California and Five Other States Ban... Gaming Computers?
"Six states, led by California's fulltime climate alarmists, this week enacted a ban on the sales of high-end gaming computers.
Niche Gamer reports that Dell is already following the 2017 law that just went into effect. According to the gamer-focused site, Dell has "pulled the sale of seven of its eight Alienware gaming desktops" from California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
Trying to order one of the banned machines will alert buyers, "This product cannot be shipped to the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont or Washington due to power consumption regulations adopted by those states. Any orders placed that are bound for those states will be canceled."
The offending component would seem to be the power-hungry NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, but it's no problem to order the card separately and install it yourself. I tried ordering one from Amazon without any hassle.
Gamers, you might have guessed, aren't happy."
Also at PC Gamer and The Register.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:56AM (6 children)
Supply shortages, paternalism and all.
Yeah, the constitution bans state import bans, but good luck having Biden's government enforcing it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:20AM
If you were a real capitalist, you'd be loading up a truck full of gaming PCs in Las Vegas and driving them across the border instead of whining about leftists.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:22AM (4 children)
Not necessarily true. A classic example is marijuana. Just because it is legal in Colorado doesn't make it legal to import it to any other state. Similarly, Utah has been able to ban the sale of most alcohol in the state. More generally, a number of states have some sort of ban or trade barrier to wines imported from other states.
And companies like Dell have a big presence in these six states. Flouting the bans would expose those assets to seizure.
The courts are another way to fix such things. I don't know if there is a constitutional angle here though to be exploited.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:22PM (1 child)
So you had to grasp for goods that have special mention in the Constitution to allow states to regulate them, or are already illegal on a federal level to try to oppose my point?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 30 2021, @02:40AM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:37PM (1 child)
The constitution doesn't ban state import bans if the state itself bans the product entirely to begin with.
In the case of marijuana the federal government can control interstate trade but they can't control what a state does within its own borders. So since the federal government banned marijuana the most they can constitutionally do is prevent one state from exporting or importing it to another state. They can't legally do anything within a state, of one state ones to legalize it within their borders it's unconstitutional for the federal government to prevent that. In fact, anything the FDA tells a state what to do or not to do within its own borders is unconstitutional, the states can ignore it if they choose or they can voluntarily listen to such laws.
Remember, all powers not expressly granted to the federal government are implied to be granted to the states. The federal constitution does not expressly give the federal government any right whatsoever to regulate marijuana or any drugs whatsoever within state borders.
Even the EPA is technically illegal, if a state wants to pollute the air it's unconstitutional for the federal government to do anything. However, the constitution was written a long time ago and perhaps this part is one of the few parts that need to be updated. I still say that the federal FDA should remain unconstitutional (I see how well government manages everything else and I have little reason to believe they can manage my health any better than they manage everything else), along with perhaps the federal FCC(?). The federal government really does a lot of things that are not constitutional and should be left up to the states. The TSA can search you without a court warrant indicating probable cause. Yeah, the constitution, it's just an unenforced document at this point and the federal government grabs power to promote its own self interest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:41PM
oops
if one state wants to legalize it within their borders it's unconstitutional for the federal government to prevent that. *
(Score: 0, Troll) by aristarchus on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:56AM (2 children)
News is Fake! Why cannot be vet these stories before they are on the front page? col0's method has much to recommend itself. Also, SoylentNews has been banned in Burkina Faso, just because.
(Score: 1) by negrace on Thursday July 29 2021, @01:25PM
The quality is about the same for Tesla news. At least Soylent is consistent.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:26PM
Kinda weird to drop that question mark from the title too....
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:57AM (17 children)
If you want to make a difference, you target inefficient air conditioners and washers, dryers, fridges, stuff like that.
A gaming PC uses little power compared to most of those.
This is a giant waste of time, a pointless hassle, and a shining example of futile government overreach.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 4, Interesting) by coolgopher on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:33AM (2 children)
Well, that depends on whether you leave it mining crypto while you're not gaming. And with GPU prices being what they are, I'd imagine most people would want to do so if it's profitable compared to the cost of electricity in their location.
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:51AM
FTFY, you insensitive clod.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 30 2021, @03:04AM
I'd be astonished if it was profitable, given California's electrical rates.
