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

contemporary-home-computing.org

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

#161

Post by quesera »

howaboutnope wrote: post #150
samatman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for video editing. I haven't hooked it up to a keyboard/mouse combo, or plugged it into a monitor, but it's quite capable of both of those things. I can tell you it's simply superior to a Wacom tablet for drawing, there I have a direct comparison. A PC/desktop will certainly exceed an iPad at some level: but now that the Pro model has an M1, it's unclear at what l…

> So, I talked to Steve on the phone [about adding a standard pen and penholder]. I said, “Look Steve. You know, you’ve made something that is perfect for 2-year-olds and perfect for 92-year-olds. But everybody in-between learns to use tools.” -- Alan Kay Non-slave adults are the vanishing breed, the onslaught against general and self-determined computing is just one of the symptoms of that.

> Non-slave adults ...

Such a poor choice of words.

I loosely agree with your point, which I interpret to mean that generalized computing is endangered.

But it's endangered because the alternative experience is superior for most humans exercising their free choice.

It has nothing to do with slavery, or ignorance. This makes the problem much harder to solve.

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

#162

Post by closeparen »

ozim wrote: post #139
asperous wrote: post #18

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.…

Obviously software developers. If I would not be a software dev I would ditch laptop/computer and go with mobile phone alone. For day to day reading/banking/mailing all I need is there. I think I could go full mobile phone if I would have cloud server + cloud IDE because I can connect big screen to the phone with mouse and keyboard anyway. Only dev tools are not really accessible on Android/IOS. Having everything I n…

The cultural icon of a developer workspace these days is a Macbook Pro in a coffee shop.

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

#163

Post by mikewarot »

Right before the pandemic, I was shopping at Best Buy, and saw HP 32" monitors on sale, cheap. (The old 2K, not 4k)

Phoned home to check with the Misses, and she said no, get 2 of them, one for yourself, and one for sproutlet.

Having a nice big screen really helped during the quarantine after getting sick, and the time after.

It doesn't really matter what your "computer" is, be it an old Mac Pro tower, or an HP laptop, the Monitor, real Keyboard and Mouse are what make a desktop these days. The old beige box is optional now, the rest isn't.

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

#164

Post by musicale »

samatman wrote: post #68
rossdavidh wrote: post #50

My 15-year old daughter just recently got her first desktop. Why? Well, because instead of just consuming (which she does on her phone) or doing homework (chromebook), she wanted to do video editing, and also drawing using a Wacom tablet. She found that the non-desktop options were just not that great. Had it been a passing fancy, no doubt she would have done without the desktop, but it wasn't, so she got a tricked o…

A tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for video editing. I haven't hooked it up to a keyboard/mouse combo, or plugged it into a monitor, but it's quite capable of both of those things. I can tell you it's simply superior to a Wacom tablet for drawing, there I have a direct comparison. A PC/desktop will certainly exceed an iPad at some level: but now that the Pro model has an M1, it's unclear at what l…

I'm still a bit puzzled as to why FCP isn't available yet for the M1 iPad. It's certainly powerful enough.

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

#165

Post by musicale »

howaboutnope wrote: post #150
samatman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for video editing. I haven't hooked it up to a keyboard/mouse combo, or plugged it into a monitor, but it's quite capable of both of those things. I can tell you it's simply superior to a Wacom tablet for drawing, there I have a direct comparison. A PC/desktop will certainly exceed an iPad at some level: but now that the Pro model has an M1, it's unclear at what l…

> So, I talked to Steve on the phone [about adding a standard pen and penholder]. I said, “Look Steve. You know, you’ve made something that is perfect for 2-year-olds and perfect for 92-year-olds. But everybody in-between learns to use tools.” -- Alan Kay Non-slave adults are the vanishing breed, the onslaught against general and self-determined computing is just one of the symptoms of that.

> So, I talked to Steve on the phone [about adding a standard pen and penholder]. I said, “Look Steve. You know, you’ve made something that is perfect for 2-year-olds and perfect for 92-year-olds. But everybody in-between learns to use tools.” -- Alan Kay

Steve Jobs was right since most modern smartphones don't use styli. (Nothing against the Samsung S pen though.)

Alan Kay was right because the Apple Pencil is pretty great:

https://www.apple.com/apple-pencil/

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

#166

Post by username90 »

closeparen wrote: post #162
ozim wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously software developers. If I would not be a software dev I would ditch laptop/computer and go with mobile phone alone. For day to day reading/banking/mailing all I need is there. I think I could go full mobile phone if I would have cloud server + cloud IDE because I can connect big screen to the phone with mouse and keyboard anyway. Only dev tools are not really accessible on Android/IOS. Having everything I n…

The cultural icon of a developer workspace these days is a Macbook Pro in a coffee shop.

Of a web developer*

There are other programming jobs with different iconic setups.

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

#167

Post by ipaddr »

astrange wrote: post #156
ipaddr wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not a single person understands all of unix either but many can tell you how it works.

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

#168

Post by Keyframe »

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.

Ipad Pro, procreate, and if you really need to a paper-like sheet over it (various manufacturers).. it's 98% of what wacom experience is like (2% being the physical buttons). On the flip sode, taking your ipad pro out and drawing outside... A lot better than taking the portable wacom outside.

I have decades now (shit, I'm old) experience with these tyoes of devices in professional settings. There are two classes now, one with direct drawing over screen, the other indirect one. I have my brain and muscles trained for both, and I'd rather take the former than latter any day. It's more natural and in some cases necessary (hand-drawn animation is way slower by indirect method, if impossible).

Having said that, I'd only consider and compare three devices (there are more). Cintiq attached to a computer - fantastic experience and highly non portable and requires a lot of space. Allows for photoshop, which is still no 1, as well as pro 2D animation tools. Portable wacom/cintiq which is a pc in a fat tablet form.. not that great (heats up, battery, fat), but allows all wibdows tools you need.. and then there's ipad pro with its pencil. Procreate is fantastic and saves the show on the app front, apple pencil and screen surface is subpar experience to wacom nibs and surface (not cintiq one!!), but it takes like half an hour to get used to it and never give it a second thought. There are screen overlays which mimic wacom surface though, I just don't need it. Also, ipad pro has the advantage there of having less space between the tip of the pencil and the surface being shown (less of a gap between glass and drawing) and that amazing refresh rate is, well, amazing! I have "unlimited" budget for these things and my first tool to grab for drawing and painting is ipad pro. For animation and matte work (where you need different tools), it's cintiq on a windows machine (why not a mac is a different topic altogether).

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

#169

Post by nextaccountic »

mywittyname wrote: post #84
ohazi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engineers who do mechanical CAD work using a specialized input device like a SpaceMouse [1] or similar. [1] https://3dconnexion.com/uk/spacemouse/

SpaceMouse works just fine on laptops, it's just kind of pointless when your software is pushing 15fps because of the shitty graphics card. You can't get Quattro cards on laptops, as far as I know. So anyone using CAD software regularly is stuck using desktops.

You can use an external GPU on a laptop though.

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

#170

Post by ipaddr »

digitalsushi wrote: post #115
ipaddr wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's unfair to change the verb from use to build.

I didn't say how to build I asked how does it work. If someone knows how to use something they can explain how it works at least in their mind.
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