Unpopular Tech Opinions

[WoodyWoo]

6. AMD IS FOR THE POOR

7. AMD ISNT GOOD ITS BETTER AS A SPACE HEATER
8. AMD ARE BAD TO BUILD WITH AND WILL BREAK PINS IF YOU USE THEM

(I have heard this too many times)

[seon123]

The most important features of a general school laptop, in order:

1. SSD boot + common programs
   1. Obviously. Being able to start programs quickly is very comfortable, especially if you're late.
2. Good keyboard
   1. Decent key travel, decent tactile feel, sensible layout (looking at you, HP, with your ANSI only and non sensical modifier placement). Taking notes on your laptop and writing 4000 word essays can really make you appreciate this stuff.
3. Decent battery life
   1. Not having to plug in the laptop all day, while taking notes can be an absolute blessing, especially if there are not enough outlets and tiny desks
4. Basic connectivity
   1. USB type A ports on both sides of the laptop, a VGA port, a port that can be adapted easily (e.g. DP or TB3), headphone jack. USB C everything is the dream, but that hasn't happened quite yet. Having those ports on both sides is very nice for when you have limited space. VGA was used a lot at my modern high school, and HDMI was only available some places. Headphone jack for those times when you need to listen to a video with your earbuds.
5. Performance
   1. A lot less important, but as long as it can play a 1080p video on Youtube without issue, and it can run Portal (for those times when class goes too slow), I'm happy

 

I think this is why I was so happy with the standard high school laptop, while a ton of others were not. It was a Thinkpad L460 with the 72Wh battery, 6100U, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and a 768p screen. I know many others didn't appreciate the chosen laptop, because of the design (the 72Wh battery was sticking out, lots of plastic) and performance, but I thought it was a great choice. For the later years, they selected the L470 and L480, both of which I consider a downgrade, despite a spec bump. Mainly because of the battery, which was basically half the size.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, EldritchMoose said:

You may have misread my post. I wasn't trying to imply that there were no more great games being released these days, or even that individual examples of the latest entries in series couldn't be better than the others. Hell, delivering a better iteration on a similar story has been the Legend of Zelda's modus operandi since the SNES days, and I have loved those games for it.

 

In fact, I can't disagree with your list since even though I haven't played most of them (I haven't had the time or funds available to buy a Switch yet), they are by all accounts great games and well worth the cost of buying them. My problem, though, lies in the fact that you managed to list just over a dozen games  that were released in the last two years, and even if we were to complete a list of great games released in the past two years, there is a much larger list of horrible games released during the same time.

 

My problem lies with the whole of the industry, in that a new videogame is announced or released, and I immediately start worrying that this one, like so many others, is just a pale shadow of a preceding generation's iteration on the formula. Or worse, that they've promised me a new Diablo game, but instead of giving me the great modular playstyle and randomly generated dungeons of Diablo 2, they give me a game with less customisation (D2 effectively launched with 15 classes, D3 with 5) and an algorithm in place that made it more likely for me to receive loot for other classes, just so I would start using the Auction House. Diablo 3 was designed to be a deliberately worse experience than Diablo 2 was, just to cash in on players' nostalgia.

 

Just to compare, here's a list of critically acclaimed games from 2009:

- Uncharted 2

- Fallout 3

- LittleBigPlanet

- Street Fighter IV

- COD: Modern Warfare 2

- Braid

- Minecraft

- Batman: Arkham Asylum

- Assassin's Creed 2

- Dragon Age: Origins

- Killzone 2

- Bayonetta

- Left 4 Dead 2

- Plants vs Zombies

- New Super Mario Bros. Wii

 

All of these games either iterated on a previous design by adding gameplay elements and addressing some of the issues the previous entry had, or still stand as a pioneering example that set a trend for the future. Compare and contrast the latest Fallout, Street Fighter and COD games and all of the latter ones stand as examples of what not to do when designing a game.

 

I don't like being cynical about new games, but the industry seems determined to give me less content (and no, stuffing your games with collectibles and side missions is not content, Ubisoft) for the same amount of money.

