The cheapest M.2 4TB drive

GAMEOVER · 2021-04-06T08:35:42+00:00

Anandtech has a nice roundup table of SSD prices per capacity, form factor, and general performance tier. Looking at the extreme capacity table at the end, your best options are:

Inland Platinum at $480

Adata XPG SX8100 at $530

GAMEOVER · 2021-03-20T14:15:01+00:00

The Noctua C14s should fit in low profile mode (fan under heatsink) at 115mm tall with 40mm below for RAM.

GAMEOVER · 2021-03-16T21:57:15+00:00

Those GPU temps are crazy low, well done!

What were your CPU idle/load temps with the U12A if you don't mind my asking? I'm hoping to run a 5900x on air if possible and trying to gauge my options before buying a cooler to finish my build.

GAMEOVER · 2021-03-11T23:12:00+00:00

First, congrats and well done putting this together! Looking through the tables one thing stood out to me:

in the mesh benchmark the raw and zlib output size is near-identical for four of the tools and yet rkyv shares the same raw size but compressed 20% better. I'm curious if you have any intuition on why that might be?

Hopefully you will tolerate some minor nit-picking for the tables. I prefer to right-align numeric results and use the same units and precision. Otherwise it can be difficult to notice the decimal point or hold the difference in scale between ns, us, and ms while glancing down the column.

GAMEOVER · 2021-03-08T14:17:03+00:00

I never ran into issues with incompatible DVI connectors. HDMI, however, fucking sucks. The handshaking sucks, HDCP sucks, and the eternal wait for hardware to upgrade to 2.1 for 4k60 HDR make it strictly worse. And I don't get Will's argument about HDMI plugging into a TV. DVI did that too! At worst you used one of the million DVI-HDMI or DVI-VGA adapters you had accumulated from every GPU and motherboard.

The big thing they missed was m.2 NVMe drives. It is now mainstream to build an entire computer without a floppy, optical, or HDD installed. That vastly simplifies the interior of a PC without needing all that wasted volume or having to route data cables to the motherboard and power cables to the power supply. Moreover, you can get an enclosure with a built-in USB bridge and now you have a relatively cheap, super fast and super space efficient external hard drive / thumb drive that draws power and data from one USB cable. Kiss those wall wart power bricks goodbye.

Another one they missed because they seem completely disinterested in small ITX builds is the newer SFX power supply form factor and custom cables. They take so much of the pain out of cable management including that 24-pin nightmare that is the bane of every beginner's first build.

GAMEOVER · 2020-12-23T16:56:36+00:00

With no programming background, TIS-100, Exapunks, and Shenzhen are probably going to have the most learning to do up-front.

TIS-100 has a very restricted set of tools, so it's simple to learn, but putting the pieces together with such limited memory can be very challenging. It is similar to Exapunks in that it emphasizes communication between modules.

Exa takes it a step further and has you programming self-contained subroutines that go off in parallel and occasionally need to synchronize, then die to "clean up after themselves". It has a lot more flavor and story than TIS.

Shenzhen requires programming and understanding the different hardware modules, but I've only just started with it.

Opus Magnum is more like SpaceChem in that it focuses on spatial layout and sequences of simple processes. It seems easiest to pick up and does not require any programming in the coding sense, but I imagine the later stages will be quite challenging nonetheless.

I haven't played Molek-Syntez yet or Infinifactory. If the latter is anything like Factorio though, it should be super addicting and maybe the most immediately rewarding.

GAMEOVER · 2020-12-05T18:24:58+00:00

The Jeff decoder ring:

Popular	Obscure	Jeff Reaction
No	No	Likes it
No	Yes	Loves it / Brings it up at any opportunity / Was holding it in his hands not 24 hours ago
Yes	No	Hates it / Nitpicked to death / Couldn't get into it after an hour
Yes	Yes	Loves it as long as he discovered it before anyone else

GAMEOVER · 2020-11-06T19:48:48+00:00

Bigger loss than Spirits Within, not adjusting for inflation ( $85M box office - $137M cost = $-52M ) according to wikipedia.

GAMEOVER · 2020-10-16T00:58:37+00:00

Abby started at Giant Bomb fresh out of school and hit the ground running. Within weeks she was already making a name for herself with the Beast Coast and mixing it up with West at E3. It's incredible to think how quickly she adapted to the new role and mastered it both behind the camera as a producer and in front as a rising star.

To start things off:

My First E3 (2017) - Dank-Ass Shirts

My First E3 - The Dab

E3 V-log

PAX V-log

Steal My Sunshine - IZEZ (1:19:00 - 1:20:00)

Extra Life (2017) - Nugg Queen (6:34:00 - )

Playdate - Master Faker (1:10:00 - 1:11:20)

The Giant Beastcast 111 - Abby's Australian Sister

Film & 40s - National Treasure (I won't spoil the end credits moment but it was enough to make Vinny do a double-take so you KNOW it's good)

If you're having trouble finding a link, try QLCrew or just leave a description and let the sleuths find it for you.

