A cool idea might be putting a push/pull fan setup for the drawers themselves. Cut 4x12cm holes in the top 2 on either sides, get grills and mount them underneath. You might have to cut out the drawer it's self to open and close but the grills will add a cool look and maybe even mount the fan control knobs somewhere so you can make adjustments and even turn on/off LEDs mounted on the fan it's self. Put the system in the drawer without a case of any kind, particle board doesn't conduct but you could just get a non conductive mat to put under it.
The console is just the ante into the game, same as Xbox,PlayStation,Nintendo. Having a standard would allow hardware manufacturers as well as game devs to come into sync.
Establish a clear casual,mid level, hardcore specs every couple years and the software will be able to anticipate what it will be running on when it's released. Now GPU,CPU and SoC manufacturers will be confident that if they release hardware that conforms to each spec they certify their hardware will run at a given level. Now ARM licensees will be able to make sure the right components are integrated and they progress in the direction the consumers want/need.
Valve is more of a publisher than a hardware manufacturer anyway, they will likely be much happier just sitting back and offering OS images than make a gripe about who gets to make the physical box.
I personally would be excited about a variety of boxes. The companies that are currently on the cusp of ARM components that already have the grunt to play casual to mid level gaming and without need for a battery/display/fancy case they can do it for much cheaper. Go to your local big box store and pick up a mid level gaming system with WIFI/HTPC capabilities plus abilities to connect to a wide selection of cloud services and your good to go.
If we could get Valve to make a mechanism that would allow the resale/trading of games I honestly believe the market would soar. If there was a Valve sponsored "swap meet area" it would allow for people to become much more involved and if any money was actually made it would likely be dumped right back at the Seam Store. I guess that is a discussion for another day but ya a standard would not be a bad thing.
Hardware makers don't like sync or standards. They like platform lock in and exclusivity to motivate buyers into buying their product over a competitors, or buying both. Honestly, the steam box will end up being an x86 processor of some description with some ddr3 memory and a discrete gpu of some kind, designed to run games well at 1080p, and they will probably use some kind of boot-to-steam system (I mean steam has its own web browser and everything already!) where they replace the usual DE with just big picture Steam.
Trying guilt your customer base into doing something is a bad plan, especially on Linux. If people really do start to dislike this option the same day someone will post a script to remove it. Now you will have people using your product and Canonical is left holding the bag.
I think it's time to research other ways of keeping the lights on.
PayPal backs out of a transaction and locks your account after you try and pay steam with it. Steam say, hey, you didn't pay us, we're locking your account and you lose all your games that you've bought so far.
True story, happened to my brother. Took hours on the phone to sort out. Still never using paypal for anything like that again.
Can you explain in more detail? How could you owe steam money if you didn't finish the transaction? Did paypal somehow promise steam the money long enough to complete the transaction and then pull takesie-backsies?
That is typically exactly what is claimed by the victims, that paypal first completes, and then is later rescinded/charged back for whatever reason; steam then removes access to the account. I've heard a wide enough variety of paypal horror stories in general that I presume it's not all a case of user error.
This isn't a reply directly to you, Winthrowe. But more to this line of thread.
The wrongs of Paypal have been mentioned, but most account blocking happens when a user violates Steam's TOS. Being an abusive jerk online while logged in and playing games. Or cheating.
Now, I think that's bullshit. You still paid for those games. I think you should own them. Completely. At most they should block you from their servers and their online play.
But with Steam you can easily download any title you own as many times as you like. Steam has its own problems, but this they got right. You can even back them up quite easily. (Man, that used to be a broken tool, but even it's good now.)
Steam was removing access to his account basically because it felt like he didn't pay for some games in it. Which is reasonableish (the ones he had from before really shouldn't be affected. It'd be better if it just removed the games he bought with paypal).
It's like if someone has their check bounce on you, they don't get to keep whatever they paid for.
You don't have any real control over that account. I can think of ways to lose an account and while not all of them are very likely, I wouldn't be surprised to see all of them happen in, say, the next five years or so if they haven't already happened:
The database could get corrupt or the data center burnt down and if the service provider hasn't a good backup strategy your account could be gone. The same goes for unauthorized access to the database or your account, it can be removed without your say so. Or the service provider is shut down by the government for whatever reason. Or worse, your country decides that the service provider may not operate in your country and that all accounts of people from your country should be removed and they comply. Or some governmental agency takes all the servers of your service provider and won't give them back (in one piece).
With out even the ability of backing up the files on the device how can we really agree with this point of view? If I buy a pulp book and my bookshelf breaks I can still pick up my books off the floor. If my e-reader for what ever reason stops working and I have to replace it then should the manufacturer have to claim responsibility for my losses?
