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The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

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Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#81

Post by edison_carter »

rsync wrote: post #76

I really, really miss the days when there was more than one manufacturer of computers. I think it was in 2002/2003 when I was last in the market for a non-apple device and there was a lot of interesting competition ... thinkpads, sony vaio, HP ... Dell had some great laptops ... there was actually a reason to scroll through gizmodo/engadget and look at new products coming out. Now there's only one.[1] I really do thi…

> I don't really understand why other manufacturers can't make a MBA...

Lenovo's Carbon X1 is that machine for me. I carried an Air (running Debian) for a couple of years. I've since replaced it with a Carbon X1, and there's nothing I miss about the Air. The Carbon is simply fantastic.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#82

Post by eitally »

ska wrote: post #65
eitally wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side to this (triathlon gear) is ITU draft legal racing, where it's basically like a criterion and requires the same UCI compliant bike setups as a road race would. This solves the problem in one way but creates a new one. Take a look at the world standings (for women, especially). Gwen Jorgensen is a beast, for sure, but she wins because she's a ridiculously strong runner who managed to get her swim good en…

Haven't (particularly longer distance) triathalons always been a runners race?

Not really. Exceptional cyclists who are average runners still do very well on full iron distances. "Average runner" meaning they can crank out a 3:15-3:30 marathon after the first two events (so not really "average at all).

That said, people who come into triathlon from a running background do tend to do better than swimmers or cyclists who have to learn the other two events.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#83

Post by vetinari »

jbob2000 wrote: post #74
JohnBooty wrote: post #43

Understand that PCs were end-user fixable and upgradeable by accident. The intention was never for you, the person who bought your computer, to be able to pop a new CPU into your Compaq five years later. Standardized, modular parts were always all about the OEMs, who were all trying to build an industry by cloning the IBM PC. They could have a variety of manufacturers making various components and as long as everybod…

This is a very American point of view. German and Japanese cars are very modular; you can take certain parts from a 3 series and use them in a 7 series, and vice-versa. The transmission in the Toyota 86 is straight out of a Lexus IS.

For some brands, there are retrofit fans, who take parts from newer models and put them into older, to get features that were never offered when their cars were made.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#84

Post by Vexs »

monkeycantype wrote: post #48
nulltype wrote: post #4

I'm not sure I buy the contrast between old computers and macbooks. The smallest replaceable part on a MacBook is the entire MacBook (excluding any wired or wireless peripherals), but the smallest in a normal computer might be the CPU. The CPU cannot be repaired except by replacing the entire thing. You can't repair a CPU or a MacBook, so it seems the the only real difference is how much it costs to replace the broke…

The smallest replaceable part on a MacBook is the entire MacBook this is where the bourne comparison needs to come back into the discussion, because it depends who is doing the replacing. I, my partner and my uncle had had three recent macbooks experience sudden unintended swamping, two with water one with red wine, charlie fixed them all. The apple geniuses - james bond company men all - carefully removed the screws…

That story just makes me sad. Like, from the bottom of my soul and my hacker's heart kinda sad.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#85

Post by jevgeni »

StavrosK wrote: post #62
jevgeni wrote: post #19

I can see the point. My hobby is photography. I love my Nikon D5300 to bits, but after a year of usage two buttons are stuck and the eyecup needs replacing. And then there are people using twin reflex cameras from the 50s and they run like butter...

Could it be because your camera is now pretty much a whole photography studio in a compact package, and to make it as sturdy as those old cameras that had three moving parts it will need to cost twice as much?

Of course. I believe, it's because of the manufacturer's (and the consumers') changed priorities. I think when a product arrives at a certain level of quality, it's difficult to see a difference, unless you have very good knowledge of the subject matter. For example, I don't know how to tell the difference between the quality of Carl Zeiss Planar and Tessar lenses. Or when I would need to.

But as a company you need to differentiate yourself. Hence, you go digital, then you introduce all kinds of gizmos, built-in HDR processing, retouching capabilities, etc., etc. You save on the build quality to be able to claim the pole position in the megapixel race.

Understandable, but does not cover the whole market.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#87

Post by jevgeni »

leonroy wrote: post #52
jevgeni wrote: post #19

I can see the point. My hobby is photography. I love my Nikon D5300 to bits, but after a year of usage two buttons are stuck and the eyecup needs replacing. And then there are people using twin reflex cameras from the 50s and they run like butter...

Having had one of these old cameras I can tell you they are not immune from the ravages of age! They do need a good service periodically!

Thank you for the advice. I kind of reckoned one would need to. I'm about to buy one and currently looking, if there are shops that do repairs, if need be.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#88

Post by Eric_WVGG »

triangleman wrote: post #7

Can today's Thinkpads still hang with the best of them? (typed on a recently-upgraded late 2006 MBP)

the veep of design at Lenovo has publicly considered building a “retro” Thinkpad (with modern circuitry of course) — http://blog.lenovo.com/en/blog/retro-thinkpad-time-machine/

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#89

Post by m3rc »

rsync wrote: post #76

I really, really miss the days when there was more than one manufacturer of computers. I think it was in 2002/2003 when I was last in the market for a non-apple device and there was a lot of interesting competition ... thinkpads, sony vaio, HP ... Dell had some great laptops ... there was actually a reason to scroll through gizmodo/engadget and look at new products coming out. Now there's only one.[1] I really do thi…

That's... a lot of personal preference. I won't really address how you're only allowing for Apple and Apple only but just for one thing, I would really dislike a laptop made of metal

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#90

Post by ashark »

rsync wrote: post #76

I really, really miss the days when there was more than one manufacturer of computers. I think it was in 2002/2003 when I was last in the market for a non-apple device and there was a lot of interesting competition ... thinkpads, sony vaio, HP ... Dell had some great laptops ... there was actually a reason to scroll through gizmodo/engadget and look at new products coming out. Now there's only one.[1] I really do thi…

The thing that keeps me on them is that no other hardware/OS combo is even in the same ballpark for battery life as Apple mobile/iOS and Macbooks/OSX. Maybe, maybe high-end Lenovos or something with a carefully-tweaked install of Linux could come close, but probably not without sacrificing features and/or convenience.
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