December 20, 2025Dec 20 Dear Folks, This is NOT an IT Topic, nor a Computer Topic, but a Sad Consumer Topic, fit for the Pub, if I have seen one. I mean, this Topic is serious, but not that serious…maybe…. Have we ever experienced a more depressing Christmas than that which we now face this exasperating year? Reading the news recently, we hear dire warnings of phones going up in price, while offerings from manufacturers become downsized in terms of all-important memory, and functionality. For now, yes it might be true, that the existing inventory of phone suppliers might be sufficient for the near term. Yet, the writing is on the wall, to hear experts and pundits tell the story of what is indubitably ahead for folks like us. So, will you try to buy a phone with 12GB of RAM, from existing inventory, which is something that I might consider, if I did not buy a 12GB phone about a year ago? I bought a mid-priced phone from SAMSUNG, and I am now more pleased with my purchase than at any other time. For sure, I will not be buying a new phone for years to come, or until RAM prices fall, which will be a cold day in hell, maybe. Anything that requires DRAM is going through the roof, much sooner than expected. I will buy an SSD at a good price, if I can find one. And, probably, a 2TB NVMe, too. I will not buy, again, for years. Or, just out of spite, I might NEVER BUY AGAIN….This never had to be. And the shockwaves to retail and consumer buyers for phones and computers, and what-have-you are looking grim for the next three years. And, who is this Grinch that stole Christmas Present? Why, none other than our favorite rapscallion, and ne'er-do-well, our fearless leader who is still clinging to power at OpenAI. How has Sammy’s moves affected your buying plans for the immediate and near-term future, for basic consumer electronics items which once were cheap enough for you to buy and enjoy? Are you yet aware of the shockwaves that we all might be experiencing in coming months, neigh, even years? Yes, neigh! Because our fearless OpenAI is a horse, and an animal that NOBODY seems to enjoy having around. In my special case, I plan to buy one more computer, fairly soon. And, after that? I will not buy anything, meaning no component or consumer electronics for the next decade. I can live up to my promise because I am now planning ahead. And, you guys? Will you do the same? And, how will this affect the consumer electronics industry? Is OpenAI’s moves worth the suffering? Does anybody really know? And, once more, is having OpenAI’s AI services worth the pain? Once I make up my mind to not buy stuff for a decade, I have no difficulty following through. And, I hope this will be the same for you, and many others. In my view, it might be best to just BOYCOTT OpenAI AI-Services. Would this not send the more moral message to the likes of Sam? So yes, we have witnessed the theft of Christmas Present. I for one, will make my moves, which is to buy the minimum I need. And then, I will think no more of it, until the year 2035, when, I guess, and by then, we will exist in some other alternate universe, and MOST DEFINITELY NOT Under the Thumb of our best friend and benefactor, Mr. Altman. Does anyone think differently? Then, what might be your interpretation of the near future, along these lines? Best regards, Gamma Note: Here is a wonderful photo of our fearless benefactor. Let us all rejoice, and give thanks, for his beneficent goodwill and leadership of what once was designed/planned to be a company destined to provide a boon to our world, and probably even to cure cancer. That was before he climbed into the saddle, and began to ride OpenAI in the wrong direction, and into the ground. Does he care? NO, he does not care. Sam is on a mission, a megalomaniacal mission, truth be told, ...maybe.... So, is he stealing our Christmas Present? And what, if anything, can the industry do to save us from him, and from ourselves?
December 20, 2025Dec 20 4 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said: Have we ever experienced a more depressing Christmas than that which we now face this exasperating year? Are you sad about Mr Chomsky being friends with Jeffery ?
