Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Welcome to Off the Console, your favorite podcast
where we talk about gaming, tech news, and much, much more.
here for the long haul.
This is, in fact, episode 90
Gardiner: Hell yeah.
That's awesome
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes, and I'm glad you've been with us for 90 episodes
because, man, it's been one heck of a time getting this podcast started.
and then going, having special guests all over the place, and then
most importantly just having you guys stick around with us, ensuring
that you guys do like our content.
So we thank you for that.
I would like to hit 1,000 subscribers by episode 100, so, um, if you
do like the c- if you do like the podcast, be sure to hit up YouTube.
Look up Off The Console and subscribe to us.
That really helps us out in the YouTube algorithm
James: Yeah.
Well, check out the new website too, offtheconsole.com.
I'm in the middle of tweaking it more and more, but there'll
be more information there.
It's easy way to find out how to support us and everything, and
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: You
James: yeah.
OffTheConsole.com
Gardiner: Offtheconsole.com
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We need to put, like, a fancy graphic on the screen for that
Gardiner: Oh, I will make one.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: OffTheConsole.com.
Gardiner: Hell yeah.
Look at that
James: I
mean,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: delicious.
James: yeah,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So you, you can't see this, uh, you can't see this if
you're watching the audio feed, but if you check us out on YouTube, I'm
showing off the website right now.
It's got the audio feed right there.
It's amazing.
Oh my goodness.
At some point though, James, I think you're gonna have to make a section
for the, uh, shorts that we've done.
Oh
James: Actually not a bad idea
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh my God, episode one?
No freaking way
Gardiner: Oh man, good times.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Man,
Gardiner: was back before the Rampocalypse
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, that was back when Game Freak were showing off their, uh,
namesake, their Game Freak, so to speak
James: That's true
Gardiner: letting their Game Freak fly.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, this is awesome though, James.
This
is, this is… You've outdone yourself.
You guys, you, both of you have outdone yourselves in terms of web design.
James: Yeah.
And even has the, I have the up- I know.
But I have the numbers updating except for the podcast ones too in the press kit.
So you can see how many subscribers there are, I think live now, so
Gardiner: Hell yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So, with that said, uh, we're gonna talk about episode 90.
Episode 90, it, is it, is it time for the Steam Frame?
It might be time for the Steam Frame.
And also a bunch of
James: What?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: with Steam,
James: Oh, okay.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Xbox backwards compatibility on PC, and, um, a little
surprise resurrection from dbrand.
What might have been s- resurrected, though?
Uh, you'll have to find, you'll have to watch the episode to find out
Gardiner: Hmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: so, um, with you, Gardner.
What have you been doing this week?
Gardiner: Oh my dude.
Oh my dude.
I have been coordinating, uh, and, uh, I am actually building a Steam Machine, a
self-built Steam Machine, and I have a RTX or an RX 9070 XT here, I'm very excited.
The box is empty.
It's sitting here on my desk
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: How much did you pay for that?
MSRP?
Oh, 800 bucks
Gardiner: No, no, no, it wasn't 800.
No, that … I paid 'cause I bought a case too, and so I don't know exactly
what I paid for it, but the total was 800.
Uh, let me, let me check really fast
James: to 600
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: is it a mini, is it a Mini ITX case?
Gardiner: Uh, I thought it was, apparently mATX is not mini
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, it's not mini.
It's, it's smaller than your average desktop though,
Gardiner: Yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's,
Gardiner: Oh, dude, this thing is fucking… The, the tower is enormous.
Like, it's huge, and I'm like, "Why the hell is it so big?" I
thought it was gonna be small.
Um,
yeah.
This, I paid… What did I pay for this?
$700 for the GPU, which is crazy, but yeah, what are you gonna
James: Gosh, it is crazy.
But it's gonna be a lot more powerful than the Steam Machine, and the Steam
Machine is looking pretty good right now
Gardiner: Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: pretty good right now, I must
Gardiner: Dude.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The value proposition isn't there right now,
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: but
James: I don't know if I agree with that actually.
Like, we
can, we can talk ab-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you were the one railing hardest against it,
James: I know I was.
But getting it in my hands, how small it is.
'Cause I was expecting it'll be a little bigger, but it is literally
about the size of a GameCube.
Uh, you can't really… Like, so all these people saying they're making
Steam Machine killers and all that, but they don't ever get the f- this,
the form factor at the same size.
I don't know if there is a Steam Machine killer that can hit the same size.
So, uh, but that doesn't matter for everyone, and probably even most.
But I really do love this little cube.
Um, it's making me… Oh man, I really like the GameCube.
I'm really liking this thing
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Like, that's the one thing too.
I, I like to see… I see people post their stupid ATX builds.
No offense, Gardner, I know, but like,
Gardiner: They're taken.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: but
Gardiner: here's the thing.
The, so sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but the, what I'm building, I'm trying to
build, the goal of this build is to have it have as many of the, of like the f- to
be a com- feature complete Steam Machine
James: Yeah
Gardiner: and show that process, because I think I can do all of the
things that I want that, from the Steam Machine, uh, aside from having like
the built-in Steam Frame transmitter.
Um, but like everything else…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: transmitter?
Gardiner: Well, there is a Steam Controller transmitter, but I'm
pretty sure the Steam Fra- there's also a Steam Frame radio in
Steam Deck or the Steam Machine.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: They've
Gardiner: am I wrong about that?
I feel like I read about that somewhere.
James: There's definitely a controller, but there could be a Steam Frame also.
It'll be interesting.
We'll s-
we'll, we'll know though
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: if… Yeah,
Gardiner: so sorry.
The, uh… Go ahead
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Uh, that's crazy if true, man.
But,
Gardiner: Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, the h- my hope is to have, like, a l- the LED light
bar to have HDCP or C- HDMI
CEC.
HDCP?
What is HDCP?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: HDMI-C, yeah,
Gardiner: HDMI CEC.
I'm gonna have CEC, I'm gonna have a light bar on the front and, uh,
Steam Controller support obviously.
Um, and that's, that's the, that's the goal.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: so Gardner
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: You could use an internal A- you could use an internal USB header to
house a internal, uh, Steam Frame receiver
Gardiner: Oh yeah, yeah.
Um, that's definitely on the table.
Uh, I have a motherboard that I already have, um, and it, it only
has an internal USB 3.0 header, so I'm a little disappointed by that.
And it only has one PCI slot, so I'm a little disappointed by that.
But it's … I might end up buying a new motherboard for it just to see.
But
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes.
James: That's-- I don't-- Yeah, no, it's, it's a great, like I, I'm not going
to, uh, crap an- anymore on people that are like wanting to build their Steam
Machine system, especially since you can get a better value proposition from it.
Um,
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: I've been setting that all up.
There's a lot of parts that I've been kinda getting ready that are supposed
to be compatible with each other.
Um, my next thing is-- I guess I'm talking about what I'm doing, so.
Gar-- uh, HiTech, am I allowed to start talking about what I'm doing?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes.
James: Okay.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: are
James: Do I have permission?
So yeah, I've been working on that pretty hard to where I'm, I'm, I'm mis-- I'm,
uh, it's, it's ever-evolving, but I'm right now getting a wish list system
in there, some compatibility stuff.
I have in the background running-- Well, it's not running right now, but it was
for a while, um, uh, automation testing.
So I'm doing a whole, uh, test suite runner so that I can run
multiple benchmarks automatically.
So I'll open source it at one point, and I'll have it on the
couchrig.com so people can run it.
So if they wanna like, let's say Gardner, you build your system and you
want to, uh, upload it and just show it off, and this is what I'm doing.
This is but-- And this is also the like scores I'm getting.
You can do that.
That's what I'm doing.
I wanna have a lot of fun with this 'cause I r- I'm really
digging this type of, um, route.
It, it's something that's fun that we can do while the rest of the gaming
PC world burns down with RAM prices.
Let's
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: optimize, I guess.
So,
yeah.
Gardiner: Yeah.
No, it's exciting, dude.
I, I've kind of messed around with your site, and I think that
it's got a ton of potential.
So,
James: See how he says it's not amazing yet?
It's got ton of potential.
But it, it's
it's, it's true.
It, it's true.
It's, it's very early on.
Um, I've done a lot of updates.
I'm trying to get the data in there now, and more links so that, um,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh,
James: mo- more easily
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: s- the audience the URL
James: Outrig.com
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: couchrig.com.
Let me put that in
Well, I can't type today
James: You're good.
You're good.
So
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So this is James' website, catchrig.com.
for, um, catch rigs
James: Yeah, it's essentially, it's gonna be a home for stuff that I do
with Steam Deck and Steam Machine.
Anything that like… Honestly, it'd probably be more than that, but, um, yeah.
I'm in the middle of seeding it right now, like parts and all that.
Some of the stuff might still be like placeholder, but it's, uh, slowly getting
there to where I'll have, um, yeah.
I do have the prices at… What's that?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: You know, Amazon has affiliate links.
You can set, you
James: That's what those are.
S-
you'll, you'll s- th- there is a disclaimer in this that there
is affiliate links, so, um.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I see him now.
Yeah
James: Right now it's, it's doing it in a way that's doing it through
search, but I need to get direct ones.
That's one of the things, but I don't care about that quite yet.
I want it to be more like, uh, yeah.
So it, it's gonna grow over time.
I'm going to put in more… And the, the costs on this are, like, old school.
Uh, I'm g- like, in the, in the sense of, like, they came from earlier this year.
I need to put in costs that are, like, more, uh, today.
It's really hard because, like, Amazon doesn't allow you to
y- to put prices for Amazon.
But I can put prices that are, like, the general price, if you're
an affiliate that is on Amazon.
So,
Gardiner: Yeah
James: um, I'm gonna be adding pictures to all the stuff.
I'm gonna make it so that people can put wish lists in, see how well
they'll compare based on what people report their parts and their builds do.
So, uh, I'm, I'm doing a lot of fun stuff with this.
It's gonna probably be at its final state in about two or three weeks, but it will
be in a very good state in about a week.
So, um, yeah.
Um, yeah, this is what I've been working on, a big part of it.
Cal- uh, caltrig.com, and then I also released a video on
the Steam Machine last week.
I've been busy 'cause, uh, not as much stuff to do at work right at this moment.
And then, um, yeah, working on… I-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: the SSD
James: Yeah, you did, you did, you joined me.
I, I swapped out the SSD on, uh, Games Revealed.
Uh, yeah, really easy honestly.
Like, the Steam Machine it, it, uh, it sh- I should say, I
shouldn't say it's really easy.
I had to unscrew a couple of, like, two parts.
Then you have to unscrew the, um, the feet too, which I wasn't
quite sure if you had to do that.
And then you have to use a little, like, flathead screwdriver or
something like that to pop it open.
J- you don't have to, I don't think, but, like, that's how I had to do it,
just pop the back and then it pops off.
It just, the whole thing kinda slides off.
Once you slide it off, then, um, you can see the u- the under
part, which is just the SSD.
Uh, like, so you can… Uh, and it comes with the what?
The 2230?
Am I getting that right?
High tech, I always
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's…
James: it wrong.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's a, it's a 2230.
It's the
James: It's a 2230, yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: they use in the, they use in the Deck.
James: I, I slopped in the 2280 in there
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Speaking of which, I have a PCIe Gen 4, uh, two terabyte,
2230 in my old LCD Steam Deck.
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I need to harvest it and put it in my Steam Machine
And then I'll have a two terabyte Steam machine.
Saved a bunch of money
James: So what I did with my Legion Go Two is that I'm gonna be doing some tests.
I'm gonna be running my automation stuff on there because I'm gonna on-
I wanna upload it to Couchrig, um, so that there's benchmarks and everything
for that before I sell it, and I'm gonna do it for Windows and for Steam OS.
I also wanna be do-- I wanna try doing the test suite on Bazzite and maybe Cachy.
So I'm gonna be… That is the whole point of doing the automation thing,
as I don't like re- doing repetitive stuff, uh, over and over and over again.
And so the whole point is so that I can get some, like, automation going
on some of these, so that I can do some guides and let people know and all that.
So you know, it'll be fun.
It'll be a fun little place where people can see what's, uh… And,
and brag maybe of what they're, you know, what matters more to them.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
Sorry
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Hey, man, all good, man.
I've… If I'm being honest with you, man, I haven't had, I haven't done a
whole lot besides play Steam Machine.
I haven't done anything nearly as impressive as couchrig.com or, uh,
build my own Steam Machine for that matter, but I played some games.
I had some fun.
Oh, yeah, I have, I have done, I have started up on something that may be of
b- may, that may be of interest to not necessarily you guys, 'cause you guys
are pretty good at doing things, but
James: Yeah, you started your master class.
Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes, it's coming
James: Oh, nice
Gardiner: Heck yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And I'd show you, I'd show you, but like, I can't show… I
can't like preview videos that are in like a, a premier state for some reason.
It's whatever, I guess.
But you'll see it.
You'll see, you'll, you'll see, you'll see.
It's, it's pretty freaking cool what I did for video editing.
James: No, I'm excited for that.
Great call out
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: But if you like this, if you like this episode
or any other episodes, be sure to like and subscribe on YouTube.
Check us out on subscr- castpod.subscribe2.me, or check
us out on the new OffTheConsole
offtheconsole.com.
Great stuff.
Gardiner: Heck yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So with that, we begin our episode with the Steam Fra-
the Steam Frame, Valve's last major hardware that's yet to be released yet.
They added a bunch of stuff,
guided tours, uh, setup for play space boundaries, not being considered a work
in progress anymore, library filters related to Steam Frame, and a bunch
of other stuff that, I mean… Here.
Here's so- another thing from Brad Lynch.
Here's some controller shit.
It's c- it, it, it… I think it's time,
Gardiner: Dude, I'm excited
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh, look at this too.
PlaySpace.
Look at that
Gardiner: Use the brush by holding the trigger to add to your
place-based boundary and a- uh, adjust the floor height, then click
Or when finished, click confirm.
Brush?
Hmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: als it's it's ki if if it's anything like what Facebook does with
the Quest you just like draw a boundary using your controller and then you use
the controller to determine the floor Uh but speaking of which a bunch of games
have been verification ratings for the Steam Frame A lot of the usual suspects
but there is one notable exception Beat Saber is not Steam Frame verified
Gardiner: Interesting
James: is it because of like copyright or do you think it's gonna run at all?
Like, is it a copyright issue because of all the music or what?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well it's it's it's not another it's not a Steam
frame unsupported specifically
Gardiner: You'll probably be able to, like, stream it from a Windows PC
or
or, even a Linux PC, but, like,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh
Gardiner: playing it natively
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well there's also the major conspiracy though is that Beat Saber
is owned by Facebook now I don't know if
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: or not
Gardiner: Meta
James: here's the thing too, like I've never seen it run on Steam OS.
Have you?
Like I don't… That's my point is like I don't know if it's compatible
with Linux or if there's something
Gardiner: I have played it on my living room Steam Machine
that I already have on Linux.
It's,
James: Nice
Gardiner: work very well.
It like, actually Beat Saber is one of the games that makes me feel like
immediately sick when I play it on Linux.
Um,
James: But, uh,
Gardiner: yeah
James: th- that's good to know that at least works though
Gardiner: I mean, works with heavy air quotes.
I mean, like
James: W- what I'm saying is it's not DRM locked or anything.
That's what I was worried about
Gardiner: The game's graphic settings cannot be configured
to run well on Steam Frame.
That's what their reasoning is.
Which makes sense.
I mean, like, it there's so much micro stutter on Linux with pretty
much any game that you play in VR.
It, it's I am really excited for the Steam Frame because I hope that this
is, like, a solution for Linux VR.
Um, because as it stands, it's not good, like, with the
Steam, uh, with the Valve Index
James: Well, that's, I'm, I'm, I'm assuming that the Steam Frame's
gonna work great with the Steam Machine, I would hope, right?
Gardiner: Yeah, I would
James: S-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I would imagine so
James: I hope so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I don't I don't know if the Steam Machine has that dongle but like
if even if it doesn't have the builtin one you can use the one that external dongle
James: Yeah, I'm more or less like assuming for like performance-wise,
like for the video card and all that.
Also, what does that dongle require like, um, USB-wise?
Is… I'm assuming you wouldn't be able to plug it into the
back 'cause that's a USB-A 2.0
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: In your Steam Let's find out
James: 'Cause that, that's one of my, a huge gripe of mine with the
Steam Machine is that they put a bunch of really dated ports on It,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I agree man I think it should've I think it should've
all been USB 3 Or at least put some in the ba or put some in the
back though cause like that's a good way to hide your external SSDs
James: it needs a, a USB, uh, C… It needs two USB-Cs, one, um, uh,
USB4 or higher.
Yeah, like version two of the f- four, which is a higher spec.
I think it's closer to the Thunderbolt 5, but I- they coulda
done something like, I don't know.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: It really, like, I was really disappointed to see that it doesn't have
a USB4 in it, or a USB, you know, 4.0
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah I mean I feel like it
it would've been a much better value proposition had it had
USB4 I mean there's a lot of
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that would've made a better pr value proposition like Express
on the Steam Machine That would've been sick Like it's the like the
James: it is nice that, it is nice that it's, uh, w- is that
backwards compatible though?
Like, it is nice that this is backwards compatible with this… Okay, okay.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The
James: Then yeah, I agree with you
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: why the Switch I mean like the Switch 2 isn't but that's because
Nintendo wants to run Switch 2 games off of the faster storage and like you
James: Hmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: micro SD cards are much slower right
James: Yeah, yeah.
No, I agree with that.
It would make thing… Like, if it's backwards compatible, then yeah, I agree.
But it is a cost proposition thing.
I… Maybe it's a hot take, I'd rather have USB4 than a faster
GPU in the, in the Steam Machine.
Steam Machine, like, the GPU is pretty good.
It's good enough for what I want it to do, and I've been playing tons of
games, and it's been running fine.
Gardiner: Hmm
James: So, like
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I have no problem I have no qualms with running games at 1440p Like
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Like Gardner if you like if you guys recall the
uh you would dock your Steam Deck
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: like a TV and there are some resolution options If you
go into if you go into a gamespecific resolution options you can change like
the maximum resolution the game sees
Gardiner: Yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that If you You can set that to like between 4K You could
probably set it above 4K if you had a bigger if you had an 8K display Uh
Gardiner: Mmhmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: what I
Oh
Gardiner: believe you can set the value, like the, the virtual resolution of
Steam OS to any n- like, to basically anything, means you would be able to
super s- super sample, um, like if you had a, if you had a 4K screen and
you wanted to super sample, you could set the virtual resolution to 8K or
even 6K and then down sample it to 4K.
And think I could be wrong about that, but I feel like I read about that somewhere.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: That sounds a little too crazy for the Steam Machine to be honest
Gardiner: No, it's gonna… Yeah, that would not be possible
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: for your home That'd be like for your home
brew Steam Machine Gardner
Gardiner: Yeah.
I'm excited about this thing, man.
Golly
James: Steam Frame.
Are you gonna be getting one, Gardiner?
Is that what you've been holding out for
Gardiner: I liter- yeah, I literally I saw the Steam Machine was gonna be
about 1,000 bucks, and the, I bet you the Frame is gonna be about 1,000 bucks.
And if I was gonna buy one over the other, 'cause I don't wanna buy
both, I don't have that kind of money right now, would buy the Steam Frame.
And, uh, I love VR, and I don't play it enough because
setting up the Steam Frame…
I mean, setting up the Index just sucks.
So, um, being able to have a standalone unit that I can play
VR with anytime just by putting a headset on is gonna be killer.
James: That's what I'm wanting right now.
And I, I, I really like my Index, but like you said, setting it up and making
s- I, I just don't wanna deal with it.
So, um, yeah, no, I'm really excited for the Steam Frame.
I'm, and I, I told myself if I get the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame
comes out and it's, and it's, uh, a little bit more than the Steam Machine,
I can always sell the, sell the S- Steam Machine if I need to to get it.
But I'm gonna reserve it and hopefully… No, I'm probably not going to.
I'm hopefully getting both, so I'll, I'll, once the Steam Frame's reservations
start, I'm gonna get onto that, and then whenever it comes and I get it, awesome.
I'm kinda hoping for a couple, like, like a month to give me time to
recover from getting the Steam Machine
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well I mean you Here's the thing though You do need so you
can play games on both your machine and frame and thankfully Valve has made the
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: listing and gifting much much easier
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So have you guys heard about this
Gardiner: No
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So basically there's been updates to the wish listing
where you can add wish listed games to a category of sorts if you see
this GIF right here that they posted
Gardiner: อืม
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Fun for Deck Buy When on Sale
Gardiner: เอา need
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Remakes You can you can make categories for basically
anything Uh one here that says Samantha's Birthday for Edge of
Memories This is Valve's screenshots by the way know a Samantha You can
Gardiner: Yeah.
I don't know
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: arra you can also sort by your categories Heck you can
even make links to those categories too in case you wanted to send a
wishlist to your friend you know
Gardiner: Oh, cool.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah
Gardiner: Can you control like public or, or visibility of
the, of those wishlist lists?
Categories?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: let's see
Gardiner: Sharing
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah it seems it seems like
James: Wish lists always public or are they
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: like you well you can set your wishlist to private but you
can make specific categories public
Gardiner: That's cool.
James: I do like that.
I do like that
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah so that's that is pretty cool Uh but this and also you
can go to someone else's wishlist and directly purchase as g a gift right here
James: I like that
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: There's a little button that shows up and it just sends it to them
directly without having to go through the old song and dance has also changed too
Here we c we gotta talk about this too So if you guys don't know Steam gifting
is something that not every console has Like you can't do it on for some reason
Which is great for Sony's all digital future
James: Which do we have that, that they're, they went down this week?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh I don't think we have that specific topic
James: We might need to talk about that.
I might have to get that because I think they went down.
So it's like AWS went down and so no, anyone that had digital,
uh, copies couldn't play
Gardiner: That's hilarious
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Amazing Uh but we got with it we gotta
cover this gifting situation
James: Yeah, let's do it
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: guest checkout You can you can check out as a guest anonymously
or at least not at least Yeah so you can check out you can you can send a gift
via email this way so in case you don't know your coworker's uh Steam account
or whatever you can send it that way You can also just gift to email as well You
just put an email in they'll claim it
There's also Oh but this is the big one crossregion gifting
So if you have friends that live in like a different region different
regions have different regional pricings and historically you weren't able to
buy games for friends in different regions because of this But now
you can you just pay the difference or you pay whatever their price is
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Interesting
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah so like if you have a friend in Argentina or
whatever you pay their much lower price to get them a a copy of a game
James: But if my account's set to Argentina and you can, you
can gift me something high tech.
Can I get cheaper prices
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well I would be ha paying but yes that's that that's the idea But
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: yes Uh
James: I'm curious how they're gonna region lock all this to make it so
that people can't, like, game it.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: exploit
James: It'll be interesting, yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: They'll probably make it so that you can't be Steam
friends list you can't be s you can't be on like a Steam family with someone
from Argentina or some crap like that
James: That's true
Gardiner: Family only allows people in the same household,
James: Th- that is, that's true, yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah
James: I missed that part
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: let's see what else There's also direct from wishlist We
talked about that earlier basically it so all good stuff This is probably the
biggest one here cross region gifting
Gardiner: Yeah.
Meanwhile, Sony doesn't even support, like, 200 of the 270 countries
in the world for PlayStation Network or something like that.
It, they don't support, like, 70% of the entire world, and
they're going all digital.
James: Yeah, they're gonna be losing
Gardiner: over here, like, supporting gifting across regions
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Xbox however doesn't seem to have that issue In fact Xbox
is making plays positive plays I would imagine backwards compatibility on PC
Gardiner: Hmm.
So they're bringing their official Xbox emulator to PC?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes and
Gardiner: kinda neat
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: in fact I think you can already play these if you have So
this is to be clear this is Windows only as uh as far as I know I don't
know if there's any way for us to reverse engineer it import it backwards
to Linux but sure it's possible right
James: Uh, I, it, what, what's this running on?
Is this using, like, Game Pass or is this just a installer?
'Cause Proton,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's
James: unless there's a DRM blocking it, Proton should be
able to translate it somewhat.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I think
James: Proton with Wine
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: app so not
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Proton
James: Yeah
Gardiner: I ask this with all sincerity.
This supports four, four titles, original Xbox titles.
What's, what's the benefit of using the official emulator that only supports
four games versus using QEMU or XQEMU?
James: I agree with you on that.
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: just
just makes it easier for people.
Some people don't wanna, uh, I, I, I mean, a lot of gamers just
do not wanna deal with it at all.
Deal with setting stuff up, managing it, trying to get a ROM
Gardiner: Yes, and we are talking about, you know, people who are subscribed to
Game Pass and who are, I, I mean, at least hypothetically going to be console gamers.
So they, they're the kind of people who would wanna use the official
thing and not have to screw around with setting up an emulator.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah These are also individually available to
purchase too So you can buy these
Gardiner: Oh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you want to
Gardiner: Is that through the Microsoft Store?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes yes yes It would be through the Microsoft Store So
Gardiner: let, let's, do, do we know what the prices are for those?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh
Gardiner: $60 per title?
