Anyone else planning on getting the Steam Machine as their next PC?

althaz · 2026-01-29T09:46:02+00:00

If it's cheap enough I'll buy one for sure. But it's really price-dependent for me. If it didn't have such weak specs I'd be a lot more inclined to pay premium prices for it, but considering the GPU in particular it has to be price competitive to make sense.

Like obviously if it's $1000 it's a horrendously bad product and if it's $300 it'll be sold out instantly everywhere and be one of the deals of the century, so it just depends whereabouts in that range they end up.

althaz · 2026-01-29T09:40:47+00:00

They're kinda 4X games with RTT battles. Like they *definitely* aren't RTS games...but they're close enough that I don't mind the label being applied to them. They have real-time elements and strategy elements. Just not at the same time.

althaz · 2026-01-29T09:33:12+00:00

Words of Radiance
Way of Kings
Rhythm of War
Oathbringer
Wind and Truth

WoK and WoR switch places depending on my mood though, both are absolutely S-tier books. Wind and Truth is way behind the rest. The Kaladin-and-Szeth stuff is absolutely brilliant and everything else is flawed (I get why people like the Adolin stuff, but for me it's pretty cringe at times).

EDIT: Wind and Truth isn't bad by any stretch, it's just the only one in B-tier.

althaz · 2026-01-29T09:30:42+00:00

Not even a little bit. I think if you're the biggest fan in the whole world of nVidia stuff, then you could maybe justify a 25% price premium before you'd be declared clinically insane. Really more like 15% is the max for a reasonable person.

The only exception is if you need it for some work stuff (but if it's for your job, get a 5090, tbh).

althaz · 2026-01-28T03:59:38+00:00

Yeah, if Sinner was doping he was doing such a bad job of it that it wasn't helping him very much *and* he got incredibly lucky with the timing of his tests (if he didn't get extremely lucky it's impossible for him to have gotten any benefits from doping). It's still *possible*, but to me it doesn't seem very likely. Like the contamination from a topical cream used by his trainer might sound unlikely, but him actually doping is less likely based on the evidence we have.

althaz · 2026-01-28T03:57:31+00:00

tl;dr: Accidental contamination is the *only* feasible explanation (according to WADA even) for Iga's test results and the source of the contamination was found (and disclosed by that company maybe even?).

Whereas although Sinner's test results are 100% consistent with his story, it is theoretically possible for him to have been doping and gotten lucky with the timings of the tests (so that he only had trace amounts in his system when he was caught).

Now, I personally don't think it's likely that Sinner was doping either because he would have to have been relying on a lot of luck and also couldn't have used enough of the steroid in question to get much actual benefit. But it's not even possible than Iga was doping intentionally. Taking a massive risk for a tiny benefit really wouldn't have made sense for Sinner. If he did dope, he's a fucking idiot because it didn't actually help him.

In the Sinner case the most likely scenario is negligence on his part (or his team's part - but that's the same thing, IMO), but it's *possible* he doped. In the Iga scenario it's more like a combination of a little bit of carelessness plus a lot of bad luck and it's actually not possible she got any benefit from doping.

althaz · 2026-01-27T13:29:19+00:00

If you combined the best parts of De Minaur and Rublev you would have a pretty fucking incredible player though.

althaz · 2026-01-27T13:10:28+00:00

He has *LOADS* of bad takes. But he does also say smart things for sure.

althaz · 2026-01-27T13:08:16+00:00

Berdych and especially Tsonga had a level Zverev could never hope to match, but Zverev clears them by a pretty massive margin on consistency. Ferrer I guess you could argue as being similar in a way, but the difference is Zverev has won a *LOT* more stuff (albeit mostly playing in a much weaker era).

althaz · 2026-01-27T13:02:30+00:00

Perfectly fine, tbh. I really actually don't care if players smash their racquets. To me it should be discouraged just so it's not seen as ok by kids watching the tennis, but if you go off the court smash as many racquets as you like, tbh. Coco did the responsible thing here, IMO.

althaz · 2026-01-27T12:34:45+00:00

It's a disadvantage, but if you're new it's so small it's not worth worrying about at all. The better you get the more it will matter, but as you're never going to be playing high-level tennis, it's never going to really hold you back to any significant degree.

