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The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

contemporary-home-computing.org

31–40 of 186 posts

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#31
post #27

My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.

My M1 Air renders and edits 4k as well as my ryzen 3700x with 64 gigs of ram and a samsung nvme. It loses out in encoding though. I cant get the same quality/size ratio with VideoToolBox as I can with NVENC.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#32
post #27

My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.

is it as portable as a macbook pro?

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#33
post #27

My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.

Mostly any pc you build with much less than $5k will beat a $5k MacBook pro

In my experience, it beats mid to high tier iMacs as well. Those things get clunky for no reason.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#34
post #13

The home computer has been replaced with the iPhone. What boggles my mind is that the industry accepts Apple's restrictions on what kind of computing can happen, how their software can be distributed, and how their gross/margins are taxed. These devices have done a perverse thing to our field. Consumers love them, but fuck are they awful for freedom, business, and small time success. We used to build platforms in the…

Turns out the PC was an accident of history. Not an endpoint like some of us saw it, but simply an unfortunate stepping stone to the ultimate goal of making a really smart toaster. The end goal was never really to empower people, it was just to create a new market for rent-seeking via lock-in on a shiny new black box. No repairs allowed. No modding allowed. And you can go fuck yourself if you want the source code for…

> Turns out the PC was an accident of history

> The end goal was never really to empower people

whose end goal would that have even been?

you're talking like history possesses some sort of inherent narrative, instead of just being a bunch of people doing shit.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#35

For the average person this might be kind true, however I can think of at least three places where desktop computers are very much cultural and symbolic: * “Gamers” or other enthusiasts with their battlestations [1] * Finace workstations with many monitors and Bloomberg terminals [2] * Potentially musician workstations as well [3] Any other niche ideas? [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ [2] https://images.…

Not really a workstation, but seems like folks can take their homelabs pretty seriously too.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#36
post #9

I’m 36 right now and have always made sure to have a desktop computer with accounts for each family member and it’s used all the time. I agree it’s a feature that’s disappearing, but if anything it’s because people are getting more personal computers, like a laptop or modern smart phone, than ever before.

IMO this is an underrated setup. Laptops are nice, but having an 'official', stationary, desktop computer builds up associations and mindsets that help with whatever it is you do on it. I didn't have a desktop until I was 26 and it was like going from studying in random chairs and tables to having a proper desk.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#37
post #27

My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.

Mostly any pc you build with much less than $5k will beat a $5k MacBook pro

When the M2 Mac Pro drops, the tables will turn: no PC will even nearly match it.

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#38
post #27

My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.

is it as portable as a macbook pro?

Do you really think they wouldn't acknowledge the upsides of a laptop? Why is that relevant to raw flops/dollar?

Re: The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)

#40

For the average person this might be kind true, however I can think of at least three places where desktop computers are very much cultural and symbolic: * “Gamers” or other enthusiasts with their battlestations [1] * Finace workstations with many monitors and Bloomberg terminals [2] * Potentially musician workstations as well [3] Any other niche ideas? [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ [2] https://images.…

All of those musician's workstations have the actual computer hidden somewhere out of sight. There's a monitor or two, a computer keyboard lying around(all wireless, it looks like?), but all those desks are dominated by musical keyboards, mixer boards, and speakers. Sometimes there's a laptop sitting on it. All the cables are hidden, out of the way.

Take away the monitors and the computer keyboard, substitute a couple of multi-track reel-to-reel tape decks, and it looks exactly like what I'd see when I'd visit my dad at his audio engineer job in the 1970s.

The computer itself is just an appliance, stick it under the desk next to the mini-fridge. Maximize the available surface used for getting the work done; as long as the computer's got enough airflow to not overheat when you push it hard, who cares where it is?

Well, gamers care I guess, they all have those crazy light-up cases with clear sides to show off how much they spent on their custom-built rig. The computer's become an object of desire there.

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