Pook-Emu Bee: Links For 11-02-26

My Pook-Emu Bee link backlog is growing with my continued failure to publish daily link collections. It is time to turn the tide.

Hardware in Sam Altman’s World

1 | OpenAI CEO says it’s ‘quite terrible’ for your PC to have RAM — Sam Altman says data centers offer better utilization (Andrew E. Freedman for Tom’s Hardware. Oct. 30, 2026.)
I think I have ~200 GB of removable DDR4 and DDR3 ram between my working computers and old laptops. I will give it all to Sam Altman so he is not sad.

2 | Tested: Refurbished 1TB Hard Drives in 2026 (the only still-affordable storage …) (Grough Lui at Dr. Grough’s Techzone. Nov. 1, 2026.)
I hope that my storage needs never reach the point where I have to gamble on used hard drives of indeterminate age.

Video Games in Sam Altman and Friends’ World

3 | Epic Games delays Disney game and tells developers to go “AI first” (Vikki Blake for Games Industry.biz. Oct. 12, 2026.)
I only became aware of Epic’s existence when some sports journalists, commentators, and internet commenters were acting like they were leading the second coming of the civil rights movement by suing Apple over its iOS store policies. Nothing I have seen since has impressed me.

4 | Valve Knows Steam Next Fest Has An AI Slop Problem, And It’s Looking For Solutions (Darryn Bonthuys for Gamespot. Oct. 28, 2026.)
I have had a Steam account since 2008 or 2009 or so and had never heard of “Steam Next Fest.”

Election Stories

5 | Marianas midterm vote a referendum on China’s murky influence (Grant Newsham for Asia Times. Oct. 31, 2026.)
Watching the midterms in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

6 | Meet Bruce Blakeman, the NY pol taking on Dem Gov. Hochul — who started campaigning at age 7, served as Nancy Reagan’s driver (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. Oct. 30, 2026.)
I didn’t know that Mr. Blakeman was once Nancy Reagan’s driver. The more you know. Let’s mark this as the first ever joint “Things I Learned” and “Pook-Emu Bee” article.

7 | Democrats Melt Down After Haley Stevens Endorses Republican Mike Rogers: ‘Despicable Betrayal’ (Elizabeth Weibel for Breitbart. Nov. 1, 2026.)
Bold move by Ms. Stevens since I don’t suppose the former MSNBC will give her a soft TV landing like it did for former Republicans Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough. I was torn between going with that or noting that they’re running a former Republican for Governor of Florida for the third time in four cycles.

8 | “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides”: Should a Foreign Head of State Be Able to Vote in United States Elections? (Jonathan Turley. Nov. 1, 2026.)
I’m curious if any other foreign heads of state/government with U.S. citizenship have voted absentee. I’m guessing no since they (unlike the Pope) would be unlikely to maintain a U.S. residence. We did have a recent endorsement story from the U.S. citizen president of Colombia.

Long-Term Support

9 | Nintendo Has Scheduled 3DS And Switch Maintenance For This Week (Jim Norman for Nintendo Life. Oct. 26, 2026.)
I need to power on my 3DS to pick up this very exciting update.

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