Basically, everything is twice as hard on camera.
October 20, 2021 12:44 PM Subscribe
In 2018, tech blog The Verge posted How to Build a $2000 Gaming PC. The video; rife with terminology, editing, performance, and safety errors; was heavily criticized and mocked by other Youtubers and internet commenters and then eventually removed. Three years later, the original Verge host Stefan Etienne explains what went wrong and rebuilds the original PC with tech blogger LinusTechTips.
I know (or knew) Stefan, worked with him for a year or two when he was super young and just getting into the blogging business. We had all gotten jaded and wanted someone genuinely enthusiastic about gadgets and tech, a fun guy but young and not fully seasoned, and his copy was atrocious! A lot of editing went into his pieces but it was fine because he added some much needed freshness.
I can't remember if he went straight to Verge when he took off after a while, but we wished him well and thought he was a great match for their content factory. So when this whole drama happened it made us all pretty sad, because we knew with the right support he was great, but without it he would put out something like the raw Stefan we had already encountered. Clearly he didn't have the right support... Verge is a big, fast moving group. Their focus especially at the time was on volume and probably this was just shoved out the door.
It definitely was a bad video, but the cruelty of the community was such that they never let it go — as someone who had yet to build a big brand of his own, this became his brand at their insistence, and probably every article or video he did from then on had someone pouring salt on the wound. I'm sure a lot of people here know that feeling. It would be brutally discouraging as a young person trying to grow in media to have someone show up to slap you down literally every time you showed your face.
I was glad to see him sort of assert ownership over it with this whole piece, honestly it must be a big part of healing and moving on and I'm happy for him.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:27 PM on October 20, 2021 [49 favorites]
I can't remember if he went straight to Verge when he took off after a while, but we wished him well and thought he was a great match for their content factory. So when this whole drama happened it made us all pretty sad, because we knew with the right support he was great, but without it he would put out something like the raw Stefan we had already encountered. Clearly he didn't have the right support... Verge is a big, fast moving group. Their focus especially at the time was on volume and probably this was just shoved out the door.
It definitely was a bad video, but the cruelty of the community was such that they never let it go — as someone who had yet to build a big brand of his own, this became his brand at their insistence, and probably every article or video he did from then on had someone pouring salt on the wound. I'm sure a lot of people here know that feeling. It would be brutally discouraging as a young person trying to grow in media to have someone show up to slap you down literally every time you showed your face.
I was glad to see him sort of assert ownership over it with this whole piece, honestly it must be a big part of healing and moving on and I'm happy for him.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:27 PM on October 20, 2021 [49 favorites]
I know nothing about building a computer but that reaction video from the experts has me howling! Seriously, I'm creating a drinking game where you take a shot every time someone slaps their palm to their forehead and we'll all be sloshed by minute 10. I feel bad for the poor kid...I haven't watched his response yet but I think reaction experts are being pretty kind considering there doesn't seem to be one think he got right in the whole tutorial.
posted by victoriab at 1:37 PM on October 20, 2021
posted by victoriab at 1:37 PM on October 20, 2021
That LinusTechTips video struck an impressive balance between accountability and compassion. I feel like I learned a lot from that video - and not about building computers.
posted by mosst at 1:56 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by mosst at 1:56 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
Their focus especially at the time was on volume and probably this was just shoved out the door.
One thing that people don't seem to get is that editing is not just about protecting the publication or company, it's (if done well) about protecting them.
A good editor / process will catch these kinds of things and keep someone from shooting themselves in the foot in public.
posted by jzb at 1:57 PM on October 20, 2021 [9 favorites]
One thing that people don't seem to get is that editing is not just about protecting the publication or company, it's (if done well) about protecting them.
A good editor / process will catch these kinds of things and keep someone from shooting themselves in the foot in public.
posted by jzb at 1:57 PM on October 20, 2021 [9 favorites]
Yes, he didn't have a good grasp on what he was doing, but goddamn, those nit-picking nerds were insufferable.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:13 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 2:13 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
TIL that using hard drive to describe an ssd is bad. I've been doing it forever, and apparently that makes me a boomer despite being in my 30s apparently.
posted by Carillon at 2:26 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 2:26 PM on October 20, 2021 [12 favorites]
TIL that using hard drive to describe an ssd is bad.
I suggest calling it a DASD because that is both pedantically correct and aggressively archaic.
(DASD is an IBM acronym (Direct Access Storage Device) for any random-access storage device. Initially, this meant either a hard disk or a magnetic drum but the latter is long gone and by the '90s, it was a hopeless uncool way to say "hard drive". However, SSDs are also DASDs and the distinction makes sense so it's now a genuinely useful term as well as being an excellent way to troll people.)
posted by suetanvil at 2:37 PM on October 20, 2021 [29 favorites]
I suggest calling it a DASD because that is both pedantically correct and aggressively archaic.
(DASD is an IBM acronym (Direct Access Storage Device) for any random-access storage device. Initially, this meant either a hard disk or a magnetic drum but the latter is long gone and by the '90s, it was a hopeless uncool way to say "hard drive". However, SSDs are also DASDs and the distinction makes sense so it's now a genuinely useful term as well as being an excellent way to troll people.)
posted by suetanvil at 2:37 PM on October 20, 2021 [29 favorites]
Currently, the DASD could be an NVME.
posted by CCBC at 2:51 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by CCBC at 2:51 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
"It definitely was a bad video, but the cruelty of the community was such that they never let it go "
Look, it's bad that the nitpicking nerds were insufferable, but being in the tech subs on reddit at the time, I remember all kinds of overt and less than overt racism about this guy. It wasn't just nitpicking nerds, it was all kinds of pieces of shit jumping on him.
I'm honestly glad he seems to have come out of it okay, because there was a lot of unnecessary visceral hate on him that really grossed me out and gave me significant gamergate vibes.
posted by deadaluspark at 3:06 PM on October 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
Look, it's bad that the nitpicking nerds were insufferable, but being in the tech subs on reddit at the time, I remember all kinds of overt and less than overt racism about this guy. It wasn't just nitpicking nerds, it was all kinds of pieces of shit jumping on him.
I'm honestly glad he seems to have come out of it okay, because there was a lot of unnecessary visceral hate on him that really grossed me out and gave me significant gamergate vibes.
posted by deadaluspark at 3:06 PM on October 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
I'm glad LTT gave him a platform as well. That's a real community-building move.
posted by bonehead at 3:16 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 3:16 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
Wow. I barely remember 2018.
posted by srboisvert at 4:21 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 4:21 PM on October 20, 2021 [5 favorites]
Have we verified this build via PC Building Simulator?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:44 PM on October 20, 2021
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:44 PM on October 20, 2021
"It definitely was a bad video, but the cruelty of the community was such that they never let it go"
It's also, like: did he fact check, edit, approve, and upload the video himself, personally? No. At the very least, five or six other people were involved in that video.
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:42 PM on October 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
It's also, like: did he fact check, edit, approve, and upload the video himself, personally? No. At the very least, five or six other people were involved in that video.
posted by turbid dahlia at 5:42 PM on October 20, 2021 [6 favorites]
I suggest calling it a DASD because that is both pedantically correct and aggressively archaic.
I like this.
Useless trivia: the story I've heard is that IBM was really pedantic (and still is) about the term "DASD" rather than "HDD" or "hard drive", because at one point in time they had direct access storage devices that weren't hard drives, and they didn't want to preference one technology over the other. The alternative ideas included somewhat-bonkers data cell technology, also known as the "noodle snatcher". In its day, it was the highest-density storage system available, squeezing about 4x the storage into the same square footage as hard disks. They also built a 100+GB DASD that used a TV tube to encode data on extremely fine-grain photographic film. I heard they only sold one of those.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:06 PM on October 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
I like this.
Useless trivia: the story I've heard is that IBM was really pedantic (and still is) about the term "DASD" rather than "HDD" or "hard drive", because at one point in time they had direct access storage devices that weren't hard drives, and they didn't want to preference one technology over the other. The alternative ideas included somewhat-bonkers data cell technology, also known as the "noodle snatcher". In its day, it was the highest-density storage system available, squeezing about 4x the storage into the same square footage as hard disks. They also built a 100+GB DASD that used a TV tube to encode data on extremely fine-grain photographic film. I heard they only sold one of those.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:06 PM on October 20, 2021 [10 favorites]
that react compilation was a really annoying and needlessly cruel video (they fucking pick him apart for saying 'first you need a table'?)
I hate that there are still so many of those folks who never grew out of the pedantic and toxic nerd culture that I came up with in the 90s. I like to think that the silver lining of GamerGate, the Feminist Frequency doxxing, and all that other terrible shit was that a lot of people were finally like "what the fuck are they doing, I don't want to be like that"
these days, I feel like I run into nerds of the same stripe as the McElroy and Tumblr teen variety more than I do people who write really mean and frothy comments because they think a writer is biased towards Intel over AMD (looking at you Anandtech commenters)
it feels like it's such a different space now. Waypoint, Polygon, Linus making this redemption vid - there's a whole ecosystem out there now that doesn't just consist of toxic, patriarchal nerd culture. it's one of the things that makes me think that things can change for the better, that people working their asses off to intentionally make it less toxic and set counterexamples can find success in some capacity
and I really love that. I hope nerddom keeps trending away from toxicity, and one day we'll live in a world where people who wield their expertise like cudgels in order to shame others are relegated to the dustbin of history (at least more so than it is even now)
posted by paimapi at 7:40 PM on October 20, 2021 [16 favorites]
I hate that there are still so many of those folks who never grew out of the pedantic and toxic nerd culture that I came up with in the 90s. I like to think that the silver lining of GamerGate, the Feminist Frequency doxxing, and all that other terrible shit was that a lot of people were finally like "what the fuck are they doing, I don't want to be like that"
these days, I feel like I run into nerds of the same stripe as the McElroy and Tumblr teen variety more than I do people who write really mean and frothy comments because they think a writer is biased towards Intel over AMD (looking at you Anandtech commenters)
it feels like it's such a different space now. Waypoint, Polygon, Linus making this redemption vid - there's a whole ecosystem out there now that doesn't just consist of toxic, patriarchal nerd culture. it's one of the things that makes me think that things can change for the better, that people working their asses off to intentionally make it less toxic and set counterexamples can find success in some capacity
and I really love that. I hope nerddom keeps trending away from toxicity, and one day we'll live in a world where people who wield their expertise like cudgels in order to shame others are relegated to the dustbin of history (at least more so than it is even now)
posted by paimapi at 7:40 PM on October 20, 2021 [16 favorites]
1. Only at the reaction compilation video for now. Is there a backstory why one of these tubers do his rxns with a caricature chinese accent?
2. I'm curious to see the redemption vid next, but I'm sorry, irl, I've had the recent displeasure of knowing an actual human male with great interviewing skills (must be!) who must've lied on his cv because he couldn't even get the technical basics of his work right (let's just say the equivalent of not knowing excel has a SUM function, and he says he does spreadsheets). Naturally, guess who's had to do the additional work of not just fixing his work but also the horror of finding how little he knows of anything? Not him. I realize media startups and companies these days are stretched thin but the fact they let the camera run and the editing didn't try to involve him seems like it's telling me something (along the lines of feeding an idiot enough rope because you've covered for him enough).
Of course, that's my experience of finding such a bizarrely underqualified person (who also seems incapable of spotting his mistakes and has the talent of adding new ones) colouring my perception. Now i shall go watch how well he acquits himself in the other video (i.e. I'm making field notes in my "excuses ppl like to use" section)
3. Was this a reason why Henry Cavill decided one day to post a video of him setting up a gaming PC? (This is just a nonsense bullet point, don't interact with this)
posted by cendawanita at 8:46 PM on October 20, 2021
2. I'm curious to see the redemption vid next, but I'm sorry, irl, I've had the recent displeasure of knowing an actual human male with great interviewing skills (must be!) who must've lied on his cv because he couldn't even get the technical basics of his work right (let's just say the equivalent of not knowing excel has a SUM function, and he says he does spreadsheets). Naturally, guess who's had to do the additional work of not just fixing his work but also the horror of finding how little he knows of anything? Not him. I realize media startups and companies these days are stretched thin but the fact they let the camera run and the editing didn't try to involve him seems like it's telling me something (along the lines of feeding an idiot enough rope because you've covered for him enough).
Of course, that's my experience of finding such a bizarrely underqualified person (who also seems incapable of spotting his mistakes and has the talent of adding new ones) colouring my perception. Now i shall go watch how well he acquits himself in the other video (i.e. I'm making field notes in my "excuses ppl like to use" section)
3. Was this a reason why Henry Cavill decided one day to post a video of him setting up a gaming PC? (This is just a nonsense bullet point, don't interact with this)
posted by cendawanita at 8:46 PM on October 20, 2021
TIL that using hard drive to describe an ssd is bad
Not as bad as using "CPU" to describe a computer.
The one that really gets to me, though, is using "charger" to mean "charging cable". Unless it's a "portable charger". That, apparently, is a battery box into which one plugs a charger.
Lawn. Off. Clouds. Yell.
posted by flabdablet at 11:22 PM on October 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
Not as bad as using "CPU" to describe a computer.
The one that really gets to me, though, is using "charger" to mean "charging cable". Unless it's a "portable charger". That, apparently, is a battery box into which one plugs a charger.
Lawn. Off. Clouds. Yell.
posted by flabdablet at 11:22 PM on October 20, 2021 [3 favorites]
Eh, HDD vs SSD and CPU vs base unit/computer is an academic one most of the time. As an IT tech, I know what you're referring to, even if it's pedantically wrong.
About the only time the distinction matters is when you're speccing or building a PC...
On the other hand; the amount of grief Stefan got was uncalled for, when the bulk of the fault lies with the Verge for putting it up like that. I miscall stuff verbally all the time, and usually catch and correct myself (there are a LOT of acronyms in IT, and a bunch are obsolete now but still clogging up the noggin) - but I don't get put on the internet to get laughed at.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 6:00 AM on October 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
About the only time the distinction matters is when you're speccing or building a PC...
On the other hand; the amount of grief Stefan got was uncalled for, when the bulk of the fault lies with the Verge for putting it up like that. I miscall stuff verbally all the time, and usually catch and correct myself (there are a LOT of acronyms in IT, and a bunch are obsolete now but still clogging up the noggin) - but I don't get put on the internet to get laughed at.
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 6:00 AM on October 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
Is there a backstory why one of these tubers do his rxns with a caricature chinese accent?
That's Kyle from bitwit who is partly of Thai extraction. He does some bits as his brother Lyle, who is that guy. The "why" of it is probably not worth thinking about beyond it being at least a minor mark against his character.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:32 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
That's Kyle from bitwit who is partly of Thai extraction. He does some bits as his brother Lyle, who is that guy. The "why" of it is probably not worth thinking about beyond it being at least a minor mark against his character.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:32 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Not as bad as using "CPU" to describe a computer.
People used to sometimes call the whole beige box "the hard drive"
posted by thelonius at 7:07 AM on October 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
People used to sometimes call the whole beige box "the hard drive"
posted by thelonius at 7:07 AM on October 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
Those will be the same ones who call their monitor "my computer".
It sure would save an awful lot of time and stress if people would understand that the entire point of having a language is to communicate with other people, and that just making up your own private jargon doesn't help with that.
posted by flabdablet at 7:35 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
It sure would save an awful lot of time and stress if people would understand that the entire point of having a language is to communicate with other people, and that just making up your own private jargon doesn't help with that.
posted by flabdablet at 7:35 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Lawn. Off. Clouds. Yell.
This works because only really old folk have lawns, clouds are now from forest fires rather than rain clouds and younger people just complain on NextDoor.
Not as bad as using "CPU" to describe a computer.
People used to sometimes call the whole beige box "the hard drive"
Complain pedantically all you like but there was never a satisfactory accepted term for the case/MB/CPU/memeroy/drives/ports combo. Which is pretty strange when you think about it and suggests it just didn't matter that much to anyone.
posted by srboisvert at 8:43 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
This works because only really old folk have lawns, clouds are now from forest fires rather than rain clouds and younger people just complain on NextDoor.
Not as bad as using "CPU" to describe a computer.
People used to sometimes call the whole beige box "the hard drive"
Complain pedantically all you like but there was never a satisfactory accepted term for the case/MB/CPU/memeroy/drives/ports combo. Which is pretty strange when you think about it and suggests it just didn't matter that much to anyone.
posted by srboisvert at 8:43 AM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Disk drive = if it has less storage and you pop single disks in and out
Hard drive = if it stays inside the computer and has way more storage
Problem solved! *ducks*
posted by freecellwizard at 8:45 AM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hard drive = if it stays inside the computer and has way more storage
Problem solved! *ducks*
posted by freecellwizard at 8:45 AM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
there was never a satisfactory accepted term for the case/MB/CPU/memeroy/drives/ports combo
Back when I used to get about with an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time, we used to call those "computers".
posted by flabdablet at 8:46 AM on October 21, 2021 [11 favorites]
Back when I used to get about with an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time, we used to call those "computers".
posted by flabdablet at 8:46 AM on October 21, 2021 [11 favorites]
An SSD is a drive, and it's not a particularly floppy one, so I'm really not seeing why "Hard Drive" doesn't suffice. NVMEs don't bend much either, so they must be hard too.
And before you ask: USB sticks aren't hard, they're thumb.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:09 PM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
And before you ask: USB sticks aren't hard, they're thumb.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:09 PM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
Wait I thought a hard disk was one of those things that looks like the save icon
posted by biogeo at 12:15 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by biogeo at 12:15 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
I can see why the first video got such a big reaction: it was kind of a mess. It's mostly just misunderstandings, or less than ideal ways to do things. Even putting screws all the way through the cooler didn't hurt anything, as they've redesigned them because of all the people doing that. The LTT video is a nice take on it... I'm glad I didn't see this back in 2018, because all the reaction videos are a big cringeworthy themselves.
posted by netowl at 12:55 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by netowl at 12:55 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Wait I thought a hard disk was one of those things that looks like the save icon
No, the 3.5" floppy disks are still floppy disks. It's just their outer shell is hard--unlike the 5.25" or 8" ones with floppy shells. The *disk* inside that shell that stores the data is still floppy, unlike the hard disks of olden times that have disks (I think more technically the individual discs inside are named platters) that are rigid and mounted, permanently, on a spindle.
posted by skynxnex at 1:24 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
No, the 3.5" floppy disks are still floppy disks. It's just their outer shell is hard--unlike the 5.25" or 8" ones with floppy shells. The *disk* inside that shell that stores the data is still floppy, unlike the hard disks of olden times that have disks (I think more technically the individual discs inside are named platters) that are rigid and mounted, permanently, on a spindle.
posted by skynxnex at 1:24 PM on October 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
unlike the hard disks of olden times that have disks (I think more technically the individual discs inside are named platters) that are rigid and mounted, permanently, on a spindle.
They still are. Hard Disk Drive technology is still the same basic principle as when the platters were 14" across - a rigid spinning disk that can be magnetised in patches, and read/write heads that move across the radius of the disk as it spins to magnetise/demagnetise appropriately. They just got smaller and much denser, and these days are often filled with helium. (Lower density than air, so less drag on the spinning platters, and thus needs less power). An early HDD by IBM had 30 MB of fixed platters, and 30MB of removable plattters, i.e. you could write data to them and then manually swap them for a different set! They named it the Winchester (because 30/30) and that's still the name for hard disk drives in some languages. HDD are still relevent, because 20TB in a 3.5" drive is still hella cheaper than equivalent SSD capacity, even if throughput and access times are orders of magnitude slower.
Solid State Drives have no moving parts; they're a form of flash memory that retains its state when powered off. The density is continuing to rapidly increase per $, and we have a new way of talking to them (NVMe) that's more efficient for the way they work than the old SATA standard designed for hard disk drives; along with a socket to plug them into (m.2) that takes advantage of the fact they don't have to mirror the old 'small' 2.5" HDD dimensions because no spinning disks!
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 2:05 PM on October 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
They still are. Hard Disk Drive technology is still the same basic principle as when the platters were 14" across - a rigid spinning disk that can be magnetised in patches, and read/write heads that move across the radius of the disk as it spins to magnetise/demagnetise appropriately. They just got smaller and much denser, and these days are often filled with helium. (Lower density than air, so less drag on the spinning platters, and thus needs less power). An early HDD by IBM had 30 MB of fixed platters, and 30MB of removable plattters, i.e. you could write data to them and then manually swap them for a different set! They named it the Winchester (because 30/30) and that's still the name for hard disk drives in some languages. HDD are still relevent, because 20TB in a 3.5" drive is still hella cheaper than equivalent SSD capacity, even if throughput and access times are orders of magnitude slower.
Solid State Drives have no moving parts; they're a form of flash memory that retains its state when powered off. The density is continuing to rapidly increase per $, and we have a new way of talking to them (NVMe) that's more efficient for the way they work than the old SATA standard designed for hard disk drives; along with a socket to plug them into (m.2) that takes advantage of the fact they don't have to mirror the old 'small' 2.5" HDD dimensions because no spinning disks!
posted by Absolutely No You-Know-What at 2:05 PM on October 21, 2021 [5 favorites]
(I know, it was a joke -- I'm old enough to remember people being very confused by "floppy disks" that weren't floppy.)
posted by biogeo at 2:20 PM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:20 PM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
"storage unit"? as a generic term, to avoid drive since nothing is really being "driven".
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 6:44 PM on October 21, 2021
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 6:44 PM on October 21, 2021
This article from Vice titled "The 'PC Master Race' Still Sucks" is a really great writeup about the larger context around this video and how shitty the 'gaming community' can be.
The gist of it is that dude had to record the video as part of his job producing content for a web site with all the totally normal restrictions that comes with, such as limited time, lack of expertise, lack of oversight, etc. etc. I don't blame him at all for messing some stuff up. It's not a great tutorial video, but the Verge isn't like, JAMA or something. This isn't a CPR class. No one's gonna die if you apply the thermal paste wrong (I think; you could probably set something on fire if you tried really really hard, but I digress...)
Something PC gamers forget is that this stuff is hard. There's this occasional refrain that comes out about how "it was way harder back when I was young doing this stuff. Things today are soooo easy, you just plug stuff in." That attitude totally ignores that this stuff is actually hard if you don't have any experience and, on top of that, it's often prohibitively expensive for most people. It's one thing if some highly paid YouTube personality fries his GPU because it was misseated in on the motherboard and has to go grab a spare from his racks full of hardware. It's another thing entirely if you worked all summer at some awful job to save up for a motherboard and you make a mistake that sets you back three months.
Many people in this hobby are kind, approachable, and willing to help. Some people in this hobby think it's okay to throw around the term "master race" and dunk on people who make mistakes at their jobs. C'est la vie, I guess.
posted by mmcg at 9:12 PM on October 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
The gist of it is that dude had to record the video as part of his job producing content for a web site with all the totally normal restrictions that comes with, such as limited time, lack of expertise, lack of oversight, etc. etc. I don't blame him at all for messing some stuff up. It's not a great tutorial video, but the Verge isn't like, JAMA or something. This isn't a CPR class. No one's gonna die if you apply the thermal paste wrong (I think; you could probably set something on fire if you tried really really hard, but I digress...)
Something PC gamers forget is that this stuff is hard. There's this occasional refrain that comes out about how "it was way harder back when I was young doing this stuff. Things today are soooo easy, you just plug stuff in." That attitude totally ignores that this stuff is actually hard if you don't have any experience and, on top of that, it's often prohibitively expensive for most people. It's one thing if some highly paid YouTube personality fries his GPU because it was misseated in on the motherboard and has to go grab a spare from his racks full of hardware. It's another thing entirely if you worked all summer at some awful job to save up for a motherboard and you make a mistake that sets you back three months.
Many people in this hobby are kind, approachable, and willing to help. Some people in this hobby think it's okay to throw around the term "master race" and dunk on people who make mistakes at their jobs. C'est la vie, I guess.
posted by mmcg at 9:12 PM on October 21, 2021 [6 favorites]
Wait until the millennials grasp that “save to my hard drive” means pushing over sshfs to ephemeral cloud storage.
posted by geoff. at 6:06 AM on October 22, 2021
posted by geoff. at 6:06 AM on October 22, 2021
somewhat-bonkers data cell technology, also known as the "noodle snatcher"
This is
a) indeed bonkers, but
b) kind of the precursor to the modern tape robot.
Also: it's days like this that I miss alt.folklore.computers.
posted by suetanvil at 8:34 AM on October 22, 2021
This is
a) indeed bonkers, but
b) kind of the precursor to the modern tape robot.
Also: it's days like this that I miss alt.folklore.computers.
posted by suetanvil at 8:34 AM on October 22, 2021
Also also: this post has kind of pushed into a LTT rabbit hole. So, um, thanks?
posted by suetanvil at 8:34 AM on October 22, 2021
posted by suetanvil at 8:34 AM on October 22, 2021
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Even his choice to say the first thing you need to build a desktop is a "table" when "desk" satisfies his need for a workspace, and is winky and knowing in its obviousness. Just bad presentation even before you get to his glaring lack of comprehension.
Was he super nervous? Was his family being held at gunpoint in the studio?
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 1:21 PM on October 20, 2021 [1 favorite]