Keyrock

@SarexYou beat me to posting that video from GN dispelling the too much paste myth. There are so many wacky theories about the optimal way to apply paste, the one grain of rice in the middle, the 5 dots, 1 in the center and 1 near each corner, it goes on and on. The truth is that it doesn't matter so long as it spreads to cover the whole IHS, any excess will get squeezed out when you tighten the cooler down. Too little paste is a MUCH bigger concern than too much. The one exception is if you're using something like liquid metal, in that case too much can fry your chip and or board and that is a very big problem.

Speaking of health things, what's going on with Wiggins?

As long as it's not electrically conductive it's basically impossible to apply too much thermal paste. Well, from a thermal and performance standpoint. From an aesthetics standpoint those globs of putty that get squeezed out of the sides when you crank down the cooler might ruin your feng shui or whatever, if you're into that sort of thing.

I sound like a broken record but I can't get over what Nikola Jokic is doing. Best of luck to the Dubs or Lakers in the conference finals because Jokic is in God Mode right now. He must have a GameShark or he hacked the source code or something because the way he's played through the first 2 rounds of these playoffs is unfair. It took a pair of superhuman efforts from Booker & KD just to make round 2 a 6 game series.

There's no reason why you couldn't install Linux on the Ally unless ASUS did some sort of bollocks to the BIOS, even then someone could and would break that eventually. There's a good chance SteamOS 3.0 would run on the Ally out of the box, given that it was specifically designed for Zen2/RDNA2 and this is Zen4/RDNA3, which, while not identical, is still at its core the same architecture on both the CPU and GPU side. I'm pretty sure SteamOS 3.0 is supported on the Zen3+/RDNA2 6800U handhelds that are out now. There are, I'm sure, plenty of other Linux distros you could put on whatever handheld, though they'd be unlikely to be as optimized for that form factor and use case as SteamOS 3.0 is. Having Windows 11 on the handheld gives it the advantage of having all the games be native*, whereas with SteamOS you have to run any non-Linux native game (which is to say the majority of games) through a compatibility layer (Proton). The downside to Windows 11 is that it wasn't made with a handheld gaming console in mind and, given that Windows is proprietary software, ASUS themselves can't alter it in any meaningful way, unless Microsoft is willing to let them look at and alter the source code. So, which one is better solution, clunky OS but with virtually all games running natively or purpose built streamlined OS but most games have to run through a compatibility layer? I suppose if Microsoft were to make a streamlined purpose built version of Windows for handhelds then you could have the best of both worlds, in a sense, but that doesn't exist (yet?).

The reviews for the ASUS Ally, the first of the AMD Phoenix handhelds are coming in: https://www.wired.com/review/asus-rog-ally/ https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/asus-rog-ally I'm mainly interested in the performance of the chip as I have no interest in any hardware from ASUS due to a string of bad experiences. The Phoenix Z1 Extreme (glorified 7040U APU) does seem powerful, albeit bogged down by the not optimized for handhelds Windows 11. I wonder if SteamOS could be installed on it? I don't see why not. There will be a dozen more handhelds with Phoenix APUs soon, no doubt. I would consider one with a 8" screen and better battery. I may wait to see what Meteor Lake has to offer later this year, or Strix Point in 2024 rumored to be offered with up to 16 CUs of RDNA3+ (vs 12 CUs of RDNA3). Then again, there will always be something better on the horizon. I'll be looking to get a handheld when there is one that can play pretty much anything at 1080p. ASUS Ally kind of, sort of, almost gets there.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. I enjoyed Beetlejuice back in the day and I've quite enjoyed some of Tim Burton's other movies, but it's been a loooong time since he's made anything worthwhile IMHO. The last Tim Burton movie that I legitimately liked was... Mars Attacks! Also, this has all the makings of a masturbatory nostalgia fest. Nostalgia is like powdered sugar, it's great when it's on top of an already delicious pastry, but just eating a bowl of powdered sugar by itself is sickening.

Lamplighters League looks great, more polished than the last new thing I saw for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, granted that was many months ago. I'm still more interested in CK:F, simply on the strength of it being from the same devs that made the excellent Star Traders: Frontiers. @melkathiThat's what I get for skimming that article.

"Call me Zarathustra, the way you hit those bong-bongs" That's a deep cut. I'm giving Bethesda points for that one.

