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

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

#151

Post by yellowapple »

handrous wrote: post #96
ecshafer wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is honestly an absurd proposition. A 13 inch screen Ipad pro with a keyboard and 2TB of memory is $2500. Video editing is something you want power, and a lot of screen real estate, and a good form factor. Even with the GPU shortage, you can buy an extremely powerful, capable, video editing desktop with two large 27" monitors for $1k. Even before you consider limitations in sandboxing, multi-application usage, an…

It depends on what you're doing and what your budget is. Shoot & edit on one device, plus an excellent drawing experience, is pretty compelling when you're talking about a device for a kid to learn on, and the main things it'll be used for are video & drawing. You don't need 2TB of built-in storage for that, either. Only way I can see that not being the option to beat, is if your goal is to learn the UI (not the conc…

> I need to know where you're buying monitors.

Amazon has Sceptre 27" 1080p monitors for less than $150 right now. The two 4K ones I'm using of the same size/brand were about $250 as of October.

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

#152

Post by _carbyau_ »

foobarian wrote: post #111
MarcScott wrote: post #98

I've just bought my first desktop in about 20 years. The main reason, the bloody clutter. I have two (work issued) laptops, one that runs Windows and one for NixOS, both with SSDs that are too small for me to dual boot effectively. Then there are my two external monitors, my mechanical keyboard and mouse. I need a keyboard and mouse switch as there are an inadequate number of USB ports on the laptops and I want to sh…

The biggest desk/workstation upgrade I have had in years was putting my monitor onto a wall-mounted arm. The desk space under the monitor magically opened up into a vast empty plain that I could then fill up with... more cables. But at least I can do more now :-)

Along the same lines, have somewhere to put your keyboard and mouse.

Bam! You now have a full normal desk to draw, paint, glue stuff, solder etc.

I live in a 2 bed apartment with a 3 year old. My desk is an Ikea Ivar shelf with the computer sitting on the highest shelf to keep it all away from my toddler...

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

#153

Post by yabones »

mkl95 wrote: 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.

The place desktops will always win is sustained performance. Sure, a $5000 Mac can run very fast in sprints, but as soon as it's loaded up and running at 100% CPU for more than a couple minutes it's going to start throttling. That's pretty much unavoidable for a mobile computer - there's only so much space to move air around. Processors are just fancy ways to convert electricity to heat when it comes down to it, and desktops have lots of surface area to dissipate that heat.

The only laptop I've ever owned that had good sustained performance was a Dell Precision workstation machine[1] which could run at quad core i7 full load at 3.8 GHz for hours thanks to its pair of massive internal blower fans.

[1] https://www.myfixguide.com/manual/wp-content/uploads/2014/05...

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

#154

Post by forinti »

mkl95 wrote: 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.

Upgrading a 10 yo computer (maxing RAM, swapping HD for SSD, adding a Graphics Card) is a lot cheaper than buying a basic new one and the result is a lot better.

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

#155

Post by nottorp »

bitwize wrote: post #142
system2 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So an M2 can beat a AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX or a dual CPU mobo tower with 128gb ram, also a PCI nvme? LOL right.

The M2 isn't out yet, so we don't know what it can beat. But core for core, Apple Silicon has the best performance by a wide margin with much lower power consumption than any x86 part (because while we weren't looking, RISC architecture really did change everything). Plus, its on-chip memory will equate, in a Mac Pro-like system, to gigabytes of L3 cache. Add on to that that Big Sur and later are specially optimized…

I think a lot of the hype is unwarranted with the M things and you will be able to match or exceed their performance for serious loads.

However... they're QUIET. So unless they manage to fuck up the desktops completely, i'll be getting one. Not with the laughable current 16G RAM though.

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

#156

Post by astrange »

ipaddr wrote: post #112
machello13 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever used an iPad? I get the feeling you don't really know how it actually works.

Unless you were part of the team designing and building them I'm not sure you know how an ipad works. Pop Quiz: How does an ipad work?

Not sure any single person who worked on it knows how it works either.

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

#157

Post by astrange »

smoldesu wrote: post #137
simonh wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with 64 bit software?

Arguably, a lot of the same things that are wrong with 32 bit software. If we're being pedantic, both of them should still be supported: but they aren't.

Actually, Win32 software is supported through CrossOver and Rosetta.

Just not i386 macOS, but x86-64 macOS came out in 2007, so you'd figure people would've been able to recompile since then.

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

#158

Post by astrange »

asdff wrote: post #59
munk-a wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I personally love the aesthetic of big whirring fans and blinking lights. If you offered me an M1 MacBook Pro but it would be buried in a 7 foot tall cupboard plastered in lights and fans that occasionally, randomly, sounded like a jet engine taking off... I would be in heaven.

Stick the macbook in a mini fridge and reap the cooling benefits

Not recommended in a humid environment. Maybe you could use those dry-aging bags.

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

#159

Post by eludwig »

rossdavidh wrote: post #146
eludwig wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I can tell you it's simply superior to a Wacom tablet for drawing IMO, yes & no. For certain types of work, an iPad Pro is amazing. For direct sketching, drawing, for sure. It's easily my favorite drawing table for these. For certain other types of work, for example: colorists work of filling large areas precisely within black lines (like comicbook coloring) or maneuvering around a huge document, a commercial grad…

She's doing storyboarding-type work, and we did check into the iPad option first before getting the Wacom (which I think might be Intuos). It did not measure up. Of course, the iPad does all kinds of other stuff, but I think that might be the problem. The Wacom is made for drawing, and that's about it, and thus it is very good at it, apparently.

>> The Wacom is made for drawing, and that's about it, and thus it is very good at it, apparently.

They truly are. One thing I might also mention is that in my experience, the wireless connectivity is less than great for Wacom tablets. Way too much lag. I recommend using a wired tablet if at all possible. It may be that this is old advice, but I couldn't deal with any lag whatsoever when using one for hours at a time and disabled the wireless mode of my Intuos 4 (yes, it's quite old, but still works fine)

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

#160

Post by fian »

duxup wrote: post #72
ofrzeta wrote: post #39

There's nothing better than a huge display with high resolution, keyboard and mouse. The computer might be in a separate chassis or a laptop or whatever but a huge display and a mouse are indispensable.

Heck in addition to my keyboard I've been thinking of building a board with a bunch of buttons just for firing off random things. API requests when testing and so forth ... for whatever reason a separate set of physical keys makes more sense in my head.

Could you use a USB or wireless numberpad, or do you have particular ergonomics in mind leading you down the "built it" path?

You'll get 15-18 buttons you could remap to trigger whatever events you want.

On the ergonomics front, I have long wanted to try out foot pedals/buttons for Shift or a few triple key combo shortcuts I regularly use in my IDE.

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