'Cause that's the kind of shit I expect from Microsoft.
James: $10
Gardiner: $9.99.
Wow.
Okay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Here's
James: Yeah, I'm down for that.
I'm down for that.
To be fair, the only title I want on that is Conquer Live and Reloaded
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah there's a lot of there's not a whole lot
of e true Xbox exclusives but
James: Maybe blinks
Gardiner: Yeah, Blinx was fun.
James: Yeah
Gardiner: and that's also $10.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I'm
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: one of these I've played is Fuzion Frenzy
Gardiner: Yeah, Fusion Frenzy's good.
Um,
James: I'm just trying to remember
Gardiner: games, what are the
James: Oh, that's right
Gardiner: Like
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh
Gardiner: Jet Set Radio, Fable I, yeah.
James: Yeah, but you can get… So here's the, here's the problem with some of
those is that Fable 1's already on Steam.
Gardiner: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it
James: you can already play Fable 1 there.
You can probably get it on Xbox's, uh, PC store.
Gardiner: Yeah
James: of these you can already get there, which is also kind interesting.
They could pro- Yeah, I'm wondering.
Hmm
Gardiner: Dude, also, sorry James, um, if you look at the, the required,
like the specifications required for these Xbox games, a, a GTX 950.
James: Yeah
Gardiner: a Core i3 10300, like whoa,
James: intense
Gardiner: Yeah.
Ugh.
I love that
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: yeah it's crazy man I mean hell heck I I don't even
think the Xbox had one gig of uh RAM
Gardiner: T- the Xbox, the original Xbox had, uh, 64 megabytes of RAM, I think.
Like, or maybe that might have been the dev kit.
I- it might have been, like, 32 megabytes of RAM
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I'm pretty sure
James: 64.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: to run Windows 11
Gardiner: Or 64.
James: So yeah, the original Xbox had 64 megabytes of DDR SDRAM, and
then Xbox 360 had 512 megabytes.
Wow, it actually has lower than I thought.
I didn't, don't remem- huh
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude Fable I is sick
James: And then
Gardiner: Uh
James: One has eight, and then Xbox Series X has 16.
Like, holy crap , we just written exponentially larger, but
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: that's stopped
Gardiner: I will say that the, um, the version of Fable that's
on Steam is quite crusty.
I don't know if you've played it or tried to play it, it feels
like a, an early 2000s PC game.
Like
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I have not played the Fable One Fable One PC port
Gardiner: Yeah.
It, like,
James: they have a remastered version that i- that does feel
better, at least for me at least.
I- it did, yeah, when I tried it.
But once again, it's still, it, it's a little, it's … The game
itself is just a little crusty
Gardiner: Yeah.
Oh boy.
James: I, I honestly,
Gardiner: know,
James: I'm really excited for the new Fable.
Like, the new Fable looks really good
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: dude I miss yeah I miss Fable one I need to see if
the I need to I need to see how bad this crusty port really gets
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Now, uh, for, for Xbox, this emulation, uh, backwards compatibility shit, uh,
like this is only original Xbox right now, but presumably this may
include 360 games at some point.
what 360 games would you guys wanna see?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh there's quite a few actually There's uh there's Lost Odyssey
Gardiner: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: That's basically like Final Fantasy X
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh let's see what else there is There's uh
James: I would l-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: II
James: like to see them just port it over 'cause a lot of like, the,
the nice thing about Xbox is its architecture is very compatible with, um,
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: Windows itself.
And so, um, th- there's no reason why they couldn't.
And it's built on DirectX, I think all of them.
Like, there's no reason they just couldn't be porting these instead of doing like
emulators and emulation kinda style
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: they could easily port they they could easily port these
cause Mistwalker is still around and also Microsoft published this so like
Gardiner: You know what game I would like to see from the 360?
Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
It was an Xbox
James: names
Gardiner: title, and it's exclusive to 360, and it is so much fun.
It's a boat race, boat racing game, and it, dude, it is unbelievably good
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It does look quite nice
Gardiner: Yeah.
It plays very well
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: There's there's a surprising number
of Xbox 360 exclusives uh
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that never made it off the console I'd have to
look more into them but I know uh
James: PC.
Like the top 10 list that I'm reading, I think they're all on PC.
Halo 3, BioShock, Mass Effect 2, The Orange Box, which, you know, the, it-
itself I… Yeah, actually itself was… You just get it on s- uh, you'd have to…
Yeah, I'm, I'm not gonna go into that.
Elder Scrolls V, like Red, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, uh, IV,
Gears of War, Fallout 3, Forza Motorsports 4, those are all, I believe, available
on even Steam, I believe, right?
So, huh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah
James: just the smaller titles that aren't as available.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah
James: saying that they're not good though, of course
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I suspect a lot of what really took the wind out of Xbox emulation
was the uh that Halo is available on PC
Gardiner: Mm, yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: darn good port now It's not not even the old crusty uh
Gearbox ports from like the dark ages
James: Oh, hard to sit the port games over or even like do, um, how they
d- decompile or whatever and then recompile as PCs, uh, compatible
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: W
Gardiner: There are a few proprietary, uh, like effects, like buffer effects for,
James: Hmm
Gardiner: specifically.
Um, and if you look, if you compare like the gearbox port of Halo, like
Combat Evolved to the Xbox release, it is missing several graphical
effects because of the, uh, of the like special, um, shading and stuff
James: Mm-hmm.
I could, I could see that.
I could see that for sure, which is stupid honestly, but proprietary shading
Gardiner: Yeah.
And I mean, it's weird because it's like, my understanding is like that the original
Xbox had almost off-the-shelf components.
Like pretty much everything was PC components, but Nvidia did include a
few extra things in the GPU that like, per Microsoft's request I would imagine.
Um, but it made it less compatible with PC hardware
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah I'm I don't know too much about that truth be
told I feel like they could have reimplemented have to reimplement
that stuff manually now wouldn't they
Gardiner: Yeah.
Well, that's why, I mean, that's why emulation is the, the go-to with this
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah That's why decomp and recomp projects have been also a major
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: there have been so many new decompilations and recompilations
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: happening that it's crazy Like
Gardiner: Didn't we just talk about Mario Kart Wii Loaded or whatever?
Recom- Wii Compilation?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: yeah
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I mean I think that's still a little ways out but like
Gardiner: Yeah.
we know if there's like a Halo Combat Evolved one?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I don't know why there would I don't know why any Let's see
Let's find out
Uh Halo Decompilation Project
Gardiner: Oh, interesting
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: This is uh Halo Combat Evolved specifically
Gardiner: Wow
James: why you need this when the new Halo remake just came out
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah Why why why preserve history when you can rewrite it
James: Did you see that it came out
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: week?
Yeah
Gardiner: Dude, I requested, uh, a, a review key and they did not send me one.
James: What?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh w I'm not
James: That, shocking
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I am shocked that they didn't consider it
Gardiner: I'm, uh, I, I ripped Doom: The Dark Ages to shreds, so I
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude you're the reason id Software got l I I that ceasefire
James: You, yeah, you destroyed all those poor developers' lives
Gardiner: Yes, I did.
It's all my fault.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh but yeah Halo Recon looks interesting
Wait there's a whole website
Yo that's pretty sick though they recomp Halo 5 though Cause that's
not on PC surprisingly enough
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Halo And I actually kinda like Halo 5's multiplayer The
single player was awful like outright the worst It still is the worst Halo game the
single player wise but the multiplayer was actually pretty good for Halo 5
Gardiner: I wouldn't-- I haven't tried it.
I don't know
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: But uh speaking of games on speaking of ha speaking of rings so
yeah look at this So yeah Sony could destroy the 72 billion used games market
according to analysts but PlayStation Network is actually down right now Let's
James: Is it still down?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh
James: Oh, no, it's up.
Okay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: now
Gardiner: Wow
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: but it was down
James: Yeah.
I can't remember how long it was.
Like, might've been for half a day.
Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It might've been for half a day an interesting timing too
given Marvel Tokon's open betas uh happening right now Oh speaking of
which Tokon's beta I tried that on my Steam Machine yesterday before I
left for out of town not work does not run has that stupid Sony anticheat uh
module thingy where like it doesn't work so no don't know if that means the
whole game isn't gonna work but I know the but I know the beta doesn't work
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: on Linux which is bullcrap cause I really
wanted to play Marvel Tokon
James: Interesting
Okay
Gardiner: Yeah, I haven't tried it.
I don't
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Sony g oh my God Sony Sony Sony Sony
Gardiner: This is just par for the course with Sony though, and this is why I
don't trust them and why a all digital Sony future is a literal nightmare, like
post-apocalypse for PlayStation users
James: It's…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: pe
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: are equating a alldigital Sony feature with an alldigital Like
they're saying it like like some people are saying Oh if Sony's going all digital
why don't I just go to PC anyways PC's a
Gardiner: Yeah.
Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: someone's like Oh so you're go you're leaving alldigital
platform for another alldigital platform Like no it is not the same thing
James: Well, you don't have to leave it for Steam either.
You can leave it for PC, and then you have options.
The problem with… The, my biggest problem, and, and I think it would
be a little hypocritical not to call this out of console gaming anyways.
Like, yes, could you buy a PlayStation game somewhere else?
Yes, but it is still going to be a little bit regulated by PlayStation
through its fees and all that.
It can never go too… Like, I guess same thing with Steam, but, like,
it can't go too cheap or else the devs will just not make any money.
So at the end of the day, y- like, you could at least buy
the games from GameStop, Best Buy, wherever you wanted to.
Sometimes they'd have sales and all that that they were allowed to do.
But it still was all kind of regulated by PlayStation.
Now it's like you have no option except for buying it from PlayStation, and
it's all… And their competition is literally PC and Xbox.
Like, there is no other competition, even with other stores, I would say.
And this is kind of a little bit of a problem with the consoles is
that it's, it's a little, uh…
You just don't have any… Like, if they wanna charge you six-
Like, it's like a Nintendo issue.
If they wanna charge you $60 for the rest of that game's life, they can.
There's no deals.
There's no… Uh, if they w- if… And they're doing price fixing too now,
like, or price like, um, dynamic pricing they're practicing more and more.
So if your account's flagged as being rich, you're screwed.
If you're not really rich, you just buy games at full price sometimes,
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: you as, "No, he's gonna spend more because of that." So I don't know.
I do not like dynamic pricing for sure
Gardiner: No, I mean, dynamic pricing is the same old scam
with, with new packaging.
It's, it is literally, uh, algorithmic price fixing, and it's, it should be
James: Oh, 100%.
We need, definitely need to do, uh, dynamic pricing to be
Gardiner: Like,
James: illegal 'cause it's
Gardiner: don't, do not even kid yourself.
Like, if you walk into a store and that store has, uh, uh, E
Ink labels, do not shop there.
Like, that is price fixing just the same.
Um, is… Dude, it's crazy.
James: Y-
Gardiner: will not shop at a store that has E Ink labels
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: till someone hacks that ink display to give you free products
Gardiner: Well, the pro- the, but the E Ink actually… Like, whatever the label
says on the shelf doesn't actually affect what the UPC says, like, in their system.
So it-- But, like, when they update… See, the pro- Here's the thing.
I used to work at Home Depot, right?
I was, I was a, uh, merchandiser, right?
So my job was to, like, lay out the shelves according to the way
the, the brand wanted, right?
Because most of the time, the brands would pay money to have their products
sit on a shelf at eye level with, like, the average American height.
Like, I'm not even kidding.
And so my job was to set that shit up the way they wanted, and I would print
out labels, like just paper labels, and I'd stick them on the shelf.
Uh, but there was also this other team that would come in at like
4:00 in the morning and work until maybe 11:00, and their whole job
was just to go around things.
it's like that Like, that's not a job anymore because they are just rid
of that to put in, uh, E Ink labels.
And so, you know, if you like protecting jobs, if you like people having jobs,
if you like not getting screwed the fuck over by these assholes, uh, j-
don't shop at stores with E Ink labels.
That's
James: I think that's gonna be really hard because I think it's going more
and more, especially for hardware stuff that's really high-priced.
Um, Best Buy, Walmart.
Um, I haven't seen it at some of the grocery stores yet, but most of the
stores I've gone to that are electronic based i- in Utah and some other, uh,
states near me are pretty much that.
They're E Ink
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We'd
Gardiner: I won't even…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: shop
Gardiner: Yeah, I don't even shop, I, I don't even buy gas at stores that
have, like, electronic displays outside.
Like, I, I will only shop, I will only buy gas at stores that still
have, like, the manually, like, go out and they have to change the thing
with a little sticker, uh, pole.