Also, appears these idiots have never noticed that PCs not in use generally default to sleep, and use ... well, I've got 3 PCs "powered on" attached to yonder UPS, but it shows zero output, cuz they're all asleep. Not worth the extra power they use during bootup to cycle 'em off, probably a lot more than the undetectable trickle in use.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 5, Informative) by driverless on Thursday July 29 2021, @07:31AM (1 child)
They do target that. They've set certain minimum efficiency requirements for all devices, and mostly the ones you mention, large electrical appliances. A few incredibly energy-inefficient computing devices have been caught up in this, essentially an epsilon-sized subset of the overall set of devices that the regulations cover.
But, someone gets to kick up a fuss about it and generate clickbait headlines, so all good here.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:24PM
Except computing devices have become more efficient over time, by orders of magnitude in many cases. It's really the software that is demanding more energy...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 29 2021, @12:18PM (9 children)
Government overreach it may be, but futile it is not - entirely.
B.S. like this raises awareness, does modify consumer purchasing patterns somewhat, and more importantly modifies manufacturer design choices.
I don't know how many times I have modified a product design not because it makes the product "better" according to our or our customers' ideas, but because it shuts down an argument with a regulatory body before it starts. Even if the argument could be won, eventually, making this "stupid, pointless" change gets the product to market faster and easier. So... laws like this do end up changing product design in the intended direction somewhat, even if buyers and sellers hate it. For example: California smog emissions standards.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:05PM (8 children)
Gaming is already bashed enough, let's bash it some more. I mean, all those violent video games are making our kids criminals after all.
Serious government overreach and futile, because we're not talking about a significant portion of the population. Which means that their power use is literally a drop in the bucket.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:22PM (7 children)
I am at complete saturation with my frustration at the dichotomy of violence and sex in all forms of media. Video games are mostly violent, sure - and that's why our selection of titles on the PS3 only covers a tiny percentage of what's on offer, because we and our children have no use for shoot-em up, hack-em, beat-em bloody to a pulp violent games, so 95%+ of what's offered we just scroll past. But it's not just games, mainstream media readily accepts horribly graphic violence that has little place in most (like 99.99% of people's) daily lives, but is there a portion of a female nipple showing? Oh, better be careful with that, make sure to keep that away from the children! Wouldn't want them "starting early" on normal sexual development, unless we're trying to keep repressed secrets well into adulthood (and to the grave for many people) as the norm in our society's sexual behavior. Sure, today there's internet porn, 40 years ago there were magazines, but even though those are explicit, are they anything approaching normal or realistic? Meanwhile, it's O.K. for Disney princesses to be fierce warriors and imply they kill many enemies, it's fine for teen targeted blockbuster movies to show every kind of violence imaginable, but yeah, let's blame violence in video games for the residual violence in society which, by the way, has been declining per-capita since video games (and mandatory lead free gasoline) became "a thing." Is it the fluoride in the water that keeps us sexually repressed? O.P.E. O.P.E. O.P.E.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:10PM (3 children)
Remember, citizen: the gun is good, the penis is evil!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:27PM (2 children)
Taught at boot camp: This is my weapon, this is my gun, the first one's for shootin' the second for fun.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday July 30 2021, @01:39AM (1 child)
"This is my rifle, this is my gun, the first one's for shooting, the second fills me with an all-pervading sense of inadequacy and shame" is more like it. Doesn't rhyme though, and way too many syllables =P
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 30 2021, @01:56AM
They do go into the military for "reasons."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @05:16AM (2 children)
what?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:43AM (1 child)
Dr. Strangelove reference.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 31 2021, @05:24PM
and yet you're still not bothering to explain what it stands for. nice.
Our Precious Essence? I've usually heard it referred to as "precious bodily fluids"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EvilSS on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:04PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday July 30 2021, @05:45AM
Ahh, yeah I hate when devices draw a lot of power when powered down or in suspend. Is it really that hard to shut everything off but the RAM? C'mon Dell.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:12AM (15 children)
My bet is that these legislators thought this would be a cheap act of virtue signaling. Maybe they're right, but creating new classes of disfranchised voters (while simultaneously attacking the high tech industry which also uses these fancy computers for other things) is going to be a bit more work than expected.
Why couldn't they have done something useful, like say collectively removing or minimizing licensing obstacles to hundreds of jobs out there? Like teachers, police officers, hair dressers, etc.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:18AM (3 children)
So I just went and checked the comments first, saw Aristarchus say it was fake news, so I looked at the source.....
vodkapundit from pjmedia.com
yaaaa, gonna give that a hard pass
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:31AM
The PC Gamer article mentions another unintended consequence:
So the regs just dumped a huge amount of complexity into an already complex buying decision.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Freeman on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:13PM (1 child)
Aristarchus strikes again!
