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2018 Mac Mini Review

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#491

Post by intrasight »

veidr wrote: post #49
blinkingled wrote: post #12

The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! If you needed the 6 cores sure but given most workloads other than encoding don't - it's questionable. Even then the 6C processor doesn't cost enough to make up for the difference.

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than…

I also use a Synology. And a Raspberry Pi as the client.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#492

Post by dmix »

wild_preference wrote: post #373
reaperducer wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The touchbar made me realize that I have a habit of resting my fingers up there. I came to this realization because when I didn't think I was typing anything, stuff would happen. Eventually I realized I was touching virtual buttons on the touchbar. I don't hate it, but I wish more of the tools I use took advantage of it. I think it could be massively improved by shortening it a little on the left to make room for a p…

Consider mapping CapsLock to Esc (and Ctrl when long-pressed) with Karabiner. I haven't used my physical Esc key since 2014 or something. Might help with your issue.

Capslock is ctrl for most developers I know (because it's by far the most used key in terminal/Vim/emacs/etc).

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#494

Post by Damogran6 »

Gorbzel wrote: post #477
phaus wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at a company where most of us use Macs. Everyone that has upgraded from a 2013-2015 MBP to the touchbar model absolutely hates it, including me. There's gotta be someone around here that actually likes it, but I haven't met them yet. Its OK if you like it. I'm sure lots of people do, but you know damn well significantly more people have had issues with this laptop than normal, so I'm not sure why you're implyi…

> Its OK if you like it. I'm sure lots of people do, but you know damn well significantly more people have had issues with this laptop than normal, so I'm not sure why you're implying otherwise. Yup, that's exactly what the HN groupthink would like to believe. What is by definition a small user demographic complains repeatedly/loudly that their problems are the most important, indicative of "everyone", and Apple is d…

I like the feel of the keyboard. I did not like the trip to the Mac store at 8 months whereby they very gingerly lifted the spacebar and removed whatever crumb was under there making it mushy.

I also like the touchbar. The touch-slide volume is a nifty improvement...I use the touchbar for the occasional screengrab...and that's about it. As someone mentioned above, I too would really like a physical Escape key

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#495

Post by gnomesteel »

tqkxzugoaupvwqr wrote: post #463
gnomesteel wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's drifting around and rarely in sync.

Watching on iOS I had no sync problems. Maybe it’s a transcoding problem caused by YouTube? At 1:25 you can clearly hear how when he turns away from the camera the audio changes as well. I’d say the audio is recorded live, not dubbed.

I don't think it's dubbed. Just out of sync.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#496

Post by bluegreyred »

rsynnott wrote: post #407
bluegreyred wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, I used to go out of my way to find unbiased and honest reviews from "real" people that weren't "seeded" by manufacturers. The problem is that many others did the same, so these honest reviewers gained followers, that gave them exposure and eventually they get approached by the PR departments which would like to "lend" them top end review samples for an undisclosed amount of time. Well before the press NDA, of c…

You realise that every single thing reviewed in a paper magazine is a loaner review unit, unless it's Consumer Reports, Which?, or one of about three others? It's an industry standard.

Sure, but the authors of larger magazines typically do not get to keep (or even use) the product for their own private purposes, so they're not nearly as invested and have far less reason to be biased.

I've heard many companies "forget" to ask for their seeded samples back, particularly those sent to so-called influencers.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#497

Post by angelsl »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #299
josteink wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the link: > Update 2: It looks like even if disabling the Secure Boot functionality, the T2 chip is reportedly still blocking operating systems aside from macOS and Windows 10. That seems to contradict your claim, and I haven't seen that refuted elsewhere.

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/11/apple-t2-chip-cant-boot-...

Yes, you can disable Secure Boot, but Linux still isn't allowed to access the NVMe device.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#498

Post by dark_star »

wild_preference wrote: post #426
copperx wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you remap CapsLock to Esc, what key do you use for Control for doing Control A, Control E, Control K, Control Y, Control N, and Control P in every application?

I tried to address this in my parentheses, but Karabiner specifically lets you bind CapsLock to both: Esc when tapped alone, and Ctrl when held down in combination with other keys. And your post also answers you sibling comment: Ctrl modifier is useful outside of just Emacs. Try it out. I believe the API changed in the macOS release before Mojave, so they relaunched Karabiner under the name Karabiner Elements. This o…

I use Karabiner Elements to bind backtick (grave accent) to Esc, Command-backtick to Command-backtick as normal (so you can switch between windows of the same app), and Option-backtick to backtick.

It's not optimal, but I do it because backtick is about the same position as a hardware Escape key. It makes using vim feel ok again.

This option is available from the KE Complex Modifications tab.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#499

Post by pkamb »

djsumdog wrote: post #431
lucideer wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader" Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.

It also doesn't look like it has a DisplayPort. If I wanted to hook it into my KVM, I'd need a USB-C to display port dongle.

I'm really hoping there's a good/reliable solution for 30" Apple Cinema Display > Dual Link DVI > Mini Display Port > [INSERT PRODUCT HERE] > USB-C

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#500

Post by __d »

lovehashbrowns wrote: post #473
d35007 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will definitely be saying "yay it hasn't gotten worse!" about these. If drcongo doesn't mean to speak for "Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar", drcongo should refrain from using those exact words. And you should probably refrain from speaking for drcongo.

It's pretty common to make sweeping generalizations in casual conversation, which this is. I find it really annoying when someone says something like "everyone likes cats!" and then someone, inevitably, will hop in and reply with "ACTUALLY, I hate cats." This isn't a mathematics proof.

Sure, it's not necessary to completely accurate in casual conversation, but you can say "heaps of people like cats!" or "most people like cats!" or "almost everyone likes cats!" and make your point just as effectively, and without trying to invalidate or dismiss the dislike of cats.
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