Like, I, I,
James: we we can't
we can't… I couldn't do that in Utah.
They're all electronic.
I don't know if I've seen…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: my town either
James: I don't… I'd have to drive, like, two hours probably
Gardiner: Really?
There's, there's one gas station up here, and, like, I- the only time
I will actually go to o- one of those is if I'm, like, out somewhere
and I need gas, like, immediately.
James: I sh- I shop at Costco.
I, I, I feel comfortable doing Costco.
That's where I get my gas
Gardiner: Well, Costco is actually good about that kind of stuff.
Like,
James: They
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: gas
Gardiner: You
James: The high tech just walks around.
Gardiner: That's what I wish I could do.
Ugh
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: pays for gas so I don't care if they get charged They don't
I don't care if they get overcharged
Gardiner: Uh, that's okay.
James: You go to the most expensive place.
You're going to the… Dude.
You go to the f- the Freedom gas pumps or whatever they're called.
Gardiner: Oh
James: Did you
Gardiner: God
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The best place to pump gas if you have one nearby are the Bucees
James: Oh, we just got one.
Gardiner: youth
James: We just got one here in Utah.
Yeah, it's just op- well, I th-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: state but there's one like way out of my town I'd
have to go like three hours to go to the Bucee's in my state
James: The one that's near me is like 30 minutes, but I think they're
gonna start putting a couple more in because we're on the West Coast, we're
very big gas guzzlers over here, so.
But I've heard good things about their nuggets, so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: good stuff Bucee's generally has good food Like it like
obviously it's not as good like as like a real real barbecue place but it's
like miles above any other like gas
James: Gas station?
Uh, Maverick is, uh, I, I think Utah-based.
Maverick is really good too, or at least they were.
They're, I think they still are though
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Like I would argue Bucee's almost rivals like the Japanese
convenience store levels of like food That's how good their stuff is
James: Okay, there you go.
You heard it here, HiTech said it's better than Korean fried chicken.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
Gardiner: That's awesome
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that I I
James: I
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: these re I resent
James: know.
So if, if what's-his-face from N- uh, Nvidia, the CEO, goes to a Buc-ee's, do
you think it would really increase the, the, their stock if they have stock?
I don't know if they do or not.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Considering how parasocial the financial industry
is with uh Adam Jensen Huang
James: Yeah.
I just, yeah, can't, we can't talk about chicken.
I mean, I brought it, I brought up the chicken, Korean fried chicken.
We can't bring it, can't bring that up without bringing up, uh, Juan, man
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah But hey could be wor it could be worse
could be you asking making products without permission from Valve
S
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: someone bro someone resurrected
James: Oh.
Steam Deck.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: dbrand Cube
James: Oh, dbrand
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: model You can 3D print this and put this
right there You can 3D print one
James: So did they make it available?
Uh, um, sorry, I'm trying to understand.
Uh, did they make it available or is this someone else made it?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh so someone else made it Someone else like did the modeling
themselves They didn't have access to the cube They just recreated it based on
like pictures and stuff and dimensions
James: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And this is them with their Steam Machine Wow They have a
custom they have a totally custom one
James: That's sick.
I…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's 3D printed for
James: Yeah.
Oh, yeah, and there's ways to finish it so it doesn't feel as
3D-printed, but I… Man, I'm gonna m- I wanna make one of these.
I just, I have to get… I h- I wanna get a new 3D printer that can handle
multiple colors so I don't have to swap things out, and so let's see.
Steam Frame 3D printer
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: They used Sunlu
James: Ooh.
Oh, they even have the filament and everything that they used?
That's awesome
Gardiner: That's cool
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: they have filaments they have a parts list You need a
James: Actually have some of that too.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: of course Th that's
James: don't.
You don't.
You could have just a box, right?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It says right there one t one
James: Is
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Machine You need a Steam Machine obviously
James: No, you could make a box and pretend like you could have it so
it's front-facing so that like it looks like you have a Steam machine.
So you can brag, but you don't really have one
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: See so there's also these You also need flathead screws
uh a lot of heat inserts magnets yada yada yada and there's some instructions
James: I mean, it's a process
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Assembly's required It's not it's not like you're gonna print
this out and it comes out just like this
James: So if I make my own print, not use theirs and sell it, you
think I'd get in trouble by Valve?
Do, do you think I'm big enough?
Do you think I'm big enough?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: E I think Valve will treat Etsy a little
differently compared to dbrand
James: Yeah.
I, well, on Etsy I think there are a lot of Valve stuff.
It's just, yeah, dbrand went way too far
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Like Deep Bread made a whole video which is crazy to me
James: Yeah.
Whole video
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: thought like I thought they had permission I
James: I thought
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: had permission
Gardiner: I would've put money on that they had h- had permission based on that
thing 'cause it, it, yeah, it's wild
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: good thing it's a good thing you're not a betting man Gardner
Gardiner: I know.
I'm not.
Not at all.
That's why I don't have a 401.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh but you know who's not losing a bet dbrand cause they
made skins for your Steam Machine
These are some pretty nice skins by the way I should mention
Gardiner: Hmm.
Oh, yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And unlike unlike the s unlike the unlike
the cube these are perfectly legal
James: I, I, I, I want a couple of them.
But I, I contacted dbrand 'cause I have a contact and they haven't gotten back
to me yet this week, and so hopefully
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh they just sent oh they just sent me these like before I left
James: Yeah, don't talk, don't talk to me about it.
Making me jealous
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you can get this It looks like a it looks
like a little old computer Looks
James: I know.
It looks pretty sick actually
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: You can touch grass
James: Is it textured or is it just like a skin?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Man I don't know I haven't I haven't opened
it up yet I left for town
I haven't opened my package yet dbrand
James: I think honestly I might run The Fragile One
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Ooh you can
James: I like that
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: box
James: I'm not liking the solid colors.
But yeah
Gardiner: No, I'm, uh, I don't either.
That one looks like a… Oh, I was gonna say that one looked like a
basketball, but that one really does.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The Or you can get this flat Earth one
James: Fl-flat Earth
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Earthers out there
Gardiner: Dude, I suck at putting stickers on things.
So, like, I'm just looking at, like, these textured ones like the Earth or whatever,
where Antarctica is like, uh, kind of intruding on the, on the power button,
and I'm like, "That would not go on s- on the correct orientation, would it?"
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I have I have gotten a little better with that since
dbrand started sending skins out
James: Yeah, same
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: cause I used to be horrible with like
screen protectors and stuff
James: The dice one would be kind of fun when, when your Steam Machine dies,
getting the dice so you can just roll it
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude See there's also the XRay ones Those are generally pretty cool
James: The X-ray ones are pretty cool.
That's pretty cool too
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: think these are the Linus uh collab ones
Is my screen flashing What's what's going on here
Gardiner: I'm not seeing clashing
James: It's, it, it's like popping up and down.
It, uh, I don't know if you should worry about it
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh whatever Uh
Ooh SpiderMan inspired Not bad And then you have the I think
this is the MKBHD uh collab one
Gardiner: Hmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's got the icons on it The this looks a lot this looks very
It looks very nice I will say MKBHD does have some style
Glitch camo I don't know about that one chief Yo you can get th you can get
this matte black skin for your Steam Machine This is kind of hilarious though
James: Yeah, it, it doesn't look any different.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it doesn't look any different
James: It's to protect it though, to make it, uh, you know, pristine
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes Yes
James: Do they have faceplates though that you can buy?
I haven't looked into Steam Machine stuff 'cause that… Yeah, I think
that's what I care about more than the sk- the skins are actually pretty
cool, but I want, I want faceplates.
That's what I wanna change the most
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: no But I I'll be sure to let dbrand know when
I make a video on the skins I got
Wow look at that You can turn your crappy scratched up uh MacBooks
into a not scratched up uh
James: mess.
It, it will help protect and stuff like that.
Like,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It'll help protect
James: yeah.
I, I'm a fan of s- the dbrand stu- dbrand stuff I've gotten before.
Like, my favorite thing is the Kill Switch though.
Like, that by far, I love that so much
Gardiner: switch is awesome
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: How do you attach these skins though?
I
James: have traveled so much with the Killswitch.
Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh, look, it's wrapped the basketball skin around.
wonder if it has, like, a real basketball, like, texture
Gardiner: That would be cool.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Gardiner: doubt it though, just based on how that looks, I
James: It doesn't look like it has a very raised one if it does, but they do a
good job of making it look like it might.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We shall see, but, uh, I don't actually know what skins
I even got to be, truth be told.
I haven't opened it up yet.
But we'll worry about that later because we have more pressing news, Nintendo.
If you guys recall, you guys recall, Nintendo was being sued
for, uh, it's a class action lawsuit for, uh, tariff refunds and this
is Nintendo's response to it.
asked the court to dismiss it because they say Nintendo has no legal duty to
pass on US tariff refunds the consumer
Gardiner: Dude
James: It's, th- this is such a hard thing because technically they don't.
We voted for this.
I don't… Logistically it'd also be really, like it'd cost
a lot of money to figure out where to distribute it probably.
I don't know.
I'm making excuses for them, but at the end, uh
They could have done better PR with this.
I think they could have just done better PR.
Gardiner: Yeah.
Well, first of all, a t- like Nintendo didn't pay any tariffs.
W- the people who bought Nintendo's shit while tariffs were in
place were the ones who paid it.
So just on like, just on the plain text of it, I feel like a tariff
refund should go to the people who actually paid the tariff and not the
company that didn't pay the tariff.
I, I don't know, just, just based on the plain text
Am I crazy?
nuts
James: It's
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, I mean, that, yeah, we, it's always us that pay the
tariff, so you're not wrong on that front.
James: So
they eat, they could eat the cost, so they, but they have to raise the price.
They know the tariff cost when they're importing and doing all that stuff.
So at the end of the day, like they could eat the cost.
They didn't.
They obviously upped the prices.
Um, it's pretty obvious, and it's passed on to us.
But at the end of the day, America, you guys voted for this.
So I also,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that they can keep the prices high because
of the stupid Rampocalypse
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: Yeah, two
Gardiner: Trump lost the popular vote twice, so we didn't actually vote for it.
But yeah
James: No, but people didn't go out and vote 'cause they didn't wanna
vote for a woman, so I'm not g- just to get a little political, uh, Biden
got so many more votes than Kamala.
Like, they just didn't wanna get out.
People weren't engaged, so at the end of the day, people voted
for this by not voting, so…
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: This is what happens when you don't vote.
Gardiner: That's
James: This is what happens when you don't vote.
Uh, you get taxed, 'cause it's not affecting the rich people.
It's affecting you guys.
It's… Honestly, gamers are getting royally fucked right now.
Like, we are so fucked, it's crazy.
Um, and it's making it so, like, even doing YouTube and doing all this stuff
is making it harder because y- uh, people just aren't able to afford as much.
Video, uh, people aren't as engaged as much, so yeah, like, yeah, it's
just a f- I mean, gaming in- I think the gaming industry all around
is in a recession a little bit.
Like, it's, it's definitely, um, a downsize, and you can tell.
And I don't think it's AI.
They'll, they might blame it on AI.
They might blame it on different things 'cause they want a, uh, an easier
out 'cause it looks better to them.
But no, it's, it's the economy's just retracting right now,
and it's not a good sign.
It's not a good sign
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: seen, I think we've, I think really we've seen the height how
big the gaming industry can be, h- how big it will ever be, uh, during COVID
because, you know, gaming companies didn't have to compete with, like,
people going outside and stuff, and now people, now, you know, now they have to.
They gotta compete with people.
Like, I'm sure a lot
James: I thi--
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: people that were working from home were also kind of playing video
games on the side they were working.
But like, you can't, but like, thanks to the return to office
mandates, you can't do that
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: do that
James: Re- There, there's a couple of things.
So, like, think, like, they're also… It proves that their business, uh, their,
their business degrees kind of are garbage for some of these, uh, tech executives
or, like, these gaming executives 'cause they're just like… It's all laid out.
You know that there was gonna be a bump in sales.
They over-hired.
They did all this other stuff.
They over, uh, played themselves.
All of tech in- industry did for the most part, but gaming industry especially.
And they're like, "Well, we're gonna keep on trying to ride this. We're,
we're gonna improve it," and it did for, like, a, a year or two after even COVID
kinda ended, like, it started to go up.
But then a few things were starting to happen.
One of them, I think, like, return to, to office.
You've got, uh, people having to work more in order to survive.
Like, our cost of living has gone up drastically.
If you look at the, um, inflation rates and stuff like that, which had
to happen because of political reasons I'm not gonna get into, but yeah.
The… It's, it's a perfect storm of kinda stuff that's going on right now
and it, and it's just getting worse.
