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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

#161

Post by clairity »

gumby wrote: post #110
hc-taway wrote: post #3

1) physical kill switch for camera (as in, it breaks the power or data connection to it, physically) or at least a physical cover. 2) physical kill switch for the microphone These are very much not "nerd" concerns, either. I see a lot of non-techies with stickers over their laptop cameras. [EDIT] teachers in particular spread the "put a sticker over the camera" practice, in my experience, both before and during the p…

A band aid makes a better cover as it doesn't leave gluey residue on what's already a crummy camera.

similarly, the gentlest grade of painter’s masking tape avoids sticky residue too. electrician’s tape isn’t bad either (the black tape is also less conspicuous).

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

#162

Post by prepend »

wombatmobile wrote: post #114

> In addition, research shows that the audio quality is just as important as video quality when judging the overall “quality” and “presence” of the conference experience Audio transmits 80% of the intellectual content. That's why when your TV news crosses to an outside broadcast unit, and there's no sound but the vision is perfect, they give up and go back to the studio until they get audio.

What else would they do? Sign? I think it’s because news requires voice to convey info. They also give up when the video is off.

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

#163

Post by AtlasBarfed »

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…

32" monitor? You know you can get a 43" 4k TV that is half-decent for a monitor for 200-300$?

And 8ks are coming... 2000$ for a 65" 8k, but of course the HDMI port support is glacial and grossly overpriced. But a curved 8k 65" for high-dpi will be my next big desktop build.

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

#164

Post by [deleted] »

tehjoker wrote: post #126
hc-taway wrote: post #3

1) physical kill switch for camera (as in, it breaks the power or data connection to it, physically) or at least a physical cover. 2) physical kill switch for the microphone These are very much not "nerd" concerns, either. I see a lot of non-techies with stickers over their laptop cameras. [EDIT] teachers in particular spread the "put a sticker over the camera" practice, in my experience, both before and during the p…

These items are so trivial and so obviously cause consumers angst by being missing that I can only presume the near universal lack of them is an intentional ploy to train people to be used to being on camera so that various additional invasive techno-gadgets can be introduced over time. A "market" would have produced "choice" but we have to stick with tape. It was extremely obvious what they were doing when Google Gl…

[deleted]

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

#165

Post by em-bee »

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…

a work desktop at home requires that i have a lockable office, so i can protect the desktop from small kids. a laptop i can close and put away in a safe place when i am not using it.

sometimes i need to work in another room so i can watch the kids. sometimes i need to go to the office too.

for all these a portable device is needed. i still can use a laptop with an external monitor and keyboard. but i can't carry a desktop around.

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

#166

Post by fomine3 »

mxz3000 wrote: post #153
olyjohn wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

It's the future, but with latency.

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

#167

Post by WalterBright »

filleduchaos wrote: post #158
WalterBright wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 accomplis…

Because it seems every day I read about some software hack draining away all the information on a "secure" computer. "Secure" software is a fantasy. Hardware switches are secure.

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

#168

Post by [deleted] »

filleduchaos wrote: post #160
WalterBright wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#169

Post by WalterBright »

filleduchaos wrote: post #160
WalterBright wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How people bond with their friends is by sharing confidences which builds trust between them.

They are not confidences if saying them publicly won't come back and bite you.

> everybody

I didn't say everybody, you don't need to turn it into an absolute to make your point.

I heard about an entertainer for kids who had a radio show back in the day. At the end of one session, he thought the mike had been turned off. But it was still hot, and he groused to the studio "That ought to hold the little bastards for a while."

Career ending.

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

#170

Post by neogodless »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #163
neogodless wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

32" monitor? You know you can get a 43" 4k TV that is half-decent for a monitor for 200-300$? And 8ks are coming... 2000$ for a 65" 8k, but of course the HDMI port support is glacial and grossly overpriced. But a curved 8k 65" for high-dpi will be my next big desktop build.

At the time it was a $400+ monitor refurbished for $170, quite a few years ago. It's only 75hz and after a concussion I'm migrating to all high refresh. So those TVs may not work depending on refresh rate. I find 27" QHD on my desk to be a great size. My eyesight doesn't really benefit significantly from higher resolutions.
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