For 3 months then $10.

The problem with putting high output panels on a vehicle is weight and durability. The panels plus equipment could add more than a hundred kilograms, ruin the aerodynamics, wear the vehicle out faster, and installation would require heavy modifications inside and out. So your efficiency return would be much less than you think.

Could you do it? Sure, but you would need to be willing to sacrifice a vehicle because no one will want it after it’s done, except maybe for someone who wants something to tinker with.

Just a guess but manufactures don’t build solar panels into cars for a few reasons.

-Vehicles tethered to a fuel source like gas or electricity keeps people spending money and companies and governments love it when people spend money.

-The vehicle would need to be designed around the solar panels which makes design more difficult and costly.

-The solar panels could act as a back up for running the computer and accessories but wouldn’t ever generate enough power for driving, so why bother when they can just make the main battery a little bigger.

Personally, I think Asus is good on paper but the products are usually poorly assembled and don’t last. I recommend the SD or Legion.

So your argument is that you can’t have a utopia if you can inherit your parents belongings?

I would also argue that the accumulation of goods and hoarding resources would not be tolerated. So if you’re rich before the fall you’re probably not now. But my assumption is that if you can justify owning lots of land by something other than greed then you probably won’t keep/get it.

Yes land would be a finite resource and would be closely regulated.

Star Trek is a dream that will never come true because it assumes that all humans would be rational and reasonable. That’s just inconceivable.

Do people fantasize about that? I would think that the writers and show runners should get the flak for DISC, that was a terrible redemption story, “The only why to stop this war, is more war”, like wtf were they thinking?

List of captain’s major misdeeds from the top of my head-

Sisko was accomplice to murder and many war crimes by his crew. Didn’t go to jail and actually became a god.

Can’t think of any serious crimes Picard committed and got away with. There were a couple times he disobeyed orders but it was usually to save or protect someone or something, and that was few and far between.

Janeway broke the prime directive every Tuesday, except when she was stopping someone else from breaking it. But that’s kind of excusable since her ship and crew were stranded in another quadrant of the Galaxy.

Kirk broke the temporal prime directive and the regular prime directive, routinely disobeyed orders, stole the enterprise, and wasn’t afraid to step into some morally gray areas. He got positive results, so he got demoted and promoted and demoted and got promoted to desk duty. Probably should have spent time in a federation vacation colony.

Pike hasn’t really stepped out of line except when he help DISC escape the rogue AI thing and breaking the temporal prime directive.

Archer was stubbling into trouble by mistake and there weren’t really any rules for him to break but I can’t think of any major crimes.

Freeman wasn’t really onscreen much but she doesn’t seem to be the start a mutiny, shoot first and start an galaxy wide war type.

Worf would never dishonor federation or his family.

Riker wasn’t on screen much but he does seem like he would get into some trouble, although when he was #1 he doesn’t seem like the mutiny and start wars type either.

DISC did a lot of bad things to Trek just for shock value. But in a utopia there still has to be rules, Burnham committed probably the worst crime in the Trek universe, she disobeyed a direct order, started a mutiny and opened fire on an alien ship, which started a war killing millions. The only reason she got out of prison was because her boyfriend from an evil universe broke her out of prison under false pretenses hoping that since she started a war in this universe that she was just as evil as her counterpart. How messed up is that? Then her redeeming moment is she seized command of the ship and starts a civil war and threatens to blow up another species home world to end the war she started. That’s some cowboy shit right there. All because he has unresolved child hood trauma. She deserved to got to federation vacation colony for life.

Kelvinverse would have been great as a big budget sci-fi franchise if it wasn’t set in the Trek universe. You can pretty much ignore Kelvinverse movies and pretend that it was just a fun experiment.

SFA and SNW are just trying to undo the mistakes of DISC.

PIC got a lot of things wrong but shared trauma from an unprovoked attack by the Romulans hacking Androids and forcing them to attack people would trigger mass panic and fear that it could happen again, I don’t think that’s far fetched.

A utopia will never exist because a utopia implies that everyone and everything is perfect, but this will never happen because human instinct and diversity won’t allow it and everyone’s definition of perfection is different. In Star Trek this utopia was started after WW3 followed by massive genocide followed by people just trying to survive. So there was a hard reset for humanity.

For Picard’s vineyard, it’s a family legacy and heirloom, so he gets a pass. But if you want your own vineyard and there’s enough land then you get one.