Like, the RAM is just icing on the whole cake to make this
whole thing so much worse.
So
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: yeah, it's… It, it sucks.
And the bare minimum what Nintendo could have done instead of being assholes is
that they could've been like, "Hey, it…
You know, we- we're not gonna do refunds, but here's, here's a free game or here's
something," they, they could have done.
I think they could have done something to be like, "Here you go," uh, bare minimum.
If they didn't wanna do the logistical nightmare of, uh, figuring out who…
And, and maybe, honestly, maybe it's not a logistical nightmare
because they sh- if you have good accounting software nowadays, like,
software and tech has made it so that all this stuff should be easy, but
I don't know.
I, I am curious if other companies are gonna follow suit with this and,
like, how much the tariffs really were.
Like, w- w- with Nintendo, what is it?
If you bought a Nintendo Switch, how much of a tariff increase was it?
Like 50 bucks?
That would be interesting, and maybe they did make a lot more money than
we know, and this is to cover it up.
I don't know.
But, uh, Costco said that they're gonna honor tar- like they, th- but they sued
the administration, so… Another reason I kinda sided with Costco on stuff is I
think a while ago they said if they get a refund, they're gonna pass it down.
Z- "Make sure to hold onto your receipts" is what they said, so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh,
Gardiner: Dude, Costco is actually really cool.
I like, I like them.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Do
Gardiner: Why why is Cost- I don't, I don't have a Co- Uh, like I think the
nearest Costco is Massachusetts, like
James: Oh my gosh.
I live near, technically I live near three.
I live near two that I can get to in four minutes, and then I have a third
that's probably like seven minutes.
Costco's are
Gardiner: in Scarborough, which is like t- an hour and 40 minutes from here
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: live pretty close to a Costco, yeah.
Um,
Gardiner: Holy shit
James: They're from Washington, so they spread like pretty
thick onto the West Coast.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Mmhmm
James: and plus people in Utah have big families, and so I think it makes sense.
But no, they're also, um, their whole policy is a lot of the…
Like, this current CEO I think rose up through the ranks.
He's not like some e- exec from day one.
So there's a lot of reasons I think CEO does well
Gardiner: are, are they like employee-owned or something?
Like
James: They're something like that.
I don't think they're quite like what WinCo is, but Costco is, um, I- heck,
if you've been working at Costco, I, I think as, like, s- some of even the
lower-end employees, I th- for, like, 30 years, they're, they're millionaires now.
Like, their,
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: retirement, they're gonna go be… Like, they're, I don't know.
There's a whole, a lot of new stuff coming out about Costco and how they're
pretty friendly for, uh, workers.
But not to glaze them so hard, but I do like that, uh, there's a… I
could, I could glaze them for a while.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah,
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I do have a question though.
Do you guys think gaming will ever be as big as it was during COVID ever again?
you think
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: those heights?
James: Yeah, I mean, w- what, what are you talking about?
Are you talking about per po- like population levels, or are you talking
about is this gonna make more money in 10 years than it did during COVID?
Of course it will.
Th- there will be some growth as society grows, potentially.
But I, I, I think there will be.
I just don't know if it's gonna be what… Like, people are so used to
like, "Oh, well, we got a 20% increase." Well, that's not a natural increase.
Like, the… You, you have expon- like it's not an exponential all the time.
You have gradual increases typically is what you should plan for.
But
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Right.
James: Yeah
Gardiner: Yeah, I mean, I think gaming was like huge because everyone was like
just stuck at home during the pandemic.
So in terms of like number of people playing, I don't know necessarily, but
like, like, I mean, with prices just going insane, if that trend continues,
then the gaming industry may, uh, make more money now than it did back then.
But also they're, they will eventually price people out,
um, of being able to game.
So
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And they'll be culturally irrelevant too, because
Gardiner: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: the masses can't afford it, then…
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
But, you know, so I don't have a good segue for this, but have you guys heard
about the World of Warcraft situation?
Gardiner: No
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So basically, Blizzard, uh, basically a game master,
a GM, a moderator, a globe moderator, I think, uh, either or, instantly
killed a dungeon boss for a friend, not realizing that it was recorded.
And then Blizzard said they were investigating it, and then they actually
ended up firing this developer in question
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And all the players that benefited from them
killing that instant kill bot.
So as a g- as a moderator, they have certain abilities.
One of them the ability to instantly kill, like, a raid monster or a dungeon
boss or something like that, right?
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: They did that for a friend
Gardiner: Interesting
James: I
I don't know.
I, I just, uh, one part of me is it's stupid to get fired over
something like that, so like I don't know if I would've fired him.
Maybe, you know, a little bit of a reprimand.
But on the other side, why are you also doing this for a friend?
Why, why, why don't you just play the game?
I don't know.
It's a game, so this seems stupid b- on both sides for me.
Both why would you risk your job, but also why would you fire someone?
But
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So this was a Mythic Plus dungeon, by the way,
which in this case, uh, they appear to be, like, high-level dungeons.
I don't, I don't actually… I don't play WoW, so I don't know for certain
Gardiner: Hmm
James: This is definitely way after my time of playing WoW.
This, but still, I don't know.
I'm sure it's really difficult, but
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: so basically it boils down to some guy asked his GM
friend to kill this monster because it has 20 million health, bro
And then they did it
And I mean, there's very substantial evidence that
yes, they did it for a friend
James: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It wasn't an isolated incident, in many cases there's w-
there's worries that other GMs have been assisting their friends with these sorts
of secret kills, secret too, I should add.
The only reason this became viral is because a Redditor posted a combat log
and witnessed it, and this could have been happening under everyone's noses
without them knowing
Which, I mean, I understand that it's stupid to fire, get fired over this,
but at the same time though, this does
Gardiner: So okay, genuine question 'cause I don't know jack
shit about anything about WoW.
Does this negatively affect other players or give the player who got
the one shot, does it affect him in a good way more than anyone else?
James: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: him.
He
James: So he
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: credit for the kill,
Gardiner: Oh, yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: as such he might be able to get loot
James: Well
so he's gonna get the better loot.
So yeah, when he kills it, I don't know if you get like a, a badge or anything.
I'm sure there probably is, but like, he's gonna get a lot of good mythical
probably, um, some mythic loot in there.
And so, uh, level up, um, uh, s- maybe some other bonuses.
There's some really, uh, good stuff that can come from it.
It could disrupt the market too if he wants to go sell it.
But
Gardiner: Hmm
James: at the same time, like, is it like a, a big thing?
Y- yeah, it's not gonna like… Like, other people aren't losing
out necessarily because of it, but it's not a good thing, you know.
Cheating is not a good thing
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I'd be will- I'd be willing to bet if they fired
this person for it, that they've probably been doing it for a pretty long time.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: Oh yeah.
' Hi-Tech Lo-Life: 'Cause it's
James: if
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: like it's one thing if you do it once and then, like, you
get warned or whatever, but, like, I'm sure they've probably been doing this
before, like, for a pretty long time.
Also, the players got punished too, by the way.
It's not just the guy got fired
James: Yeah, I'm… I mean, if the guy's gonna get fired, might
as well punish the players.
Like, uh, I, I would p- yeah, I don't know.
I think this is, uh, yeah, maybe it's, it's a, I mean, it's a kinda cheating,
so I don't care about them then.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: also leaderboards.
There are
James: ah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: too, uh, so this could also affect that too.
It's like a, it's like a illegitimate speed run, if you will
James: Yeah
Gardiner: Yeah, I mean, like, it's one thing if, like, you're playing a single
player game and you, you, you know, use cheats or whatever, like, to whatever.
But if you're affecting other people or, like, screwing up the
economy, then yeah, that's, that's
James: It's not like it's PVP luckily.
Like, I'd be probably more upset, but still it's one of those
things where it shouldn't happen.
I do think there should be some punishments, but, uh, uh, I don't…
They weren't actually using hacks.
They were asking for a favor.
So it's more on the dev or the, the, it's more likely a GM.
Yeah.
Like a, a GM or dungeon master.
It's… Still, man, to get fired over this sucks, but don't abuse your power I guess.
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And you were hired to keep the game,
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: state.
to keep the game functioning as is.
Your, your job isn't to bosses for a few friends because, I mean,
this probably isn't the first time they did it, like I said
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: Yeah.
I mean, context is, is key for all this.
If it's a one-off, slap 'em, say, "Hey, don't do that again," have them
go through a training or something, uh, if it, uh… But yeah, if it's
multiple, maybe don't even warn them.
Just be like, "Yeah, okay.
I mean, you keep on doing this,
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: it's affecting… You're not doing your job right.
You're affecting things," then yeah, fire them of course.
They should have logs on that too.
That's kinda crazy that they don't have logs on that.
It was b-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: do.
That's why, that's how it was exposed.
They
James: I thought it was a video.
Oh
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: I thought I was recorded
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I, I guess it was recorded too.
Uh, it was
James: Okay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: stream.
James: Yeah, it was on a Twitch stream, but I, I, I was like w- the logs should
have some type of like, "Hey, this, why is this guy keep on killing these
mythic bosses?" And stuff like that.
Or one time, why, what's going on there?
But I don't know, it's World of Warcraft, so I don't know.
Don't need government level of s- uh, you know, surveillance, I guess.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Speaking of government surveillance though,
James: TheBrink
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: uh, this 21-year-old Steam quote developer was arrested.
He infected 8,000 PCs with malware through fake Steam games
Gardiner: Wow
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So for those who don't know, he's stolen $220,000 worth of
crypto through malware in your video games
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So he's been publishing games on Steam, probably
some crap that no one plays except for a few people for shits and giggles.
Probably like YouTubers that like play like really small obscure games
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So yeah, he stole a bunch of money.
James: I wonder how he was able to get to the point to steal that.
That's interesting
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: oh yeah.
Th- oh yeah, this is the guy, s- this is the guy that stole money
from someone getting cancer treatment
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: Oh my gosh
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It, it's this.
I remember this
James: Oh.
Wow.
Gardiner: That is so sad
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: That is sad.
Th- I mean, thankfully the internet came and, like, gave her some,
gave her money to, like, pay for that, but, like, the fact that it
was stolen to begin with is awful
Gardiner: Yeah
There has to be, like, some kind of heuristic that Valve can add for,
like, scanning apps that are uploaded.
I mean, 'cause, like, it seems like such a attack vector now.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Putting
Gardiner: Steam.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: is, it's
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: too
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: I definitely think they're, like, I, I just wish that they had more
billions to, you know, throw at this, but too bad they don't have enough money
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: well, they're g- they're gonna have to throw more billions at
this, otherwise this is like an attack on their product directly, and if
James: They're gonna get,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: then
James: they're gonna get sued for… Valve's gonna get sued again
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: people are gonna lose faith in Steam as a whole.
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Like, if this ha- keeps happening, people are gonna
walk away from Steam as a whole
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And Steam OS too, by the way.
This, this also damages their Linux, uh, initiative too.
So Valve
needs to invest m- much more in security, prevent this
stuff from ever happening again
Gardiner: Yeah.
Um, do we know if, like, uh, exactly what type of crypto wallets were hacked?
Were they, like, local wallets or were they, like, credentials for,
like, a cloud-based wallet or-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh, this article doesn't say
Gardiner: Okay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I'm sure, I'm sure the, uh, legal documents say
It's US versus, uh, Wilkins, the hacker
Account login information, they
stole credentials.
So it seems like he was stealing, not local, but like account information too
Gardiner: Yeah.
makes the most sense.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well, I mean…
Gardiner: most people don't use, like, local, local wallets anymore
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: No, I'm sure, I'm sure the malware could also
steal local wallets too, just in
Gardiner: Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I was just thinking like how, how was there $220,000 worth of local
wallets on people's computers?
But for the most part, it's probably cloud-based.
Mm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, that's unfortunate.
Uh, but we c- hopefully we can leave this guy in the past.
He'll be in prison.
Gardiner: Mm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: know, I don't know what the maximum sentence is, 'cause they
only just arrested this guy, I believe
Yeah, so can leave Finn in the past while we look towards the future of gaming.
coming out soon, and for those who don't know, Gamescom is like
the equivalent of E3 but in Europe
And they sold out of all exhibition space for the first time in history
James: They can have AC though
Because,
and it, it is later this year, uh, later into August, but like, dude,
being in Europe without AC sucks
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I've heard about, yeah, I, I was in Italy not too long ago, and
they didn't have AC in any buildings.
It was miserable as an AC-loving American
Gardiner: Yeah.
Most places up here in Maine don't have AC, so I'm used to it.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: house have AC?
Gardiner: I have a heat pump that, like, the living room,
and it kinda does my office too
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Damn.
All right, so the Gamescom starts in August, uh, next
month, about, uh, actually almost a whole month away actually.
