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Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

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Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#151

Post by bootlooped »

gcatalfamo wrote: post #102
draklor40 wrote: post #94

There exists a good solution. It is called a desktop. I turned my company provided laptop into an almost full desktop with external monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, a USB microphone, USB camera. At this point I am wondering why do I even have a wimpy ULV processor to write code 8 hrs a day. The sheer amount of time I could save by switching to even a basic 4 core 45-65w Desktop class CPU. Saving pennies on the…

Yes, in theory. But I end up not liking having to sit at the desk for "everything computer". Sometimes I just want to work while sitting comfortably on the couch.

I think there's a benefit in having physical separation between work and non-work areas of the home. Certainly this is going to be of different value to everybody.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#152

Post by bootlooped »

podiki wrote: post #7

I don't really understand the point of this article as "redesigning the laptop." Nearly all of the things they mention is either software (e.g. better processing of mic input) or called a desktop (screens, noise, etc.). If people are working from home that negates a big reason for the laptop: portability. Sure it is nice to move to the couch or kitchen or whatever, but maybe that could be having a keyboard and using…

As for the desktop point: my work issues us our computers. They want at least one of the machines they issue us to be a laptop, so we can travel with it, and they're not going to issue more than one machine per person, so laptop it is.

My setup is pretty good, with an external monitor, webcam, keyboard and mouse. The only thing crappy is the processor and thermal performance. Not much I can do about that.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#153

Post by mxz3000 »

olyjohn wrote: post #75
asdff wrote: post #64

If we are to redesign the laptop why can't we admit that it's current design and use cases are at odds? People are running zoom and docker and slack and a dozen other things at once. We waste more resources than ever doing the same chat/etc. stuff we've been doing for 25 years. Things aren't moving faster, fans are going full tilt and CPUs throttle down. What the people need more than anything is for manufacturers to…

It's the same craze affecting smartphones. We get rid of useful features like headphone jacks just to save 0.25mm of thickness. Thickness that nobody would ever notice in a practical use case. We buy thin, fragile phones and then put them in big thick cases.

I'm more than happy to lose the jack to get a bigger battery or thinner/lighter phone.

I'm never going back to wired headphones anyways, wireless is the future. Far too used to not having my head tethered to my phone (or laptop for that matter).

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#154

Post by draklor40 »

bitwize wrote: post #124
draklor40 wrote: post #94

There exists a good solution. It is called a desktop. I turned my company provided laptop into an almost full desktop with external monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, a USB microphone, USB camera. At this point I am wondering why do I even have a wimpy ULV processor to write code 8 hrs a day. The sheer amount of time I could save by switching to even a basic 4 core 45-65w Desktop class CPU. Saving pennies on the…

> At this point I am wondering why do I even have a wimpy ULV processor to write code 8 hrs a day. The sheer amount of time I could save by switching to even a basic 4 core 45-65w Desktop class CPU. Sounds like someone who hasn't heard of the M1 Macs. They smoke all but the beefiest of desktops.

Work doesn't offer a M1 Mac. Not everyone can afford to by an M1 mac.

I already invested some money in a laptop last year. not gonna write off a big chunk of that and spend MORE on top of that.

Most of my work is on Linux based OSes. Theoretically I can use a Mac, but I hate Macs. I hate Apple's approach to software (all locked down, but beautiful).

Really like hacking stuff with my OS and I want to be able to replace, atleast basic parts of my computer.

With my current work and personal laptops, I can open the back, replace the RAM, SSDs and even the keyboards (at a stretch).

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#155

Post by draklor40 »

neogodless wrote: post #121
draklor40 wrote: post #94

There exists a good solution. It is called a desktop. I turned my company provided laptop into an almost full desktop with external monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, a USB microphone, USB camera. At this point I am wondering why do I even have a wimpy ULV processor to write code 8 hrs a day. The sheer amount of time I could save by switching to even a basic 4 core 45-65w Desktop class CPU. Saving pennies on the…

When I'm working, most of the time I'm on my desktop, with a ~5 year old web cam attached to a monitor. For a while, I wondered if software was just making "me" look good (quality, not my face, ha!) but I had someone do a screen shot. And my $50 web cam is 5x better than basically every Macbook web cam for video chat. And my desktop is a ~2 year old 8-core, 32GB machine. Not a monster but excellent power plus 27" and…

bought mine as well from my pocket. except laptop , nothing was supplied by work. Have to apply for a tax break for all the stuff I bought this year.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#156

Post by yoz-y »

anotheryou wrote: post #73

Make usb-c docking work... I got an older dell xps that get's heart trouble on 3rd party usb-c chargers (short freezes under moderate load) and is throttled even through the expensive dell dock. I got a lenovo with linux (maybe linux is at fault) where hdmi through usb-c causes all sorts of issues. --- allow to limit charging to 80% (dell can do it, should double battery life. Too bad my xps batteries die a bloaty de…

I use the HP Z27 monitor with a single usb-c cable to my laptop and then hang all accessories off it. (Mouse, mic, speakers, keyboard, trackpad) works great. At the end of the day I can switch the work laptop for the home laptop by unplugging and plugging one cable.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#157

Post by yoz-y »

MarkLowenstein wrote: post #149
kps wrote: post #22

Let's not. Laptops are an ergonomic and productivity nightmare.

Here are things that are not good with the standard laptop form. They may seem minor, but I believe these little physical discomforts manifest themselves in a reluctance to use the device. 1. It's oblong with few safe surfaces to touch. To carry it with one hand forces you to hold it from one edge at least for awhile each time you pick it up and put it down. That feels heavy because of the leverage it pulls against t…

> You can't tell how much battery is left.

One of the most delightful things on my old 2009 MBP is a little button you can press that will show the current battery levels by illuminating up to five otherwise invisible LEDs. These days laptops can hold ages on a battery charge, but back then it was awesome. I’d like them to bring this back.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#158

Post by filleduchaos »

WalterBright wrote: post #113
tokamak-teapot wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're on MacOS, open 'Audio MIDI Setup' and look at 'Built-in Microphone'. You can tick the 'Mute' box next to 'Master' and your microphone is now muted independently of Teams, WebEx, or whatever. It's not a physical switch, but it's a good second safeguard. Teams is even polite enough to tell remind you that you're muted because it can detect this. A slightly folded post-it note also works well as a camera cover…

Software switches are always hackable. Never ever rely on one. Half of hacking exploits would go away if there was a physical write enable switch on device ROMs.

People's threat model isn't always some malicious hacker with access to their machines. The vast majority of the time people simply want to be sure that the video conferencing software they deliberately installed on their non-compromised machine isn't accidentally transmitting the sound of them eating lunch to the call they deliberately joined. I'm not sure pushing back on tips about how they can reasonably accomplish that because "software solutions can be hacked!" is particularly helpful.

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#159

Post by sidpatil »

dhosek wrote: post #117
sidpatil wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are known as mobile workstations . They can get quite bulky, quite heavy, and quite powerful.

I worked for a while at ISI. They let people choose their hardware for a desktop and laptop with a generous budget. One of the guys on the team had some monster gaming laptop as his laptop—I think it was a 20" screen or something on that beast.

Wow! I didn't know they made laptops that big!

Re: Let’s redesign the laptop for a work-from-home era

#160

Post by filleduchaos »

WalterBright wrote: post #108
paulcole wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re saying things that can end your career instantly, be more careful about what you say?

So you don't share confidences with a trusted friend? I'm sad for you.

I'm not going to lie, the assumption that everybody necessarily has career-ending confidences to share with their friends is very strange to me.
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