Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

polygon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 284 posts

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#81

Post by dont__panic »

arghwhat wrote: post #76
cwkoss wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this bitterant leave a residue when the alcohol evaporates? That seems like one benefit of methanol vs bitterant: all of the alcohol can still evaporate without depositing bitterant as a side effect. Are there bitterants that evaporate similarly to alcohol but are not toxic?

We use isopropyl alcohol, which is not denatured, whenever high purity is required.

Or in a pinch, 99% grain alcohol.

Source: some friends make drinks with grain alcohol, and then don't want it any more after they make those drinks (gee, I wonder why?). Provides an essentially endless supply of alcohol for cleaning purposes for me.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#82

Post by mattlondon »

MBCook wrote: post #42
amelius wrote: post #32

This type of coating is also on Duracell batteries.

I had to buy some coin cell batteries a few months ago (CR2032s or similar) and was surprised to see the package proclaiming they’d done that. Made sense, but had never thought of the need before.

Coin cell batteries can kill toddlers within 48-72 hours if swallowed. Even if they don't kill, they can cause terrible internal burns when the gut shorts the terminals.

If there is any suspicion of swallowing a coin cell, go direct to hospital. Do not give the child anything to eat or drink until given the all clear.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-29610570

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#83

Post by kaladin-jasnah »

smoldesu wrote: post #80
mattkevan wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure OS X is based on the Mach/XNU kernel and Darwin, not FreeBSD.

It's a bit of an amalgam, and it honestly depends on which version of OSX you're talking about. Mach itself was designed as an improvement over BSD, and it was more or less a microkernel developed around BSD concepts with binary compatibility. My understanding is that as time went on, performance issues and security concerns forced Apple to poach more and more BSD code onto Mach, which leaves us with the pretty messy…

Thank you for the clear and concise explanation (: It was very informative.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#84

Post by bryanrasmussen »

southerntofu wrote: post #63
tialaramex wrote: post #53

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…

> for the same reason it doesn't execute or torture criminals. I don't disagree with the idea, but to be precise torture and execution at the hand of police and secret services is still a thing in the EU. Especially since the covid lockdowns started almost two years ago, it seems police murders have raised significantly in some parts of the EU (like France).

The best data I could find was the following https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2021/12/SPACE-II_2020_Final_r...

Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics – SPACE II – 2020 - so evidently 2021 not published yet.

that is the full report maybe take this https://wp.unil.ch/space/files/2021/06/KeyFindings_Probation... which is the keyfindings and a quicker read.

Figure 3 on page 5 (in the keyfindings document) - Probation and Prison population rates (per 100,000 inhabitants) on 31st January 2020 shows the median prison population is 103 per 100,000

where probation is concerned on 31st January 2020, there were 1,512,765 probationers under the supervision of the 31 probation agencies of the Council of Europe member states which use the person as the counting unit for their stock of probationers...

which would lead to a probation population rate of 311 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants. However, when the European median value is estimated on the basis of the population and the number of probationers of each country, it corresponds to 149 probationers per 100,000 inhabitants

in Table 3 on page 16 shows Composition of the probation and prison populations on 31st January 2020 and mortality during 2019.

Is your suggestion that some part of these deaths are killings by the EU authorities as a part of policy / extrajudicial killing, or do you mean that there are other deaths that are not in this table. If so - your sources for this claim please?

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#85

Post by earthscienceman »

Alex3917 wrote: post #33
matheusmoreira wrote: post #2

> “A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card,” the spokesperson said, adding that Nintendo recommends keeping Switch cartridges away from children “to avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion.” The representative also noted that denatonium benzoate is non-toxic. That was unexpected and interesting.

Note that non-toxic does not mean edible, as the FDA recently clarified due to many people being severely poisoned from eating cakes decorated with luster dust meant for crafting. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7043a2.htm You would think that if something says non-toxic, licking it shouldn't kill you, but apparently not.

Wait. WTF does non-toxic mean then? Non-toxic to touch? I don't fathom what they're trying to communicate then..

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#87

Post by eternityforest »

njovin wrote: post #20
Jaxkr wrote: post #9

I waited outside GameStop on launch day to snag a Switch with my friend. We had heard about the bittering agent applied to the cartridges by day two and immediately tasted them ourselves. Hard to believe the Switch is five years old…

I have a fond memory of camping outside a Target from ~10:00p to 6:00a when the Wii was launched. We hung out with a group of strangers in camping chairs, talked about our favorite games, and tried to keep warm. When the Starbucks bakery delivery came a few hours before the store opened the driver gave us all free pastries. The Wii ended up being a very disappointing launch experience IMO but we had a fun time waitin…

The early 2000s were like the peak of tech.

Video games are kinda just OK now. The actual experience was always like 70% set and setting. The game companies put a lot of effort into the games themselves but where are the LAN parties and release events? Where is.... any other aspect of gaming except the games?

Esports youtubers don't really replace split screen multiplayer.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#89

Post by avianlyric »

jessriedel wrote: post #70
tialaramex wrote: post #53

Yes. In the EU product "denatured alcohol" for most purposes is likewise treated with the same agent. This replaces the widespread use of methanol and similar products which are poisonous (yes even if you call the product "meths" it probably isn't methanol in the EU today). The rationale is that poisoning people is not an appropriate reaction to attempted tax avoidance. Alcohol is only "denatured" because booze is ta…

Whether it's reasonable to use poison as a disincentive needs to depend on how often people consume it, accidentally or purposefully. If it's extremely rare, then this is a reasonable use case, even if we don't think poisoning is a reasonable punishment for tax avoidance (because, indeed, the poison is not intended to be a punishment). Likewise, we put up physical barriers like metal posts and concrete walls to dissu…

Your situations are not comparable. It's impossible for a human to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol using our readily available senses. Once the methylated spirit is removed from its container there's nothing to warn someone the alcohol is poison that will probably intoxicate, then kill or blind them. Methylated sprits substantially increase the risk of death for no other advantage than to prevent tax evasion. It's the equivalent of deciding the punishment for tax evasion is to execute one in every hundred tax evaders.

Physical barriers on the other hand are both obvious to car drivers, there's no situation where a car driver believes a physical barrier might be safe to drive into, and more importantly, physical barriers are used to protect other road users, not punish people. So you're trading an increased risk of death to prevent bad driving, you're increasing the risk of driver death to reduce deaths caused by bad driving. If drivers regularly strike a barrier that protects a school, it would be completely unreasonable to remove that barrier, and allow drivers to strike children instead.

Re: Nintendo Switch game cartridges taste offensively bad (2017)

#90

Post by klyrs »

ortusdux wrote: post #30

The same bitterant has been used in anti-freeze for about a decade now to help prevent poisonings of children and animals. It is also used in air duster cans, which I've found annoying because it can go from your keyboard to your fingers.

Windshield wiper fluid, too. I got a little on my fingers once, and didn't notice for a few hours, when I licked a finger... what is that flavor... probably licked it a dozen times before I remembered. Whoops. Problem is, I like bitter flavors, and that one was just fascinating.
Post reply on HN