‘Outlet’ RAM sold in Japan as new with huge markups, scuffed packaging — Crucial DDR5-5600 64GB kit commands $600 overseas as AI shortage bites

It’s interesting to see that it’s not only the best RAM that’s become pricier these days. As pointed out by hardware enthusiast momomo_us, even memory kits sold through outlet channels still carry a notable retailer markup. For example, the Crucial Pro DDR5-5600 C46 64GB (2x32GB), which costs $507.99 in the U.S., is available in Japan […]

3 mins read

Surviving system meltdowns and cyber attacks

New contributor and perma-worrywart The Engineer is back with a new concern: how to survive system meltdowns or other malicious goings-on at your financial services provider. These days, my biggest financial worry isn’t losing my money in the markets. It’s losing access to it altogether. Beyond investment risk, my concerns range from technology failures through […]

8 mins read

Our Corrupt Congress Just Quietly Killed Military Right To Repair Reforms

from the this-is-why-we-can’t-have-nice-things dept We’ve covered how there’s a real push afoot to implement statewide “right to repair” laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, California, and Oregon, and Washington […]

4 mins read

Bitcoin stalled at $95k after a hidden Fed warning quietly derailed the post-cut celebration

Bitcoin pushed toward $95,000 in the hours before the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 18 meeting, then retreated to the $92,000 zone amid Jerome Powell’s confirmation of a mixed-to-bearish stance for 2026 and delicate on-chain structure. The Fed delivered an expected quarter-point cut, bringing the target range to 4.25%-4.50%, but Chair Jerome Powell spent the press conference […]

8 mins read

Facilitating AI adoption at Imprint

I’ve been working on internal “AI” adoption, which is really LLM-tooling and agent adoption, for the past 18 months or so. This is a problem that I think is, at minimum, a side-quest for every engineering leader in the current era. Given the sheer number of folks working on this problem within their own company, […]

21 mins read