[Fortuna]

So, Valve has finally come up with some decent hardware. I reserved one the day they were open for preorders, and then canceled it a few weeks later because I started to worry that if a joystick broke it would render the entire Deck useless. Now that people have been getting them and posting repair/modification videos, it turns out they are very repairable. And now I regret canceling my preorder because the queue to get one is months long. Does anyone have one?

[BillO]

I could give you some pointers in being successful in chess, Zork or an IT/technology career but not controls designed to pay Steam hosted games.  Maybe you should get out more.  Play golf, ride a dirt bike, hike in national parks, ski, take nature pictures, swim, fuck chicks, pick wild mushrooms, hunt, go fishing, mow the lawn, eat at the 'Y', build an 8-bit computer, race a vehicle, design an analog acquisition interface, repair the footings in a cottage,  re-furbish classic computers, tile a floor, drywall a ceiling, wire a basement, do some plumbing, smoke a brisket,  build a raised deck, design your own fucking gamer dude interface, weld up a motorcycle trailer, build a race bike, convert a ramp-back utility trailer into a long term toy hauler, create a water system controller for people on low production well systems, manage a staff of 250 people, make a tiny little dent in the world ..

Maybe not.

Go play "V Rising".

[Fortuna]

I could give you some pointers in being successful in chess, Zork or an IT/technology career but not controls designed to pay Steam hosted games.  Maybe you should get out more.  Play golf, ride a dirt bike, hike in national parks, ski, take nature pictures, swim, fuck chicks, pick wild mushrooms, hunt, go fishing, mow the lawn, eat at the 'Y', build an 8-bit computer, race a vehicle, design an analog acquisition interface, repair the footings in a cottage,  re-furbish classic computers, tile a floor, drywall a ceiling, wire a basement, do some plumbing, smoke a brisket,  build a raised deck, design your own fucking gamer dude interface, weld up a motorcycle trailer, build a race bike, convert a ramp-back utility trailer into a long term toy hauler, create a water system controller for people on low production well systems, manage a staff of 250 people, make a tiny little dent in the world ..

Maybe not.

Go play "V Rising".

That all sounds like a lot of work. I think I'll pass, but thanks for the suggestions dad.

[BillO]

You'll get around to it.

[juner]

I could give you some pointers in being successful in chess, Zork or an IT/technology career but not controls designed to pay Steam hosted games.  Maybe you should get out more.  Play golf, ride a dirt bike, hike in national parks, ski, take nature pictures, swim, fuck chicks, pick wild mushrooms, hunt, go fishing, mow the lawn, eat at the 'Y', build an 8-bit computer, race a vehicle, design an analog acquisition interface, repair the footings in a cottage,  re-furbish classic computers, tile a floor, drywall a ceiling, wire a basement, do some plumbing, smoke a brisket,  build a raised deck, design your own fucking gamer dude interface, weld up a motorcycle trailer, build a race bike, convert a ramp-back utility trailer into a long term toy hauler, create a water system controller for people on low production well systems, manage a staff of 250 people, make a tiny little dent in the world ..

Maybe not.

Go play "V Rising".

tbh ive done about 80% of those things and i will still get a steam deck

smoking a brisket though, that should come first. too bad 69% of people do it wrong.

[BillO]

smoking a brisket though, that should come first. too bad 69% of people do it wrong.

There are different right ways to do it, and lots of wrong ways but the key is to make sure you keep the seasoning simple, get good smoke penetration and take care not to over or under cook it.  I usually do a modified Texas style cook and wrap in butcher paper, but instead of putting back on the smoker once wrapped, it goes in the oven for better temperature control.

I also remove the flat end and use it to make pastrami and/or Montreal smoked meat.

[juner]

smoking a brisket though, that should come first. too bad 69% of people do it wrong.

There are different right ways to do it, and lots of wrong ways but the key is to make sure you keep the seasoning simple, get good smoke penetration and take care not to over or under cook it.  I usually do a modified Texas style cook and wrap in butcher paper, but instead of putting back on the smoker once wrapped, it goes in the oven for better temperature control.

I also remove the flat end and use it to make pastrami and/or Montreal smoked meat.