Please note, Aristarchus is someone's idea of having a good time at others' expense. Actually believing anything he/she/it says without triple checking, is naive.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Thursday July 29 2021, @11:20PM
Come now, Freeman! Double checking is quite enough! I never intentionally lie,
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:19AM (2 children)
Colorado used to be great, but over the past five years it's turned into a left wing shithole. In the past five years :
* California style anti building regulations
* Plastic bag ban
* Gun safe/trigger lock requirements and assault weapons ban
* The notorious "ministry of truth" law SN reported on a while ago (not sure this has passed though)
* A dumbass "equal pay" law that mostly just makes it impossible to get a remote work job from Colorado
* Skyrocketing housing prices and the associated increase in homelessness
* Marijuana legalization (though I support that and it has been fine)
Yet despite all this leftist idiocy we still managed to send Lauren Boebert to Congress!
Everyone from California, having fucked up that state, has moved here and ruined it too. I've lived here my whole life (minus a five year detour to Seattle) and until recently never wanted to live anywhere else, but I'm looking at houses in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:22PM (1 child)
Only two of those things in your list are at the state level and one of them is the weed legalization that the vast majority of people support.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:39PM
They're all at the state level except for the building restrictions (which are local, but still exist).
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:04AM (4 children)
Of course, no more vetting teachers, let the flat earthers and anti-vaxxers teach the kids.
Maybe allow sex offenders too, as long as they teach with the condom on (this can be cheaply checked before they enter the classes), right?
All great ideas, the free market fairy will take care, don't need to have any worries at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Thursday July 29 2021, @11:42AM (3 children)
Consider why it doesn't happen now. There have been multiple attempts to stack school boards and similar educational control points with stealth creationists.
I get you're trying to be sarcastic. But yes. The free market fairy would take care.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday July 29 2021, @12:17PM (1 child)
How would the free market fairy take care in this instance?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 30 2021, @02:41AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday July 29 2021, @12:27PM
Are you asserting that there's a mechanism that makes it humanly impossible?
No too far a jump [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @12:41PM (1 child)
The same way that a handful of states all decided at once to pass laws making it harder to vote, or to take power away from the general populace and put it in the hands of political appointees, or to all decide to bring in private partisan "auditors" to recount votes that were vetted many times. You of all people should not be surprised when things like this happens at once. I understand that it is bad and anti-American, and probably socalist too, if it is for something you don't support though. Though I guess I am a little surprised as well as there is no Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda behind it like those other issues have.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @09:27PM
"or to all decide to bring in private partisan "auditors" to recount votes that were vetted many times."
Vetted by the same fucking scum that stole the election to begin with, from both whore-ass parties. Be glad you motherfuckers aren't getting executed en masse, instead of being pursued by these Shabbos Goy cuckservatives who don't realize they live in a fantasy workl where America (White America, but they're too brainwashed/cowardly to realize/admit that) still exists. ZOG Government Services, Inc is not America, people!.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 29 2021, @01:12PM
High end gaming computer buyers are the very definition of "niche market" and most of them probably don't even vote.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:33AM (9 children)
Dell is the worst place to buy a gaming PC. Even by pre-built standards they are terrible, if anything this will get people to build their own. The GPU shortage is a pain, but that's temporary, these stupid laws are not.
The monitor situation is another story - high refresh rate monitors are important. Well, at least people in Vermont will be able to go to New Hampshire to get one. Most of the other states are big enough that it's going to be a pain. And if you're in Hawaii, you're hosed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:48AM (3 children)
It may not be feasible to buy the video card without buying a PC... what then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:33AM (2 children)
Buy all the components and assemble it yourself. Prebuilts are for sissies.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Thursday July 29 2021, @02:21PM
GPU prices are still fucking ridiculous (I was fortunate to get my 2060 before the prices skyrocketed). Buying pre-built is really the only economical way to get a new GPU these days.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 29 2021, @07:12PM
You can get prebuilts ridiculously cheap right now if you can sell off the GPU:
https://slickdeals.net/f/15177859-dell-xps-8940-desktop-i5-11400-8gb-ddr4-512gb-nvme-gtx-1660-super-6gb-650-2-5-sd-cashback-free-s-h [slickdeals.net]
About $700 after tax, -$400 for the GTX 1660 Super, -$120 American Express discount = $180. It has integrated graphics and you can add another GPU later after the dust settles. D.I.Y. is D.E.A.D.
