Badly Browned

He's actually right. The Silicon Valley area actually generally doesn't pay enough to regular software engineers in terms of pure salary and try to make up for it with other "value" compensation like equity and retirement. So salaries typically range from 100-160k. While this might be enough to live comfortably alone, considering California taxes mean out of that you're only taking home about 60% of it (so 60-100k after taxes), rent for a single bedroom apartment without a roommate typically STARTS at 2,500/month. That's for a shitty place too, if you want something at least decent and not run-down you're paying more like 3,000 a month. You're talking about 40,000 a year in rent alone.
 
You're left with 20-60k to live off of. Utilities, food, car payments, insurance, gas, and all other things you might want or need to do in life. It IS making ends meet, not living comfortably. You essentially have no savings with those salary figures in that area. Don't forget, the guy in the article isn't even talking about living alone but RAISING A FAMILY. Yeah, that's struggling at that salary.
 
This is what happens when you live in a shitty state state with a broken housing market and ludicrous cost of living. The tech industry should be making up for this by the fact that they comprise skilled workers and therefor pay more. I wouldn't exactly blame the companies still however, because when it comes down to it, this is California itself's problem and issue.

This.
 
I know a significant number of people here in the SV area that are living paycheck to paycheck with incomes north of 100k due to housing costs. The vast majority of them don't have fancy cars (unless you count a paid off $7k 10 year old BMW or a 200/mo car lease as 'fancy').
 
Taxes lop off ~40% of your salary between state and fed. Your awesome 100k income then goes down to 60k post-tax right off the bat. Out of that, 12 mo @ 3000/mo = 36k of rent. Suddenly you have 24k, or 2k a month, to pay for internet, phone, food, car payment + insurance + maintenance + gas + everything else. If internet is $60/mo, phone is $100/mo, car payment/insurance/maintenance/gas is $600/mo, your $2k/mo of non-housing costs go down to $1240/mo available for food, entertainment, savings, retirement savings, and other disposable income.
 
As someone who lives in the area, to get actually affordable rent you have two options: be willing to commute at least 1-1.5hrs each way to and from work, per day, OR have roommates (which sucks when you're not a college student anymore). I don't live in SF and it's still absurdly expensive. With roommates, the going rate is $1500/room/mo. That's much better....so long as you A) don't mind having roommates as an adult and B) aren't supporting a family by default.
 
Now, try supporting a family, not just yourself, on that same $100k. Or, $160k, and take into account childcare costs in the bay area are an additional ~$2k/mo/kid. Supporting a family also means at least two cars and phones so double those pots of money too!
 
This is not to say you can't live on less than 100k. This is to show that 100k does not go all that far in the Silicon Valley-adjacent regions of the Bay Area without significant drawbacks (i.e., commute distance, roommates, etc)

Looks like they did it boys. COMPETITION INCOMING!!

My favorite Zelda games in no particular order (I haven't played them all though):
 
Ocarina of Time
Wind Waker
Majoras Mask
A Link to the Past
Twilight Princess
 
 

Curious what you mean by "again". The gtx980 release price was a $100 decrease from the release msrp of the gtx780.

Well, I do agree that $700 doesn't appeal much to me. Like I said, the Founders looks like an early adapter tax to me. I'd like to see how the 3rd party prices really shake out, considering they are supposed to have an MSRP of $600.
 
 
I expect the Titan P to launch at $1000. The Titan line has been stable at that price point and I do not expect it to change.
 
Since the 1080ti will use big Pascal, I expect it to maintain the $100 price difference between the x80 and the x80ti that we saw in the 900 series. So I expect a 3rd party MSRP of $700 for the 1080ti. To note, the 780ti also released at $700.
 
That said, perhaps Nvidia will decide that going to HBM2 in addition to GP100 justifies bumping up the price on both the Titan and Ti. If Nvidia sticks to their release schedule, the Titan P should come first, and if that one is coming with a $1100+ price point, the 1080ti will likely match the price increase as well.
 
That's why I think it's important for AMD's Polaris to come out swinging and keep Nvidia competitive on the prices.
 
 
 

I guess pre-order and DLC BS should be expected from EA at this point....

I guess pre-order and DLC BS should be expected from EA at this point....

2560 cuda cores, GPU BOOST 3.0 (!!), DX12.1, 180W TDP.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

I love my SP3, I went with the SP3 over a laptop/ultrabook because I knew I would be using the pen for note taking, and it has not disappointed. I also really like the 3:2 screen.
 
I have also been using the Windows 10 preview and it feels really good on the SP3 and makes better use of the 2-in-1 design of the SP3, particularly in switching from tablet to laptop mode. I have especially liked it with the most recent Windows 10 preview builds that have been much more stable and responsive.
 
I do think the SP3 gets pretty hot around the CPU, though I suppose that's the price for having a Core i3/5/7 in the chassis of a laptop / tablet hybrid. I am curious if Skylake will help in this regard. Of course, there's also the lower powered but cooler running Atom CPUs on the non-pro Surface 3 as an option.
 
Really my only complaint about the SP3 is that it only has one USB port. I don't want to have to carry around dongles and adapters and stuff, seems to defeat the purpose of having a lightweight computing device.
 
I don't particularly see myself upgrading to the SP4, but I would still like to see them add another USB port and general improvements to things like the trackpad and battery life. I'm more looking towards the SP5. Hopefully by then USB Type C is more mainstream, as I don't see them going Type C just yet in the SP4. 

From the Steam page:
 

I like my RAT 7. I have not had any issues with the build quality or the sensor. It has also been quite durable compared to my last couple Razer mice. My last two Razer mice both had issues with LMB double clicking after ~1 year of use. My RAT 7 has been going strong for some 2-3 years now. Of course, YMMV.
 
I say I like it rather than love it because in the end I found I personally did not need the adjustability as much as I thought. I have small hands and use a claw/fingertip grip, so I tend to like small and lightweight mice. The RAT 7 is definitely not on the light side, even without any weights. I have gotten used to the weight now though. 
 
I never the use the "Sniper" button thingy, but I do love the thumb wheel. Makes  switching through the bajillion tabs I have much easier 
 

Impulse bought the red version last week at the store. Really enjoyed everything about the keyboard except for the red switches so I returned it.
 
Glad I did, looks like the wait for the Browns wasn't long at all!