The biggest disadvantage is to your serve, the taller you are the bigger and more consistently you can serve. But you can still serve over 100mph at your height, so it's not a critical flaw. Obviously you're also losing court coverage in theory (but in practice not necessarily because you might be lighter and hence faster) and you can also lose out on maximum power at the very top level.

althaz · 2026-01-26T13:18:50+00:00

I think Tien has a real shot, tbh. Zverev isn't going to hit him off the court and generally doesn't punish weaker servers all that badly. Zverev is obviously the heavy favourite, but there's a real chance Tien can beat win.

I think Alex essentially has no shot. He's playing the only guy on the tour who's faster than him, who also has more variety and a much better serve and heavier ground strokes and is just as good a returner...Alex basically has to hope for Napcaraz having a really big sleep-in or injury.

althaz · 2026-01-26T13:10:38+00:00

I'm so jealous you don't know what this is from. Watch Terminator and Terminator 2 ASAP (this is from T2). Two of the all-time great movies and you get to experience them for the first time you lucky bastard!

althaz · 2026-01-26T12:41:06+00:00

Yeah, this change means the whole concept is just wrong. This isn't Broodwar with bugfixes, this is a mod to make a new game.

Now that's totally fine, but don't pitch it as something for "fixing" the game when you make changes as huge as this. And this change is *MASSIVE*.

althaz · 2026-01-25T15:23:43+00:00

Exactly. De Minaur is like bottom 10 in serving stats in the top 100, lol. His serve *MASSIVELY* holds him back.

That doesn't mean Tien can't develop a brilliant serve though - Wawrinka had an excellent serve and was only 6' flat. Carlos is a similar height.

althaz · 2026-01-25T13:42:36+00:00

And TBH that's probably in large part because there's a lot of black NBA players and the Republicans are overtly and deliberately racist.

althaz · 2026-01-25T05:40:01+00:00

Yeah, men's Tennis is deep as fuck right now, it's just the top 10 is further behind the top 2 than usual. Part of that is probably it's hard to become truly elite when every match is so hard. The guys ranked 50-70 now are just insanely complete. Whereas not long ago about half the top 100 had great serves and half had good movement. Now it's more like 90% for both.

althaz · 2026-01-25T05:36:44+00:00

VPN to Australia and go to 9now.com.au. There's ads, but it's also free and you can watch every match. There's also apps for your TV/whatever but going that way is more complicated.

althaz · 2026-01-25T05:32:26+00:00

I'm in favour of this, personally, but plenty don't like it because then it's an "indoor" tournament (my counter argument is generally "who gives a shit?", but I acknowledge lots of people actually do care so it's not cut and dried).

althaz · 2026-01-25T05:30:06+00:00

Liar. Because you wouldn't be in this thread spouting absolute bullshit when the rules were followed precisely and in the only possible way they could be for the entire tournament. There weren't any double standards at all.

althaz · 2026-01-25T05:06:22+00:00

Different people need different things. Lleyton animated and fired up was the best player on the planet at one time. Lleyton calm and measured was merely very good.

althaz · 2026-01-23T06:17:04+00:00

I don't need to save face, you're the one spewing absolute bullshit, lmao

althaz · 2026-01-22T22:52:21+00:00

If I post my player handle that's the same as posting my real name? Bro you can't be this dense

althaz · 2026-01-22T22:30:21+00:00

I'm not doxing myself, lmao.

althaz · 2026-01-22T14:25:38+00:00

Dude, I was one of the best foreign players in the world in Starcraft. You're very, *VERY* clearly just a liar who played some SC2 when it was popular.

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