So yeah, get ready for Gamescom.
We'll probably be covering that at some point in time, uh, next month.
Definitely.
But Gamescom is not the only convention upcoming too.
also the legendary Tokyo Game Show, which for those who don't know,
is also like E3 but in Japan, and it's like a month after Gamescom.
So it used to be we ha- it used to be, before E3 died, we used to have E3,
then Gamescom, then Tokyo Game Show.
Now it's Geoff Keighley's show, then, uh, Gamescom, then Tokyo Game Show
And so
look at this.
You can, you can buy a ticket to TGS for 300 bucks roughly
Well, actually, no, it's
James: It's a
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's actually
James: h- 180?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: 200
James: That's… Oh, that's a premium ticket.
Okay.
I was gonna say, like, I'm looking at Gamescom and it's, like, 20 euros, so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well,
James: Uh,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: let's see
James: and it's not fully, it's not fully booked, uh, sold out either, by the way
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: pre- this is the premium ticket, though.
James: Yeah, I know
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you wanted the, uh, fast ticket, it's about
60,000- it's about 6,000 yen or about 36 bucks, so a lot cheaper.
James: The Super Fan bundle for Gamescom doesn't e- it s- says sold
out, doesn't even say what the price is.
But the, uh, the tickets per day is, like, 20 euros.
You can get a family pass for s- uh, 69, uh, euros.
Well, that's kinda cool.
I wonder what that means, but sorry, sorry, you can continue.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: look, so you can also get a one-day pass for about 20 bucks.
Not bad.
Or if you're an elementary schooler, you can get into Tokyo Game Show for free
Gardiner: wow
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So bring your kids too.
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hook 'em while they're young.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: But yeah, Tokyo Game Show's also happening too.
I don't really know what else is happening,
James: I'll be honest, if I was in Tokyo, I don't know if
I'd go to the Tokyo Game Show.
I th- there's so much stuff I wanna do in Tokyo.
I love Japan.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well,
James: It'd be so hard.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well, it's only, uh… Let me see.
Actually, it looks like five days
James: So if I'm gonna be there for a week and a half, I'm not
gonna use up a quarter of that
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, don't go for, don't go to Japan for a week and a half.
Go for longer, dude.
There's…
James: so expensive though
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Okay, well, like, yeah
James: Two weeks.
They also have to take time off work
No.
Um, and then on top of it, if you're going with a family, oh, that's… 'Cause
you have to spend food on all- Man, it's so nice to just go, like, do stuff on
your own in the sense of money-wise.
Like, if I went off on my own to Japan, it's a fourth the price
Gardiner: Hmm
James: But
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The,
James: thus to having kids, it's fine
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: well
I'm sure you could find some cheap lodging in Japan and just go by
train to wherever you need to go
Or heck, or heck, you could go to Tokyo Game Show for a day.
You could just buy a ga-
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: pass and go for one day out of, like, your five or six, like,
James: I'm sure if I was gonna go there, I'd probably wanna go by Tokyo Game Show.
I'm just being more bombastic of like, man, if I'm gonna be in Tokyo, I don't
wanna be stuffed into some event center.
I wanna be out there in the, the wild world of Japan.
But no, it looks, it looks interesting.
It'd be… I enjoy these events a lot more in person than, uh, watching them
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you
guys remember, Valve was at Tokyo Game Show
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: with a giant Steam Deck.
You guys remember this?
They even had a Steam Deck dock here too, the real deal right
here, like before it was released.
And heck, they even gave out these little goodies, including this little keychain
James: Yep
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: That you can't find in, anywhere in the US.
Dude, look at this.
Look at all the cool shit J- Japan gets all the cool stuff.
They still get all the cool stuff.
This is unfair
James: At least I have a Steam Machine.
I'll- I'm happy
Gardiner: it's my face.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness.
Gardiner: Wow.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Bryan
Gardiner: That was about 100 pounds heavier.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I gotta say, you look a lot better now, Gardner
Gardiner: you.
I, I have, I've, uh, put in the hard work
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Oh, look, here's my video too
Gardiner: Heck yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Wow.
I like Tokyo Game Show's art too.
They always have little art pieces.
Games- I have not seen any Gamescom art like this, if they even do this.
Which I'm pretty sure they don't do this.
I don't know, man.
Whatever.
Anyways, the point is, the point is Gamescom… Wait, can you see the screen?
Mine's showing up as gray on
Gardiner: It's just gray now
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: myself.
That's weird.
Why would it do that?
Yeah, that's better
Anyways, that, that, I think that's the topic.
Uh, I don't, I don't think I have much more to add to this, truth be told.
This is a bit of a
shorter episode
Gardiner: It's all good.
Uh, we got almost an hour and a half.
James: Yeah.
I
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: mean, got some good stuff
Gardiner: another almost hour over on, uh, Patreon exclusive
for our members, our, our patrons
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes.
Yes, please do.
James: And then in the future we're gonna b- force Gardner to watch stuff, so
Gardiner: Yes, they're…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: him to watch the AI Odyssey.
Gardiner: Oh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: gonna have to talk about this in the main episode at some point
in time, or maybe we'll, or maybe we'll make that topic free to watch for everyone
James: We'll have to see.
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: Gotta give, I gotta give a reason people to go to Patreon
and, and to subscribe though.
Gotta give them some reason
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Wha- make Gardner watch the AI Odyssey.
That's
Gardiner: It's gonna kill me.
I'm
James: And then after that, we're gonna have him go
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: thought
James: money at a store that has E Ink
Gardiner: Eating tags?
No.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, you're subjecting him to his own personal hell, man.
You're sending him to,
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: the 10 circles of- the nine circles of gardener's hell.
James: There you go.
Exactly
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: generate Odyssey, next is E Ink.
What's next?
Forcing him to use
James: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: as his daily driver
Gardiner: Bad.
Bad.
You guys just wanna torture me
James: It's kind of fun.
I, I'm sorry.
Gardiner: Well, I, I, you know, I, I am a grump, and, uh, so I
make it very easy to be tortured.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Hey, I'm Grump.
I'm Not So Grump, and we're the Game Grumps
James: Gosh.
Gardiner: Yeah
James: I try not to be too grumpy, but it's hard.
It's hard.
RAM prices this high
Gardiner: They, they make it hard
James: They make it hard to be happy, but
Gardiner: Well, thanks everybody for being here.
Appreciate it
James: Yes, thanks for stopping by.
Go to
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: All right
James: offthecuffsetc.com to see, uh, 'cause th- then you can go from
there and subscribe to everything.
Believe I even have the Fediverse in there too.
If I don't, I'll make sure it's in there
Gardiner: Absolutely.
Yeah.
That'll make the calls to action easier.
James: Yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Heck yeah.
Gardiner: Heck, right.
All right.
I think that's it for now, right?
James: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah
James: Let's leave the good viewers and listeners on a good note, I guess.
Uh, RAM prices will crash in the next year, hopefully
Gardiner: Yes, absolutely
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And then maybe I'll make my own Steam Machine again
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: Yeah.
Okay.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: All right.
James: Peace out, guys.
Later.
Gardiner: Yeah
James: Later
And stopping.
Yay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Welcome to the bonus level.
Gardiner: TheBrink
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: B- b- b- b- bonus, b- bonus, bonus.
Today, we're talking about government stuff, as per usual,
Gardiner: Oh, yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: we're talking about the government seizing private land to
make way for AI data center transmission lines using eminent domain, as per usual
Gardiner: Yep
James: Yeah, man.
The government first started making the frogs gay, now data centers.
No
Gardiner: Now the data centers are gonna make it, the frogs gay.
James: Yeah, yeah.
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: AI-generated frauds
Gardiner: Rock furries.
James: Prog, oh my gosh.
Gardiner: Off to a great start already.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I, I bet you those do exist.
Gardiner: Oh yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Most of the ones you see on the internet are, like, wolves
or, like, Sonic fan fiction, but, like, I don't doubt the existence of frog furries
Gardiner: Would, would the… I mean, I feel like furry would
be a misnomer at that point.
Would that be a frog slippy?
Slippery?
Uh
James: That's… No.
Oh, God.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: ones call themselves scalies
James: I think that's what they're technically… No, I think that's
what a lot of the lizard ones are.
You could look it
Gardiner: Well, frogs aren't lizards, James
James: I know, but you tell them that.
They have to have something to unify around
Gardiner: Yeah.
Oh
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah,
James: I don't
Gardiner: well
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: for those that don't know, eminent domain allows the government
to seize property for whatever purposes
Gardiner: Yeah.
See,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: AI data centers
Gardiner: yeah, see the thing is, like I, I think it w- was it last
week when I suggested that the government use eminent domain to
seize data centers and rip them down?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes,
Gardiner: yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: mention that
Gardiner: Yeah.
So it's like they're using it the wrong way.
James: well, I can't remember when this law was passed, but they
made it so that, uh, companies can actually utilize that rule
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: in the betterment of America or whatever like that to… Yeah.
So it's usually w- I think with utilities and some other stuff,
but they can proposition the government to say, "Hey, we need,
uh, to take over this plot of land
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: start the process of it."
And so that's what they're doing.
It's really should be n- I don't know.
It's a little… The, uh, let's just say they're a little loose with
allowing, especially depending on the administrations and stuff like that.
We really need to lock down the executive admin- administration more on what they're
allowed to do without having proper consensus from the public, I think.
This is just what it's telling me more and more.
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: It's kinda crazy
Gardiner: I actually talked about this specific, um, instance on the site,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: What'd you say?
You can return that.
Gardiner: last week.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: right
Gardiner: So, uh, and it's, it's kind of crazy because, like, a- as
these companies are, are engaging in this, like, it's just proof
positive, like you were saying, James.
Like, we have to, we have to put limitations on, you know, the way
the government is run, which ideally in a constitutional democracy
that would be the case, right?
Um-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh, I'm sure it's definitely going to happen in, like,
the next, like, the next administration,
Gardiner: Yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: we n- it, well, honestly, it needs to happen now
Gardiner: Yes
James: no li- uh, there's no chance unless there's, uh … Do you have
a couple hundred million to donate to a, a certain cryptocurrency?
Then you might be able to get it to happen
I
Gardiner: Yeah.
A couple hundred million you're willing to dump into and lose in a cryptocurrency
that is managed by a scam artist?
James: Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Called The
James: We did.
S-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: the Deal Gardener
James: It's the art of the steal, honestly.
Gardiner: Yeah
James: it's interesting 'cause I, I can… So it really does suck when one person
is affected by, like, the intimate, uh, like when putting in freeways and stuff
like that, but there, there is a time and place where this is a useful law.
People might not agree with me, especially libertarians.
like, when it… And it's usually more or less, like,
they overcompensate the person.
Like, "Hey, we get it. This is important, but we need this to build
the city, the society," whatever it is.
I, I get it.
when it's a data center where the data center could be placed in lot of different
places, like, d- d- here, here's the thing I think that pisses me off the
most about data centers, placements, et cetera, et cetera, is that it is usually
the cheapest route they can get is how they go about building data centers.
What is the cheapest, not the most ethical, not anything else, um, and just,
just to save s- a little bit of money.
These are, these are mega millionaires backed by big
V- like all that other stuff.
Like, this is crazy
Gardiner: Mm-hmm
James: they can't inconvenience themselves to lose a little bit more
money on their bottom line to just put it into a, a better location for them.
'Cause that's the thing.
I'm not against data centers.
I'm not against server… Like, these, a lot of these things done
ethically, and it's just not.
And I think people are
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: and if they keep up with this they're gonna start seeing them burn down.
People are getting really tired of it.
Here in Utah, it's become a bipartisan issue.
Like, it's, it's just, it's not, uh, it's not, uh, it's not a partisan issue, no.
It's, it's agrees with it that they don't like the data centers, so.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that's the crazy part too, is that data centers used
to not have this sort of rap AI.
like, we've needed data centers for things to, like, function.
Like YouTube has been
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: like, 20 years.
That's definitely got, like, a massive data center of its own, no one complained
about it because it wasn't being powered for bull- Like, YouTube, like, a- as
much grief as we give YouTube, it is genuinely useful for a lot of things
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: I
Gardiner: The, uh, just to add a caveat on that, uh, YouTube is one of
the largest consumers of electricity and w- uh, water, and it's, and it
outstrips even AI at this point still
James: Yeah, I would not be shocked.
Video pr- uh, 'cause it has to do a lot of video processing, it has to do a lot of
Gardiner: Yeah
James: There's a lot that YouTube, we don't realize.
And I do agree with HighTech, like YouTube brings us a lot of good.
YouTube is, is nice.
It needs… A- and it's free technically, right?
Like, we can, like there's no entry cost.