The question becomes why?  I remember watching a video about the financial end of the parent of BioWare that was roundly lambasted for such atrociously acquisitive pieces of garbage as fallout76.  Apparently the driver was they were in buyout negotiations and needed to post good paper numbers to make them look more attractive to the buyer who neither knew nor cared about video games.

It could be we’re seeing a quantum instability layer as game companies get big enough to enter a new level of the corporate hierarchy.

[xARACHN1D]

On 9/18/2019 at 7:46 PM, imreloadin said:

Does wearing a seat belt cause you to drive more dangerously? That's literally the argument you're making here...

Not really. A seat belt actually protects you. The small warning screen that comes on when you try to connect your phone while driving is just plain useless. 

[PlayStation 2]

Here's an opinion that's less unpopular moreso as it is something no one cares to think about:

D-VHS was a very advanced format for its time. Think about it. It applied the concept of storing digital data on tape (which was already being done for professional applications) and coupled it to display and record video digitally. More specifically, D-Theater is incredibly impressive, combining 1920x1080i video at a pretty high bitrate (MPEG-2 at 28Mbps) and multiple audio tracks back in 2001. Too bad it was way too much tech for the time, because D-Theater machines are very fucking notorious for failing for no reason. It's why they're very expensive in working order.

[Anomnomnomaly]

On 10/22/2019 at 7:59 PM, Bombastinator said:

Is and isn’t.  The AMDs overclockable alright, but they effectively come with automatic over clocking, making the whole thing kind of pointless.  You can do a manual overclock but you won’t get much from them.  More can sometimes be had from Intel cpus, but nothing like there used to be.  The days of 50% overclocks ftm seem to be gone.  

If I can get a 10-12% bump from my AMD CPU... I'm happy with that. I bought AMD for a reason and that reason was VFM not OC potential.

[Bombastinator]

15 minutes ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

If I can get a 10-12% bump from my AMD CPU... I'm happy with that. I bought AMD for a reason and that reason was VFM not OC potential.

Those may be optimistic numbers from what I have seen.  Those are more like max numbers.  Half that perhaps?

[Skipple]

30 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Here's an opinion that's less unpopular moreso as it is something no one cares to think about:

D-VHS was a very advanced format for its time. Think about it. It applied the concept of storing digital data on tape (which was already being done for professional applications) and coupled it to display and record video digitally. More specifically, D-Theater is incredibly impressive, combining 1920x1080i video at a pretty high bitrate (MPEG-2 at 28Mbps) and multiple audio tracks back in 2001. Too bad it was way too much tech for the time, because D-Theater machines are very fucking notorious for failing for no reason. It's why they're very expensive in working order.

Huh! I had never heard of this. Thanks for taking me on this Wikipedia blackhole. 

[imreloadin]

1 hour ago, xARACHN1D said:

Not really. A seat belt actually protects you. The small warning screen that comes on when you try to connect your phone while driving is just plain useless. 

I was replying to someone arguing against an auto-brake safety feature since you obviously couldn't be bothered to take the 5 seconds to read my entire post...maybe you should try that before replying with nonsense next time

[Uttamattamakin]

Buying a digital copy of movies or music on some form of storage media will never die.  DVD or Blu ray or perhaps even a read only USB, at some point, will always be a thing you can buy.  People want convenience but they also want to really own a copy of certain very good media.  

It may take something like Comcast or Amazon going bankrupt and people loosing all the movies they "bought" on their platforms to ensure this.  That will happen at some point.  

Name one corporation from 1919 that has survived without change since then with the same products and services as they have now.  The closest I can think of is GE.  Think Amazon is the GE of digital media? 

[veikko315]

10 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

*raises eyebrow*

 

Now that's an unpopular opinion.

 

What do you base your opinion on?

 

11 hours ago, Drak3 said:

That’s objectively false...

I have edited my post to reflect what I have learned based on analyzing your criticism and reflecting on my views.

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, veikko315 said:

 

I have edited my post to reflect what I have learned based on analyzing your criticism and reflecting on my views.

Still objectively wrong.

 

Intel's chips only hold any significant lead in the high end laptop market. Otherwise, Intel might have a few percentage points better performance in some games, but AMD will see the same thing in other games.

