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The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

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Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#111

Post by StavrosK »

jevgeni wrote: post #85
StavrosK wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

I don't really agree, at least when it comes to photography. Photographers care more about low light performance than they do about megapixels, for example, but there's a simple reason for build quality taking a back seat to features:

Fifty years ago, next year's camera would be 3% better. Nowadays, next year's camera will be 100% better. Why would you spend money on build quality for a camera that will be de facto obsolete in two or three years?

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#112

Post by JohnBooty »

felixgallo wrote: post #105
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…

You're hopelessly, utterly wrong. I refer you to, for just one of millions of examples, the Apple II reference manual: https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78 . The early culture of PCs was one of end-user fixing and upgrading by default, often primarily.

I'm very aware of that.

For brevity's sake, I talked about IBM PC hardware because that's what our current x86 hardware is directly descended from.

(If you typed your post on some crazy descendant of the 6502 and/or the Apple II's architecture... then I stand corrected, and please share details of your setup!)

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#113

Post by devbug »

lemevi wrote: post #66
joe563323 wrote: post #36

Interesting and thought provoking comparison b/w James Bond and Jason Bourne.

It's mostly nonsense. You can invent comparisons like this, which are really just half-baked and not very convincing attempts at social science deconstruction, between any number of things and it may appear to be just as thought provoking. I am sure that the generation that watched James Bond in the 1960's trusted their employers more than action movie watchers of the last decade but Bourne stories are about governme…

There were no government conspiracies prior to Iran-Contra affair?

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#114

Post by JohnBooty »

userbinator wrote: post #49
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…

"Understand that PCs were end-user fixable and upgradeable by accident. " I think if that were the case, IBM would not have released such complete documentation with the PC, XT, and AT. They could've just as well kept it to themselves, like they started to do with the MCA-based systems (PS/2).

That information was primarily intended for OEMs, system integrators, and service technicians. They weren't really concerned about little Johnny down the street upgrading his computer... they certainly weren't trying to prevent that but it's not why they created those specs.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#115

Post by sago »

ucaetano wrote: post #39

It is interesting to compare Bond with Smiley. While Bond is whom the salesman aspired to be, Smiley is whom he would actually become. The expense account is a reptile fund over drafted by senior management for spurious expenses, he travels, but to cold and boring places, usually on a budget and staying out of sight in cramped hotels and safe houses. Instead of sleeping with beautiful women, he spends most of his tim…

I watched a fascinating interview with a former MI6 manager. This was probably about 10 years ago. The interviewer made some comment about the men she had to manage: the agents. She said, effectively 'men?'.

The Grey Man principle is a good one, as far as it goes, except maybe the gender.

Fictional spies are interesting reflections of social angst, but I think we're about ready now for a fictional Valerie Plame.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#116

Post by wandererer »

malnourish wrote: post #97
hub_ wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are actually working on that. With DRM, DMCA, shitty software, etc. They want you to go back to the vendor to make sure things are fixed. Repairable? Only by authorized service dealers. At a monopolistic cost. And in the US you can thank the EPA for helping with that.

How exactly is the EPA involved?

Probably means CARB, where states that have adopted California's emissions regulations require certain parts of the vehicles be replaced by special CARB-approved versions when they fail. Even if they're exactly the same as non-carb approved versions yet cost 2-3x as much.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#117

Post by Detrus »

ddingus wrote: post #104
JohnBooty wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree; it sucks for the reason you say. "Moore's Law" is probably part of the reason we're okay with this: by the time RAM/CPU/mobo start failing, a laptop is 5 (or 6 or 7 or 10) years old and the laptop's a dinosaur anyway. Heck, by that point a lot of us are probably hoping our laptops fail so we have an excuse to get a new one. I wonder if we'll stop being okay with this eventually, now that desktop/laptop CPUs…

Is that actually true? We've hit a plateau on overall compute speed. There are incremental improvements, but the difference in performance over 5 years today is much less than it was 7-10 years ago. My 10 year old laptop is awesome, and it's a Thinkpad too. I have fixed it, replacing a fan, upgrading RAM, etc... all good, but it's performance isn't so hot. Buying new made a lot of sense. But, my current 4-5 year old,…

Apple is still selling the old model user upgradable MacBook Pro for $1100 http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro the same price I bought one for in 2011. Except I bought refurbished and smaller HD.