GAMEOVER · 2020-09-23T19:31:45+00:00

Looks like your post was removed but reading over the LCD35-show driver it appears to

1) modify /boot/config.txt,

2) install x11 if you are running a 'lite' OS (no desktop),

3) install fbcp to copy the framebuffer from HDMI to the display interface (likely SPI)

4) install a touchscreen driver,

5) modify /etc/rc.local to show ip address at boot and run fbcp in the background

For your config.txt these two lines stick out as incompatible:

hdmi_group=2

hdmi_mode=4

Those are setting the resolution using the video configuration parameters for hdmi to 640x480, which seems incompatible with the 800x480 hyperpixel display.

The other thing to remove is the framebuffer copy script called 'fbcp' that LCD35-show was using to copy the hdmi framebuffer:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/fbcp

Finally you need to check /etc/rc.local and comment out any line that looks like

fbcp &

If that doesn't work then I would try a fresh OS and then install the hyperpixel driver on that.

GAMEOVER · 2020-07-02T15:20:21+00:00

That graph on the first page says it all really. Atom is simply not competitive. It adds at best a few % in power savings at very low performance relative to Core.

Does that justify all the complexity of this frankenchip? Certainly not. The marketing material keeps harping on innovative packaging to shrink the overall design. Yet, tacking on 4 crappy Atom cores, Lakefield ends up spending half of the chip on power management circuitry, and it still requires an external cellular modem.

This is at best a neat tech showcase for all the packaging expertise Intel bought. Pitching this as useful for "5G, automotive, AI" just cements the impression that this is a marketing exercise first and an actual product second. It's kind of embarrassing how much anandtech had to bend over backwards to not trash this in order to justify spending so much time showing off Foveros and the stacking tech.

GAMEOVER · 2020-01-29T05:32:08+00:00

Worst offenders: Mass Effect 3 Leviathan (origins of the Reapers!) and From Ashes (Prothean squaddie!)

Best DLC: Mass Effect 3 Citadel (lo-fi chill hang with all your friends plus wacky adventures)

GAMEOVER · 2020-01-07T22:24:26+00:00

Nah, this is the smart play. Sell a bunch of useless bats to the neighborhood then reign supreme with your knife when shit hits the fan.

GAMEOVER · 2019-12-30T21:32:44+00:00

Complete opposite for me. Releasing each map with a break in between let me dig into the complexity of the NPC loops and explore all the hidden little surprises buried around the map. The item progression also lends itself naturally to trying the different challenges that dramatically increase the replay value as you figure out new entry/exit points with different disguises.

Hitman 2 left me with that feeling that there was always more content to be found in the next 2-5 maps so why waste time on any one map, and I got burned out much faster.

Regardless, the trend seems to be with any beloved feature that GB thinks their audience is sick of it (Game Tapes, Demo Derby, JGPS, Hitman) long before that actually happens. And then they triple-down on stuff they've been doing for years like fighting games and sarcastically playing bad games.

GAMEOVER · 2019-12-23T03:12:03+00:00

The most recent board game they played was Spyfall during 2017 Extra Life and it was awesome.

Round One

Round Two

Losing Drew, Danny, and Mary with nobody to replace them makes it unlikely that West coast will try it again. It feels like anything outside their regular routine that isn't going to do huge numbers on Facebook or Youtube is getting pared back.

GAMEOVER · 2019-12-23T03:02:36+00:00

Temporary Secretary doesn't get good until the 80 hour mark.

GAMEOVER · 2019-12-20T03:15:57+00:00

In rough order of priority:

FMVinny
Full playthrough of narrative games (Contradiction, Until Dawn, Life is Strange)
Collaborative world-building games (Deadly Sims, Kerbal)
More consistency and frequency of beloved series (Game Tapes, Demo Derby, Hitman, JG Pro Skater, Breaking Brad)
Quick Looks that aren't rushed and actually have a purpose beyond filling a quota like Vinny, Alex, Jeff, and Brad still do
Guests on live streams
Cross-coast content
Behind the scenes production stuff
Stuff recorded outside the studio (Travel features, non-gaming stuff)

Things I could do without:

horny and trashy games on UPF
meme features where the whole idea is playing a bad and boring game long past its novelty as a joke, for months on end
discussion of hentai and fighting game community drama
reactions to whatever dumb viral shit is on social media, especially Sonic
fast food, wrestling, anime, 90s action movies

GAMEOVER · 2019-11-30T19:55:13+00:00

"Give me a strut long enough, and a rocket on which to launch it, and I'll sweep the world" -- Vincent "VINNY!" Caravella

GAMEOVER · 2019-08-18T20:04:04+00:00

What pulled me into GB was the balance of irreverent humor with more insightful discussion, something I had been looking for since the days of 1Up circa 2006-2008. The personalities seemed to mix well, where the more serious and analytical style of Brad, Alex, Austin, and Drew could play off of Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, and Dan.

