RAM and Storage Prices Are Spiking — Here’s How to Track Them Before You Buy
A real, practical heads-up buried in the show’s “clip of the day” segment: RAM and storage drive prices have spiked hard this year, driven by data centers eating up the world’s SSD and memory supply. Guest co-host Rob backed it up with real numbers — a 256GB SanDisk SD card he bought in February for $74 is now going for $220, and a 4TB hard drive he bought the same month for $575 is now fetching $800 used. His advice, bluntly: “buy your hard drives two years before you need them” — track prices and buy before you’re forced to pay a spike price.
Two real tools for doing that tracking, both named on air: PCPartPicker’s price-trends page (it tracks SSD and hard-drive price history, not just full builds) and a newer site called RAM Radar, built specifically for watching memory and storage prices over time. Adam’s take: “These are good tips.” Worth a bookmark before your next drive or RAM purchase.
Not sold on Amazon — these are free price-tracking sites, not products. Check them out: PCPartPicker price trends and RAM Radar.
[No Agenda #1911 2:10:12]
Gray Zone Warfare — the Realistic Military Shooter Gene Can’t Stop Playing
Gene’s pick for the most realistic game currently out: Gray Zone Warfare. He likes it for the tactical realism (limited ammo, no spray-and-pray, real disorientation effects when a grenade goes off near you) but specifically calls out that the in-game guns are modeled on real manufacturers’ actual parts — you can build a genuine Daniel Defense rifle from in-game components and carry it into matches. If you want a shooter that rewards actual tactics over twitch reflexes, this is his pick.
Not sold on Amazon — it’s a Steam game. Get it: Gray Zone Warfare on Steam.
[Unrelenting #207 55:55]
Required Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
An actual on-air homework assignment: “If you haven’t read Douglas Adams, we are going to give that as your homework before the next episode. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Gene calls it part of “the greatest trilogy ever written” (it’s actually five books) and credits Adams as a sharp, dry, dystopian-comedy pioneer taken from us too soon. Both hosts agree: if you’ve only seen the movie or TV adaptation, neither captured the book’s very British, ironic tone — read the original.
Several editions are in print, so rather than pick one for you: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon.
[Unrelenting #207 1:54:49]
Swiftpoint — Gene’s Pick for the Best Mouse Out There
Gene’s unprompted plug for his mouse: “that’s the best mouse out there… it’s called a Swiftpoint.” Swiftpoint is a real ergonomic mouse brand — Gene jokes about getting his “from Australia,” which tracks since the company is Australian. His one gripe: it “flushes the wrong way” (a lefty-leaning quirk he’s just learned to live with). If you’re after an ergonomic mouse built for people who are on one all day, this is the one he vouches for.
Gene didn’t name the exact model (Swiftpoint makes a few, including the Z3 and the GT), so check out Swiftpoint.com
[Unrelenting #207 1:20:31]
Teach Your AI Assistant a Voice Shortcut to Control Your Smart Speakers
Adam’s follow-up tip of the day in the same segment — he calls it “the sexier tip.” Rather than fighting with a smart-speaker app’s own controls (he singled out Sonos’s app as particularly bad), he connected his AI assistant, which he calls “Muse” or “my robot,” directly to his Sonos system. Now he can just tell it which playlist or service — Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn — to play in which room. He’s taken it a step further and built a custom voice shortcut: saying one specific trigger phrase to the robot automatically starts a particular playlist in a particular room, no app required.
The general idea: if your smart-home app is clunky, connecting an AI assistant you already use to the same system and teaching it a custom voice shortcut can route around the app entirely.
Check out Sonos systems on Amazon.[No Agenda #1910 2:44:40]
Phone-Camera Trick to Check Dead Remote-Control Batteries
Dana’s actual on-air tip of the day — he’s the one who created the segment, and this is the one he picked: if an infrared remote control (the kind most TVs still use) seems dead, don’t just guess and swap batteries blind. Point your phone’s camera at the front end of the remote and press a button. Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, but a phone camera sensor picks it up fine — see a flash of light on screen and the batteries are good (the problem is something else, like line of sight or a stuck button); see nothing and the batteries are dead.
No product to buy here — just use the phone you already have. Works with any phone camera and any standard infrared remote.
[No Agenda #1910 2:43:21]
RAM and Storage Prices Are Spiking — Here’s How to Track Them Before You Buy
A real, practical heads-up buried in the show’s “clip of the day” segment: RAM and storage drive prices have spiked hard this year, driven by data centers eating up the world’s SSD and memory supply. Guest co-host Rob backed it up with real numbers — a 256GB SanDisk SD card he bought in February for…
Gray Zone Warfare — the Realistic Military Shooter Gene Can’t Stop Playing
Gene’s pick for the most realistic game currently out: Gray Zone Warfare. He likes it for the tactical realism (limited ammo, no spray-and-pray, real disorientation effects when a grenade goes off near you) but specifically calls out that the in-game guns are modeled on real manufacturers’ actual parts — you can build a genuine Daniel…
Required Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
An actual on-air homework assignment: “If you haven’t read Douglas Adams, we are going to give that as your homework before the next episode. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Gene calls it part of “the greatest trilogy ever written” (it’s actually five books) and credits Adams as a sharp, dry, dystopian-comedy pioneer taken…
RAM and Storage Prices Are Spiking — Here’s How to Track Them Before You Buy
A real, practical heads-up buried in the show’s “clip of the day” segment: RAM and storage drive prices have spiked hard this year, driven by data centers eating up the world’s SSD and memory supply. Guest co-host Rob backed it up with real numbers — a 256GB SanDisk SD card he bought in February for…
Gray Zone Warfare — the Realistic Military Shooter Gene Can’t Stop Playing
Gene’s pick for the most realistic game currently out: Gray Zone Warfare. He likes it for the tactical realism (limited ammo, no spray-and-pray, real disorientation effects when a grenade goes off near you) but specifically calls out that the in-game guns are modeled on real manufacturers’ actual parts — you can build a genuine Daniel…
Required Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
An actual on-air homework assignment: “If you haven’t read Douglas Adams, we are going to give that as your homework before the next episode. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Gene calls it part of “the greatest trilogy ever written” (it’s actually five books) and credits Adams as a sharp, dry, dystopian-comedy pioneer taken…