sp3ctr4l

Sadly, Tesseract users won't be able to see this post for some reason.

Anyway, I've heard this is apparently an unpopular opinion.

Thoughts?

--Apologies for shitty thumbnail--

Looks like some kind of review embargo has been released, ETA Prime's apparently been sitting on a review model Steam Machine for a month.

YT url once more:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cF6eAM3jhCY

EDIT:

Oh holy shit, we also apparently have prices and a wait list sign up that... apparently closes on June 25th, 10am Pacific time.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

Variant / Price:

512 GB / $1049.00

512 GB + Controller / $1,128.00

2TB / $1349.00

2 TB + Controller / $1,428.00

EDIT 2:

This is all on the same day that we get news that... AMD figured out how to make FSR4 work on RDNA 3 / 7000 series GPUs, and, Steam is currently or just about to push a beta Proton update to Experimental, which will give this thing (as well as any PC w/ AMD 7000 series GPU) FSR4 support for basically any game that currently supports FSR3.

https://www.theverge.com/news/953664/amd-fsr-4-1-upscaling-rx-7000-series-gpus-rdna-3

https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-machine-fsr-4-upscaling-confirmed

So... that's a lot of news.

China reportedly banned Nvidia's RTX 5090D V2, an export-friendly version of its top-end RTX 5090 GPU, while CEO Jensen Huang was visiting the country as part of President Donald Trump's state visit last week, the Financial Times reports. The report claims the chip has been added to a list of banned goods at Chinese customs. Huang was a late addition to Trump’s entourage last week, boarding Air Force One in Alaska after he was initially not included on the President’s guest list.

...

The Nvidia RTX 5090D V2 is a version of the company’s top-of-the-line gaming GPU designed to comply with U.S. export controls. This graphics card, which has less VRAM and lower bandwidth compared to the vanilla 5090, is designed for Chinese gamers and 3D artists. However, AI developers have also been taking advantage of this relatively powerful GPU, especially as they’ve been cut off from Nvidia’s more potent Blackwell-powered AI GPUs.

...

Full article here, clicky linky.

So basically, China banned an Nvidia GPU that while yes is technically designed for 'gamers', is also widely used as a kind of budget alternative to the higher end Nvidia GPUs geared explicitly toward AI/LLM compute and training.

China did this while Huang was in the country, as part of the Trump visit delegation.

Huang is on the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology of the Trump administration.

(source)

This arguably represents a significant setback for Nvidia, who would really like to have as much physical market presence in China as possible, and the Trump admin's 'AI policy goals', simultaneously.

It also could be taken to indicate that China is quite confident in its approach of producing largely open source LLM models via its own homegrown domestic industry of chips geared toward its own methods of LLM training and operation.

China reportedly banned Nvidia's RTX 5090D V2, an export-friendly version of its top-end RTX 5090 GPU, while CEO Jensen Huang was visiting the country as part of President Donald Trump's state visit last week, the Financial Times reports. The report claims the chip has been added to a list of banned goods at Chinese customs. Huang was a late addition to Trump’s entourage last week, boarding Air Force One in Alaska after he was initially not included on the President’s guest list.

...

The Nvidia RTX 5090D V2 is a version of the company’s top-of-the-line gaming GPU designed to comply with U.S. export controls. This graphics card, which has less VRAM and lower bandwidth compared to the vanilla 5090, is designed for Chinese gamers and 3D artists. However, AI developers have also been taking advantage of this relatively powerful GPU, especially as they’ve been cut off from Nvidia’s more potent Blackwell-powered AI GPUs.

...

Full article here, clicky linky.

So basically, China banned an Nvidia GPU that while yes is technically designed for 'gamers', is also widely used as a kind of budget alternative to the higher end Nvidia GPUs geared explicitly toward AI/LLM compute and training.

China did this while Huang was in the country, as part of the Trump visit delegation.

Huang is on the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology of the Trump administration.

(source)

This arguably represents a significant setback for Nvidia, who would really like to have as much physical market presence in China as possible, and the Trump admin's 'AI policy goals', simultaneously.

It also could be taken to indicate that China is quite confident in its approach of producing largely open source LLM models via its own homegrown domestic industry of chips geared toward its own methods of LLM training and operation.

China reportedly banned Nvidia's RTX 5090D V2, an export-friendly version of its top-end RTX 5090 GPU, while CEO Jensen Huang was visiting the country as part of President Donald Trump's state visit last week, the Financial Times reports. The report claims the chip has been added to a list of banned goods at Chinese customs. Huang was a late addition to Trump’s entourage last week, boarding Air Force One in Alaska after he was initially not included on the President’s guest list.