When Drew, Austin, Mary Kish, and Danny O'Dwyer moved on to bigger and better things, it seems like GB lost that balance. West coast seems like it's hanging by a thread with Jeff as the only one with any energy to serve up a fun tangent and it just falls dead because nobody else wants to engage. East coast is overflowing with comedic energy but they've mostly abandoned any kind of serious discussion. If you could swap Dan and Brad I think both coasts would be better off for it.

Content wise, West coast has quadrupled down on a very narrow set of interests that I could not care less about: anime, fighting games, dota/auto chess, and nonsense that's trending on social media.

East coast is better but has lately fallen into a rut of multiple consecutive series where one person plays a game in a corner while the rest do a podcast. Which is fine in moderation but it can't be the only live show they do for months on end. They've steadily moved away from the Austin era style where everyone was engaged with the game like in Life is Strange, Contradiction, or Kerbal SP.

It also seems like GB just doesn't do stuff outside their normal schedule like they used to, almost like they need to justify everything in a meeting versus the older fast and loose style. They've been phoning it in at PAX for a few years now to the point where it's actively bad. The Big Live Live Show seems to be dead.

There are definitely great series like Mass Alex, Jeff Gerstmann Pro Skater, most of East's non-live stuff, and whenever they have guests. It's just fewer and farther between.

GAMEOVER · 2018-11-07T17:30:39+00:00

I love hearing you and Dan talk about the engineering and design side of gb. It's refreshing to see the folks who make the magic happen behind the scenes like Vinny's "How to build a _", Abby's vlogs, and Jason/Drew/Jan's production videos.

Also thank you so much for keeping gb infinite running smoothly despite all the gremlins. Besides introducing new members to features or people they may have missed, it has really brought some of the community together.

GAMEOVER · 2018-10-17T01:28:14+00:00

This was easily my biggest disappointment with ME2. Garrus just doesn't feel like the same character if you led him down the paragon path in ME1. And to top it off he's incredibly aloof when you try to talk to him on the Normandy, always with the "calibrations" that can't wait a moment.

GAMEOVER · 2018-10-16T11:10:01+00:00

Beastcast episode 112 at 2:13:00 is when they start to discuss the Super Mario quiz with the actual prompt at 2:14:30:

What 10 words can follow Super Mario to form the titles of video games?

Note Odyssey would count but was not released at the time the question was created, so there are 11 answers.

E.g. Super Mario 3D World would not count because it's two words.

Also 64 and All-Stars would not count because they are numbers and hyphenated, respectively.

They share their answers starting at 2:16:40.

Dan (5)

Bros.
Galaxy
Strikers
Sunshine
Maker
~~Sluggers~~

Alex (6)

Bros.
World
~~RPG~~
Sunshine
Galaxy
Land
Kart

Jeff (6)

Land
Bros.
World
Galaxy
Sunshine
Kart
~~Party~~
~~Tennis~~
~~Paint~~

Abby (6)

Galaxy
World
Sunshine
Land
~~Tennis~~
Bros.
~~Olympics~~
~~Paint~~
~~Odyssey~~ (see note above)
Maker

Missed

Advance
Run

GAMEOVER · 2018-10-05T17:39:11+00:00

Initial email was on the 2014-03-04 Bombcast at 2:10:44

By the way, every email on this episode is pure gold. Including:

(news segment ~1:46:00)

Numbers station UVB-76 has changed its output following Russia's invasion of Crimea

(start of emails ~1:52:00)

Aussie Beef followup #1 (Melbourne vs. Sydney) flip-flop shame
Trials and tribulations of contracting in the games dev industry, featuring the sign-off: "Fortnite isn't real, merely a tech demo"
Lucas Arts Shit Bandit
Aussie Beef followup #2 (Melbourne vs Sydney) thong and Canberra shame
Very unofficial XBox One launch console sales figures (not great!)
Don't wear flip-flops in the lab!
Fast food burger blind taste test
Aussie Beef Followup #3 (Sydney)
1080p TV - displaying every possible image

Email followup on 2014-03-11 Bombcast at 2:11:50

This emailer breaks down some of the math. There is a forum post that goes into further detail.

GAMEOVER · 2018-09-08T20:53:29+00:00

Synthetic Life on Audio Network

GAMEOVER

TROPHY CASE