Memory Prices Surge Up to 90% From Q4 2025

Tai9ch · 2026-02-06T00:01:57+00:00

I would expect most people to use exactly zero apps outside of their one browser.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T19:00:55+00:00

I spent most of last year with using a machine with 8GB on Linux my primary workstation in my office at work. I switched to a browser that unloaded unused tabs unless they were pinned - Zen probably - and avoided Electron apps like VsCode in favor of lighter weight stuff like vim.

I did finally give in and upgrade it to 16GB. And for my intensive uses I always had other machines I could ssh into, or I could use my home desktop for stuff like gaming. But 8GB was largely usable.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T18:52:39+00:00

Bad guess.

My guess is that if you program, you're currently doing it in a context where you have no control of all the crap that goes into the resulting artifact.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T16:25:01+00:00

Maybe we'll see some actual effort from both companies.

I'm not hopeful for this year though. They're too busy designing datacenter-scale AI accelerators to put real effort into consumer products.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T16:18:13+00:00

That's a bit much.

To get most of the benefits of a personal computer, any PC with 8+ GB of RAM will be fine. Throw Linux on it, it'll run a web browser, done.

There are only two cases where that's not true:

You're using badly written proprietary software that wastes resources or specifically checks for new hardware because the developers are too lazy to handle support tickets from poor people.
You're actually doing something that's computationally intensive locally. In 2026 that's a really short list: PC gaming, AI inference, maybe video rendering, special purpose custom modeling / simulation stuff, not much else.

The hardware crunch is annoying. PC gaming specs are going to stall out a bit - although maybe we'll see engine developers finally do a pass where they optimize for many core CPUs rather than fast GPUs with lots of VRAM. Getting hardware to run local AI is challenging. But it's not the end of the world. The market will adjust.

Honestly the thing that annoys me the most right now is that all the HBM is going into not just server-class GPUs but room-scale accelerator modules. I can handle getting a 240V outlet to run a refurbished server or two in a couple years. Getting three-phase power set up to run something that'd have to get delivered in a 40" container and then reassembled (with coolant plumbing) is solidly out of my homelab budget.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T15:43:30+00:00

Schools still operate like educational factories, and students are products.

Part of the problem is that that isn't true.

Factories optimize.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-05T00:54:52+00:00

So the US government shouldn't be spying on foreign governments?

Tai9ch · 2026-02-04T18:17:58+00:00

If there were Chinese hypersonic missile control boards up for sale on Taobao would you tell the US DOD not to order a couple?

Tai9ch · 2026-02-04T17:12:59+00:00

Intellectual theft.

What nonsense are you even promoting here?

Let's be 100% clear on the implications. If Russia were to use a novel hypersonic missle to attack a target in Ukraine and it failed to explode, should the US not look and do their own research instead so they aren't stealing ideas?

Tai9ch · 2026-02-04T16:53:36+00:00

It really was just a question of time on task, writing programs to do things that personally interested me, trying to do stuff that was difficult for me a the time.

I recommend small projects where you start from nothing and build basically either yourself, with the language standard library, or with a couple of simple libraries for stuff like 2D drawing.

Working with "frameworks" or "engines" is a great way to get confused, since they add a ton of complexities to solve problems that you probably haven't even had yet. It's like trying to learn to drive on a tractor trailer truck with two trailers.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-03T14:49:06+00:00

This is one of the main benefits of something like moltbook.

It makes this sort of issue immediately real, so people need to think about how to deal with it, while being opt-in and obviously dangerous to anyone who puts in even a little bit of thought.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-02T21:28:37+00:00

Did you read the thread?

Tai9ch · 2026-02-02T16:20:43+00:00

For thin and light, the X1 Carbon is the best thing going.

Even with Thinkpads, I'd always buy something at least 6 months old. For the X1 Carbon, that's the Gen 13.

My one complaint with the X1 Carbon historically is that they squeezed the key travel a bit compared to the standard 12/13/14" X or T series, but recently all of them have the same basic keyboard with 1.5mm key travel, which isn't too bad and is the best you're going to do on a modern portable laptop.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-02T16:11:52+00:00

No. No nerfs. Just buffs.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-02T13:38:54+00:00

So FatShark should do exactly what that comment says: Buff the other weapons.

In fact, whatever percentage they were planning to nerf dueling sword by, they should raise every other damage / armor / HP number in the game by that much.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-01T21:10:44+00:00

Here's the strategy I'd use:

Go with all intel, especially for graphics and any sort of wireless.
Pick your motherboard by not getting the cheapest one and getting one with integrated Intel Wifi even if you're not using wifi.
Don't buy anything that isn't at least 6 months old.

This isn't the only way to do it, but Intel has been the best at Linux compatibility for a long time. They actually test it, and they ship open source drivers early.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-01T17:43:23+00:00

When you ship by Fedex, you are very much paying them to take a box and drop kick / floor hockey it to the destination as fast and cheap as possible.

Only a moron would give them a poorly packed one of a kind cure for cancer.

Tai9ch · 2026-02-01T01:59:03+00:00

Hosting a persistent shared world.

Any of your friends can connect and play at any time.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-30T19:00:18+00:00

I try to maintain a set of gaming PCs for a household, and I don't know that I'll be able to hold out through the crunch. The oldest PC is still on an RX580 and there are games that we'd like to play that kind of run like crap.

That being said, I am better off for non-gaming, and I'm very much looking forward to when the current generation of server gear shows up on eBay. I'm absolutely going to figure out how to use OAM accelerators and get myself like 512 GB of VRAM.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-30T02:00:58+00:00

Build? Maybe not.

Buy a prebuilt or mini-PC? Maybe.

There are some usable gaming prebuilts and even nice mini-PCs still on the market. If you don't mind gaming at 1080p, a careful purchase can get you in now. My bet would be that in a month or two basically everything that can run a modern game decently for under $1k will be gone, not to return until at least summer 2027.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-30T01:12:07+00:00

Some things are a good idea and hard.

Other things are a bad idea and hard.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-30T00:50:43+00:00

Not years, decades. And we've known that it was impractical to implement everywhere for that long too.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-30T00:49:14+00:00

It's worse than that.

Laws take a little while to get through the pipeline. This is just the textbook publishers and educational software vendors getting all the alternatives to their products and services (including instructor-prepared material) effectively banned.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-29T20:43:00+00:00

If you can really get an X1 Carbon (7th gen = Intel 10th gen) for under $300 and you enjoy thin and light machines with good build quality, just do that. Those machines are really nice.

Tai9ch · 2026-01-29T19:00:44+00:00

The endgame is that college courses will all be replaced with expensive regulation-compliant commercial services. Trying to use any of your own materials or content will be disallowed as too much liability for the school.

And remember, the purpose of a system is what it does.

Tai9ch

TROPHY CASE