Picasso Trigger (1988) - Donna and Taryn return, as well as Edy and Jade. Taryn is apparently now also a federal agent, she was a civilian in Hard Ticket To Hawaii, or was it all a cover? It's not particularly well explained and, quite frankly, who cares? This globetrotting adventure has an evil mastermind betraying his partner then going on a vengeance spree eliminating the federal agents that took down his brother. But is there more going on? This is the most James Bond of the 3 movies with secret agents, double agents, double crosses, and gadgets. It also continues the trend of including an Abilene, Cody in Malibu Express, Rowdy in Hard Ticket To Hawaii, and Travis here, and all of them being unable to hit a moving target with a gun. Will there be an Abilene in Savage Beach? Will he ever hit anything with a gun? Stay tuned to find out. This is a fun and lighthearted action espionage movie with, honestly, less nudity than I expected (there's still boobs and butts to see, worry not). It's better than Malibu Express but never reaches the levels of absurdity that make Hard Ticket To Hawaii such a blast to watch.

The one and only city builder on my wishlist is Farthest Frontier, on account of the fact that it's being developed by the fine folks at Crate Entertainment, makers of the most excellent Grim Dawn. It's in early access right now. Going by Steam reviews it seems to be Banished-esque. I'll probably get it once it fully releases.

That is also how I understand it. Making vodka from grains is a lot more foolproof, which is why the vast majority of vodkas are grain vodkas. You have to really know what you're doing to make a potato vodka and not screw it up.

I've had some really crap luck with ASUS hardware over the last decade or so that's really soured me on the company. Nothing but problems, different problems every time. I lean Gigabyte for mobos these days.

I'm not one to condone murder, but this lad was doing the world a service.

I splurged for the good stuff: Best vodka money can buy IMHO.

I asked AI to make me a movie poster for Fallout: New Vegas. Here are a few of the results:

Celtic football fans expressing their excitement for the coronation of King Charles III: Absolute ****ing legends!

The way things are going with GPUs, the mid tower may be going the way of the dodo. Within a generation or two anything above xx60 from either team green or team red (too early to tell how the naming convention for team blue will shake out) won't fit in a mid tower.

Hard Ticket To Hawaii (1987) - Donna, a DEA agent and cargo plane pilot (fun fact: Playboy Playmate Dona Speir was a pilot in training at the time of filming so she actually flew the cargo plane in some of the scenes) and her civilian friend Taryn are hunted by drug smugglers when they happen across the smuggling operation. Also, a snake infected by cancer carrying rats (I swear I didn't make that up) is accidentally loaded onto their plane and gets loose on the island of Honolulu. This movie has a reputation as an all time B movie favorite and that reputation is well earned. This is much better than Malibu Express, largely due to the absurdity level being turned up. The acting ranges from bad to terrible and there's some amazingly cheesy dialogue, but it works because everything in this movie is tongue-in-cheek. This movie also features 2 of the greatest scenes in cinematic history. I won't spoil them for you here, though chances are you've already seen clips of these famous scenes, but, on the off chance that you haven't seen anything about Hard Ticket To Hawaii and you want to see it (as you should), then I implore you to avoid any YouTube clips of it so that these scenes can hit you full force with how ludicrous they are. One of my favorite other moments happens after Donna and Taryn first stumble across the drug smugglers. The 2 ladies get back to their home base and decide that the best way to figure out what to do next is to get topless and hop in a jacuzzi. This is a thing that happens. /salutes Andy Sidaris

As the previous console generation ports of Hogwarts Legacy launch today, it has been revealed that the game has grossed a billion dollars in sales. I think it's safe to say we'll see a sequel in the future. Edit: Speaking of, Steam is downloading an update to Hogwarts Legacy.

One thing to note about overclocking GPUs that's sometimes overlooked. Overclocking the memory can often have as much, if not more, of an effect on game performance than overclocking the cores.

The Sidaris-a-thon begins: Malibu Express (1985) - Cody Abilene is a private eye from a well to do family who is hired to investigate an affluent family, though his employers don't tell him what they're really after. A murder at a party throws everyone in and around the family under suspicion. Tonally, this movie is a lot like Smokey & The Bandit except nowhere near as good. You've got your schlongsure playboy protagonist, bumbling villainous goons, and wacky side characters. The acting ranges from passable to bad, but at least all the cinematography is well done. On the bright side, there is an abundance of nudity from a myriad of attractive people and a fun side plot where Cody is an absolutely dreadful shot with his Dirty Harry-esque .44 Magnum revolver. Not Andy Sidaris' best work, but not terrible either.

Sadly, it's gone flaccid since that picture was taken (legitimate picture, not photoshopped, btw). Global warming strikes again!

I'm hoping Neil releases the movie in 4K UHD so that we can see his spectacular special effects in their full glory.