Assume a proper trim to start with, then a light coat of Lawry's seasoned salt. 2:1 ratio of 16-mesh black pepper and kosher salt applied pretty heavy. Obviously, cured post oak wood for the smoke and ideally a decent offset smoker. Wagyu beef tallow is the new central TX cheat, so throw a good amount of that in a tin and smoke it along with the brisket. Clean fire ~225F for the first several hours to get ideal smoke penetration, can also throw some of the trimmed fat onto the fire at this point. Bump it to 250F-275F to blast past the stall. Pour the rendered tallow on the brisket and butcher paper and then wrap. At that point, doesn't matter if you finish on the smoker or in the oven. Once the meat is over 200F and you have that brisket jiggle, open up the paper and let it come down to 170F or so. Then re-wrap either in the old paper or new paper with more tallow. Then let it rest in the oven ~160F for at least 12 hours and you will have created the pinnacle of TX brisket.

[BillO]

Assume a proper trim to start with, then a light coat of Lawry's seasoned salt. 2:1 ratio of 16-mesh black pepper and kosher salt applied pretty heavy. Obviously, cured post oak wood for the smoke and ideally a decent offset smoker. Wagyu beef tallow is the new central TX cheat, so throw a good amount of that in a tin and smoke it along with the brisket. Clean fire ~225F for the first several hours to get ideal smoke penetration, can also throw some of the trimmed fat onto the fire at this point. Bump it to 250F-275F to blast past the stall. Pour the rendered tallow on the brisket and butcher paper and then wrap. At that point, doesn't matter if you finish on the smoker or in the oven. Once the meat is over 200F and you have that brisket jiggle, open up the paper and let it come down to 170F or so. Then re-wrap either in the old paper or new paper with more tallow. Then let it rest in the oven ~160F for at least 12 hours and you will have created the pinnacle of TX brisket.

Seems about right.  A few points from my end..

1) Haven't tried the Lawry's yet, but you are teh 3rd to tell me about it.  Must try.  I agree on the salt and pepper.
2) I make my own tallow from the brisket trimmings.  The dog gets the crispins from that process as treats.   Where I am Wagyu tallow is a pipe dream.
3) Here's the main modification - I use a pellet smoker.  I'll start it out at 195 for about 6 hours to get the right amount of smoke flavor, then the rest of it's about the same.
4) I do my rest in a cooler

[Fortuna]

Is this a Steam Deck thread or a boomer barbeque thread?

[BillO]

Is there a substantial difference?  Aren't bot rewarding pastimes?

[Dr Van Nostrand]

[Fortuna]

Do you have giant hands or is the Deck just smaller than I realized?

[Rushy]

Do you have giant hands or is the Deck just smaller than I realized?

For reference, the screen is only 4.6 inches in height. Those are pretty average sized hands based on that reference measurement, so the Deck is just smaller than you thought. The entire Steam Deck is less than a foot long, measured at 11.7 inches.

[Rama Set]

Measured at 11.7 inches.

That’s what he said.

[Pete Svarrior]

My preorder just became available. I doubt I'll be using it much, but I'm curious enough to order one. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Fortuna]

My preorder just became available. I doubt I'll be using it much, but I'm curious enough to order one. I'll let you know how it goes.

Which model did you get?

[Pete Svarrior]

Which model did you get?

512GB. It should be getting here any day now!!1!

[Pete Svarrior]

So, I've had a little play, and so far I'm pretty happy. It's not breaking any new ground - it's just a small PC running what looks to be a derivative of Arch Linux, with a reasonable Steam UI on top of it.

One thing I do really appreciate, though, is the fact that they give you a simple way to drop out of the "games console" UI straight into a bog standard desktop environment. If you want a root password, you just set one and off you go. It doesn't feel like it's trying to stop you from using it in creative ways, and I really like that. I expect that as I get more comfortable with it, I'll come up with use cases that weren't originally intended, and the fact that Valve are happy to step out of the way and let me use my hardware is honestly a breath of fresh air.

As a gaming machine, it's competent, but nothing to rave about. You get a screen of reasonable resolution for its size, and a controller that, well, controls games. I realise this may sound like I'm punching it down, but that's not at all my intention. On the gaming front, it just does its job - nothing more, nothing less.

So far, I'd recommend it. If that suddenly changes, I'll make sure to post an update.

[Fortuna]

I finally got the 64GB version and put a 400GB micro sd card in it. It's my favorite handheld now, surpassing even my beloved Game Boy Advance of yore. The only big downside is that it's one hungry bastard in terms of power. I only get maybe 1.5 - 2 hours of play time on Teardown for example.