Flamekebab

but saying it’s an invalid purchase because it’s a toy is pretty silly.

It would be pretty silly to say that, wouldn’t it? Luckily it’s not something I said.

What is life if you aren’t spending some of it on stuff you enjoy doing?

Framing it as depriving myself is an interesting approach, but as much of an egotist as I am, the equation is a smidge more complicated than that. Because I don’t spend money on toys it was not a source of stress when both my wife and I needed some dental work done last month. Sure, I’d like to have fun, but I’d also prefer not to stress about money when big expenses pop up. I spend a bit on myself here and there but I remember the '90s and compared to then I am absolutely drowning in entertainment. It’s truly magical.

…but that means that if an entertainment experience of some kind is priced higher than a certain point then I’m just not that fussed passing on it. My Steam Deck has plenty of life left in it yet!

As I said, how they arrive at the price isn’t something I care about. They could be making a loss or a killing and it’d be all the same to me.

They can set the asking price to whatever they want but I have zero interest in the “why” in terms of a high price, which for me is anything over about £450. Anything more than that and it simply isn’t appealing to me. I don’t care whether that’s reasonable or not in terms of their costs. My wallet cannot in any form justify anything more on what is primarily a toy. It’s one of the reasons I don’t have a current gen console but have had at least one from each generation going back to the mid 1990s.

If you ask more than I’m willing to spend, no sale. Sorry, guys.

I used to be a hardcore PC gamer, twenty years ago, but as the years went by I found that the costs just got silly. Graphics cards have cost silly money for several console generations now. However if there’s a common platform that’s good enough, I’d be interested.

I love my Steam Deck but a bit more power would be great for a few things (notably Fallout London).

A family with a child murderer as its head is obviously more honourable than the alternative. Morons.

Oh, weird, to get the demo one needs to have already bought it?

Guys, that’s not how demos work.

Now I’m thinking about the old e-penis hardware algorithm scripts for IRC!

Here you go: “Students in England now graduate with average debt of £53,000, data shows” https://piefed.social/post/961417 https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jun/20/students-in-england-graduate-average-debt-increase

Work wanted me to go to the US for a thing and thankfully I had family reasons for being able to say no. I’m not setting foot in that country in a long time.

Sounds like an improvement.

Uni isn’t free in much of the UK, so… lots of people?

I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make. I know it’s about the UK…?

Seems like an awful lot of debt to go into for something that’s really not that valuable. If the certificate is the goal then a masters or PhD will end up being what’s needed and faking your way through undergrad won’t do much good.

I’m shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.

Ultimately it seems pretty dumb. If you’re not going to actually learn while you’re there, why bother? University isn’t mandatory.

That was actually my biggest disappointment with my degree - the course didn’t teach anywhere near enough for my tastes. However I would hope that I was an outlier in that respect!

Can we get them to depend utterly on AI? That’d definitely help.

Further distancing us from that bin-fire? Oh no. How awful.

We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!

My first is due in a couple of months and I’m pleased to report that parking is free at our local hospital!

UK perspective: they weren’t already?

…and it’s the EU with a steel chair!