The main downside is you have to put in the effort to get rid of that GPU. eBay can fuck you over so something like Craigslist might be better. Some of the desktops take weeks to ship too, so the market price of the GPU could decline by the time it's in your hands.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:22PM (4 children)
I've been looking at GPU prices on E-bay vs Pre-built vs lottery by Newegg. In the event you can get a GPU by lottery via Newegg, sure, it might be worth building your own. Then again, you might be better off selling that sucker on E-bay and waiting a few more months for prices to hopefully come back down to earth.
I've been doing some price-checking and at one point and it may still be doable, I've not checked recently. You could buy a pre-built Dell Alienware, sell the GPU on E-Bay and get a free computer. The main issue was the lead time, you were looking at 4 weeks, before you got your shipment. Which at that point, could mean the GPUs were down near reasonable or less awful anyway. Which could leave you stuck, if you actually need that money or just didn't want to pay for a new one or whatever. I would have jumped at it, if I needed a computer, but I don't need a computer. I also bought two Nintendo Switches semi-recently, so I really don't need anything, entertainment wise for me, my wife, or my kid.
All that being said, Dell is a reputable company. They do good business. The Alienware computers are overpriced (maybe not really at the moment), but I've not heard bad things about the build quality. A gaming buddy bought one a year or two ago and it's been pretty solid.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:50PM (3 children)
Here's an example of Dell completely failing:
https://youtu.be/8ulhFi5N2hc [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/HFaJZq13tr8 [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/4DMg6hUudHE [youtu.be]
And no, it's not just one reviewer with an axe to grind, GN is probably the most honest and reputable source in gaming news, along with Level 1 Techs. Dell just blows it most of the time (though GN does have a positive review of one Dell system, and their monitors are decent).
They also have a report on this, though I haven't watched it yet :
https://youtu.be/jOHKLyjVSuE [youtu.be]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Friday July 30 2021, @03:18AM (2 children)
My observation has been that what Dell sells to the consumer market (whether marketed as budget or high end or gamer box) are overpriced junk, while what they sell to the enterprise market are pretty solid.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday July 30 2021, @02:20PM (1 child)
Could be why the only personal experience I've had has been pretty solid. Since, most of experience is with company computers and/or basic home office computers from dell.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Friday July 30 2021, @02:55PM
I've had enough come my way from both to show a clear trend. Their consumer desktops tend to die from overheating and from PSUs that were never quite adequate even for the stock system (and as they age, lose capacity until one day soon after the warranty ends, the system won't turn on).
Meanwhile my stack of Optiplex minis (culls from a good-sized corporate contract) are rock solid with twice the years on 'em. You'd think they'd run hotter due to being cramped, but they don't. Quite the reverse. My only complaint is that there's only room for one HD in there.
BTW an Optiplex makes a good Hackintosh. :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:57AM (4 children)
Given that this new law forbids the sale of "gaming PCs", but allows the sale of high-end graphics cards, I think that the message they're trying to pass is to buy a new graphics card instead of junking your entire PC, just because a better graphics card came out this month.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @09:06AM (3 children)
California's goal was to reduce idle power consumption of PCs and increase energy efficiency. It didn't have anything to do with discouraging pre-built sales.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @09:25AM (2 children)
Idle power consumption of both gaming PC or non-gaming PC should be somewhat similar. It's when you're gaming the card draws a lot of power, but than it's hardly idle any more.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @11:46AM (1 child)
Overclocked cards can have surprisingly high idle power consumption, but the RTX 3070 seems like an unlikely culprit next to the 3080, 3090, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:19PM
Overclocking normally only affects the high-performance power state(s) on the card. They use a low-power state at idle, with separate voltage and clocks (like 324MHz). AFAIK, the only scenario where idle power consumption would rise is if somebody did a hardware voltage mod.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday July 29 2021, @11:06AM (6 children)
It's shockingly hard to find non-clickbait information on this, but here is the source document [energycodeace.com]. You will need to scroll down a page or so to the relevant section on computers and gaming systems.
Somewhat simplified, the restrictions require that:
The part that is absurd contains complicated requirements for the power consumption of specific parts. Just as one example, the allowed power consumption of the graphics card involved calculating the hyperbolic tangent of the frame buffer bandwidth. Presumably, this is where some specifics systems fail to meet the requirements.
Some engineering intern was let loose with a calculator. These people have obviously never heard of the KISS principle.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmdrklarg on Thursday July 29 2021, @02:15PM (2 children)
I was looking for a comment such as this. From what I understood, these machines would be fine if they used a better PSU?