...

The Nvidia RTX 5090D V2 is a version of the company’s top-of-the-line gaming GPU designed to comply with U.S. export controls. This graphics card, which has less VRAM and lower bandwidth compared to the vanilla 5090, is designed for Chinese gamers and 3D artists. However, AI developers have also been taking advantage of this relatively powerful GPU, especially as they’ve been cut off from Nvidia’s more potent Blackwell-powered AI GPUs.

...

Full article here, clicky linky.

So basically, China banned an Nvidia GPU that while yes is technically designed for 'gamers', is also widely used as a kind of budget alternative to the higher end Nvidia GPUs geared explicitly toward AI/LLM compute and training.

China did this while Huang was in the country, as part of the Trump visit delegation.

Huang is on the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology of the Trump administration.

(source)

This arguably represents a significant setback for Nvidia, who would really like to have as much physical market presence in China as possible, and the Trump admin's 'AI policy goals', simultaneously.

It also could be taken to indicate that China is quite confident in its approach of producing largely open source LLM models via its own homegrown domestic industry of chips geared toward its own methods of LLM training and operation.

There's no one left to save Primm, Las Vegas' quirky desert cousin

If the definition of a ghost town is a large parcel of land, usually in the desert, that has gone from thriving population highs to desolate lows, leaving behind a crumbling array of old buildings, then Primm almost certainly counts. While not devoid of human life (not all ghost towns are empty, you know), the tiny Nevada stop-off has become a specter of its early-2000s self, when it thrived along the state line border with California. At one time a booming 500-plus-acre gaming and hospitality site with multiple resorts, casinos and a mall, Primm’s retail core is about to be essentially abandoned by all but a handful of fast-food restaurants — and one very defiant thrift store.

...

Now arguably this isn't directly related to the actual game, but it is arguably of interest to those of us still lovin' New Vegas in 2026.

There's more to the story than what I've excerpted here, clicky linky if you care.

So I got this brutally utilitarian tea kettle/infuser set up for like $15 bucks a while back... its basically just pyrex, pretty sure, with the metal insert infuser section.

Had made a bit of instant coffee with it, and uh haha, just tore up some teabags I had had, thats like loose leaf, right?

No, no it isn't.

Finally got proper loose leaf tea to use in it, and it is just fantastic.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

(article continues, clicky linky)

Yep, Iran War's goin' great, all according to keikaku.

(keikaku means plan)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

(article continues, clicky linky)

Yep, Iran War's goin' great, all according to keikaku.

(keikaku means plan)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

(article continues, clicky linky)

Yep, Iran War's goin' great, all according to keikaku.

(keikaku means plan)

A vintage anti-meme.

• Donald Trump is rushed from the White House Correspondents' Dinner after suspected gunshots heard

• Attendees of the dinner ducked under tables amid scenes of widespread confusion during the incident, our Washington correspondent reports from the event

• A shooter has been taken into custody, Trump writes on Truth Social

Story is developing in real time, check the actual link for more details, images and videos.

EDIT:

I flipped to CSPAN; apparently Trump is going to be doing a press conference at the White House in ~30 minutes, all cabinet members are uninjured, as well as seemingly all other guests, and the Correspondents' Dinner is going to be rescheduled within 30 days.

EDIT 2, from the 'article':

Still not clear what happened

published at 20:48

Bernd Debusmann Jr

White House reporter, reporting from dinner

We still have no official confirmation of what took place.

But Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich, a member of the White House Correspondent's Association's board, posted on X that they've been told that an individual attempted to pass through metal detectors with a gun.

President Trump, according to Heinrich, was held in a nearby room and wanted the dinner to continue, though he just posted on social media that law enforcement have asked him to leave.

EDIT 3:

Trump has posted a video and two pictures of the assailant to his Truth Social.

Video (Seems like a smartphone aimed at security camera monitor):

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116468650367386223

Pic 1:

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116468652052256305

Pic 2:

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116468652963767750

The man appears to have bum rushed through the metal detector area at a full sprint, but was stopped by a volley of shots from different security personnel.

... and apparently, according to Trump just now at the press conference, the guy shot one Secret Service agent, but he was wearing body armor, and is apparently not badly injured.

This can be seen in the video, the srcurity guy center frame appears to be shot in the lower abdomen, then quickly draws his weapon and begins firing at the now out of frame assailant, who sprinted past.