Some of the new machines Apple is selling for $1000 are actually slower at many tasks. But the market has spoken and Apple is selling hardware that suits most user's narrow tasks of email, browsing and video. It also streamlines manufacturing, as they're already focused on mobile where everything must be stuck together in one chip.

But they're enabling 4K video editing on iPhones and iPad Pros with what I'm assuming is custom hardware. And that could be a very smart approach if it was applied to more tasks on Pro computers. Performance could actually move forward again.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#118

Post by dmschulman »

ctdonath wrote: post #106
hub_ wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are actually working on that. With DRM, DMCA, shitty software, etc. They want you to go back to the vendor to make sure things are fixed. Repairable? Only by authorized service dealers. At a monopolistic cost. And in the US you can thank the EPA for helping with that.

If you want a 1kg notebook that's 100x the power of a room-sized $40,000,000 Cray 2 from back when, you'll have to leave off things like connectors, removable covers, generalized internal interfaces, empty space (for varying-sized components), beefier batteries (to run whatever you plug in), etc. Some of us value compact over modular. You want "repairable by user for cheap"? Such is eminently available, and will deci…

You're right, my Thinkpad X201t weighs 2.89 lbs. That's 1.31kg, it's so difficult to lug around but at least I can replace the hard drive, RAM, keyboard, CPU fan, battery, and fundamentally keep it maintained until the processor fails.

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#119

Post by doppelganger27 »

sago wrote: post #115
ucaetano wrote: post #39

It is interesting to compare Bond with Smiley. While Bond is whom the salesman aspired to be, Smiley is whom he would actually become. The expense account is a reptile fund over drafted by senior management for spurious expenses, he travels, but to cold and boring places, usually on a budget and staying out of sight in cramped hotels and safe houses. Instead of sleeping with beautiful women, he spends most of his tim…

I watched a fascinating interview with a former MI6 manager. This was probably about 10 years ago. The interviewer made some comment about the men she had to manage: the agents. She said, effectively 'men?'. The Grey Man principle is a good one, as far as it goes, except maybe the gender. Fictional spies are interesting reflections of social angst, but I think we're about ready now for a fictional Valerie Plame.

What does gender truly have to do with the "Grey Man" idea? The core idea as I see it is to blend in with your surroundings, be "boring grey" instead standing out. Sure, "Grey Man" has the word "Man" in it, but I think the operative word in it is "Grey."

Also, where was the interview you watched?

Re: The Jason Bourne Aesthetic

#120

Post by felixgallo »

JohnBooty wrote: post #112
felixgallo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're hopelessly, utterly wrong. I refer you to, for just one of millions of examples, the Apple II reference manual: https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78 . The early culture of PCs was one of end-user fixing and upgrading by default, often primarily.

I'm very aware of that. For brevity's sake, I talked about IBM PC hardware because that's what our current x86 hardware is directly descended from. (If you typed your post on some crazy descendant of the 6502 and/or the Apple II's architecture... then I stand corrected, and please share details of your setup!)

This was also true for all x86 ancestor hardware. For example, the IBM XT came with a technical reference manual that provided the schematics and source code (https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcxt150ferenceApr83...).

In fact, the fundamental success of the PC/XT line was that it had increased user-expandability and maintainability over the competitors, as documented extensively in all accounts of the period.

And we're all typing on crazy descendants of the Apple II architecture, because pieces of it informed all subsequent architectures:

"It was also decided along the way that the machine would have an "open" architecture, like that of the Apple family. IBM would include slots under the cover of the machine that could accommodate plug-in boards that would add features or even change the entire personality of the PC. And, to make it relatively easy for outside companies to participate in the building of the PC market, IBM would publish a Technical Reference Manual with the entire set of electrical schematics for the machine and a full explanation and printout of the ROM-based BIOS (Basic input Output System) that provides the hooks into the machine for hardware and software. The ROM BIOS and the IBM logo were actually the only elements of the entire machine that bore an IBM copyright." (http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/298_IBM_coloss...)

Frankly, your lack of understanding of the history you're so confidently asserting facts about is beyond shocking. I'm sorry if that seems mean-spirited, but there's no other way to put it.

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