They have a responsibility to ensure that games they sell continue to work.

How do you figure that? Valve sells you a game, and they publish the system requirements for that game. If a game doesn’t work on your system then they’ll give you a refund as long as it’s within the refund window. Beyond that, they owe you nothing. For 32-bit titles, one of the technical requirements is 32-bit OS libraries. Let’s say Windows 12 removes support for 32-bit software. What do you think Valve will do? I say they’ll mass-update the system requirements of 32-bit titles to indicate that they’re not compatible with Windows 12 and higher. Historical precedent is on my side here, because this is effectively what Valve did when Apple dropped 32-bit support from OSX.

They ship libraries on Linux so there’s a common base, and they should also do so for 32-bit games. GOG does this for older games using things like dosbox or whatever, and Steam should follow suit.

The libraries that Valve ships for Linux support are essentially Proton. They’ve invested a lot of effort into Proton because there’s a strong business case for doing so. 95% of Valve’s customers game on a Windows OS (source: Steam hardware survey), which means that Microsoft could present an existential threat to Valve if Microsoft attempts to lock down their platform. Having a functional alternative OS could dissuade Microsoft from making any anti-competitive moves. Plus, of course, without Proton there’s no Steam Deck. I think making money from Steam Deck is only Valve’s short term goal though, which is why they’re opening up Steam OS to other handheld makers. The long-term aim is to shift gaming away from closed-source to open-source platforms so that Valve’s business isn’t reliant on any one OS vendor.

There’s no business case for doing the same with legacy 32-bit titles. There will be no new 32-bit titles going forward, and there’s hardly any market for existing legacy 32-bit titles. Valve would need to compete with GOG, who’s already doing much the same thing, and GOG is barely profitable as it stands. GOG’s 2024 profits were a paltry 1.1M profit on 199M revenue (source). That’s a profit margin of about 0.5%, which is not a healthy indicator in a for-profit business. 5% is generally considered low, 10% or better is a healthy margin. GOG is essentially being propped up by CD Projekt Red’s Witcher/Cyberpunk money (CDPR has 468M profit on 801M revenue in 2024; a profit margin of 58%, which is wildly high-margin). Valve could prop up a money-losing 32-bit compatibility project with all their income from 64-bit software sales, but I doubt they would.

The Steam client is just a launcher. Why is it Valve’s job to make sure that legacy 32-bit games continue to run? They’re not the vendor of the game, and they’re not the vendor of the OS. They’re just a middleman. If the game vendor doesn’t want to patch it to 64-bit, and the OS vendor doesn’t want to maintain 32-bit compatibility, then there’s simply no more support for that combination of OS and game. Valve isn’t required to step in there.

It may surprise you to learn that Valve already switched the client to 64-bit… for Mac. OSX hasn’t had 32-bit support since 2019, but it still has a Steam client! Valve didn’t do anything for 32-bit-only Mac titles, except drop the “Mac OS compatible” tag once Apple had dropped 32-bit support. That’s all they’re ever going to do for 32-bit-only PC titles, when/if OS vendors completely drop 32-bit support.

32-bit is dead and it’s somewhat absurd that Steam is still 32-bit.

Tell that to anyone who bought a legacy title on Steam and now wants to run it on modern hardware. Leaving the Steam client at 32-bit is simply a low-effort way to ensure that the OS has the 32-bit libraries that will be required by any 32-bit title the user happens to launch.

I must have missed that negative sentiment entirely. I played all three and had no complaints. Did some searching, and apparently a lot of the gripes were related to levels being cut down in size / broken down into pieces to allow for a console release (strict memory requirements). Also I think they changed engines for the 3rd game, or at least a lot of people complain that movement and controls were worse in DS. I guess ignorance is bliss, cause I enjoyed them all.

Do you mean Thief: Deadly Shadows? That was the 3rd game in the series, and from what I understand it was pretty well received. The orphanage level alone is so highly regarded that it has its own Wikipedia page.

Now the 2014 reboot, just titled Thief, that was so poorly received the it basically killed the series. It might have been a decent game, but it was not a good Thief game.

lol yup

Holy shit, I didn’t even notice the multiple abominations with electrical connections in that picture, I was mesmerized by the plumbing madness.