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:29PM (1 child)
That's kind of insane as those Dell Alienware computers are using either Gold or Platinum PSUs. Could be that it doesn't meet it, because they are 1kW PSUs, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:54PM
Usually higher wattage PSUs are more efficient in real world use. Just about everything in electronics (and most engineered things in general) works better in the middle of the envelope rather than at full capacity.
90% is a high bar to meet. Essentially no PSUs can do that across the whole range of output, although good ones will manage across most of the range.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @07:14PM (2 children)
Turns out it's actually 0.9 or better power factor. That's like efficiency, but it's not. Power factor describes what happens when you connect an inductive or capacitive load to an AC power source, effectively making the load look worse than it is to the AC source. For example, imagine putting an ideal capacitor across the terminals of an AC outlet. This looks like a short circuit to the power grid even though the capacitor isn't doing much at all. Efficiency on the other hand describes how much of the incoming energy gets turned into DC electricity instead of heat.
0.9 power factor is a good thing to shoot for. It's impossible to achieve the theoretical maximum power factor of 1, but power factor isn't as hard to achieve as overall efficiency.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:37PM
You're also forgetting unity PFC equipment. But the point should be moot given the existence of IEC61000-3-2. [wikipedia.org] AFAIK, there are no PSUs made exclusively for the US market.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:43PM
A power factor of 0.9 isn't that hard to achieve with a modern switching supply but it means that Dell can't sell their garbage tier power supplies any more. That is what they are complaining about.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Thursday July 29 2021, @12:55PM
Create a package resend service. For a small fee, have your package with your kick-ass gaming rig sent through, say, Texas, where they don't give a shit about that bullshit.
Huh? It's not environmental friendly to have your package from Palo Alto to San Jose routed through Houston? Yeah, I know, you know, but it seems they don't know that in California.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday July 29 2021, @02:20PM (9 children)
I grew up in Las Vegas back in the 60s and part of 70s. It got hot. Reel hot.
Back yard clothes lines were common. Home clothes dryers were unheard of. People would hang wash out to finish drying. Climate was generally hot and dry. Occasional rain. So you did have to pay attention if you noticed a small white cloud anywhere in the sky that was normally blue from horizon to horizon in the sweltering heat.
If California is also having drought and heat, and fires, why not use energy saving clothes lines to hang clothes out to dry?
It only takes away a few minutes one could be spending on more important activities like facebook.
My thinking:
I would also mention that clothes dryers consume lots of electricity and generate lots of heat compared to a gaming PC.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @02:49PM (1 child)
Don't give them any ideas!
It already takes my dishwasher 3 hours to maybe-clean the dishes because it's not allowed to use any water. Given that they've already banned the sale of land in any appreciable/affordable quantities, if California bans dryers too I'll have to join in with the homeless at the city fountain just so I can have clean dishes and dry clothes.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:09PM
My dishwasher also takes about 3 hours. But I set the timer for 2 am when electricity use by gamers is at peek demand. It gets the dishes clean. But I don't overload it. I do a 'quick rinse' pass under faucet before loading to get the worst of foreign food substances off dishes. Dishwasher does the rest okay with rare exception. We also use cascade dishwasher pods.
I wonder if clothes could be dried by fans or something that uses less energy than ordinary clothes dryers.
Should California ban city fountains because they waste energy and water and have no porpoise?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:40PM
Careful there, you're using logic. I had the same problem as I drove my 4000 mile per year car to annual smog inspection in Houston for the 4th time (net adding 60 miles to my 4000 annual average) to quibble over a few milligrams of emissions per gallon of fuel burned. Hell, I only purchased 1000 lbs of fuel (~160 gallons) per year to burn in that car in the first place, I could have just poured all that fuel out on the road and let it evaporate and not come close to the "negligible" emissions of the factory stacks I passed by during the hour I spent going to and from a single inspection.
Then we can look at personal water use restrictions, your low flow showerheads and low volume flush toilets, those save "thousands of gallons per year per household". Sure, they do, and when water is tight we implement car washing and lawn watering restrictions to "raise awareness." But what seems to be on the opposite side of the awareness drive is water use in agriculture. Sarasota Florida, with a population of 50,000 people, the county at large also produces tomatoes - and a single tomato crop in Sarasota County consumes more water than all the residential use for the year, irrespective of the +/-2% difference that "by design low flow fixtures" and special circumstance use restrictions brings about. But, when the tomato crop in Florida at large is worth upwards of $500M per year, we don't talk about how much fresh water they consume producing that money, er, food.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by Acabatag on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:14PM (3 children)
Our clothes drier uses natural gas. It only uses electricity for the tumbling moror and controls.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:19PM (2 children)
In areas with hot climate, one could still argue that hanging clothes to dry would save that use of gas.