[veikko315]

10 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Still objectively wrong.

 

Intel's chips only hold any significant lead in the high end laptop market. Otherwise, Intel might have a few percentage points better performance in some games, but AMD will see the same thing in other games.

Cut the crap, neither you or I are capable of anything that approaches objectivity. Don't be so naive. You are by definition subjective in everything you do. Also, I disagree. We are talking about gaming here, and I don't think you're being honest if you claim AMD beats out Intel in high end or even mid range gaming CPU's. 9600k basically dominates mid range in gaming and the 9700k/9900k has no answer from AMD with respect to gaming.

[Drak3]

4 minutes ago, veikko315 said:

I don't think you're being honest if you claim AMD beats out Intel in high end or even mid range gaming CPU's.

Then you haven't been paying attention to the Ryzen series. First generation was in the same ballpark as Broadwell-E, second gen Ryzen got closer to Intel's mainstream platforms. Third generation, AMD's now is trading blows and the two are interchangeable in all but a few fringe titles.

 

6 minutes ago, veikko315 said:

Cut the crap, neither you or I are capable of anything that approaches objectivity

[cafe]

12 hours ago, Princess Luna said:

Intel 660p is Intel's best value product.

actually true, that shit is dirt cheap

mass m.2 storage isnt a dream with those prices.

[EldritchMoose]

On 10/23/2019 at 7:57 PM, kaiju_wars said:

Like it sucks.  I've always like Sony and Nintendo IPs, but I wish I could get excited about third party games like I used to.  Like the list from 2009, those are a lot of good third party games.

This is pretty much what I think as well. I'm just a bit more pessimistic in that I'm expecting first party developers to follow the third party ones not too long from now.

 

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm seeing a gradual decline in quality and value for money, which doesn't do anything for my hopes for the future.

[Bombastinator]

Games are getting more complicated to make while at the same time companies are getting bigger and expecting more cash return for investment.  Triple a titles cost what a blockbuster movie does to make.  Games, like movies, will become less adventurous for basically the same reasons.  They will continue to have the odd massively profitable breakout hit though, hopefully.

[bipolarsuxs]

On 9/18/2019 at 8:33 PM, imreloadin said:

Well my wallet cares about them with that price to performance

I don't care if AMD don't care. I still have my AMD product built system. CPU MOBO/Chipset AMD GPU and RAM suited for AMD. I play games in 4K  40-60FPS on a 43in 4K TV, so KUDOS @AMD

[theBorth]

I don't like small bezels on smartphones, for two reasons. Firstly it makes front facing speakers a rarity, and being a person with big hands, I always press the edges of the screen with my palms. Give me a Nexus 6p with modern specs, and I will be a very happy person.

[Agonizel]

I actually like framerate interpolation on TVs

[masethekiller]

 Wolfenstien Young Blood is a good game 

[Guest]

Apple is necessary.

[1963SS]

Apple is necessary.

Only if eaten once a day to keep the Doctor away.

[PlayStation 2]

Dunno if this'll count as tech, but Cyberpunk 2077 is gonna be disappointing as hell. I have no doubts it'll be decent, but all the warning signs that games like Watch Dogs had are showing with Cyberpunk, like the devs lying about microtransactions. I'm not holding my breath on it actually launching nicely.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, handymanshandle said:

Dunno if this'll count as tech, but Cyberpunk 2077 is gonna be disappointing as hell. I have no doubts it'll be decent, but all the warning signs that games like Watch Dogs had are showing with Cyberpunk, like the devs lying about microtransactions. I'm not holding my breath on it actually launching nicely.

Yup.  I mean I have zero interest in this game because I don't play "first person anything"  but everything surrounding this game just screams overhyped, and people only look forward to it because it's made by the Witcher devs which are overrated also... 

 

I'm sure it will be a "success" but it will also be rather underwhelming like so many other overhyped projects 

 

 

The only reason this would actually fail is its broken or full of glitches or something - otherwise people will buy this simple because CDPR, they may not even play it (much) but will buy it anyways. 

 

(personally only played a bit of Witcher 2, I kinda liked the combat lol, but everything else was extremely meh and boring - it's just not my genre)