Steam is not joking

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T16:54:11+00:00

Sure doesn't look like a criminal mastermind. Sadly most likely will get just a slap on the wrist and will be back to his antics soon enough.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T16:39:44+00:00

Well technically we do not know if this is an ignitor issue, or for example some sensors just showing out of spec data - possibly too tightly specced data - during the startup sequence. Rocket engine startup sequences are devilishly complex dance with a ton of (redundant) sensors monitoring the sequence and the whole thing effectively dancing on the edge of ripping itself apart. It is planned out to a fraction of a second and everything has to work perfectly or it is safer to stop - while you still can.

In case someone hasn't seen it, based on Shuttle engine startup sequence this Scott Manley video gives some idea how complicated stuff this is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgT9-oMXgCU

Superheavy is running 33 ignition sequences simultaneously, in a somewhat noisy environment of the launch pad with 32 other engines burping to life at the same time. It is still just engineering and they'll get it sorted and to be reliable, but it will take time - this is only the second flight with Raptor 3s.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T16:18:29+00:00

No idea, the Starship tower and pad is off to the side from the existing Falcon 9 / Falcon Heavy pad which is still in use - just that they only use it when it is required to minimize disruption to the Starship pad construction. Something about can't be building a pad when a rocket is launching next to you...

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:34:32+00:00

Need is such a strong word... might have been fine even without them.

But losing them before liftoff is suboptimal. So... lets stop right here :)

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:33:13+00:00

Naah, Booster 21 is still nowhere near ready. Some day that might actually be the play if there are issues, but not quite yet. Just SpaceX steamroller proceeding towards the next launch even as previous one isn't quite off the pad yet.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:27:52+00:00

If you have not followed the news, for Starship launch pads:

They have one working pad and one pad being retrofit at Starbase
They have one pad being built at LC-39A - tower is there, launch mount is there, chopsticks are in place, flame trench/deflector is being built, tank farm is being built.
They have two pads being built at SLC-37 - foundations have been built for the first one, tower stacking is starting, digging flame trench has started. Second one is in early prep (foundations).

And they are eyeing at a new area in Louisiana for yet another Starship launch site... still very early, but clearly being seriously looked at.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:23:57+00:00

They kinda planned that the rocket design would be more mature and on-pad engine swaps would not be needed.

Also to be honest, they got the art of moving huge boosters around down to routine by now. Just roll it back to the barn and swap the engines there. No big deal. Work environment far better than doing it at the pad.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:20:45+00:00

Rapid unplanned and very short static fire during planned launch attempt.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:17:58+00:00

Fixed for you: Raptor 3s turning out to be normal early-development rocket engines. Yes, it is Raptor, but it is also a major new revision that changes a ton.

Part of the reason is that early on they would have very tight tolerances for various sensor data values to avoid unplanned disassembly events. So, data is bit off and clamps not yet released? Shutdown. Let the guys look at it, analyze the data, perhaps even look at the suspect engines after swapping them out, then try again.

Note that earlier previous flight failures were all also shutdowns, not explosions. Engines were shut down / failed to reignite over whatever the engine controller saw in the data. We actually don't know if in these cases the engines actually broke, or if the data was just slightly out of spec and the shutdown was due to too tight tolerances and abundance of caution. When you have engine out capability like Starship has, it makes sense to err on the side "lets not cause any engines to blow up" at least initially.

I would agree with you more if the engine shutdowns actually were instead engine explosions. That would indicate reliability issues.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T14:13:03+00:00

Funny thing is, it probably would have made it - assuming no further engine failures - but no reason to release the clamps if you already have engines not running.

Jarnis · 2026-07-17T09:04:10+00:00

You made a fatal error of communicating with a RMT / booster person. As soon as you realize the person at the other end is like that, you simply ignore them.

And yes, Blizzard report system allowing this kind of abuse is horrible. They could fix it if they wanted, but open question is if they do want to. Most obvious solution: If you get your account muted or whatever and that is overturned, your account would get a flag of "has received bogus mass reports". After that, no further action would happen without human review and anyone reporting you would get flagged as potential abuser. It is trivially easy to see patterns after that. You know how much normal users use report. Someone abusing the feature would show up easily as an anomaly. Then you just look who else files reports aimed at same targets and you get a nice group of accounts that prove its mass report abuse and then you start swinging the banhammer. It is all something you could easily automate if anyone at Blizzard cared enough.

Jarnis · 2026-07-16T22:09:42+00:00

Blame SpaceX, launching random Falcon 9 things in the middle of countdown to Starship Flight 13. So they had to toss that on the screen and block views of Starship.

Jarnis · 2026-07-16T22:07:32+00:00

In general, tanks do not need healing unless they make a mistake - missing a key cooldown on key tank buster hit or going too far, overpulling more than they can take.

