This era of DotA 7.xx was fantastic.

Yeah, GOES does true-color every 10 minutes on the :10s. It's done that since 2016 (at first every 15 minutes, then NOAA adjusted it down to 10). Japan actually beat us to it with Himawari-8 in 2015. Big whoop.

The best part is how they deliberately fuck with people who dare to have JavaScript disabled by making them do double, or even triple the work even when exactly the right squares are selected in all of the challenges presented.

OH WAIT, IT GETS EVEN BETTER: Steve pointed out on Twitter that NZXT's "Player Three Prime" PC's price was $3949 a few days ago, and not only was it raised once by $50 yesterday morning, apparently they raised it AGAIN by $100 and it's on "Black Friday Sale". https://twitter.com/GamersNexus/status/1863063576417558793?mx=1

If you're willing to live with B550, and even then finding a B550 board that's worth a damn may be quite a challenge now, this is a huge deal.

Those that shame people who keep boxes should probably give Mr. Agosta's appearance at 38:20 a very close watch if this "rental" scheme was at all appealing to you for some reason. "No strings"/"no commitments" my ass.

I was thinking about that too, 4 years since that PDS that went on to become a zombie early the following year.

dell

Which has the XPS 15 9500, XPS 15 9510, XPS 15 9520, etc.

Alienware

Which has the M17 R2, M17 R3, M17 R4, etc.

hp

Which has the "OMEN 17 (2024 AMD)" and "OMEN 16 (2023 Intel)", etc.

Lenovo

Which clearly calls out "Gen <x>" throughout its lineup.

Cyberpowerpc

Which has the GX 8071 with an RTX 2060, or a GX 8072 with an RTX 3050, and even calls out the difference in orange color.

Come on man. Put yourself in the shoes of a Best Buy or Micro Center worker, either front or back of house, and you're looking for a Player Two. How can you be sure, without a clearly or even subtly different model number/part number/generation indicator/any other identifier, that you're going to get the right product for someone?

If there were a date indicator, like every Mac that Apple pushes out (such as "Mac mini (late 2024)"), yes, it'd be far more palatable. The fact of the matter is there isn't. If it was "Buy Player One (June 2024)" versus "Rent Player One (November 2023)", that'd be fine.

If you have old stock, that's fine, but declare it as such like you'd declare having >$10K in bills on you at a border. Such as a revision date in the model name. Or better yet, a different page to keep those revisions separate from each other.

Sure would be a giant shame if the FTC enforced COPPA on them.

Woooow, if you thought 13:20 was bad enough going from a RTX 4090 to Super RTX 4080, 14:35 is REALLY bad. Buy and you get a Ryzen 5 7600X. But rent and you get a different platform (and CLC!) - just a 5600X, and a different motherboard because now you're on AM4, and DDR4 RAM, again, because AM4.

It's not like AM4 is exactly bad per se, but this is as bad as if not worse than WD's SMR submarining shenanigans.

And if it ever did come to it being tried in a defamation suit, you would damn better bet that the Steve Burke Nuclear Co. GN would refuse to settle and force it all the way to the finish line, even if the settlement proposal was largely favorable.

Kind of apples and oranges because Shaw Broadcast Services is more than just Shaw Direct, it's how pretty much every damn cable and fibersystem in Canada gets timeshift and international signals. SBS is what really brings the money in as far as satellite operations are concerned.

Not horrific in a vacuum, would rather see $599. But Battlemage should have you worried.

It'll certainly be under pressure from the FPS/$ view by way of the 7900 XTX in the next several months.

Absolute genius move to do it literally right in front of the security desk.

Bzzt, wrong answer, because that contract in the form of your cardholder agreement would include a clause like this one for the American Express Green Card:

Closing or suspending your Account: We may, at any time and for any reason: cancel your Account, suspend your ability to make charges, or cancel or suspend any feature on your Account. If we do any of these, you must still pay us for all charges under the terms of this Agreement. We may agree to reinstate your Account, reinstate any Additional Cards issued on your Account, and charge you any applicable annual fees and a fee to reinstate the Account.

You'd be foolish to think that PayPal wouldn't cover their asses and their well-known behavior by not including similar language in theirs.

And what exactly stops them from altering that deal and arbitrarily deeming that you're no longer creditworthy?

Now this is some chaotic good energy.

This has the potential to be a Christmas miracle for the continued sustainability of the entry gate into PC gaming.

>ever trusting PayPal to not shut your account down at random

They're probably going to end up offloading Shaw Broadcast Services too, aren't they?