I have written similarly awful formulae when I needed to get a csv to export to Google Calendars, but the program I was exporting to wasn’t using Google’s accepted csv headers.

I ended up creating a template that looked at the exported csv file, and then reformatted it in a way that Google liked (and added some extra info along the way.) I needed it to only fill text if an entry actually had info in it, and hide all the text otherwise. So that I could automatically delete empty cells and avoid a bunch of empty calendar entries when importing it into Google. The resulting formula for some of the fields was… Not great. This is what controlled the “name” of each calendar event:

It takes several different potential fields, and combines them into a single field. If there are no entries, it gets left blank.

And every single time I would get it working properly, someone would add a row or change the data validation rules, so I would have to go in and update my formulae. After the fifth or sixth time that happened, I told the person making the changes that it was his job to update the formulae. Suddenly, it stopped getting changed.

Hello FBI, this is the one

The Steam Deck is actually wonderful for retro games. EmuDeck makes setting up emulators a breeze, and the roms can easily be found online legitimately ripped from your own copies of the game and loaded onto a MicroSD card.

Hah, just edited the comment for you.

that respect their time

I know you’re not talking about old school RPGs. The older games tended to pad playtime by having insane difficulty levels or by requiring grinds. Hell, my favorite JRPG (edit: Legend of Legaia) is specifically more grindy in America, because the devs decided to slash the experience and gold drop rates by like 50% for the American release, and make all of the enemies hit much harder. (Interestingly, the original enemy stats are still present in the game code, and then the game runs some “x1.25” math when the battle starts, to bump all of their stats up to the values that actually get used in combat.) So you need to be a higher level to be able to survive, and you need to grind twice as long to reach those higher levels and to be able to buy better gear. I like it despite the grind, not because of it; In most of my play throughs, I end up using cheats to avoid the grind.

and aren’t a glorified second job

I mean, games like Ultima Online, RuneScape, Diablo, and EverQuest have existed since the 90’s. Hell, RuneScape used to be extremely approachable for young players because it didn’t require a good computer or any installs; It just ran directly in your internet browser.

The bigger reason many adults feel this way is not because games have gotten longer or harder. Adults simply have less time to play. They don’t want to spend a bunch of time researching optimal builds or grinding rank in multiplayer matches. Instead, they want to fall back to the games that they already know how to play. They’re willing to ignore the fact that their favorite single player game requires 10-20 hours of grinding, because it doesn’t feel like work to them. Or if it does, they can just use cheats to get around it. They don’t need to research how to get a specific item, or how to approach a specific boss fight, because they have already done it a dozen times.

I honestly hadn’t considered Blitzball. I kind of forget it exists, since I only ever slogged through it to get Wakka’s ultimate weapon and overdrives.

edit: also 2-300 hours in oldschool RuneScape lol

I have logged over 200 hours in RuneScape just this month.

It probably helps that I have a job where I can have it running next to me. At this point, it is basically just an idle game that I only need to touch every ~15 minutes to refresh my idle logout timer. Pretty much the only times it’s not running are when I’m asleep or physically away from a computer.

Hell, even when I’m away from my computer, it keeps running as long as I can touch it every now and then to stay logged in. If I’m AFK’ing slayer with aggressive enemies, I only really need to touch it to refresh my inventory or the idle timer. Even when I’m playing other games, RuneScape just runs quietly on my second monitor.

It’s just disappointing to see how drastically the series has changed. It started as a top-down strategy RPG, and now it’s just a generic hack-n-slash game. Game publishers have shied away from games like the original Dragon Age, because they want to sell as many units as possible. And they think generic hack-n-slash games sell better. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3 have proved that there is still a large demand for more traditional RPGs, but the publishers simply don’t want to take the risk.

This is RuneScape for me. I take very long breaks, but always end up playing it again after not thinking about it for like a year or two.

My judgement will depend on which megaten game you no-lifed.

You can 100% the Sphere Grid in only a few hours, if you’re smart about it. My guess is they were going around using Clear Spheres to wipe unneeded spheres off the map and replace them. The default Sphere Grid doesn’t actually allow you to max your stats; You need to clear the existing +2 or +3 spheres, and replace them with +4 spheres instead.

Even then, maxing your stats doesn’t require 9999 hours. Unless OP was farming experience in Besaid Island (the starting area) it shouldn’t take that long to navigate the grid and farm enough replacement spheres.

Trump and Epstei- oh wait…

Sheriffs are usually elected, not appointed. It’s one of the big reasons decriminalization is so difficult; No elected cop wants to look soft on crime, because their opponents can use it against them in smear campaigns during the next election.

There’s also the fact that the entire American education system is set up to teach Americans that peaceful protest is the only acceptable form of protest. History classes teach about the American revolution as if it was a fully justified break from an oppressive monarchy… And then as soon as it’s done, there’s a hard turn towards “but that was the only time violence was justified. In every other case, you’re expected to peacefully protest instead. Here, have another portrait of MLK Jr in case you forgot what he looked like.”

The Black Panthers were barely even a footnote in my history books. There weren’t any mentions of the union riots, where factory workers threatened to drag the owners out of their offices and lynch them. Because those would show that violence is effective.

Nah, Trump has said that he wants to eliminate taxes for anyone below $150k… But quickly followed up with “but only after we balance the budget”. Which is really just code for “I want to put my name on something that says <$150k doesn’t pay taxes, without actually implementing it.” And then the actual proposal landed, and it turns out they want to cut taxes by cutting it straight from social security and Medicaid.

And this is the real crux of the issue. If there are no penalties for ignoring the court order, then we have already entered the “we need to start lighting dome-topped buildings on fire” phase of protests. Because if the judicial branch is truly being ignored, then there is nothing to stop it from escalating to straight up “Secret Police disappearing citizens in the dark of night for having dissenting opinions” levels.

Though knowing that a homing pigeon with a thumb drive is actually faster than the fastest Internet network on the planet

Depends on how big the flash drive is, I suppose. Need to send a 1GB file? Just make a torrent. Need to send 40TB? Yeah, that hard drive is getting driven across town.

Yeah, the EU has forced Apple to allow third-party browsers, but that was only a few months ago and there aren’t any currently available yet. Since they had been disallowed for so long, no browsers had something ready to go; writing them to be compatible with iOS will take time.

Prion diseases. In order to work properly, proteins have to be folded in a certain way. Misfolded proteins typically don’t work as they should. Prions are misfolded proteins that cause other healthy proteins to misfold when they come into contact with each other. This causes all sorts of medical issues.

Mad Cow Disease is one of the more infamous prion diseases. In humans, it manifests as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It basically causes your brain to melt, as the proteins holding it together all get misfolded. It has a 100% fatality rate, typically within 1 year of initial diagnosis. Fatal Insomnia is another prion disease, where the area of the brain that controls sleep is affected, but the body’s need for sleep still persists. You just become totally unable to fall asleep, until you fucking die from sleep deprivation.

The big issue with prion diseases is that they’re totally 100% incurable and untreatable. Once you have come into contact with the prion, you have a death timer. Prions are also extremely resilient. They aren’t destroyed by time, decomposition, fire, or even caustic chemicals. So they’ll just sit there, waiting for someone to come into contact with them.