Notices by Ernie Smith (ernie@writing.exchange)

Thoughts on the new Affinity? Good, or a trap?

@shanselman Rad! Over/under on Qbasic getting a similar treatment?

@mattl It is technically on Linux (via Proton) but it does not have a native Linux port. I agree, it’s strange.

Crashing on Balatro was driving me nuts—basically the game would often blow up on me in Wayland, forcing a logout. It was frustrating.

Found a solution: Run it through the LOVE runtime. A little complicated to set up, but it works flawlessly.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3220403989

You can even keep your saves—just create a symlink from the Proton version in the LOVE folder and it will save your games and send them to Steam.

This works essentially because Balatro is made with a cross-platform tool. For whatever reason there is no Linux version offered, but it runs a lot better using the runtime, including getting native Wayland support.

@mattl alt.mattl

Screw it, this sucks. Let’s go back to Usenet.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/29/mastodon-says-it-doesnt-have-the-means-to-comply-with-age-verification-laws/

@feld @gray @mischievoustomato shout-out to teenage pentesters everywhere

Despite many, many (many!) complaints about it, attempts to block or filter the internet keep coming up. Why do we keep doing this?

https://tedium.co/2025/08/26/internet-content-filters-history/

refreshed @tedium

“A teenager with a desire to work around a restriction is a hell of a pentester.”

https://tedium.co/2025/08/26/internet-content-filters-history/

Essential piece on the U.K.’s invasive role in online free speech.

https://torrentfreak.com/uk-govt-finds-ideal-pirate-bay-poster-boy-to-sell-blocking-of-non-pirate-sites-250824/

Kind of impressed that nobody seems to be talking about the Subway sandwich thing over here. That may be the most insane viral video I’ve seen in quite some time.

@mattl @tedium The CEO of AOL on top of the SEO of AOL. Like it.

@mattl @tedium I still don’t know how the hell you did it

OK, I finally wrote about the story I accidentally helped expose to a large audience.

On AOL and dial-up, and what it means for it to go away.

https://tedium.co/2025/08/11/aol-dial-up-ending-retrospective/

new @tedium

https://writing.exchange/@ernie/114996043264907534

This is the coolest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiFGhnXsh8

Shout out to @mattl for apparently breaking a story with the AOL thing.

It had apparently been noticed by just a couple of random Twitter users before last night.

Who's still rolling on POTS?

So apparently we are within the last 60 days of dial-up AOL being a thing.

https://help.aol.com/articles/dial-up-internet-to-be-discontinued

ht @mattl