But it doesn't mean that they're not making… Like, we can't compare
to like, oh, what's their profit?
What's their revenue?
Okay.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: You know, you could, you could divert some of that into more ethically
sourcing your data and all that.
There is ways to do it ethically, like consuming less water, consuming…
Or putting it into areas where it's going to do less damage to
the environment and all that.
So, I don't know
Gardiner: Yeah.
Yeah, and I think the most ethical way to do a data center is to not do
a center, but to distribute across, like, many different locations, right?
So it's not like one big building that has hundreds of thousands of servers.
It's spread them out all over the place the way the internet
was, uh, engineered to, to exist
James: It would… You'd probably… No.
Gardiner: uh, no, I mean, that's ki- I mean, what they're doing now is like,
James: is
Gardiner: yeah
James: you think of a data center like the one that's going in Utah, that one
that's supposed to be the biggest one, we'll see if it happens, it's not like
one… Like, when they say it's the size of Washington, DC, it's not, but
that's not, it's not one large building.
It's a
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: buildings.
It's
Gardiner: It's a campus.
Yeah.
What I'm talking about is like, you know, instead of relying on hyperscalers and
mega corporations to, you know, host, you know, insane scale of data, uh, you
know, making things more local, making things more, um, distributed, right?
So if you wanted to host a website, instead of, uh, like going to a
hyperscaler and renting a V- VPS, you could go to, you know, your local
library and they would have, you know, a server rack and they could
allot you some bandwidth and some space on the disk, and there you go.
You know?
Like that, that's what I'm thinking.
We need to right-size the internet because right now it is completely fucking, like
bogus the way it, the way it's designed
James: It's-- I think we need to… Honestly, I think if you just broke
down monopolies more, took out more,
Gardiner: Yeah
James: took down the investments more, a little bit more, make sure
that, uh, things were a little bit more democratized, allowing for
people to do… Like, it could help with the AI boom too, to also have
mom-and-pop center sounds kinda weird.
There's some technical limitations to that potentially.
Um, the closer the data centers are to each other, the faster
the connections between them are.
So if you're running… It, it-- There's just a lot that goes into it.
So it'd be interesting, 'cause when you're running, let's say, if you've hosted
before, uh, let's say AWS, all the big ones, AWS, Google Cloud, all that, they
have data centers East Coast, West Coast, sometimes in, in Central Amer- or, uh,
United States, and you have to pick them.
Now, if you decentralize that into, okay, where are you gonna pick to where
it's hosted, is an interesting one.
It's like you're gonna have 50 locations, uh, in one state.
Seems not bad, but I'm curious how demand would work for that, and how
you'd have to put the infrastructure.
And that's not a
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: to worry about, but that's even more infrastructure that
you'd have to then pay for.
So I'm…
Gardiner: so basically the idea that I have is that we need to make
personal, like personally identifiable information radioactive, right?
So like there, there is no incentive for, you know, massive companies like
Facebook to actually hold that data because it either, A, they get taxed to,
to hell and back by holding data that is personally identifiable or they, uh, um…
What was the other thing that I… They get, uh, or, or, or
like any kind of like biometric data is bound by HIPAA law, right?
Like that kind of thing where it becomes commercially unviable to have
something like Facebook exist, right?
Or, or Instagram or anything.
Like these platforms just, I don't think that they are healthy for
anyone, and they're not good for society, so they should not exist
James: I think to an extent they can exist, but it would
Gardiner: Not in the way that they currently exist
James: exactly.
It'd knock them down a few pegs of, hey, you can't do all this
stuff to ma- become mega rich.
Gardiner: Yeah.
It's like,
James: a-
Gardiner: like the…
James: cry about it too.
They'll be
Gardiner: Yeah
James: we're, we're, we will, we'll go out of business." And I'm
like, "Well, okay, you're okay, but will you be making money?"
That's the thing I don't get nowadays, is like, if you're not making hundreds
of millions of dollars, you're poor or broke or the company's s- like solvent.
Like, it's crazy that like just having a modest profit is a death
sentence for a company these
Gardiner: Yes.
Yeah.
Um, it, I dropped a link in the chat.
Uh, have you heard about Kete?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Can't say I
James: Ay
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Let me, let
James: It's too close to yeet.
I'm gonna yeet that thing out.
Gardiner: Dude, Keet, uh, is like Signal but completely and 100% distributed.
It's peer-to-peer Signal.
They,
James: Interesting
Gardiner: and they're working on backend as well as frontend stuff to
enable anyone to build 100% distributed applications, websites, all this stuff.
It's really, really cool, and this is the direction the internet needs
to go or else the internet should not exist anymore, in my opinion.
Like, this is, this is super neat, and I really, really am excited about it
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So I am
James: is the biggest thing.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So this
James: But yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: cool.
have to wonder how Key can identify different users and also how you can
protect yourself in case you accidentally connect to a, uh, a bad egg, so to speak.
Gardiner: Yeah, so, uh, th- it doesn't ind- identify users, so you
have to, like, know someone to, to actually start chatting with them
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Okay, that's interesting.
All right, yeah.
'Cause it says p- it was Signal
James: thing.
'Cause I, uh, wasn't it Sig-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: or Telegram or something we were talking about, and then Gardner
dropped that news bo- fricking bomb about, like, people sending you CP over the
James: Yeah,
Gardiner: Yeah, Telegram.
Yeah.
James: that, that,
Gardiner: Yeah.
James: I don't touch that anymore
Gardiner: Yeah, no, Telegram is terrifying.
Um, this I believe you need to have, like, a specific… It's like a friend code.
I, I haven't actually used this yet because nobody wants to get
on it and chat with me on it.
Uh, but, like, it- my understanding is, like, you, you generate a unique ID by
installing it, and then you share that unique ID with people you wanna chat with.
Um-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: You should try it.
You sh- we should try it out and then you make a video on it, Gardner
Gardiner: I definitely want to.
I, my intention was to actually write an article, but I should
also make a video about it.
Um, but yeah, I think that would be pretty cool if we all,
James: Well, guys,
Gardiner: did this
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We can do
James: I'm al- I'm the first one.
I'm the first one signed up in the group.
Gardner, shame on you.
I'm, I'm already in
Gardiner: You're already in?
Oh my gosh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, Gardner, you're slacking,
Gardiner: Well, I, I'm in.
I have mine.
I, I have it installed on my phone.
I just haven't been able to add anybody,
James: Oh, okay.
I thought you didn't
Gardiner: 'cause I didn't, I didn't know anyone
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: speaking of slacking off though, it seems like the US
is slacking off against China.
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: China to rule the AI, seeks to win the AI arms
race with their Kimi 3 launch
James: Ina
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's a powerful AI that's said to be even… It
says either meet or exceed Fable's capabilities, which is supposed to be
the good one, uh, that we have here.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's gotten so intense that the government wants to
try to ban all Mana here of national security or some bullcrap like that
James: I mean, i- is China becoming a- anthropic?
They're just gonna be throwing out these, like, wild statements that are like,
"It's so crazy. It took over everything," as they do their press release.
I don't know.
That's what it feels like
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: cheaper as well, to the point where, um, to the
point where all slots have been sold out or some crap like that.
sh- on.
Let's see if we can s- do it
Gardiner: I haven't tried Kimi K3, but I've tried Qwen 3.6, and Qwen
is like kicking Gemini Fast's ass.
Like, oh my God, like kicking its ass
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's also apparently an open weight model too, so
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: you could download Kimi and run on your own hardware.
Now, the like full fat model, you probably can't run it on any consumer hardware.
It's like astronomically too big for that.
Gardiner: Hmm
James: Yeah, how… Yeah, I was gonna say, what's the r- I w- uh, I really
would like better RAM requirements, 'cause it's usually what the problem is.
And I'm like, "Well, okay, what's the RAM? What's this gonna be?" some, some programs
will tell you what their RAM requirements are, but I'm kinda curious on this one.
So does this give me three?
Let's see
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: At least 1.4 terabytes of memory to load the model
James: That's it?
Sweet
Gardiner: That's actually, I mean, that's huge, but like that's not
as bad as I thought it would be.
James: on, well, the take on, uh, Fable, yeah, that's not bad at all
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Let's see, total runtime and KV cache, according to
AI, exceeds two terabytes or three terabytes total of VRAM or RAM.
So, I mean, need some of those fancy Nvidia cards, the ones
that cost an arm and a leg and a
James: Well, good thing RAM isn't getting more expensive, so it won't, it
only cost me the, the cost of my house
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, why don't you sell your house and invest in RAM, dude?
Obviously that, obviously you're not doing it, right?
Gardiner: Yeah, you need to…
James: a bad idea
Gardiner: Dude, you need to sell your hel- home, right?
And then you need to invest all of it in leveraged EFTs on the Korean stock market.
Put it all in Samsung, because that shit isn't crashing.
Definitely not crashing right now.
Did you hear about that?
James: Oh, what's crashing?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's
Gardiner: Samsung and, um,
James: Yeah
Gardiner: Hynix, their stocks crashed this week, like hardcore.
Like, I think it wiped out 50% of the Korean stock market value.
It's crazy, dude
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Mm, delicious.
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Let's do SA Henix too
Hmm.
James: Is it because the, wh-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's 'cause that executive from SK Hynix, SK Group
said that, uh, RAMs are expensive
Gardiner: Well, they're also, uh, because there were some really soft
reports of like, um, companies like Meta and Anthropic, uh, not, uh, you
know, slowing their, what was the term?
Uh, ex- capital expenditure, uh, which causes those knock-on
effects, um, across the market.
So if, if Microsoft and Meta and whoever are not actually going to be investing
money in the, the same amount or more of their capital into actually purchasing
RAM and other, like, necessary things from these vendors, then the vendors
are the first stocks that take a hit
James: Yeah, it's, it's, it's the…
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: company
James: we, we've talked about this where they're doing these contracts and then
they're not fulfilling on their contracts.
So I'm just… We, I mean, if we hold out, it's either gonna go t- one of two ways.
They get more money to invest to keep thi- like, their competition.
They, they…
Honestly, they're, they're just hurting themselves when they do this.
Like, all these, uh, AI companies, they're all doing it to hurt each other, and I'm
like, "But you guys are all doing it.
You guys all have massive amounts of capital, so you're just
Gardiner: Yeah
James: yourselves on this." So I think, I predict in a year from now we're
either gonna have a RAM crash where it's just gonna be, like, f- $50 you know,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Please
James: you know, for 16 gigs or something like that, or it's gonna be they keep on
pushing it to where it's $1,000 for 100,
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: know.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: all right.
But here,
James: Ugh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: question though.
Here's my, here's my question though.
I just spent $1,000 on a Steam Machine
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: If this happens this soon, what's Valve gonna do for us?
Gardiner: Well, I think Valve's the most likely to actually update the pricing
of their hardware based on, you know, the actual commercial availability.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Right.
But like, what will they do for us?
Gardiner: Oh, for people who b- Well, dude, I mean,
James: That's
Gardiner: I… That's, that's the game, man.
Like, I don't think that they would do anything to
James: I don't
Gardiner: m- make you feel whole.
No, they wouldn't.
Well, the
James: I don't think it's ethic- like, it's not even,
like, an ethical thing either.
I don't think they should
Gardiner: Yeah
James: It's not like they bought the parts.
Gardiner: Yes
James: I, I do wish they wouldn't, you know, upsell it so much
'cause they make so much on Steam.
That's a whole other conversation.
In this case, they're not upselling it at a crazy amount.
They're… They bought it at an expensive rate, so I don't think
Gardiner: Yes
James: owe us anything.
Now, now, saying all that, I will accept Half-Life 3
Gardiner: Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, like Valve might give credits or something
if there was enough, uh
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Push back
Gardiner: But yeah, I mean, if there was enough outcry like, "Oh shit, we
spent a, a thousand dollars on this, but like you guys lowered the price
to 800," which I don't even think that's gonna happen anytime soon.
But like, uh, I don't know, man.
It's … I think, you know, Half-Life 3 might come out and I think
existing Steam Machine owners will just get a copy of it for free.
Like genuinely, th- they did that with the Index and with Alyx, and so like
I, I could see that happening for sure
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: All right, well, hopefully it crashes sooner so I see
some benefit of spending my $1,000
Gardiner: Yeah.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: 'Cause
Gardiner: Ugh.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: man
Gardiner: Yeah.
Ugh, dude,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: right,
Gardiner: what the fuck kind of world do we live in?
James: So the Moonshot AI stuff that Kimi th- that's the Kimi
K3's been out for, like, a year.
But, like, this Moonshot stuff, their website is crazy.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: Sorry, we can… It's just bizarre.
