DIGITAL CONTENT FROM ANALOG PEOPLE

Posted on June 6, 2026    Posted by John Scalzi     

It’s a bit of a stormy day here. Let’s see what’s going on elsewhere.

The “K”-shaped economy comes for laptops: There’s been a trade show this week called Computex (there seems to be a big event in the tech field every other week or so), and Michael Crider of PC Week notes that at the show, the new laptops come in two flavors: The really cheap ones, designed to compete with MacBook Neo, which has completely swamped the low-end of the laptop market, and the really expensive ones, which most people will have to think twice about buying. The middle ground laptop for the middle-class buyer? It’s just not there anymore. This is evidence, Crider argues, of a the “K-shaped” economy at work, the economy where the upper 20% of consumers are doing just fine, and the bottom 80% of consumers are… not.

A couple of things about this: One, you can still get middle-ground laptops in the real world (here’s an Acer laptop with a 14-inch screen, 32GB of memory and 1 TB of storage, plus a couple of goodies, for under $900), although they mostly have to have been made before the RAM crunch brought on by “AI” companies buying all the memory in the world. Two, that self-same RAM crunch is wreaking havoc on manufacturers at the moment, precisely in that middle ground. It makes sense for them to focus on the lower end (where they don’t have to spend too much for RAM) and the higher end (where the consumer is less price-sensitive), then in the middle, where they watch their margins shrink to nothing.

I’m not disagreeing with Crider’s thought about the “K-shaped” economy, because I think it’s real: it’s pretty evident to me that the economy sucks for everyone but the people who don’t have to worry about prices. I also think, in computing spaces, the hollowing out of the middle ground is exacerbated by other factors, particularly the “AI” RAM crunch, which is not (directly) about that K-shape. It still sucks if you’re in the market for a computer.

Predictions on the World Cup thingy I think is about to start: On one hand I’m being a little obnoxious, I know what the World Cup is and what’s going on with it, on the other hand I am also not super-engaged with it, partly because I don’t tend to follow sports in general, partly because I think FIFA is one of the most corrupt organizations in the world, which lessens my interest in the World Cup considerably, and partly because this year is the wrong year to have the US co-hosting, for several reasons.

Nevertheless if you have an interest in the World Cup, I hope you enjoy it. Also I have no idea who is going to win it, but I don’t imagine it will be the US. I’m okay with this.

Screwworm back in the US after 60 years, which means your beef, which is already expensive, is about to become even more so. Does this have anything to do with the absolutely idiotic decision from DOGE to cut screwworm monitoring and prevention out of the budget? Well, at the very least, it certainly didn’t help. Is this all hurting Americans while benefiting others? Oh, probably. And while I’m sure there are some people who might be gleeful that the point of pain is that the moment most centered on those who likely brought Trump back into power, anyone who eats beef is next, so don’t get too smug about it, if you are of a mind to. Also, if you were ever planning to reduce the amount of red meat in your diet, here’s a good reason to get on it.

The new Taylor Swift song for Toy Story 5: It’s perfectly good! There have been better songs associated with the Toy Story movies, but there’s nothing at all wrong with this one, and I’m sure it will work perfectly well in the movie. The going line with this one is that this is Swift’s return to country, which, okay, sure, let’s go with that. I’m already laying good odds that this gets Swift an Oscar early next year, and I don’t imagine that will be the worst thing in the world. There are a lot worse songs to have garnered that particular bauble. Enjoy.

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Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, EIC – AMS
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