Even The Used Market Is Getting Expensive

So Nvidia's solution to the AI-driven GPU shortage is bringing back the RTX 3060... but here's the kicker: they're conveniently bringing back the gimped 12GB version instead of something actually useful. It's like your manager saying "we're addressing the workload crisis" and then hiring an intern who can only work Tuesdays. The 12GB RTX 3060 was already the budget option that got nerfed to prevent crypto mining, and now it's being resurrected as the hero we supposedly need? Meanwhile, everyone running LLMs locally is sitting there needing 24GB+ VRAM minimum. The meme format captures the corporate gaslighting perfectly. Nvidia's out here acting like they're doing us a favor while the AI bros are burning through 80GB A100s like they're Tic Tacs. Sure, bring back a card from 2021 with barely enough memory to run a decent Stable Diffusion model. That'll fix everything. Classic Nvidia move: create artificial scarcity, charge premium prices, then "solve" the problem with yesterday's hardware at today's prices.

That moment when your non-tech friend sees a 24-pin ATX power connector on the wall and thinks it's where you plug in your graphics card. Sure buddy, just jam your RTX 4090 right into that Bose speaker outlet—I'm sure your electric bill will only triple instead of burning down the entire neighborhood. Next they'll be asking if the ethernet port is for charging their iPhone.

Behold, the revolutionary new device for developers who miss the command line days. It's not a laptop without a screen—it's a feature. Now you can code without the distraction of actually seeing what you're doing. Perfect for those who claim they can program blindfolded or have their terminal color scheme set to black text on black background. Bonus: battery life measured in weeks instead of hours.

Ah, the classic Linux user's nightmare turned weapon. Someone took "sudo install" a bit too literally by turning RAM sticks into actual knives. When your sysadmin says they need to "forcefully upgrade your memory," you should probably run. This is what happens when tech support gets tired of explaining that "no, downloading more RAM isn't possible" and decides to take matters into their own hands. Physical memory installation has never been so terrifying.

The noble aspirations of AI research versus the grim reality of where computational power actually goes. On the left, we have AI detecting breast cancer 5 years before it develops—potentially saving countless lives. On the right, some poor GPU is being absolutely tortured to render a cow at 15 FPS in what appears to be the world's jankiest video game, complete with a rage-filled gamer screaming about "fake frames." It's the perfect encapsulation of humanity's priorities: we build supercomputers that could solve humanity's greatest challenges, then immediately use them to make slightly better cow animations. The bottom corner showing all those graphics settings (RTX, DLSS, etc.) is just the chef's kiss of overkill for whatever that monstrosity is supposed to be.

Turns out ChatGPT can't actually put on a hard hat and operate a crane. Who knew? Construction workers watching tech bros panic about AI replacing jobs are just sipping coffee and waiting for someone to fix the actual physical world when it breaks. Sure, AI can write your for-loops, but try asking it to install plumbing that doesn't flood your server room. Some jobs require calluses that silicon can't grow.