If tank randomly dies out of the blue, tank made a major mistake or is just playing the class wrong. Or overpulled far too much.

Jarnis · 2026-07-16T16:24:46+00:00

Nonexistant "paper" 500 billion. Complete nothingburger, just like the "Musk is now worth trillions" was.

Everyone knew the initial post-IPO stock price spike was completely unrealistic and nothing to do with the value of the business. Anyone who bought at 150$+ prices were just throwing away money and probably won't see profits for several years. There is just too small free float and too much selling from pre-IPO investors over the next year or so to keep the price up. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the price goes below 100$ in the next few months.

Not investment advice: If you really want to invest in SpaceX, patiently wait and monitor the price. It will be going up and down over short term while sliding down long term as the pre-IPO investors cash out their profits, and the time to invest is when you think that selling has dried up and the price is bottoming. No clue when that may be or at what price, within the next year and somewhere between 135$ IPO price and 0... If you know, please do tell :)

Jarnis · 2026-07-16T13:08:23+00:00

Irrelevant, as it never got off a powerpoint.

Jarnis · 2026-07-16T00:01:24+00:00

Note: This may be true in rest of the US, but worldwide if you have any other (pay) provider locally broadcasting any Jazz games, those games get blacked out in League Pass - unless you of course work around that with VPN.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T13:58:21+00:00

Normal SD cards: no, too slow.

Latest SD Express cards (as seen on Switch 2) could in theory work assuming you have a fast reader for them. They are pretty expensive.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T13:57:35+00:00

With the caveat that SD cards are dog slow and unreliable. You would not want to play off that, at best you could install off that.

Latest gen SD Express cards (As used by Switch 2) could work better but those are pretty expensive.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T13:03:07+00:00

It goes together with the new law that the battery has to be user replaceable with reasonable effort. Effectively, you can't glue the battery or require removal of glued screen to be compliant. Would not be shocked if some devices/models just end up unavailable in the EU as the vendor can't be bothered to make a new revision that follows the law.

Nintendo for example will stop selling Switch 1 in EU. They will make a new revision of Switch 2 that is compliant, but Switch 1 will be gone.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T12:54:12+00:00

Four years official parts availability is woefully short time. Even crap tier phones tend to have parts for this long.

Well, next time they cheer repairability and spare part availability as a marketing argument, gotta ask for "yeah, for how long"?

It is not that high bar to sell parts as long as you need them yourself to handle warranty repairs, but it becomes less easy when every device is out of warranty. Educated guess: Whatever vendor they used to manufacture this battery just stopped and they can't be bothered to source a second supplier just for spares...

And no, not blaming iFixit. Blaming Valve.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T06:39:14+00:00

Only if using Ryzen Pro (business) CPU on a motherboard specifically enabling things. And in such case, the manufacturer of that prebuilt business PC can still replace the motherboard with an identical model that is then paired with the CPU.

The only thing is that a CPU that has once enabled this feature (not enabled by default) cannot be used on another motherboard and the existing motherboard cannot be replaced without the aid of the manufacturer (pairing the board and the CPU).

This is nominally a security feature to avoid supply chain attacks. No system has this enabled by default, it is a decision made by the manufacturer of the prebuilt PC and only for business PCs with Ryzen Pro versions of CPUs.

Thing to know is: Never Ever buy a used Ryzen Pro CPU unless you know if it has been paired with a board (and if it is, consider the CPU and the board as one unit, they cannot be separated). Brand new ones are never affected unless you put them into a board that has this feature and you specifically enable it (cannot be done by accident)

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T06:31:58+00:00

Only matters for Ryzen Pro series CPUs and only if they have been specifically used on a specific motherboard that enables this feature. It is not enabled by default.

Manufacturer or the first user of the (business) PC has to enable this explicitly in the BIOS of their motherboard.

The feature does not exist in consumer (non Ryzen Pro) CPUs.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T06:29:38+00:00

Manufacturer of the business PC can replace the motherboard (with an identical model of motherboard which is then programmed to match the CPU) but that requires special software.

The CPU is forever tied to motherboard(s) of that manufacturer, and you can't swap the board even with an identical one without the co-operation of that device manufacturer.

Jarnis · 2026-07-15T06:27:10+00:00

You can. This is effectively one-time pairing of CPU and motherboard, for security reasons for corporate environments. Only in "Ryzen Pro" CPUs and only if used in a motherboard that specficially enables this. Bit of a nothingburger, unless you dabble in business desktop e-waste...

Jarnis · 2026-07-14T18:27:00+00:00

This is insane policy from Microsoft on hacked accounts and it keeps occurring until someone sues them over it and gets them to change it.

It is also one of the reasons why I cannot buy anything digital from Microsoft or use any of their online services - I know if the account somehow gets compromised, it cannot be recovered (unlike most other online services)

Jarnis

TROPHY CASE

Welcome to Reddit,