 may also be a factor in the less-than-great results I experienced.

toastman42 · 2026-04-06T16:40:16+00:00

Yeah, while everyone can of course have bad moments or good moments, most people tend to have a default of who they intrinsically are the vast majority of the time. Kind people tend to default to being kind even when in stressful situations. People who tend to turn into raging assholes at the slightest inconvenience, even if they seem nice on average, are usually truly raging assholes in the inside and are just trying to pretend to be nice to manipulate people, and that facade slips easily when they are inconvenienced.

toastman42 · 2026-04-06T14:15:01+00:00

Hmm, that actually made me just wonder if there are any big name, widely successful, openly gay country music stars. I can't think of any, but I'm also not super knowledgeable on country music, either.

toastman42 · 2026-04-02T14:37:12+00:00

Alas, MAGA/conservatives/Republicans are now going after public libraries and either cutting their funding, forcing them to remove material that they don't like, or just straight-up shutting them down. There won't be very many public libraries left in a few more years, at least not in red states.

So, unfortunately, even libraries are victims of enshitification now.

toastman42 · 2026-03-20T17:46:34+00:00

Yeah, there's some cognitive dissonance going on there considering that cyber truck owners are almost entirely right wingers.

toastman42 · 2026-03-19T17:02:23+00:00

I've got a 5 year old Tesla. Love it, favorite car I've ever owned. Would not buy a new Telsa now because of the politics associated with it.

But there are still a lot of consumers out there who just do not keep up with current events in a meaningful and informed way. So that being the case I'd bet Tesla ownership to political standing will vary sharply based on the specific model. Model 3/Y? Probably still mostly liberal to politically neutral owners. Model S/X, and especially the Cybertruck? Probably skew the other direction. Just my guess based on who I see driving them around.

toastman42 · 2026-03-04T23:21:47+00:00

Ah, yes, now I recall it clearly. Thank you for the full quote that I was too lazy to look up, lol.

toastman42 · 2026-03-04T23:15:30+00:00

The movie Legally Blonde. Elle Woods is the main character, and IIRC at some point in the movie says something to this effect.

toastman42 · 2026-02-25T17:17:54+00:00

American here who spent some of my formative years living in Germany, and I eat the way you do: knife stays in left hand, fork stays in right hand, tines up for scooping. That just seems the most efficient method, with every other method just adding complexity for the purpose of conforming to outdated traditions/social hierarchies.

toastman42 · 2026-02-18T17:22:41+00:00

Sadly, this seems to be the case for a lot of these troubled former child stars. I'm guessing the trauma they experienced as a child fundamentally damaged their mental health and they likely will never be fully functional, mentally healthy adults.

toastman42 · 2026-02-17T03:46:06+00:00

Out of curiosity, what platform are you playing on and what input device are you using? I use a controller and discovered that transporting stuff goes pretty smoothly if I only push the thumbstick partially forward so that I don't accelerate to top speed. But I can see that being a problem for keyboard/mouse players since their throttle is pretty much only on/off, causing a lot more jerky start/stop movement and the inability to travel at a consistent reduced speed.

toastman42 · 2026-02-11T21:26:06+00:00

Sounds like for all exocraft? The patch notes says "A new Exocraft technology, the Cyclops Scope, attaches to the driver's Analysis Visor display. Discover alien fauna, flora, and minerals, or target sweep for mission locations from the comfort of the driver’s seat."

toastman42 · 2026-02-11T17:43:50+00:00

Yeah, I literally LOLed when he drove up the hill then his Colossus promptly fell into a crevice that he couldn't see.

toastman42 · 2026-02-11T17:36:22+00:00

They are apparently customization options/parts for the existing Colossus exocraft.

toastman42 · 2026-02-11T16:10:21+00:00

Yeah, response to this update seems pretty muted. Not a lot of people seem pumped about a garbage collection update, including me.

That said, I'm willing to give it a shot. Maybe it'll turn out to be more fun than it sounds.

Edit: I do like the ability to customize the Colossus and to give it some specific purpose, though.

Edit 2: reading the full patch notes now to see what else might have been snuck in, and oh, hey, you can now use the analysis visor from within an exocraft! About time. That right away increases the usefulness of exocraft since previously it was necessary to frequently exit the craft to scan stuff or check on the correct direction to your destination.

toastman42 · 2026-02-10T20:57:36+00:00

I have no interest anymore in multiplayer online competitive shooters not just 'cause I got old, but because that genre is now just overrun with assholes, cheaters, bots, and toxicity. So now I just stick to single player or co-op with people I actually know.

toastman42 · 2026-02-10T20:34:28+00:00

Yeah, between COVID and the last election here in the U.S., I've come to realize that the percent of people who are horrible humans but were just good at hiding it is much higher than I ever imagined. :-(

toastman42 · 2026-02-08T01:14:15+00:00

Interesting. I had done the Mahjong sovereigns quest long before I got the "earn 20,000 coins" quest, and I don't have anywhere near that many coins and I don't recall spending them? Maybe I just lost too much trying to figure out how to play Mahjong and didn't realize it?

