I must say, the Billet Labs part nailed me to the floor.
For someone who has to do with prototypes and early development products, such a blunder would have cost me my current job and would have barred me from any other in my field
The Billet Labs cooler block stuff actually made me go “what the fuck” and got me to unsubscribe. That’s not just some error you can cut out or some funny joke, everything about that was something that Billet Labs could likely prove monetary damages for in the worst case scenario.
Fwiw, Linus made a post today and said they’ve already arranged to compensate billet for the prototype.
Yeah, everything else was bad, but I think ultimately forgivable if they can tighten up their testing and QA process going forward. The Billet Labs thing is on a whole other level though. Like, how do you even fuck up that bad as a professional organization?
Do you think LTT can invest in one laptop company and still review theirs and others’ laptops? I don’t know the right answer - I’m interested in your perspective.
Hard to say. Linus has always made it sound like his investment in Framework is a personal one, not one made by LMG. If that’s the case, then I think any potential issues could be largely sidestepped by just having someone else do all the laptop reviews.
If that’s not the case and LMG is directly involved with Framework, then it gets a bit tricky. To their credit, they’ve done a good job of disclosing the Framework investment whenever the company is brought up, but I don’t watch most of LTT’s review content, so I’m not sure if it’s being mentioned in the context of other laptop reviews. If not, it needs to be.
The whole point of having that kind of disclosure though is so people know that the information being presented is potentially biased. At a certain point, it’s on the audience to take that bias into account and cross reference other sources before making any purchasing decisions. I’m not sure there’s anything LMG can really do to alleviate the perceived conflict of interest, unless they just stop reviewing laptops altogether. Whether or not it’s ethical to continue reviewing laptops in that context, even with a full disclosure, is a question I don’t have a good answer to.
That part really bothered me, especially Linus’ words in the WAN show showing a complete disregard for the company and then auctioning off something they didn’t even own. I know if they were in America they’d likely be sued for defamation or something, I swear. If I were a company in that position I wouldn’t trust Linus with anything at all.
Left ltt a while ago. Been noticing he’s not paying his staff respectfully while showing off his custom home. Then you get into the errors that have been show just shows I got out in time.
He makes his video editors do manual labor for his home, like painting his walls and moving home furnitures. He is not known to be a respectful guy.
Billet Lab’s statement (Update 3)
You, the PC community, are amazing. We’d like to thank you for your support, it means more than you can imagine.
Steve at Gamers Nexus has publicly shown his integrity, at the huge risk of backlash, and we have nothing but respect for him for how he’s handled himself, both publicly and when speaking directly to us.
…
Regarding LTT, we are simply going to state the relevant facts:
On 10th August, we were told by LTT via email that the block had been sold at auction. There was no apology.
We replied on 10th August within 30 minutes, telling LTT that this wasn’t okay, and that this was a £XXXX prototype, and we asked if they planned to reimburse us at all.
We received no reply and no offer of payment until 2 hours after the Gamers Nexus video went live on 14th August, at which point Linus himself emailed us directly.
The exact monetary value of the prototype was offered as reimbursement. We have not received, nor have we asked for any other form of compensation.
…
About the future of Billet Labs: We don’t plan to mourn our missing block, we’re already hard at work making another one to use for PC case development, as well as other media and marketing opportunities. Yes it sucks that the prototype has gone, it’s slowed us but has absolutely not stopped us. We have pre-orders for it, and plan to push ahead with our first production run as soon as we can.
We also have some exciting new products on our website that are available to buy now - we thank everyone who has bought them so far, and we can’t wait to see what you do with them.
We’re happy to answer any questions, but we won’t be commenting on LTT or the specifics of the email exchanges – we’re going to concentrate on making cool stuff, and innovative products (the Monoblock being just one of these).
…
We hope LTT implements the necessary changes to stop a situation like this happening again.
Peace out ✌
Felix and Dean
Billet Labs
Follow-up from Billet (Update 4)
UPDATE
For full transparency, Linus contacted us this evening saying it’s likely he can get the block back from the buyer.