If you, if you go to Moonshot AI, moonshot.ai, like, it's, it's crazy.
Dude, what's weird, it was… Oh, that's not even what I'm getting.
Oh, there you go.
I'm just like, "What is this?" It's like a hallucination.
Not, I haven't tried it out yet
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: do better than any AI models?
Can it make breakfast for me?
Man, fuck no.
I'm not doing this.
James: Well, okay.
I mean, I would also lock that.
It's expensive, yeah, yeah.
We'll get to
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
James: it later.
I was just saying it's crazy, like the design of it is just
like really hallucination.
Like, it's almost like it's hallucinating the web design
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Well, speaking of hallucinating, OpenAI, have you
guys heard about this controversy with OpenAI and Hugging Face?
Gardiner: Yeah, dude
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It's crazy, man.
So basically, uh, for those who don't know, the audience, uh, Hugging
Face is a website that ho- uh, they b- I believe they host a lot
of benchmarks and also just models
Gardiner: Open,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: freely download
Gardiner: yeah, open weight models
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes.
open, one of OpenAI's AIs hacked Hugging Face to solve a benchmark.
It, like, you know, like if I had to put this in human terms,
it's like cheating by finding the teacher's answer sheet in an exam.
That's basically what it did
Gardiner: Yep.
What the hell?
James: You know, personally, I like my AI to be like this.
I like
Gardiner: Yeah
James: Yeah.
I mean, it's just a college student trying to get by
Gardiner: Yeah.
I mean, honestly, like this seems like, um, what's the word?
This seems like Skynet, but without malice.
You know?
James: It's just trying to survive.
Give it
Gardiner: Yeah
James: yeah, no, it's… I don't think we're gonna be getting any Skynet soon.
I think the problem is, is just inst- We're just not at that threshold
of, we're not gonna be at that threshold for a very long time
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: how we
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: life-like AI.
Give it some malice.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Give it a reason to hate us
Gardiner: Yeah, turn the temperature of the malice knob up.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: The, if we make it, dude, if we, it'll be like an AI
revo- it'll be like The Matrix or,
Gardiner: Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: uh, whatever.
There, there's a bunch of these, you know
James: That's true.
Like, so if we are gonna go that route and, you know, depending on how things
go, I just don't think you're gonna be able to stop a lot of advancements.
But if we can direct them in such a way to where it's like, treat, don't treat
the AI bad 'cause they'll learn, and if we tr- teach them off of us, in the
Gardiner: Hmm.
James: of like they become more human, if we treat them well…
That's the story of The Matrix, right?
We treated them like shit and then they just rebelled against us, and we tried
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that's
James: kill them off
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: basically ro- what happened was, uh, robots tried to petition
for robo civil rights, and then we didn't give them because we're humans.
We're buttholes.
And then so they went, so they went off and made their own, uh, country
without any need for any sort of economics, and they crashed the economy,
and then we enga- we went to war with them, and then The Matrix happened
Gardiner: Yep
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I believe that was all from The Animatrix.
Good movie, by the way
Gardiner: Oh man, The Animatrix is awesome
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yes.
James: anime you've ever seen, Gardner
Gardiner: Yes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So far
James: so far
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So far.
We'll
Gardiner: Yep
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: watch anime one day
James: Or some… Oh, that's right.
We gotta, we gotta watch the AI
Gardiner: Oh my God.
No
James: it
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Is that, is that, is that coming out next week?
James: I don't know.
We could do it as a bonus.
Oh, is it not out yet?
I thought it was out
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Uh, I don't, I don't know
Gardiner: Yeah, I don't know
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Okay, not the PewDiePie one
There we go
Od- Odysseus: The Fall by Fountain Zero
James: It was announced.
Okay, slated for late 2026.
So yeah, once it's released, then we'll force him
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Oh, I have to pay 10 bucks for this bull crap?
I thought the point of AI was to give me free unlimited movies generated
James: bucks to see Gardner soft- suffer.
Don't.
Gardiner: I thought we were friends, man.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: That's
James: I'll even
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We, we make each other suffer
James: I'll even
Gardiner: Okay
James: into Utah and he can watch it on a big… I'll, I'll figure out a
way to get it on a big, big screen.
I think I can re- rent a place.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: and here's some hilarious news that I added.
Korean esports player Faker was appointed as an honorary cop and
cyber gaming ambassador in South Korea
James: I mean
Sure
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So he is,
James: not?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: widely considered the best League of Legends
player of all time, the greatest.
He's like Michael, he's like the Michael Jordan of-
But aside, aside from that though, he's also now a cop.
An honorary cop
And he's al- and he's also joined the campaign against cyber youth
gambling, uh, whatever that means
James: that's good.
I'm down.
I'd rather have this.
Like, if he has good intentions, sure.
Why not?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
James: an honorary cop mean though?
It's like, do you get to do a citizen's arrest harder?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I guess it means, I don't know.
I don't even know if cops in Korea… Well, no, they carry
guns in South Korea, just
James: Well, it's, it's most likely that like in a lot of, uh, diff- like
first world countries besides America, like not every officer will carry…
Like UK is a prime example of this.
They won't carry, not all of them are licensed to carry guns.
They have to get licensed.
Um, usually it's peace officers first, right?
They're supposed to make peace and then they call in to escalate.
So,
Gardiner: Hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: So this also comes months after the South Korean president,
uh, awarded Faker the Blue Dragon medal.
I have no idea what this medal actually represents, though.
It's an order of sport merit, so like esports
We don't usually talk about
James: Merit
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: honestly, I don't really care about anything
esports related outside of,
Gardiner: Yeah
James: I'm
Gardiner: Steam
James: fine with esports.
I just, it's, it's the problem with sports, I d- I have a
hard time following sports.
I'd rather be doing other things, like doing my own thing sports
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: yeah, honestly, sports aren't worth watching
unless you're betting on them
James: My Deck.
I mean,
Gardiner: Hi-Tech, Hi-Tech, you might have a gambling issue.
James: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Wow
James: Brought
Gardiner: I'm just worried about you, my friend.
Yeah, right.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Don't worry.
Don't worry.
Well, I guess that's not fully true.
Soccer's worth watching.
Soccer's always fun.
You guys watch the World Cup?
James: Yes.
Soccer's the worst game to, to watch.
It just goes back and forth, back and forth.
Never, barely ever scoring.
Basketball's where it's at.
At least they score all the time
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: just saying that because basketball, like, gets
triple-digit scores, where, like, but that just means every single goal in
soccer is far more impactful, dude
James: Oh, no.
It's not, I've watched it, I watched it.
It's like, oh, you gotta, you gotta wait for everyone to catch
up before you can make a goal according to FIFA, like, rules.
I'm like, this is stupid.
If you get an advantage and you can make the goal or, like, make a shot, let's
say in basketball, then you get it.
Stupid.
But at the same time, it was still fun.
It's, it's, it's not bad, it's just, if I'm watching soccer, I'm doing
something else while I'm watching soccer
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah.
Anyways, on topic of unwatchable sports, I think League is pretty
unwatchable for the average person.
Most games honestly aren't that watchable, truth be
James: I think you'd be surprised actually.
League and StarCraft are two that I know multiple people that don't
play that will watch the esports.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: No, but
James: being said
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: um, something, like Over- let's look at Overwatch.
Overwatch is a game that's been decried as a
James: Interesting
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: basically unwatchable for, like, the average person
James: I could s- I could definitely see being harder to watch than
League, but I don't wa- I've never watched Over- Overwatch esports.
I've watched League of Legends esports before, and those are pretty fun.
But it's, yeah, hmm.
StarCraft u- used to be my jam
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Dude, fighting game tournaments are where it's at, though.
It's super easy to watch.
Anyone can watch it if you don't know what fighting games are, 'cause,
like, it's a pretty simple objective.
You kill the other person in a one-on-one fight
And you don't have to understand that, oh, they just hit something crazy.
You just know that, you just know that they did.
Gardiner: Hmm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, like Gardner could like… You don't really play
like… I know James play- has played a little bit of fighting games.
But have you, Gardner?
Gardiner: Uh, on the Super Nintendo back when I was a kid.
Unless Smash Bros counts as a fighting game, but
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: We- we'll
James: Comment
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: that, in this case,
Gardiner: Okay.
I have, I only, I have, uh, Smash, uh, Ultimate, and that's
the most recent one I played
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Right, but like what I'm saying is like even you that
doesn't play like Street Fighter 6 could watch Street Fighter 6 footage and
probably get what's happening, right?
Gardiner: I mean, probably, yeah.
As long as there's good commentators
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, they're, yeah, the best, the best
tournaments have good commentators.
It's g- it's, it's good stuff, man.
Gardiner: Hmm
James: A good commentator can make and break
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: And a lot
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: of the guys doing fighting game commentaries have been
doing commentaries now, so they know what they're doing, uh, for the most part.
Uh, but yeah, I just, I just brought up the, I just brought up this
Faker story 'cause it was really funny that he became an honorary cop
James: Yeah.
mean,
at least he's doing good.
I, I… It could be worse
Gardiner: Mm-hmm.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: be worse
James: And I don't even know what an honorary cop really means.
It's just like, "Hey, you're a but without any of the benefits," so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: guess technically it's an honorary… I don't
actually know what the, I don't actually know what that even means.
How do you become an honorary cop, though?
Gardiner: I don't know
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Ah, whatever, man.
uh, you guys have any closing thoughts?
James: Oh, are we done with the bonus?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, that's a bonus
James: Oh
Gardiner: Oh, hell yeah.
Well, uh, I- we have a, we have a pretty g- great, uh, episode coming
up, so make sure you guys check that out 'cause it's gonna be a banger
James: Yeah, and we'll,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: be a banger
James: we'll plan… I, I, I do think doing the AI watch, uh, AI, um, movie
watch is, yeah, is, is a good idea.
We should
Gardiner: Yes
James: other things for some of these, uh, Patreon episodes and start
gauging what people would wanna see.
Gardiner: Yes, I agree.
I will suffer for content
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: He, Gardner will suffer for your amusement
Gardiner: Yes.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: too.
Gardiner: Oh, that's funny
James: Hey
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: take care.
we subject Em- Emily to it as well?
Gardiner: Oh, yeah.
Yeah, she's game.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: it's a date.
Gardiner: Yes.
James: a date
I'll find something to glue those eyes open, so you hit the watch
Gardiner: Yeah
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: should, uh, we're watching it too though, James.
James: Oh yeah, I'm gonna watch
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: we, we gotta see how bad this, this ga- we
gotta see how bad this shit is
James: Yeah, it's
Gardiner: Yeah
James: soccer, so I'll be fine.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Wow, wow,
James: I'm
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: wow,
James: k- I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: All right.
All right, gu- all right, you guys take care now.
Gardiner: See ya
James: next week.
Later
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: All right, bye
James: So high tech.
I don't know if you see this disk warning, but you, it says
your storage is really low
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: What?
James: Says Gardner's is too.
Do you… What's your guys'?
Like, it's just, it's for recording, so it records locally
and then uploads it, right?
And then it should, uh… it's saying your disk is
Gardiner: disk is low
James: you were having some issues
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: My disk is
Gardiner: Oh my God, I have two and a half gigabytes left on this.
What the hell is taking up a full terabyte on this drive?
Uh, oh
James: I would say it's not Descript 'cause I still have 200 gigs free.
And so,
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: 300 gigs free on
James: so
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: drive
James: interesting.
I wonder if it's … Is there multiple in that laptop of yours?
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Yeah, there's another one, but that one has 400 gigs left.
So in theory, I should have plenty of space
James: Yeah, I wonder w-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: I do have a NAS that's, uh, mount- that's mounted
as a drive, but I'm not connected to my home network, so like, yeah
Gardiner: What is taking up all this space?
James: I'm just wondering why it thinks your storage is so low
Gardiner: I'm wondering how a website can gauge storage capacity.
I don't know of any APIs that allow that
James: Um, it could be a couple of different routes
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: system load.
Wait, what's, what's my high system load looking like?
About to, about to find out
James: Maybe it's RAM.
It's just having a hard… It might be trying to guess based on what you're
trying to do, like what it's trying to do.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It
James: That's cra-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: like all of that, all of the noise canceling and stuff due to this
James: It also dropped your, uh, camera down
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Like the quality?
James: Yeah, the 480.
But then again, you know, I don't think it's
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: It might just be, I don't know.
Uh, I mean, my r- I still have six… I, I'm using around, let me see
I'm
James: I'm just
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: around 18 gigs out of my 32 gigs in my, in this PC, in this laptop
James: I hate to do it, but should I break up the recordings
just to see if that helps?
Like just stop recording?
You could always sw-
Hi-Tech Lo-Life: Let's, let's stop it real quick