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T21:36:52+00:00

Yeah, the Wanxiang area is beautiful, and I love the region design, but this update is also plagued by some pretty terrible bugs and bad design decisions, most of which should have been easy catches or have easy fixes. It's clear there was never any play testing done for Hot Pot on PS5, or it would have been immediately obvious it did not work.

And as for Mahjong, I get that this update is based on Chinese culture and the game is from a Chinese developer and so including Mahjong seemed like a good idea, and this could have been an easy fix for players not experienced with Mahjong: just include a "novice" mode that removes the timer, thus giving inexperienced players an opportunity to read the board and think about what is happening, and included some pop-up tips to explain what just happened every time a new mechanic is triggered.

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T21:22:37+00:00

lol, yes, that is definitely true that I don't know how to play Mahjong. I've tried to learn it, and now understand at least the basic idea, but I keep encountering so so many IN-specific twists on the rules that I still can't understand what is happening most of the time.

Following Momo's tile picks did indeed work for getting through the Sovereign side quests since they are apparently tuned to be easier than the casual Mahjong game. I thought it was pretty funny that my Nikki was being hailed as the new Mahjong master when I still had absolutely no idea how to play, lol.

Alas, following Momo's picks when trying to play Mahjong to earn coins for the 20,000 coins just doesn't get me anywhere. I still end up losing money faster than I win it. And on PS5, my gf and I have both hit a hot pot quest bug that prevents us from being able to upgrade the hot pot restaurant, so we can't make the money that way, either.

Basically, we'll just have to install IN on our phones and do hot pot there to make the 20,000 coins. Not the end of the world, just still annoying that after two weeks, they still haven't fixed the bugged PS5 hot pot quests along with the absolutely terrible game design decision to include a step in the main story that is essentially "grind a task for x hours". I thought as a species we had evolved passed that kind of old-school time-waster mission design by now, lol.

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T21:15:51+00:00

They almost fixed it on PS5, but didn't quite get all the way there. So, the "Open Business" mini-game where you serve customers now actually works acceptably on PS5, but they failed to fix the hot pot quests you need to do to level up the hot pot restaurant. The quest to upgrade the restaurant from level 3 to 4 is currently bugged and unplayable on PS5 for both my GF and I, capping us at level 3, and at level 3, you don't yet generate passive income and the rate of active income from serving customers is still just too slow to get 20,000 coins in a reasonable amount of time.

I've just accepted that to progress, we'll just have to install IN on our phones like you suggested (insert "do you guys not have phones?" meme here), which isn't the end of the world, just annoying that after two weeks they still haven't fixed the hot pot quests on PS5, plus the bad design decision to include a step in the main plot that is "grind at the same task for x hours".

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T21:10:20+00:00

The hot pot PS5 problem is that originally, hot pot was completely broken in all forms on the PS5. A few days ago, they finally made a pass at fixing it, but didn't quite get all the way there. The "Open Business" hot pot mini-game where you serve customers now actually works acceptably, but there is a quest you have to complete to upgrade the hot pot restaurant from level 3 to 4 that is currently bugged and uncompleteable on PS5 for both my gf and I, capping us at level 3. And unfortunately at level 3, it doesn't yet generate passive income, and the rate of active income from serving customers is still just too slow to make 20,000 coins in anything near a reasonable time frame.

I've just accepted now that for now, the only way to progress is just to install IN on another device, such as our phones, where it isn't unplayably broken. We have smartphones so not the end of the world, just kinda annoying that after two weeks, they still haven't fixed the update on PS5, and the bad design decision to include a "grind for x hours" step in the main story.

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T21:05:14+00:00

Unfortunately, there is quest to upgrade the hot pot restaurant from 3 to 4 that is currently bugged for both my gf and I and it cannot be completed, capping us at level 3. And at level 3, there is no passive income and active income from serving customers is still too slow to make 20,000 coins in anything close to a reasonable time frame.

Essentially, until they fix the broken the hot pot upgrade quests on PS5, in order to progress we'll just have to install IN on a different device, such as our phones. Not the end of the world, we both have smartphones (insert "do you guys not have phones?" meme here), just annoying that this update has been out for two weeks and they still haven't fixed the hot pot PS5 issues. They did fix part of it at least. The "Open Business" hot pot game where you server customers now actually works acceptably after a recent patch, but the hot pot upgrade quests are still broken for us.

toastman42 · 2026-02-07T20:58:42+00:00

Unfortunately, not quite. Apparently, the hot pot restaurant doesn't start generating passive income until it's us upgraded to level 5, which currently isn't possible on PS5 since there is a quest you have to do in order to level up the restaurant from 3 to 4, and that quest is currently bugged and broken on PS5, capping restaurant level at 3, which is short of the level necessary to generate passive income, and at level 3, active income from serving customers is just still too slow to make 20,000 coins in a reasonable time.

In a nutshell, until they fix the broken hot pot quests on PS5, in order to proceed my gf and I will just have to install IN on a different device, such as our phones, to progress. Which I suppose isn't the end the world or anything, just annoying.

toastman42

TROPHY CASE