UnspecificGravity

Shame they are going to send you a "battery protection update" that makes your phone last 45 minutes between charges on year three.

I'd bet against any plan that requires Google to not fuck you over for a whole 7 years.

No, but it is if maintaining affordability is, which is what the rest of us were talking about.

Right, but you had to go out of your way to listen to crackpots in the 90s, now thats just all there is.

I mean, the whole world was better when the internet didn't define the mainstream zeitgeist. And I say this as a person who was on the internet a LOT during that time period. Being separate was the best thing about it.

All the crazy shit you hear now still existed then, its just that no one really cared about unless you wanted to.

Yes, that has been the conventional wisdom for the last 20 or so years.

There have been multiple points in history where stripping a pre-built for parts was cheaper than buying those parts individually. Honestly, that is probably the case more often than not because they get the parts cheaper.

For real. I know for a fact that Valve can buy hardware for less than any of us can. Its just a question of how much markup they want to slap on this, but it could easily be cheaper than any of us could build an equivalent.

Sure, if you are certain you found one that is current with current availability and pricing and where none of the specific parts have shot up in price relative to their alternatives. I have literally build a dozen PCs over the last 20 years and it would still take me time to make sure I had an optimal build at a reasonable price, even if using someone else's build.

With hardware prices being what they are at the moment, it wouldn't surprise me if these wound up being cheaper than most home-built alternatives.

That's not who lost money here. Those assholes were out LONG before the rug got pulled on the dummies that bought this garbage.

Last I checked "presidents friends" aren't exempted from insider trader laws.

I think just about everyone (including me and a lot if the people I grew up with) who was in Seattle in the 90s had met him and had similar experiences. Just generally shitty behavior and rudeness, often directed at children because he doesn't really like kids in particular.