I don’t doubt that.

I think familiarity is also important, maybe more so than ease of use.

A lot of people know Windows and how to use it (at least for the basics.)

Steam OS is still extremely niche.

That’s why I think the Steam Machine has to have price on its side to push people to consider buying a gaming-focused PC rather than a more general purpose gaming laptop. Particularly when everyone is struggling with rising costs.

True, I agree.

In my head, unless it’s in the 400-600 range, a gaming laptop makes more sense. I suspect generally other prospective buyers would too.

Steam OS whilst great, still doesn’t run as many games as Windows. Particularly certain popular multiplayer ones with kernel-level anti-cheat.

At the moment all we have is Valve’s theory that if the Steam Machine becomes really popular, Devs might update their games to work on Steam OS/linux. But equally they might not.

In a world where everything is getting more expensive (apart from TVs), I’m not sure the average person has the spare income to buy another single-purpose machine (yes, Steam OS can do more, but it’s designed to be used for gaming). A Windows laptop is more flexible.

I can see this hardware appealing to a lot of people, regardless of price though. Kid’s first PC for example.

I really want this machine to be a success. I would love to ditch Windows completely, as soon as possible.

If it’s more expensive than a entry-level gaming laptop, then I doubt the average user would buy a Steam Machine, when a laptop is far more flexible.

It has to be cheaper and more convenient than what’s currently available.

I might be way off the mark, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it priced like the OLED Steam Deck. At least at launch.

With a later price increase due to RAM and SSD shortages.

True. All I can think of is that before it gets to Halloween shops have sold off most of their stock and are in the process of getting all the Xmas stuff out. I’ve been places where they have a Halloween and Xmas mix of songs.

I’m not ruling out that a few hundred thousand completely random people around the world all decide to listen to Xmas music around the same time. I just think it’s more likely businesses switching to seasonal music as early as possible, and streaming Mariah Carey 20 times a day, causing the big sudden spike.

Is it just a load of stores/shops immediately switching to generic xmas playlists after Halloween? To me that’s the only reason I could see there to being a sudden spike. This song is bound to be in most of them. But we’d also need to track other popular xmas tracks.

(I know there used to be significant music licensing issues about what music could be played in a store, to the public. Don’t know if there is some special Spotify business account now?)

As a person who’s not into the table top games, but loves the lore.

I watch/listen to a few channels:

WesHammer - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSDj6ttwzj2sr464jDdg_pA

He does a short introduction (on camera), then the rest is audio with relevant artwork and some video from the games.

Aside from the usual deep-dives into the various factions and popular characters, I enjoy his Grim Dark Story Hour vids. These focus on creepy (horror) short stories from random Warhammer books, where Wes does some voice acting as well.

The Sleepy Hollow - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC86zNGwCUt5gBnizRSWSLuA

Warhammer lore (and game lore). It’s meant to be for helping people get to sleep. But I listen to it during the day. If you do use it for sleep, watch out for the super loud Youtube ads that play in the middle, if you don’t have Premium or use Peertube.

There are a lot of other Youtubers that do good content as well, like Arbitor Ian etc.

The top two are my recommendations.

I thought my external drive had failed after about 1.5k hours of use. It would stop working sporadically, until it basically wasn’tbeing detected. Tried different cables and various other things. Turned out it was the daughter board that was failing. Swapped that with an old donor external DVD drive, and it’s happily working again.

I know this is just my tiny view on things, but I’ve been testing code from a very experienced Dev, who was recently instructed to use AI coding tools in their work (Cursor, maybe some Copilot).

Functionality in our product is now breaking in weird and wonderful ways. Completely new ‘WTF!’ moments. It’s hard to describe.

Core behavior that I’ve taken for granted - things I didn’t realise could go wrong, are.

It reminds me of when after particular iOS update many years back, (for certain scenarios) Apple’s own calculator wasn’t doing addition correctly.

For me, it’s both fascinating and unnerving. Like some unfathomable cosmic horror.

Obligatory link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_finger

Don’t let a Seal bite you.

“Seal finger was first described scientifically in 1907. It can cause cellulitis, joint inflammation, and swelling of the bone marrow; untreated, the course of “seal finger” is slow and often results in a thickened, contracted joint. Historically, seal finger was treated by amputation of the affected digits once they became unusable…”

1 - 100% chance of a metallic taste, that lingers after use. 3 as well probably.

4 is the only practical option, just need to use it with your left hand.

In case a few haven’t seen it, the link to the great video -

“I’m scared of rollercoasters. Can I get over my fear?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BdZPFzH2JY

Almost makes me want to reinstall - Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

I did return to my old flac and mp3 collection. Got Foobar working again, found a nice skin and I’m rediscovering music that I that skipped over. I buy second-hand CDs when I find them. I’ve managed to get a digital copy of all my favourite albums and tracks.

I will keep Spotify though. A long time ago, I got friends to share their Discovery and Release Radar playlists. With my own, I have a nice spread of recommendations.

I need regular new music. Call it a search for unexpected dopamine. Spotify still picks new tracks that I really like. I also like Spotify Connect and the easily shared collaborative playlists.

The UK has less alternatives for music discovery. I don’t like Radio, way too much talking and ads.

I’ve got rid of Netflix, Prime. I’m getting Disney+ for free at the moment. Back to physical for film and TV.

For now, Spotify recommendations is worth the cost of entry.

I think it will be a custom build next time. I’ll still use the old one just for backing up photos from my phone.

Do want something that’s quiet and sips power when idle, but can easily transcode any content when needed.

True. When I first started experimenting with the NAS to stream home media, Video Station worked fine. And I could also access content outside of the home network without messing about. Obviously Jellyfin, Emby, Plex are better.

I made the mistake of buying one where the ram couldn’t be upgraded. 2GB is a joke. Had to send it back.

Starting to think that companies are all competing on a secretive Achievements Global Leaderboard.

Synology finally unlocked: “Hubris - only 99% of other large corporations have achieved this”.

I have an old Synology NAS; which i was considering upgrading.

But…

1. They removed Video Station and HEVC support
2. Recently moved to remove all hardware transcoding
3. This stupid HD restriction
4. The decision to once again cheap out on hardware. My Synology is about as powerful as a first-gen Netbook. Newer models aren’t much of a step-up. I’m surprised they opted to upgrade networking to 2.5gbe, probably pressure from competitors.
5. Edit: from a comment, the e-waste builds with non-upgradeable RAM

Yes the software is easy and reliable to use, but the fact that I only need to interact with it a few times a year, means it’s no longer a selling point for me.

It’s not something I’d normally watch. Enough depressing things going on in the real world, without mixing in fiction.

However, I did binge it all in one session. Great acting. But the whole thing was a brutal experience.

Aside from the main story line, reminded me of how horrible school can be. I sometimes wake up in the mornings and think: “Yes, I get to go to work, and not school!”

So if you really enjoy a good misery drama (and that’s not me being judgemental, I just can’t think of a better way of classifying it.) Then I’d recommended it.

Related image. Same price, less content.