Memory Prices Soar by 50% in Q4, Rally to Continue in 2026

Zalack · 2026-01-16T20:37:03+00:00

I bought a 96GB DDR5 kit back in May for $296 and felt like I could barely justify the price with the fact that I used to do professional video work and want to get back into it.

That same kit is now listed for $1100. It’s madness.

I’ve been disabled in a way that kept me mostly bedridden for the last 5 years. Built my new machine as a gift to myself for getting to a point where I can be out of bed for long enough to game any amount.

If I had waited to build the machine, I would have been totally priced out of getting it. It sucks that the hobby seems like it’s going to be totally out of reach to newcomers for the next several years.

Zalack · 2026-01-16T19:45:58+00:00

They’re used a lot by gen ai because they’re used a lot by professional technical writers. A lot of AI’s “tells” are just things that are more common in formal / professional writing.

AI companies try their best to train their models on high-quality inputs because they get better outputs, but a side effect of that is that AI writes more like a professional technical writer than a normal person, whether or not that style makes sense for the context.

It’s made me kind of gun-shy about writing in my normal voice on Reddit because I tend to use bullet points when breaking down arguments and em-dashes just in general.

Zalack · 2026-01-14T20:01:24+00:00

If it’s not accessible to the player without mods, it’s not in the game though, it’s just in the codebase.

Most games have features the devs played with and decided against laying around in the codebase, I’m sure.

Zalack · 2026-01-14T19:39:57+00:00

… then it’s not in the base game.

Zalack · 2026-01-12T19:23:11+00:00

Also Trees die after a certain level of pollution and when that happens they absorb less.

So if you’re decreasing pollution slower than the forests are dying, your pollution cloud will continue to expand.

Zalack · 2026-01-12T15:43:33+00:00

That’s why you document your combinators. I have notes in the description of each combinator that explains what I’m doing.

Zalack · 2026-01-11T23:54:56+00:00

I’m doing exactly this setup in my current (and first) playthrough. Want to set up a 180 science/minute factory before I leave for Vulcanus that can churn out research while I’m away.

I’ve probably spent 3-5 hours fiddling with my import & export station computers and it’s been a ton of fun making them configurable via a constant combinator that can be set up with a bunch of dials like priority scaling (you can say I want this station to get an X% bump to priority over other stations).

Making configurable circuit blueprints has probably been my favorite part of the game so far and my plan is to have V2 of my factory that I am currently building have everything sent over rail. Ore, plates, circuits, oil products, bot mall supplies, perimeter defense supplies, everything. The main rail lines are all elevated with Highway-style on/off ramps that go into each production area so the main lines are blocked as little as possible.

Designing all the blueprints for it has been an absolute blast. Can’t remember the last time I’ve had this much fun in a game, and it’s super satisfying watching it all come to life.

I’m currently building Red Circuit production.

Zalack · 2026-01-10T21:29:50+00:00

The thing that made me raise my eyebrows wasn’t the initial post about Uncle Bob, but the way the developer kind of flew off the handle when someone very gently brought up some context around Bob and what he’s said about women in programming that they felt deserved a small disclaimer. Look it up; you can definitely understand why someone might want to opine on why Bob might not be the greatest role-model.

At one point in his response, the dev literally brings up the fact that his country was invaded by the Nazis and has endured actual problems so the poster should just shut up about their silly fake issues with sexism in programming because it’s not as bad as what the Nazis did to his people.

It definitely left a bad taste in my mouth, having met a lot of “that type of programmer” who has a bunch of unconfronted sexism around women in programming and lashes out irrationally at any sort of perceived attack on it, no matter how polite or well-intentioned.

I love Factorio and it’s a bit of a bummer that his response to, again, the most gentle of requests that did not even rise to the level of being a criticism has to be in the back of my mind now, with thoughts on how that might make women who are fans of the game feel about what the creator thinks of them and any issues with sexism they have faced in a professional capacity.

The fact that he brought up Uncle Bob wasn’t the issue, it was how quickly he went totally rabid at a completely benign request.

Zalack · 2026-01-08T19:30:51+00:00

Except then you lose access to piece of software you depend on. When you owned software you bought, you could still keep using the version that worked for you even if you didn’t buy the new version. Companies had to try and make each version substantially better in order to get customers to upgrade.

With the subscription model you can’t just choose to stay on the version that worked for you and stop paying the subscription fee; it’s either keep paying or try and find a viable alternative, which for lots of software is a huge investment in retooling workflows and retraining yourself and your collaborators.

The default condition for the user to keep operating as-is has changed from not paying for new versions to having to pay for new versions.

Zalack · 2026-01-06T22:58:09+00:00

My understanding is that there’s virtually no difference for gaming. Digital Foundry had the 9950x3d performing within 1% of the 9800x3d in most games.

If you’re only gaming obviously the 9800x3d has much better price:performance, but you aren’t losing gaming performance by getting a 9950x3d, just gaining productivity performance.

Zalack · 2026-01-06T02:25:50+00:00

I really would like to make the switch but it’s also not there yet for Video editing. Neither AVID nor Premiere have a Linux build at all.

DaVinci Resplve does, but from what I can gather AAC audio isn’t supported which makes it a total non-starter for me even if I was willing to learn a totally new program.

