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Big AI has PC users furious. Nvidia and Micron's weird emotional appeals make it worse (www.pcworld.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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  • Nvidia and Micron are making emotional appeals to consumers while PC users express frustration with big AI companies’ practices and self-serving motives.
  • Memory vendors predict DRAM and SSD shortages lasting until mid-2027, while new tariffs on advanced computing chips and potential Steam Machine pricing over $1,000 add to consumer concerns.
  • The article highlights how corporations use emotional messaging to mask financial interests, advising consumers to remain skeptical of such appeals.
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[–] 45 points 9 months ago (15 children)

Switch to retrocomputing; it’s currently significantly more affordable.

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  • [–] 17 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    Not a bad idea. How do you actually partake that hobby? Is it more the same building things or the challenge of getting old hardware/software working?

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  • [–] 33 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    A mix of both; finding old gear and combining parts to restore functional units, repairing where needed and learning more about how the systems work in the meantime.

    And older SIMMs and DIMMs are relatively cheap right now — you can create a maxed out system for its era and still do everything on the computer that was possible to do when it was new.

    There’s even great web proxies for older systems now, so if you want to, you can browse the modern web on a computer from 1996.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Well hey, I appreciate the recommendation. Maybe it’s time to get back into Windows 98 gaming. Just like mom used to make.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    There were actually some genuinely great games in those days, with compelling stories and expansive worlds to explore that still hold up today, it wasn't all Minesweeper and Pong.

    A few highlights: Master Of Orion 2, Deus Ex, SimCity 2000 and 3000, TIE Fighter (or if you're rebel scum: X-Wing, or X-Wing vs TIE Fighter), Half-Life, Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft II, Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, Mechwarrior 2, Age of Empires, Fury^3, Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate 2, The Sims 2, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Total Annihilation.

    Don't be misled by the fact that some of these games are obviously sequels, or had console versions, or have had other sometimes even more well-known sequels and remakes since then. There are some genuine reasons to play the original specific game versions I'm listing here, to play them exactly as they were originally presented. Many of them have unique features and aspects that haven't been repeated. It's not just a Madden 15 vs Madden 16 situation, where you've played one you've played both. There may be a bit of rose-tinted nostalgia goggles in this list, I would certainly love the chance to go back and play some of these for the first time again, but there are also many genuine outliers even among their own franchises, that are unique and incredible, and genre-defining in many cases.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Master Of Orion 2 ... TIE Fighter (or if you’re rebel scum: X-Wing, or X-Wing vs TIE Fighter) ... Warcraft II ...

    X-Wing Alliance too, it's a relatively modern game, but there's something about the campaign. You really feel yourself a rebel.

    They all have that atmosphere of going into the sea for real, I don't know how to describe it.

    Another old game with it is Ascendancy. I always get too emotional from its style and music, somehow it reminds me of how I dreamed of future in my childhood. But I didn't play a lot of it for the same reason.

    Master of Orion 2 is just very playable and comfortable.

    TIE Fighter has that sense of humor similar to Dungeon Keeper in some sense.

    X-Wing I like more, because of its atmosphere, again, you really feel yourself a rebel.

    XvT is for a group of friends.

    WarCraft II has amazing music. Other than feeling yourself in a world where moral alignment is not 2-dimensional, but 3-dimensional, chivalrous honor being the one forgotten. You might not feel yourself the good guy necessarily, but that honor you'll feel in its campaign. A bit like in Harry Potter such a character as Bellatrix Lestrange has that quality maxed out in the positive direction, which makes her an interesting character compared to most DEs who are both baddies and spineless cowards.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I really need to get a new display replacement for my old vaio f series laptop. The screen layers are doing the funny vinegar thing. That and some sort of ssd. Maybe a USB Dom or some msata thing with a converter board.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    The solution is to use an old computer?

    Sounds like copium

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago

    It is and it isn't. There's a ton of tech waste and lots of people get rid of systems that are still quite capable. Obviously there's less power but even a 6 year old gaming rig can still run most games, just at lower framerates

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago* (2 children)

    I find it fascinating how the concept of coping with a situation has been made into a negative. "Get bent loser, how dare you try to make the best out of a bad situation". Hold on, let me unfuck the tech sector real quick.

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