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VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

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Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#201

Post by cm2187 »

milkthefat wrote: post #192
cm2187 wrote: post #172

It is great that it has an RJ45 port, something that almost disappeared from every other model of laptop. Unfortunately my experience with the movable plastic thing they use is that it is not durable (it was on the original z series from before the reboot). The plastic bracket bends and/or goes away and the port becomes pretty much unusable.

The Sony z series RJ45 hinge was just a bad design. Having used other brands that have this style port specifically the Dell latitude 7490 they function much better. Dell will likely continue to have a laptops with dedicated rj45 ports for a long time at least on business models.

How long have you used it? And do you use the laptop on your lap or static on a table?

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#203

Post by pnut »

Tharkun wrote: post #185
znpy wrote: post #179

Its just moronic how laptop companies are rushing to make smaller laptops at the cost of basically everything. A ThinkPad-X220-sized laptop would still be absolutely acceptable both in size and weight, and could have all (or at least, most of) the ports that one could need. And swappable battery, keyboard, ram, disk etc.

I don't understand the appeal of anorexic laptops. Sacrificing repairability, cooling, features, and connectivity. All so it can be thinner and lighter? What's the use case for that? Are there really millions of people who walk around with a laptop cradled in their arms every day? Surely these laptops spend the majority of their active time either on a desk or in a lap? Have desks become so flimsy that they can no lo…

I think the appeal is that people intuitively understand that computers having a physical form at all is not required - that ultimately, computational ability will be integrated into the essence of every object, and lugging around a stupid, immediately-obsolescent device represents the failures and limitations of current technology more than the potential of computation.

That's why they spend extra money on smaller computers, because they represent the next step towards the ultimate elimination of physical computers, which is what people want.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#204

Post by yyyk »

y4mi wrote: post #200
yyyk wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have 4K equipment with a VGA port. But does it actually do 4K when using VGA or does it just downscale? I haven't ever seen any VGA cable which can go above 2048×1536, and that's also the maximum wiki mentions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector#Cable_quality

it upscales and its refresh rate is quite limited (i think to 25fps). we're talking about the presence of the connector, which let people actually use these screens - even when its not with the full resolution

Ah, so it 'pays' with a low refresh rate. That makes sense.

That said, my point was that 4K computer monitors are rare (despite some communities of enthusiasts), and nearly everything currently in use has a VGA port.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#205

Post by as1mov »

ghaff wrote: post #194
as1mov wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found VGA on literally on the TV's and monitors I've come across until now, regardless of which end of the price spectrum they are on. Plus these ports are durable too, you might get some glitchy tinted picture due to dust/bent pins, but it's better than nothing. Just last week, my team had to attend a meeting where our manager was going to project a presentation on a TV, sadly the HDMI port of the TV was not wo…

It's slowly changing. The last 2 or 3 conferences I was at had HDMI which I could plug directly into my MacBook Pro. But I still always carry a VGA dongle around as well.

Most of my colleagues who have the newer Macbooks (the one's which only have USB-C) do carry the USB-C->HDMI dongles, but they seem to break pretty often or worse, people outright steal them.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#206

Post by jpindar »

yyyk wrote: post #130
jpindar wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What type of problems do you have using a virtual com port? Timing?

Some old UPSs and industrial machinary use RS232 connections. This can be solved by other means (e.g. USB to RS232 adapters), but virtual com ports are not helpful there.

I use virtual comports (with an FTDI adapter) every day to control industrial instrumentation, and I'm honestly curious to know specifically why they are not helpful in your case, so I can be prepared in case any of my clients experience the same issues.

Does your equipment require the higher voltage levels (I don't remember the last time I saw any that required the full 12V), or do you need all the handshaking lines, or is it a timing or latency issue?

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#207

Post by owenversteeg »

joezydeco wrote: post #97
owenversteeg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what.…

it's a real hacker's port, dammit! Too young to remember the PC parallel port? That was the hacker port.

Hah, how could anyone forget them? lp0 on fire and daisy chained dongles (back when dongles were dongles), those were the days :)

That said, I think the parallel port died out not too long ago. I remember the serial port went first (2003?), then a few years later (2005?) the parallel port went, which caused a number of people to think their parallel ports were serial ports. I know nearly anything with XP had both, and most things with Vista had neither, though; they both did die pretty fast.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#208

Post by patrick5415 »

jfoster wrote: post #139
patrick5415 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m glad they haven’t. That ginormous trackpad is a huge turnoff to me.

It's the one thing that makes me think I have to stick to a MacBook. All the small touchpads are too fiddly for my liking. Does it turn you off because you feel that you would touch it whilst typing, or is it something else?

I’ve used one on other people’s macbooks. I think my objection is mostly aesthetic. It just seems so gaudy and excessive or something along those lines.

Re: VAIO announces tiny laptop with tons of ports

#209

Post by harperlee »

ghaff wrote: post #190
harperlee wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not moronic, it’s just not for you. The moronic thing is to kill bigger laptop lines. But I travel a lot and can’t use work’s laptop for my things, so I asolutely need something below 1kg to not kill my back with 2 heavy laptops, I don’t mind 12”, I’d like to also draw in it with a stylus, and I can’t use an ipad for offline programming... so the convergence of laptops to tablets is something I like.

Yes. I definitely prefer to travel with a ~2# and Was seriously thinking of getting a new Apple MacBook if they refreshed it but that's no longer an option. I'm still waiting for the convergence to properly happen. One of my biggest issues is that none of the tablet/keyboard combos work nearly as well as a laptop for grabbing and banging away on my lap as is common at conferences.

I have the first generation (2015) of macbook 12 and while is not very powerful it is enough for programming (jvm, idea, vagrant) and standard browser/office usage. Seeing that I will need to replace it soon and that a macbook is no longer an option, I think a surface pro 7 will be the replacement. The point you mention re. lap usage, though, is my main concern.
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