December 20, 2025Dec 20 Author 5 minutes ago, blaze master said: Are you sad about Mr Chomsky being friends with Jeffery ? Noam has no use for AI. More precisely, he has use for AI, but only as a tool, as it may provide benefits for mankind. He does NOT see AI as a threat, meaning he does not worry about AI getting out of hand, and destroying humanity. He worries about misuse of AI, obviously. And, as such, he might worry about the leadership of OpenAI, in its present configuration. Whether or not Chomsky thought much about OpenAI's leadership, I think this is a known unknown. If you are referring to Jeffrey Sachs, I think Noam probably has much to agree with, concerning Sachs' thinking.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 4 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said: Noam has no use for AI. More precisely, he has use for AI, but only as a tool, as it may provide benefits for mankind. He does NOT see AI as a threat, meaning he does not worry about AI getting out of hand, and destroying humanity. Whether or not Chomsky thought much about OpenAI's leadership, I think this is a known unknown. If you are referring to Jeffrey Sachs, I think Noam probably has much to agree with, concerning Sachs' thinking. Epstein.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 Author 4 minutes ago, blaze master said: Epstein. Epstein is dead, is he not? I care more about the living. Noam is not dead. His lectures are not dead. We can be thankful, this year, for that.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 3 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said: Epstein is dead, is he not? I care more about the living. Noam is not dead. His lectures are not dead. We can be thankful, this year, for that.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 4 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said: Epstein is dead, is he not? I care more about the living. Noam is not dead. His lectures are not dead. We can be thankful, this year, for that. This world is full of hypocrites like people that denounce Israel's war crimes and other activities but at the same time love to spend their time in some remote island with people that make part of that war crimes network. Oh, God's chosen people.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 Author 22 minutes ago, GoodieAfterDark said: time in some remote island with people I would not mind spending my times on some remote island. However, from my perspective, a remote island which also has people just might not be remote enough for me. A remote island, in my view, has no people, other than, possibly, a Girl Friday. Defoe has always been one of my favorite authors, if you are trying to get me to comment about remote islands, and the benefits of living on one. If I were to choose to live on a remote island, or semi-remote island, one with people, then I would chose to live in the less populated part, provided I had access to the internet, and a decent desktop computer, one with sufficient DRAM installed, and RAM that I was able to easily purchase, with no price gouging, and not during a super-cycle created by the likes of OpenAI, and others in the industry. Someday, in the future, we will, or many more people will, be able to see plainly what has happened to us this year. This will require 20-20 hindsight, unfortunately. Maybe now, though, is the perfect time to plan a move to a remote island, and just bake under a cocopalm with waves lapping at the shore. Let the world go by, until the people of the world come to their senses. No amount of logic ever can shift misdirected people from foolishness. No logical argument is ever listened to, or accepted. Beliefs are changed only through first-hand experience. Meanwhile, we all must strive to lead moral lives, as best we can. Yet, some of us will, inevitably, fail, alas.... There are many interesting messages in Defoe's simple book, which is not so simple, as Defoe was never a simple man.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 Author The Beautiful SILVER LINING in Sam's OpenAI Cloud... I have noticed, or is it my fertile imagination, that very recently, MOTHERBOARD PRICES seem to be dropping like flies, or rocks. I have the suspicion that this is caused by the OUTRAGEOUS RISE in RAM prices. How can this be, and what might be the logic? In my view, this is a no brainer, and, despite what I protest, I haven't all that much of a brain, I guess, or I would have bought my RAM last year, and not this year. So, my no-brainer view is that: a. If there is no DRAM available, or not the type available that people need/wish to buy, for their next build, then... b. They will not, or can not, build. c. And when people cannot build desktop computers, then.... d. This kills the saleability of motherboards. e. When the demand for MOBO's drops out, then the price....goes where? f. Down, Down, Down, and DOWN.... As Jimi told us, long ago..... Sometimes, Down, Down, Down is where we must go, before we can rise again, like a Phoenix. Does anybody remember Jimi, and that great tune? It goes like this: No new phones for me, for the next 10 years. And, nothing else, after my next build. I am going on a Shoppers' Strike. When the next guy, like George Bush, tells me to go shopping, after this AI-Induced Consumer Market Crash.... Tell them to not look at me... Look Toward Sammy Boy, who is the REAL Peck's Bad Boy... Thank you. NOTE: Did you ever get the feeling that....These NitWit AI Guys, like Sam, might mistakenly believe that we consumers are not important? Do they really think that, with AI, they will be able to exist without us? Yes, it seems they do believe this. Nobody will need to work. And, everybody will have money to buy anything, and everything, no matter what the price? And, no matter what hardships their actions cause to us consumers, we will always come back for more, and like it. We will never stop buying, or so their story seems to go.
