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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

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  • I think of you look at Poland especially, they aren’t messing around. The UK and France have kept their militaries somewhat up to snuff. Sweden, Finland, the Baltics, lots of other countries are pulling their weight. Germany defence spending is up as well.

    Germany’s problem is their procurement is so slow. Europe’s problem is they’ve lost a lot of defence production capacity,and don’t have a lot of surplus taking up space on the shelves. Europe’s even bigger problem is that there are Russian friendly politicians on the inside.

    What’s inexcusable to me is that Ukraine is still short of artillery shells. It’s three years in, it’s been long enough to spin up a crash production line, but did I mention procurement is slow? The US has ramped up artillery shell production, but it’s still not enough and Trump will probably ramp that back down.

    Europe needs to get the lead out. Maybe there needs to be a Visegrad style group of Hawks, countries with decent military capacity that want to coordinate production.

    NATO and the EU have been profoundly beneficial, but in times of crisis like this, the need for consensus can really slow things down. A Visegrad style “Hawks” group of EU+NATO countries might allow the more capable countries to cooperate in filling the power vacuum the US is likely to leave on the world stage.





  • My Steam Deck has largely replaced my laptop, so there is some overlap, but I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. If you are carrying a keyboard & external screen to work on spreadsheets with you Steam Deck, you would be happier with a laptop.

    I have a 60% Bluetooth keyboard and a relatively compact mouse that I can carry with me, but by that point a compact laptop would be more portable with a larger screen.

    Using the on screen keyboard and built-in screen to edit spreadsheets would constitute a crime against humanity. Don’t do it, there’s so much more to live for.

    The reason it’s replaced my laptop is that I mostly use my laptop for gaming, and the Steam Deck excels at that. Most places I would use a laptop for something else, I have ready access to surplus keyboards and mice. At my parents there is an old TV with HDMI, and I stashed a basic USB mouse and keyboard there over a decade ago. My Steam Deck and a small hub is all I need.

    Because of the need of external devices, I kind of consider the Steam Deck a combination of a handheld and a really portable desktop tower.




  • I’ve got some “fancy” $20 headphones right now. I used to use $10 headphones from Miniso, but they only last a year before one ear bud will go dead.

    I’ve had expensive headphones, and have a nice pair of Sennheisers, but really it’s cheap in ear headphones most of the time for me.

    They are small, and I keep them rolled up in a little pouch with a USB drive that’s pretty much always in my pocket. They never need to be charged. The audio quality is good enough that unless I start listening to FLACC files on my SD, I’m never going to notice. Their wired, so no lag or syncing issues ever. If something happens to them, I have another $10 pair tucked in a drawer, plus I can always buy more.

    The Steam Deck is portable, can’t beat wired earbuds for portability and reliability.

    Also, the mic is fine. The mic is on a wire, close to my mouth. It’s simple, but it makes the audio about as good as my Sennheisers. Or at least I’ve never noticed.