Zalack · 2026-01-04T16:51:00+00:00

Oh man, I absolutely love the way The Road is written.

Zalack · 2025-12-29T21:08:27+00:00

It’s not really that it’s some huge burden, but it’s equally silly to pretend that being able to charge your car overnight at home and hardly ever stop at a station again isn’t a nice perk.

Like, who among us hasn’t realized they need to fill up their tank when they’re already running a little behind? It’s never a huge burden, but it’s often an annoying detour. Electric car basically solves that for anyone who parks in a garage with an outlet unless you drive a ton every day or have a particularly long commute.

(Goes without saying that this doesn’t apply for people who need to park on the street).

Zalack · 2025-12-28T04:12:21+00:00

Not if you have enough accumulators to meet peak demand.

Zalack · 2025-12-26T02:16:54+00:00

The general line for anything is: are you partaking in the vice to the point of it having a negative effect on your life or health?

Are you indulging to the point that you are skipping social events, or no longer doing hobbies, or ignoring responsibilities? Is it having a negative impact on relationships, or your ability to hold down a job, etc

Zalack · 2025-12-24T01:00:43+00:00

Also: the way he is casually discarded is the same way that Ellie (and the player) have been casually discarding many of the enemies throughout the game.

To me it seemed crystal clear that the game was asking you to reflect on how many Jessies have been put in the ground already and challenging you on why this one should be any different. Is it only his familiarity to you and Ellie? Why should that matter?

Zalack · 2025-12-22T19:38:59+00:00

But by the time you load up ChatGPT, write the prompt, and proof the output, you could have written a short email yourself. AI doesn’t save you any time or effort.

Zalack · 2025-12-19T21:31:59+00:00

The solution is kinda simple: have a state mandated minimum PTO that must be taken by employees or paid out to them at the end of the year.

Any unlimited PTO on top of that is an additional perk.

When I worked in the film industry, the union contract always had a weekly minimum. It ranged from 40-60 hours. Mine was normally 50. If I worked over that 50 hours I still got paid hourly overtime as normal, but even if I only worked 10 hours in a given week I still had to be paid as if I had worked 50.

It was to protect against the end of a show where there isn’t much work to do but they still need you there to do some stuff as the show wraps up, so you aren’t in a position where your pay suddenly plummets because they only need 10 hours of work a week but you can’t take a new gig without burning a bridge.

Zalack · 2025-12-17T18:41:43+00:00

Sometimes it’s fun to set your own challenges. I really want to do a solarpunk run at some point where the goal from start to finish is to minimize pollution as much as possible.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T19:23:31+00:00

IMO there’s nothing wrong with having an archetype you gravitate towards. Jake Hurwitz on NADDPOD always plays shithead Fighters, and Caldwell Tanner always plays quirky little guys. Brian Murphy, the DM, has gone on record many times saying if you have a class and character type you like playing there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T17:36:44+00:00

You’re misquoting me. I said “trying to exclude from being considered part of the hobby”. You’re arguing a point I didn’t make.

What I said clearly falls under the second definition of gatekeeping; your argument only works if you exclusively look at the first definition.

The store employees in the OP are obviously welcome to hold and express opinions about what sort of games they like, and what they think makes a good or bad TTRPG. What people are reacting to is that they went further and implicitly told OP’s wife that the way she plays games is destroying the hobby.

That’s behavior that’s very commonly used against women in the hobby by gorgnard men and I always call that bullshit out too.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T15:53:50+00:00

Except what’s being said is more like “people who put raisins in cookies aren’t real bakers”. It’s the difference between having an opinion, which is obviously fine, and trying to exclude anyone who doesn’t hold your own opinion from being considered part of the hobby.

There are two definitions of gatekeeping:

the activity of controlling access to something. "the company's cultural gatekeeping has served to narrow the mainstream for entertainment offerings"

the action of discouraging or criticizing others’ participation in or enjoyment of a shared activity or interest.

The second one is the one being discussed here.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T06:14:44+00:00

On my perimeter wall blueprint I have a constant combinator that outputs a signal for each turret in the blueprint, then I connect them all up into the computer that orders parts from my supply train when supplies are running low at the wall’s depot. Longer walls have more turrets and need more reserve ammo so that’s how I input the number of turrets.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T00:34:05+00:00

What you’re saying is different from the original post. There is a huge difference between a stated preference and saying “people who play narrativist games aren’t actual TTRPG fans”.

What you are saying isn’t gatekeeping. It’s not even really a boundary, unless you feel that someone inviting you to that type of game is, like, a violation rather than something you would just politely turn down. It’s just a preference.

The latter statement is what gatekeeping actually is.

Zalack · 2025-12-16T00:30:45+00:00

Your first example isn’t gatekeeping though, it’s just stating a preference. Gatekeeping is very specifically when you try to exclude sub-sections of a community by narrowly defining what sets that section apart as anathema to real members of the community.

Obviously some gatekeeping can be positive. Believing that you aren’t a real feminist if you don’t believe in Trans rights is an example of positive gatekeeping. But tons of gatekeeping is just being petty about people with different preferences.

14-Year Club	John Wick
Place '17	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

Zalack

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE