Talk About Your Perfect Storms

I was watching this video from Gameranx about the potential Sony PS6 launch being in a perfect storm of problems, and it got me to thinking.

This video was focusing on the console itself, but the shortages affecting all parts of the computer industry will not only affect the next generation of consoles (and PCs), but the peripherals and monitors/televisions as well. When you get down to it, all electronic devices utilize memory and storage and processors to a greater or lesser degree, and the shortages across the industry will also impact the price of those devices too. 

Looking to upgrade your television to a 4K or 8K version to take advantage of the new capabilities of the PS6? It'll cost more.* Need a decent sound bar? That'll cost more too. How about a new headset or controller? Yep, those will be hit by price increases as well.

Sure, RAM prices get all of the attention, and justifiably so, but it's not like they're alone in price increases. The data center boom is sucking up all available manufacturing capability to the point where components earmarked for the consumer market (or even the traditional business market) are put on the back burner. Don't be surprised if the lack of priority extends to manufacturing such as automobiles, commercial jets, and even items such as those damn Flock cameras.**

I do wonder whether the conspicuous consumption of electronics in general will grind to a halt given all the headwinds we're facing. Job losses, hardware shortages, software price hikes, economic uncertainty, and tariffs all combine to create a potential perfect storm to nuke consumer spending. Of course, a lot of these companies aren't interested in consumers, but the B2B market space that LLMs live in. The thing is, if people can't afford things, that will create a ripple effect backward through the economy, and the push to adopt LLMs will suddenly dry up when companies' bottom line becomes affected.

Gloomy thoughts for a Saturday, I suppose, but still I look at the short-sightedness of all of this behavior and think that there's going to be a lot of upset people in a couple of years.

*Or manufacturers like Samsung and others will put ads directly into their software, like Stellantis is doing with putting ads on the screens in their cars.

**Just remember, when you buy a smart doorbell such as one made by Ring or Google (the Nest) and use a subscription to save "your data", it's really going to be deposited in one of these data centers. It may not be one utilized exclusively for AI usage, but it will be put in a data center. It's more a matter of "pick your poison". I'd personally consider a doorbell camera if it meant I could keep the data locally on a hard drive, but those that do (such as TP-Link) don't exactly give me warm fuzzies in terms of security.

***Well, a Friday as I was writing the bulk of this while sitting in yet another presentation about using LLMs to improve my output.

#Blaugust2026

Hardware Review

I have a new toy!

I just recently purchased a new mouse, as my old one was on the fritz.  I went all out this time, purchasing something that would enhance my game play and give me more readily available buttons for macros.

I just recently started getting into the rated arenas, and found out how nice it would be to set a focus target and have macros scripted to do things to my focus target, and not have to worry about manually swapping targets.

I asked some guild members what sort of mouse they use, and what they would recommend.  The answer came back:  Razer Naga.  So as per usual before dropping a chunk of money, I did some research to find out if it all 17 buttons will be worth the money.

I found a world of warcraft player that actually has become sponsored by Razer, and has started making videos about how it's increasing his game play and giving out free equipment to viewers.  It's kinda cool, and amazing that he actually got sponsored.  Talk about a dream job...



I have now had about a week of play time with the mouse, and adjusting to the feel of the very sensitive laser as well as the plethora of buttons has been fun.  My hand is very comfortable resting on this mouse, and I don't get cramps after long gaming sessions as I used to with my old mouse (Logitech G5).

I'm still trying to figure out how to best use all of the new buttons, but it's giving me something to toy with and in the long run, I feel will help out the gaming experience (and it has 17 buttons).  This thing has so many buttons, that in the little packet of papers included, are little rubber pads you can stick on to the keys to help train yourself and develop muscle memory...  How crazy is that!?

Ascetically, it's a very pleasing mouse.  It just looks nice... the symbol on the palm sorta pulses and the mouse wheel having it's own light is just well, it's gaudy. But it looks nice!  And I am very pleased, as I mentioned before, with the way my hand rests on the mouse.  The left and right click have sort of a channel where you fingers rest, and even the third finger has it's own spot to rest off to the right of the mouse (sorry pinky, you still get to dangle, but not uncomfortably so).