Here’s where Star Trek kind of falls apart, someone has to mine the raw resources that can’t be replicated or do menial tasks that no one would want to do even 200 years from now. How does that work? If the work you do still equates to social ranking and resource allocation then does the steel worker also get prime real estate next to the president of the federation?

I love Star Trek but it’s just a dream that will never exist, the idea of Star Trek could never exist just based on the simple fact of the fans can’t even agree on what it is. To me it’s Sci-fi adventures in a world where people can be open about who they are but also none threatened or threatening about it, where everyone works together to accomplish a goal, where doing what you love is payment enough.

It’s definitely easy to poke holes in the logic and suspend disbelief for so long. At the end of the day it’s an idea that if all basic human needs are taken care of then what would we do?

The replicator is also the trash collector and dish washer. When you’re done with your food you just put the left overs back into the replicator and when you “relieve yourself” it goes back into the replicator. Want new furniture? Replicator. Want new clothes? Replicator. So on so forth.

The only thing that is in short supply is energy, so there have been occasional mention of energy rations or credits that can be traded for services. There are still some resource limitations and you have to work or be productive and contributing member of society to gain access. But if you wish to sit around until you get bed sores then you can do that, you will probably be ignored and be an outsider and get visits from healthcare workers.

They did confirm two tiers for the Machine a 512gb and a 2tb. If they come out with a bare bones I’ve got a couple 500gb or 250gb drives lying around from old builds.

I’ll sell you mine for $200 plus shipping

Jokes are hard

I love your enthusiasm but Valve makes hardware to sell more Steam games. I don’t think they would make a phone controller unless the intent was to push Steamlink. I could see a whole ecosystem of Steam products if the Machine takes off.

Official keyboard and mouse would be great for the Deck and Machine. When I’m not traveling or sitting at my desk I plug my Deck into my TV and having something native and Steam branded would be great because I enjoy playing FPS and RTS.

I would really like for Valve to put a mag on the back of the Deck, maybe for Deck 2. Like a Magsafe/MagGo. I have The Mechanism (Deckmate) and it’s fantastic, I really recommend it, the variety of parts and attachments really cover a lot of bases. But it’s not perfect, the clips sometimes break and they attach using double sided tape, so you have to peel it off and clean it up, then stick a new one on. Wireless charging on the Deck doesn’t seem practical but there’s a lot of great Mag stuff already out there.

Valve should also open up LAN play. If I have friends over and I have a PC/Steam Machine/Deck then I would like to be logged in on multiple systems if they’re connected via LAN instead of logging me out of the other PC if I try to launch a game while a game is running. I’m sure this is a built in security measure, but I’m sure a guest account would be do able, like on consoles.

A premium bag/case for the Deck. Check out The Mechanism Bag, it’s expensive but I believe it the best bag out there. I would like to see the Deck 2 come with a much better bag/case than the one the Deck came with. I carry a charger, battery pack, folding keyboard, mouse, headphones, kickstand, sometimes a HDMI combo charger and attach a pair of controllers. My son and I will play local multiplayer games on long trips. I can fit everything, except for the controllers, in The Mechanism Bag. But I attach the controllers to a carabiner to the bag.

The Mechanism

“Cost as much as an iPhone”, I’m not sure if you’re complaining about how expensive the iPhone is or the Steam Machine.

According to the site, the SM will be around $1,100 for the upgraded storage and the cheapest iPhone is around $1,000, so I fail to see the comparison.

Assuming it is around $1,000 that’s not a deal breaker. I heard that the leak came from a store in Europe so I would expect the price to be much lower because we won’t be spending retail.

In the US a Steam Deck is about $200-$300 more retail than if you buy it direct. So if they says $1,100 then I would expect the SM to be closer to $800, which would be closer to a lowerend gaming PC

It’s a little slow but Northgard is a fairly slow game anyway so it balances. I use the track pad and triggers like a mouse and use the stick to move the camera, you have to play around with the mouse speed until you dial it in, takes a little getting used to but it’s definitely do able. If I have time and a table I also have a Bluetooth mouse that attaches to my bag.

It’s slow using the touch pads or touchscreen but I have The Mechanism Bag and attach a mouse to it, the bag holds the Steam Deck, mini folding keyboard, wall charger and a battery pack. For extended trips or for small parties I bring a USB monitor and extra controllers that go in a backpack.

Recently God of War Ragnarok

9bit Armies, Northgard, Spyro, Cuphead, World of Warships, The Expanse, The Last of Us 1&2