December 20, 2025Dec 20 Author So then, after being spurned and neglected, BIG TIME, by companies such as SAMSUNG and the two others, and and after being treated by the Big Three as garbage, and totally irrelevant, with CHINA now make an all-out concerted effort to quickly ramp up and dominate the DRAM market, just as China has done the same with all other manufactured goods, and let us not forget that the EV market is now China's. When Sammy is in his grave, not literally, and when the irrationally exuberant demand from AI Data-centers cools down, as some say it is bound to do, then will the Big Three wake up and wonder what happened to their markets? Will you ever by SAMSUNG products again, as a consumer, having been burned this year? During the Kobe earthquake, when we experienced the steel scarcity, this was a natural disaster. This time, this disaster seems to be mostly a Sammy Disaster, and two of the Big Three fell for Altman's backroom antics. How long will it take China to pick up the slack, and dominate the DRAM market? 18 months? Two years? Most people underestimate the power of China Manufacturing, time after time. This time, when in the near future we can buy DRAM from China, at far more competitive prices, will consumers ever go back to choosing Korean DRAM, after our experience during 2025? I will never buy from SAMSUNG, other than a phone, ten years from now. China will upgrade quality, and lower price. It will not be a bad thing to see China DRAM dumped on world markets. How fast can this happen? Not fast enough,....maybe... Looks like I will not be using OpenAI's AI Services, either, any time soon... And you? And, another thing!... Next time anyone tells me to stop hoarding TOILET PAPER, i will not listen. I will just tell them... If Sammy can hoard 40-percent of the World Production of DRAM... Then what is BUNG FODDER, compared to THAT....??? No, I will not listen, no more, to these BOZOs that dream of running the world. Nor to Bezos, when he on Amazon, tries to sell me something. My consumer days are pretty nearly OVER.... So, beware the AI Bubble, if real.... i say it will happen far faster... I say... Bring it On... The Koreans are already in decline. And, they now act like it.
December 21, 2025Dec 21 When the AI bubble bursts, which is looking increasingly likely, The US and many other economies will be in such a bad state that no one will have money to buy phones. There will likely be sales and discounts across many markets. You might even be able to buy a Huawei phone.
December 21, 2025Dec 21 Author 3 hours ago, phetphet said: When the AI bubble bursts, which is looking increasingly likely, The US and many other economies will be in such a bad state that no one will have money to buy phones. There will likely be sales and discounts across many markets. You might even be able to buy a Huawei phone. The collapse and implosion of the “AI Bubble” is what many expect will happen, either very soon, or fairly soon. However, one argument against this collapse is that the computer components and design used in AI Data-centers become outdated rapidly, just as do PC components, due to introduction of newer technology, which is always faster and more energy efficient, even though absolute use of energy always increases. IF, as some expect, AI remains very useful, then the growth and replacement of data-centers will continue, and production of newer components will be required, on into the distant future. This is no different than our thirst for newer PCs, phones, and other consumer electronics. Or maybe AI Services will not prove as valuable to the world as is hyped? And, simultaneously, AI investing will lose steam? About my next phone: I won’t buy Samsung. I won’t buy Korean anymore, if I can help it. Maybe not HwaWei Phon either. I think Google Pixel might be the best answer for a boycott on Samsung due to Samsung’s relegating me to the DRAM consumer garbage dump in terms of its sudden shift in Samsung’s production away from consumer DRAM. Is there any doubt that the consumer industry will continue to tolerate exposure to this type of sudden manmade supply shock, caused by Sammy’s hoarding Shennanigans. Just as in the Pandemic, when we suffered a supply crisis resulting from excessive overseas production in China, the consumer electronics industry will pivot fast. Won’t the relationship between supply and demand correct quickly? This is China’s perfect opportunity to take a huge bite from the DRAM market, and then begin rapidly working its way up the chain to far higher quality memory, which SAMSUNG believes to be safe. Nobody can, ever again, tolerate a repeat of Sammy’s Shennanigans. And, what company in the consumer electronics industry is likely to trust Samsung and the Koreans, ever again?.... Probably Nobody with a memory. But, who has memory now? I will buy a Pixel Phone when Google begins using Chinese RAM, and adding a minimum of 16GB to every phone costing USD400 and up, which is probably all their phones. DDR5 should be a very cheap commodity. DDR5 pricing was probably hugely inflated to begin with, if SAMSUNG is so easily willing to dump the production of DDR5. But who knows? Do the Koreans ever tell us anything, before kicking us out for good? Such an authoritarian and regimented structure of business and government there. Last time I was there, I got out of dodge in a hurry. Dodge, meaning Seoul. What a terrible place. And, those dresses the women wear? They have no belts! Totally foreign to me, much more foreign than Japan, a place I like. Even the Japanese don’t like Korea. And, is it a wonder? The way they sold us out, together with our DRAM, to Sammy? I will buy everything I can from Google... Including Pixel Phones. Google Loves me. Just ask Gemini.
Create an account or sign in to comment