Be lucky if we get out of this with only a recession. The slogan might as well have been Make America Great Depression Again.

Man, just don’t go to the US, full stop. At this point if my employer asked me to go to the US, I would straight up refuse.

Canadians have two moods. The first is “I’m sorry”, the second is “You’ll be sorry.”

Second mood activated.

We need a pithy, demeaning nickname to sum this up, something that’ll really get under his thin skin. I’ll suggest PINO, “President In Name Only.” Open to suggestions tho!

As a Canadian, I’m all for targeting red states where possible but I fully expect the blow back to hit all Americans. Tariffs are a relatively blunt instrument. If we put a 25% tariff on softwood lumber for example, I don’t think we get to say that only purchasers in red states have to pay it. Every American purchaser has to pay an extra 25% for those 2x4s, or car parts, or potash, or crude oil, or electricity, or aluminum, or steel, or raw minerals. Those purchasers will inevitably download that cost onto their customers, which means that ultimately American consumers collectively are going to foot the bill.

Some of these Canadian response measures will even come back to harm Canadians! There are plenty of instances where Canadian companies sell raw materials to US companies and then Canadian consumers buy back finished products that incorporate some of those materials. As such, some of the added cost of Canadian tariffs is going to be paid by Canadian consumers. Regular citizens on both sides of the border are in the some boat, and Trump put us there with his stupid, stupid choice. Canadian or American, we would all do well to remember that because I’m sure that Trump would love nothing more than to see us divided and hating one another.

I’m sorry for the economic damage that this fight is going to cause all of us, on both sides of the border. Please remember that Trump started this fight, and Canada will not roll over. I think Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney summed it up best in this BBC interview. The whole interview is worth a watch, but the link goes to the highlight to which I’m referring. Here’s the transcript of that highlight:

Interviewer: It’s pretty clear that [Trump] thinks [Canada] can be pushed around.

Carney: We can’t.

a fat crow

Now it’s just the Center for Disease.

Playoff hockey is a whole nother level. This was during the first round of the playoffs in 2016, St. Louis vs. Chicago. The Blues gave him tickets to a game in the next round of the playoffs.

No, the opposite actually! Any amount of exercise will help with GI motility, but intense exercise causes the digestive system to slow down (source).

None of the above. The correct answer is walking. Moving around helps kickstart the GI tract.

I don’t believe it actually does grow back faster, it just seems that way. The first inch or so gives the impression of growing back faster because the hairs are thicker at the base so they’re more visible and less prone to breakage.

I’m all for de-Googling, but… is it possible that Restricted in this context mean those apps have no data usage because they’re restricted from using it? It could be trying to say that the app is restricted, not that you’re restricted.

The owner of the Cantina doesn’t like droids, so my head canon is that he’s repurposed scavenged droid heads as drink dispensers. Kind of a “drinking from the skull of your enemy” type thing.

Is there any benefit at all

Maybe! There’s at least some scientific evidence that chemical compounds in mushrooms can have medicinal effects.

Bias disclaimer: I put a lion’s mane mushroom tincture in my morning tea because it may have a neuroprotective effect (source). My father’s father had dementia, my father is currently in a home with profound dementia, the chances it’s going to happen to me are very high. It’ll be years before I know whether lion’s mane mushroom will do anything for me (and even then you couldn’t claim anything from one data point), but I’m willing to try anything as long as it’s affordable and has at least some plausible evidence behind it. This isn’t the only thing I’m doing of course, I’ve also overhauled my diet (MIND diet) and lost 30 pounds (obesity is correlated with dementia).

why can’t you make it your self by pulverizing dried mushrooms of the same variety they use into powder and making the coffee yourself?

You absolutely could. Or, you know, just eat some of the same mushrooms. The benefit to dried products like Ryze, or tinctures like the one I use, are that they’re convenient, easily transportable and self-stable. I’ve cooked up fresh lion’s mane mushrooms several times, but not super often because they’re not in many stores in my area and tend to be pricey for the amount you get. I’ve also grown my own from a kit but that takes significant time and a little bit of daily attention to maintain optimal growing conditions. The tincture is convenient and relatively affordable as far as daily supplements go.