The alternative I was talking about are called employee brains.

There exists an alternative that uses a lot less power. And also that power is going to get spent no matter what anyway.

To me, it’s looking like a replacement for a PC and a portable device, and does not need to compete against a console. And that’s what I’m looking for. I’m just sick of the rising price of video cards, and the worsening state of Windows. I’ve had plans to upgrade my video card for a while now, and could never justify it. I feel like it’s as viable now to get a Deck and a PS5 Slim or a Pro than to get a PC and another portable. PC gobbles up too much power as a desktop nowadays and too expensive as a premium machine.

That sells it for me. Steam Deck is in my future. Windows will not be my next OS.

If we can argue that Sony will stop supporting the PS5 in the future, who’s to say in the future, (without the good leadership), Steam won’t restrict what can be put on the Steam Deck? We have a lot of arguments for wanting a Steam Deck and an alternative OS to boot for gaming, but saying PS5 will be bricked in the future is not a strong one.

These devices have different use cases. Steam Deck also is digital only. If a publisher decides to kill a game, they can control whether you can or can’t play the game. PS5 Pro is expensive, but so are video cards nowadays. PS5 Pro is just following a trend set years before, including the shift from physical games and cost. The only way to stop anti-consumer trends is to stop buying expensive hardware (PS5 Pro included). Also, give some love to physical copies of games.

You never hear rumors of them just taking a break. It’s always some distraction happening that are almost always never true.

In the past few years, my workplace has used Webex, Zoom and Teams. I definitely hate that we’re using Teams now because the others are better when it comes to meetings. Teams is unusable for me half the time while the others just worked. Lag spike during the call? Now the microphone doesn’t work. Or it will work but no one can understand you while you talk.

In my work machine, mine has a special feature when someone shares their screen during a call and you go full-screen - the extreme audio lag feature.

Well, same thing happens with Gaza, but also Ukraine loses. So take that, Biden.

Now, instead of debugging the code, you have to debug the data. Sounds worse.

If I were stuck in the forest with a bear and another person, I’d try to gauge if I can run faster than the other person. If not, I’ll try to see if I can hit their knee caps with something. But seriously, the problem with that hypothetical situation is there’s nothing actionable, you’re either for or against, no chance of improvement. On the other hand, you shouldn’t take things personally. We all just probably wish there are things we can do to improve.

Teams started out okay. But the recent update made it worse. The microphone constantly disconnects now. Earlier today I lost sound completely just when I was being asked to talk. And the sound starts to get choppy during screen shares. I rarely had these issues with Webex and Zoom. So it’s not even more compatible with their own software. EU doesn’t have anything to worry about. /s

It’s been years but Daggerfall to me feels like the ideal RPG. They did make it a point to make simpler games after Daggerfall. Beginning with Morrowind, the magic categories slowly got reduced, the skills were intentionally consolidated and reduced in number. That’s the reason why the later games sold really well. Starfield still sold well despite the valid criticisms but they should have trended into more complexity for a space game. Bethesda games are the junk food of games (and sports games are Mountain Dew or something).

To their credit, at least they’re still trying to build stuff. Microsoft avoids this problem by no longer innovating and just buying into whatever is trending. (Not that Google also isn’t doing the same). If you never build anything new, you never risk killing a product that didn’t trend, which happens a lot.