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Rebuilding the Computer Room

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Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#51

Post by egypturnash »

echoangle wrote: post #15
matheusmoreira wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smartphones are computers. There's no difference between what you can do in a "real" computer and what you can do on a smartphone. I wrote an entire programming language inside my Android phone with Termux. Perhaps the first language to be born inside a mobile phone. Any limitations on smartphones are either ergonomic or entirely artificial.

Technically true but practically you know what people mean when they say that, right? Do you think there’s a 3D artist out there that models and renders something in blender on a smartphone?

Blender started working on this about a year ago (https://code.blender.org/2025/07/beyond-mouse-keyboard/) but it appears to be on hold for now (https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/142346?_...).

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#52

Post by littlekey »

farmerbb wrote: post #32

> The smartphone tooked this further Normally I'd laugh when I see a silly typo like that, but nowadays it's refreshing to see a thoughtfully human-written article with little imperfections here and there.

Just wait until people clue into this and start prompting their models to introduce typos on purpose.

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#53

Post by HDBaseT »

agalarz wrote: post #3
uwagar wrote: post #2

gee this chap is young if imac g3 was his first computer. or i'm old.

It’s the latter, I’m afraid. I thought the same thing!

Not OP, but the iMac G3 was discontinued before I was even born!

Point being, I still wish we could return to the "computer room" era. I personally use a Desktop machine for most tasks (I also play games) so I imagine there is a decent overlap with gamers + general desktop PC users.

I kind of forget that a lot of people don't use a PC as their "primary" computing device. Every assessment, every game, every job application, every email sent and received has been consumed via a Desktop PC.

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#54

Post by matheusmoreira »

dTal wrote: post #43
matheusmoreira wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smartphones are computers. There's no difference between what you can do in a "real" computer and what you can do on a smartphone. I wrote an entire programming language inside my Android phone with Termux. Perhaps the first language to be born inside a mobile phone. Any limitations on smartphones are either ergonomic or entirely artificial.

If your language is indeed the first to be born in a mobile phone, after all this time, that would rather suggest that there is a difference. Ergonomic differences and artificial restrictions are still differences and restrictions.

Maybe the difference is nobody else was crazy enough to try.

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#55

Post by echoangle »

egypturnash wrote: post #51
echoangle wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically true but practically you know what people mean when they say that, right? Do you think there’s a 3D artist out there that models and renders something in blender on a smartphone?

Blender started working on this about a year ago ( https://code.blender.org/2025/07/beyond-mouse-keyboard/ ) but it appears to be on hold for now ( https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/142346?_... ).

That’s the point, technically you’ll be able to do it but it doesn’t really make sense

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#56

Post by linsomniac »

farmerbb wrote: post #32

> The smartphone tooked this further Normally I'd laugh when I see a silly typo like that, but nowadays it's refreshing to see a thoughtfully human-written article with little imperfections here and there.

That's why I have my LLM sprinkle some into "my" writing...

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#57

Post by 1970-01-01 »

>The laptop was the first device to test the walls of the computer room. Early laptops were limited compared to desktop computers – they were slower, battery-constrained, satellite devices to your main machine.

Smells like AI writing the research or at least someone that never saw the 80s. The portable PC era, e.g. Olivetti M18 and competition, were the short lived bridge between desktop and laptop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_computer

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#58

Post by fyver »

"I can focus on the things that actually deserve my attention – cooking a meal, reading a book, chatting with my friends, playing on the sofa. I’m less worried about the distraction of my digital devices, or the effect it has on my life."

Am I the only one who've heard about that "do not disturb" mode on phones?

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#59

Post by [deleted] »

kylemaxwell wrote: post #40
farmerbb wrote: post #32

> The smartphone tooked this further Normally I'd laugh when I see a silly typo like that, but nowadays it's refreshing to see a thoughtfully human-written article with little imperfections here and there.

Mild grammar issues and typos used to annoy me; now I appreciate them as indications of real human connection.

[deleted]

Re: Rebuilding the Computer Room

#60

Post by bitwize »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #20

> Laptops became more convenient for more types of task, and soon they were good enough to be your primary computing device. > My primary computer is now a desktop with a large monitor, ... I own several laptops: they're simply inferior computing devices due to their mediocre screen and pathetic keyboards. I'm laying on the couch while typing this on a laptop. That's what it's good for. My actual workstation has a 38…

> To me a laptop is a stamp-sized version of a desktop: it's asking Da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa on a stamp.

Da Vinci painted the actual Mona Lisa on a small panel of wood. Similarly, people do good work on laptops. A MacBook was pretty much the standard-issue piece of dev equipment at every job I've held over the past decade. Of course as "creature comforts" I wire them in to my full-sized mechanical keyboard and huge-ass monitor. But the computer itself is more than up to the task and can be used on the go in a pinch.

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