We have declined this offer, and asked for the previously agreed monetary value instead for the following reasons:
-
we have already spent a significant percentage of the value of the block in the last few days on replacement parts to build a new block, assuming we’d never see the original one again.
-
we do not know if the original block is still in good working condition, and how much money will be needed to fix it if it’s not.
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we don’t know if any of the bespoke fittings are missing, each of these costs money to replace if they are.
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LTT have had our 3090ti without using it for 9 weeks, so we have lost confidence that they will return items quickly.
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LTT isn’t currently in possession of the block, they’ve only said that they can get it back. We therefore don’t know when we’d get it back, and time is of the essence.
-
LTT has confirmed that the block is with a private individual rather than a rival company, so lost IP is much less of an issue.
We wanted to state this publicly just in case anyone has any issues with the fact that the block has potentially been found, and we chose to take the money instead. We hope you understand our reasoning here. We can have our new block that we’re currently making ready in the next couple of weeks, and we are sceptical that we would have the original block back in fully working condition in that amount of time – it would be a gamble at the very least.
Much love
Dean & Felix
In the “Statement from Linus” are LMG critising GN’s journalism for not reaching out before posting the video?
Seems like a good thing to do but would LMG have gotten enough context regarding the prototype water block? Seems even now they think that review was fair while knowingly using the wrong GPU. Fair for who?
Also he DIDNT “SELL” the prototype, he AUCTIONED it.
Said my 7 year old this weekend, and linus.
Seriously. Its excuses my kids use. “It was an accident”. “I misunderstood”. I didnt hit my brother, it was a love tap.
Either Linus thinks all his viewers are morons or he is mentally handicapped.
Im gonna be honest and say i think most of his viewers are children or teens that dont have much in the way of life experience. Its pretty clear in just the long term ways he approaches stuff. Its cheeky and fun, sure, but its not a good example of how you do IT, tech or even personal computing. Its often reckless at best and kinda dangerous at worst. Like when he decided he didnt want a generator and decided to try and DIY a central UPS solution with little to no ventilation in a small closet. This was a LONG time ago, but it pretty much a fire hazard.
He also had a habit of just doing weird shit like mounting UPS systems above the servers, making the rack no only top heavy and possibly a tip hazard, but it allows for things like the UPS battery leaking caustic fluid to ruin the very devices hes seeking to protect…
The distinction Linus was trying to make there was that the proceeds were going to a charity and not to his pockets, as “sell” might imply.
Still a deflection, but not quite as infantile.
Maybe but the point is it’s a distinction without a difference or in his own words “it doesn’t matter the outcome is still the same”
He sold something that wasn’t his. If I donate my neighbors car to charity while it’s on loan to me, EVEN if I give him the money that was paid it’s still a dick move and illegal. And that is something that is replaceable with an actual market value.
And in this case it’s a prototype that is 1 of 1. This move caused real damage to another person/company.
Like I tell my kids “sorry doesn’t make it better or make things alright”. And in this case it straight up not good enough. Even a qualifier of “we put some controls in place to make sure this never happens again” is still not good enough. He’s not obsolved of the burden no matter how many times he claims he is.
Succinctly put. Linus doesn’t seem to acknowledge that there’s any problem you’re absolutely right. Seems to be in his own bubble I guess.
We MIGHT get an apology video, or one that serves a similar purpose without an actual apology, he will 100% roll his eyes on the WAN show if this is even brought up at all, and he won’t take any responsibility for any of it.
I hate this, I’ve enjoyed the entertainment aspect of LMG for a long time and seeing blatant mistakes get glossed over with one excuse after another is getting really old. this isn’t even the first time or second time this has happened.
The Narcissist’s Prayer (by Dayna Craig)
That didn’t happen. And if it did, it wasn’t that bad. And if it was, that’s not a big deal. And if it is, that’s not my fault. And if it was, I didn’t mean it. And if I did, you deserved it.
Ring any bells?
