I suppose it’s not solely for gaming which turns me off the deck option; it would also be serving as the entry point for some self hosted stuff I’m running on the clunky old unit that’s still chugging along.

So possibly a false economy then?

I guess the scale of the unit is appealing - even a micro HPX doesn’t come close; but that’s the trade off I suppose.

What’s the benefit of that Vs this? I don’t care for portability and I like the option to at least crack this open and expand a few bits (if I need to).

How would you break it down?

PC Partpicker disagrees with you, especially at the reduced price on the Amazon micro option - making some assumptions on equivalence between the ‘baked in’ chips and proper GPU etc.

I’d assume that economies of scale play a part too.

But I’m willing to accept that I’m wrong!

Are they cheaper, though?

GPU prices being what they are an equivalent full size card, and the same CPU aren’t far off the full build cost of the micro unit I linked to, and that’s before cases, power supplies and whatever.

I understand the service situation; but that’s not worse than my laptop/integrated devices - and this still has some scope for replacing non-soldered parts, presumably.

Could be, but my rotation does include a decent number of tracks with sexually explicit lyrics or anti-government themes.

Go figure.

Only some users though? Very strange setup. I’ve not been asked at all, but maybe my music choices out me as old as fuck?

You’re moving the goalposts.

You made two key points;

1. That suffering can be beneficial and
2. That denying someone the opportunity to experience something beneficial is immoral, somtomhave kids is moral positive.

My primary objections are

1. That suffering is always bad (although we disagree on the definitions of suffering, somits likely to be a moot point)
2. Having children on the basis of it being morally good presents a number of very upsetting and dangerous implications.

Gaza was an example of a point, and of my own views on suffering; that suffering is something you cannot escape and that you do not choose, not something that’s difficult or temporarily painful you can choose to do which will ultimately produce some good. I’d posit that everyone experiences some form of suffering in their lives, to varying degrees, and the minimisation of this can only ever be a net positive.

Personally I don’t want children for a number of reasons, but boiling it down to a moral reason is reductive, unhelpful, and can be dangerous.

I’d put it to you that suffering, in the sense that we’re discussing, would be something more than the pain of exercise - the people of Gaza are suffering, when I go into the ‘pain cave’ on a bike ride I’m enduring something for the benefit of it; I can stop, pause or relent if it becomes overbearing. It’s type 2 fun. It’s not suffering if you can opt out; challenge, and difficulty arent bad; suffering is.

It’s interesting that your anti-theistic approach has led you to what I would see as a very religious adjacent approach to reproduction; my worry with approaches like the outline you gave is that it can end up punishing any sort of reluctance to have kids (and can paint those who aren’t able to as immoral in some way). Not saying that’s you’re intention, just saying.

Could an artist not suffer for their work that brings great joy to themselves and others? Is that suffering not then worthy and good?

This is an awful take. Not suffering is always preferable to suffering.

If something is worthy and good then denying others the opportunity to exist and be worthy and good is itself immoral.

Does this mean that you have a moral imperative to have children because there are “worthy and good” things in the world? Is the logic “I can have children, there is good in the world, therefore it’s immoral to deny a potential life the opportunity to experience life”?

I say this as someone who can, but won’t, have children, and who grew up in an evangelical church - that’s a bizarre logic that feels an awful lot like some fundamentalist Christian quiverfull shit.

Please! Although I’d hesitate to say I have any “claims” as such - I’m ex religious and flip-flop from agnosticism to some kind of atheistic nihilism depending on the day. “I don’t believe in anything” is as close to a solid statement of belief as I’m likely to get.

I’d love to hear more about your belief system. This kind of stuff is endlessly fascinating.

It’s fun when it’s both.

The UK would be one if anyone could be bothered to run it properly.

Artificial diamonds are still diamonds! Just because nobody died to make it they are identical on a chemical level.

They don’t just look purer, they are purer!

The problem is that rich people have been fleeced by diamond sellers for so long that they over value the “story” of a diamond (IE, carbon forged into a diamond over millennia etc etc. as a symbol for love blah blah).

+1 for this.

If I write it, I usually remember it. I have project specific trackers which I’m forced to use for work (an ERP), and occasionally I’ll use some spreadsheets for “complex” note taking, but at the end of every day I write what I need to do tomorrow (top tasks, at least), and add to it as I go.

I do that most days and most days I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to keep things moving.

Aus or NZ?

Okay, all of those are amazing.

I have lots of weird little “widgets” I love and would probably hold close to my heart forever (Mr Toad, Quar, etc.) so I suppose a mishmash of things is as good as something “meaningful”. And I guess those things are more likely to stay dear to me over something “big”!

I remember getting a hand written letter from my MP when I hit 18 - I loathe the party he represented but he was a proper gent. His seat was taken over by the current leader of the opposition party who is undeniably mental too, so I doubt she writes to her constituents to welcome them to the democratic process!