And possibly extra work of air conditioning to remove extra heat from home interior.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @08:01PM (1 child)
Most people I know have their clothes dryer in their garage and every single clothes dryer I've ever seen exhausts out a roof or wall vent and not back into the house.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 30 2021, @03:29AM
Mine exhausts into the house so the heat is not wasted -- because I only use it in winter, and if I need something dry faster than hanging it in the porch will do. (And in winter, I need the humidity anyway, so it might as well come from that.)
There's quite a lot of California now where if you hang your clothes out (not allowed by many HOAs), someone will report you to Code Enforcement, or steal your clothes. Plus the sun damage is not worth it (dark clothes develop bleached lines). And many yards are so cramped (or for condos or townhouses, nonexistent) that clothesline isn't practical. Not that there aren't ways around this, but for overly busy people where every adult works full time, a dryer is way more practical.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by KilroySmith on Thursday July 29 2021, @06:44PM (1 child)
Yeah, I live in Phoenix.
My Clothes Dryer is inside the house, and exhausts outside. Which means it sucks 100F+ outdoor air into the house, where the air conditioner cools it down to 75F. Then the 75F air is sucked into the dryer, where electric heating coils heat it up to 200F (or whatever) to dry the clothes, and exhausts it outside. Never understood why, in this climate, the builder didn't put the dryer outside - it'd be a double advantage not having to heat the air as much and not having to cool the outside air that gets sucked into the house.
Of course, my electric Water Heater is in the house too. So I pay to heat water, then pay to cool the air that gets heated by the hot water tank.
Thinking about Energy use was...different...back in 1980 when this house was built.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 30 2021, @03:36AM
Where I lived in SoCal, my water heater was in a cabinet attached to the back of the house. Which was great in summer; not so good in winter, when high desert temps are often below freezing (and occasionally below zero). Water arrived in the kitchen at best lukewarm, and preventing pipe freeze was an annual challenge. (Water heater didn't put out enough waste heat to keep its space warm.)
Here in the Northern Wastes, it's in the utility basement, and the waste heat is entirely trapped and suffices to keep the pipes from freezing, yet is not enough to heat up the space in summer. (When I use basement air to cool the house.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Tork on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:22PM (1 child)
So now we're gonna hear you can't buy any gaming machines at all in California because martyb didn't take a critical look at the headline. Greaaaaaaaaat.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday July 30 2021, @02:23PM
I was going to say only in the State of California, but apparently the madness spread to a few other States.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday July 29 2021, @03:55PM (2 children)
Whether people should have to ask for a straw or not seemed like an excessively trivial matter for which to mobilize the force of government, but at least proponents were right to point out that some people had been receiving straws that they didn't need or want.
Unlike a plastic straw, a gaming PC is not something that gets handed out for free to people who don't want it. This is expensive hardware that people are making a conscious choice to purchase instead of less expensive (but lower performing) options. If the customer has to say "pretty please" to get what they want, they'll do that.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:35PM (1 child)
And in this case saying "pretty please" means configuring the system to not waste a bunch of electricity.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 30 2021, @02:52AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:40PM (4 children)
They'd be better off banning cars, but politicians drive cars. They don't play games.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 29 2021, @04:51PM (3 children)
That's a pretty ironic example considering how California forced the US to adopt car efficiency standards!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @05:57PM (2 children)
Irony (noun): something everyone on the internet constantly use wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:06PM (1 child)
You mean if it rains on my wedding day, that's not ironic?? That's not what I've heard!
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday July 29 2021, @10:51PM
No, it's like a free ride, but you're already paid; or good advice that you just didn't take.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @12:26AM
I'm going to guess here that California is tired of being the home of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area Techsplosion, and that Washington is as done with the likes of Microsoft, Adobe, F5 and Cray as they are with Boeing. Oregon is sick of Intel's shit, and Oracle can go blow a goat. Right?
Because what we're seeing isn't a major thing that will put anybody out of business, or hobble anything major. However, it's a shot across the bow of an industry that, in the light of things like COVID-induced remote work, hostility from government and various do-gooder pressure groups, has one foot out the door already. It's a drunk idiot in a wifebeater throwing a half-empty bottle at the girl cowering in the corner while screaming that nobody else loves her.
It's supposed to send a message, we're told. Oh yeah. It sends a message. Loud and clear.