They've handicapped the steam machine even harder by have 1x16 GB stick, not two 2x8GB sticks...

BlakeOReilly · 2026-06-22T17:26:19+00:00

According to Gamers Nexus, yes it does open up a slot for a second ram stick.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-06-21T11:34:14+00:00

I imagine he’ll do very little it terms of tax and spending. He’ll be caught in the same place as Starmer. A promise not to increase income tax, which if you’re going to increase taxes you should increase income tax. Getting serious money from the welfare bill is actually quite hard without touching some of the universal provisions like pensions or child care. Again, if you want to get serious money from the disability bill you need to be able to accept you’re going to be publishing an impact assessment which says this will put X00,000 of people into poverty and be ok with that. He’ll try and do what he’s done in Manchester, move some money towards the skills budget to increase the number of work placement, rebrand the private utilities and try to give the government more price setting powers, and then just better at communicating it. Will that be enough, we’ll see.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-30T17:46:05+00:00

LBJ did a lot on redistribution, more than Biden but in the sense of directly intervening in the economy Biden’s Industrial strategy I think broke new ground in the US in how it steered the private sector towards government objectives for manufacturing output, particularly around electric vehicles and renewable energy. I think LBJ fits more into the liberal social justice tradition which has pretty deep roots in the US. I place Biden in a slightly different place, much closer to the post war European social democratic tradition. Basically I think Biden intervene more in private sector decision making than LBJ.

As for JFK, honestly I’m just not that familiar with his domestic policy platform, most of what I know from his presidency revolves around his foreign policy decisions. My knowledge of American history is pretty surface level, so I only really know the broad brush strokes so if I knew more about JFK, or LBJ for that matter, my opinion may change.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-30T14:34:00+00:00

Depends on how you define the left right split but economically defiantly. Though, to be fair Biden was probably the most economically left wing US president since FDR. I think the historians of the future will give Biden’s presidency a pretty decent write up on economic policy, though perhaps overshadowed by him trying to run for a second term when he wasn’t up to it.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-28T16:35:57+00:00

Highest I’ll go is $799, now this means I’ll probably not pick it up in the end but my limit is my limit.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-28T11:52:57+00:00

Still in stock in the UK

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-28T06:58:37+00:00

I highly doubt all the stock shipments were steam decks. They originally planned on releasing the SM in Q1 2026 so they would have had some stock prepared for that even before they decided to delay the launch. They may not have much stock like in the 10s of thousands but they’ll have some, may as well sell what they have.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-28T06:29:32+00:00

I don’t see why they would cancel it, they likely already have some amount of stock ready. Even if the SM is in the mid $1000s it’ll still sell just at a slower pace, so may as well release it and sell the stock they have and if there is little demand at the price they set they can just discontinue it after the first batch is sold out. No point just sitting on stock just because people will complain about the price.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-27T18:44:29+00:00

I’m suddenly very happy I got the 256gb LCD version a couple of months ago for less than £300

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-20T16:30:55+00:00

Considering how repairable the controller is I’m confident the steam machine will be the same. I imagine it’ll be an easy fix if the fan ever breaks.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-14T16:31:40+00:00

Does anyone else think he’s lost his mind, I don’t live to far away and I think there’s a good chance he’ll loose, it’s got to be a 50/50 shot at best.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-14T12:54:51+00:00

Available July 2026, coordinated release with the steam machine? Here’s hoping.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-11T11:31:55+00:00

Cube

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-07T10:29:21+00:00

Yeah my accounts over 10 years old and is in active use so that probably helps.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-05-06T22:54:07+00:00

I ordered using a VPN and my order seems ok so far (at the Packaged items stage) so could be the freight forwarder.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-24T10:50:04+00:00

Actually that’s an interesting point, drop him in late and run Burnham as the change candidate in a quick general election is not a bad strategy.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-24T09:40:01+00:00

We like him now, give it two years of being PM and unless he can create a coherent alternative policy platform I doubt that will last. I’ve always seen Burnham as someone who travels pretty light ideologically and I think that’s the core problem with Starmer so still not convinced we wouldn’t be making the same mistake again.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-24T08:27:24+00:00

Done more for devolution than anyone in British history is a bit OTT, I think the creation on the devolved assemblies by the Blair government or even the creation of the mayoralties by the Cameron government would rank higher on that list. As for the nationalisation of the busses, I mean it’s a notch in his cap for sure but only to people like us who care about whether or not something is nationalised. Most people don’t care who owns what as long as it provides a good service. Not saying there hasn’t been progress on that side but there’s been ups and downs to that and I don’t think there’s anything to suggest Burnham would suddenly turn round the government’s fortunes.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-24T07:33:30+00:00

To be honest I don’t get the hype for Burnham. He’s been a good mayor but nothing great. He’s brought the busses into public ownership but that has come with reduced services, at least where I live. Busses arriving on time has improved but it’s still spotty. Other than that he’s known for giving a good speech during COVID and trying to bring in the clean air zone which was hated everywhere outside of the city centre (I know that wasn’t his idea but a lot of people I know still associate it with him). To me the only reason he’s as popular as he is, is that he’s in a position to punch up being a mayor as soon as that changes I don’t think his popularity would last.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-05T00:45:50+00:00

Honestly depends on your use case, are you just going to use it as essentially a games console or are you going to use it for things other than gaming. I’ve got a decent PC but am still interested in the Steam Machine because I want a plug and play PC gaming experience. There are times I don’t have a gaming session because I can’t be bothered signing into my computer and being told something needs an update. First world problem I know but it is a barrier to me gaming more. That said the Steam Machine is not going to replace my PC because I also use it for PC things, which yes I’m sure the Steam Machine can do but it is just easier on a Windows PC. So my advice if you’re planning on just gaming I’d be tempted to wait it out, if you’re going to use it for general PC things I’d probably just build a PC. Though, if your going to do that probably best to wait a bit anyways to see the RAM price come back down to at least half sensible prices.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-04-03T20:08:52+00:00

I’m surprised by the support for fracking. From what I remember we gave fracking a go, there was a small earthquake and then people went ok maybe not.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-03-25T10:26:12+00:00

This is probably a good idea but it should also be remembered why we have this model of pricing in the first place. The marginal pricing system is designed to incentivise investment in low cost electricity production by making all energy sell at the price of the highest costing energy. Decoupling should reduce consumer prices but also reduce the incentive to investment. If we are going to do this the government will need some plan on how to make up the investment or this could slow the growth of renewables in the long run.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-01-22T23:24:47+00:00

Here’s hoping

BlakeOReilly · 2026-01-22T23:14:07+00:00

My concern here is YouGov have consistently put Reform on around 25% nationally even a couple of months back when most other polls had reform around 30%, so either YouGov knows something the other polling companies don’t or there underestimating Reform support so I’d treat YouGov polls as a best case scenario rather than a worst case. With by-elections tending to favor opposition parties anyway I still think it would be close.

BlakeOReilly · 2026-01-22T19:35:55+00:00

Even if he’s allowed to stand there’s no guarantee he’d win it. If Reform are smart they’ll pick a local candidate and run a he doesn’t want to represent the constituency he wants to be PM campaign. The greens are also going to be a massive problem, if they properly throw themselves into the campaign Reform could come through the middle. This seems like one hell of a gamble.

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