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I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

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Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#381

Post by tuatoru »

bleepblorp wrote: post #105
WalterBright wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. I think I went through every keyboard on Amazon and found only one. If you use a USB wireless keyboard, well, there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop. It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on…

I don't see a lack of USB ports as a complete dealbreaker for using a laptop. USB hubs work fine to attach large numbers of lower-speed USB devices to a laptop.

I have a few USB devices (a colour calibrator springs to mind right now) that insist on being in a directly attached USB port, and won't work even with a powered hub, or, in the case of my Surface laptop, a dock.

It's a dealbreaker for me.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#382

Post by samatman »

013a wrote: post #223
geocrasher wrote: post #5

From the article: "What worries me as much as the end of general-purpose computing for the masses is that so few seem to understand that it is ending." Correction: Has Ended. The vast majority of people using computers has shifted to phones and tablets. I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. Most people are not content creators, they…

> I have a friend who's a millenial who barely knows how to use his desktop PC (It's a Mac) but is fluent on his iPad/iPhone. This worries me not because of any open computing concerns, but because of how FUNDAMENTAL general purpose computers are to nearly every decent paying professional job out there. All of them. No one daily drives Excel or Salesforce One or edits video or codes websites or balances accounts in Q…

I think you're underestimating the convergence of tablets and PCs here.

I edit 4k video on my iPad, edit pictures, memes, do a bit of drawing with Procreate. I'm by no means professional at any of these things, but it isn't the tools holding me back.

I don't see any reason not to use Excel or Numbers or what have you on an iPad with the keyboard. I'm sure it would work fine.

I know a couple professional music producers who do the bulk of their work on a tablet now.

What hasn't made it to tablets is coding environments. Codea and Swift Playgrounds feel like toys to me.

But it's only a matter of time. I think "decades, if it ever happens" is entirely too pessimistic, it's more "now, if you want it", for most of those things.

And it's definitely not "literally no one". It's more people than you think.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#383

Post by Aaargh20318 »

tuatoru wrote: post #378
WalterBright wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. I think I went through every keyboard on Amazon and found only one. If you use a USB wireless keyboard, well, there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop. It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on…

> It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. not only is that hard, it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five. Or just give up until you re-pair it. Maybe one of the next 20 that I try... > How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years. I have always thought, since Digital Research GEM, that the "desktop" in…

> it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five

Never had any issue like that with my full-size Apple Magic Keyboard. It Just Works™

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#384

Post by samatman »

zepto wrote: post #254
coddle-hark wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people are not content creators, they are consumers. I don’t think this is true at all, everybody that has a Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / TikTok account is a content creator. There’s a reason the term “browsing the web” has died out, it’s not about passive consumption anymore. Writing code is just about the only thing you can’t do on an iPad. And while I think we can all agree on HN that having a…

You can totally write code on an iPad. There are plenty of JavaScript environments, not to mention Pythonista. Swift playgrounds will actually run quite large codebases with a little fiddling around. You can trivially get a robust Linux command line with Blink and a free tier Google compute instance. I agree there is no XCode.

The iPad coding experience is decidedly sub-par, and has a long ways to go.

This is in contrast to almost anything else you might care to do on a computer, where the iPad equivalent ranges from "basically fine" to "actually better".

But people's perceptions are lagging a few years behind where the platform is at. That's normal.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#385

Post by sigstoat »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #372
sigstoat wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tripplite and apc will happily sell you UPSes that will use external battery packs, which is the only way you’re going to get an hour. until you switch to external batteries, they keep increasing the inverter size, which is unnecessary for your use case. you could also just buy chargers, batteries and inverters separately and wire them together.

I'll go look again, but last I did I didn't find much [affordable]. I do have an (no longer in production?) APC Smart UPS which can be extended with an external battery, alas vastly overpriced. Of note, if various online resources are to be believed, you can't just hack and extend the battery capacity for longer run-times as they likely aren't rated for the corresponding higher thermal load.

> alas vastly overpriced.

they're not cheap, but i've bought cheaper and that stuff costs even more in the end.

power electronics that are safe and reliable costs.

> you can't just hack and extend the battery capacity for longer run-times as they likely aren't rated for the corresponding higher thermal load.

thermal load... of batteries?

i'd expect you'd confuse the microcontroller in the UPS. more batteries will require longer to bring up to voltage than it expects, which implies something is wrong. further all of the time remaining estimations it presents will be wrong.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#386

Post by stubish »

I recently replaced the laptop that 80 year old relatives where using with a "desktop". It is just a small NUC box, 24" monitor, webcam, wireless mouse & keyboard. Cheaper than a laptop of similar power. And they love it. Because our eyes and hands worsen with age, and mobile computing something for younger people. Maybe this is me in the future, or maybe I'll be using voice control and a bit TV. But for all of us living to an old enough age, small devices will become a problem.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#387

Post by giardini »

WalterBright wrote: post #258
EdPF wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You understand Murphy's law, and other laws of the universe well!

Not only do I control the weather, but the stock market, too. If I buy a stock, it goes down. If I sell it, it goes up. Every time. Fortunately, after about 6 weeks or so, the market forgets I did a transaction, and things start moving my way. I'm forced to be a long term investor.

waiterbright says>" If I buy a stock, it goes down. If I sell it, it goes up."?

Vijay, is that you?

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#388

Post by tuatoru »

WalterBright wrote: post #147
nemoniac wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 12. My desktop doesn't have a microphone or camera, so they cannot be surreptitiously turned on remotely. Your points are all good but this one gave me pause for thought. We're all working from home and using our microphones and cameras more than ever. I'm using my regular laptop with plug-in microphone and webcam. Are laptop makers thinking in terms of upping the specs on the microphone and webcams in their upcomi…

What they need to add is a physical electric switch to turn off the cam/mike. In any case, because of all my remote collaboration these days, I bought a decent mike on a boom to use, and my colleagues say it is much better. Still have to find a decent camera.

The Logitech C920/C922/C930 series with autofocus are OK for personal or small group use. Of the consumer USB webcams, I haven't found any other makers' to be as good. Only 1080p 30Hz, but any more is demanding too much of your recipients' bandwidth and hardware in the general case.

Advice from my wife, a photographer:

- if you're still having picture problems (after setting the camera's anti-flicker to 50Hz/60Hz as appropriate), put diffuse illumination on your face e.g. a full-screen browser window on http://blank.org; or for more control--colour temperature as well as brightness--a cheap LED panel and desktop tripod (from a photo supplies shop).

- turn off any "smoothing" or "beauty"features in the cam's software.

- likewise, don't use any fake background features. Pin up a plain bedsheet behind yourself if you think your place is too messy to be the background.

Anyway, once there is a picture of any kind, in my experience most people care more about the audio being unclear or laggy, so you're well ahead.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#389

Post by tehjoker »

rbecker wrote: post #54
jay_kyburz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think "the masses" were ever interested in general-purpose computing. For them it never started. For people who actually care, I think the concerns are overblown and we'll always have access to a machine that can run open software. And yes sure, we might not be able to pay consumer prices for them, but they are not going anywhere. And sure, we might elect a fascist government which will simply ban the technol…

No self-respecting author would write "We'll always have access to typewriters without built-in censorship. Sure, we might not be able to pay consumer prices for them, but they are not going anywhere." What makes you so sure the restrictions will stop somewhere you're comfortable with? What happens when unlocked machines are only available to "enterprise" (not unlike a certain Windows version), and you have to agree…

If unrestricted machines are restricted only to people with money, it perpetuates our unjust society that creates a prison-like, behavioral nudge, policed, and restricted experience for the poor and a free democratic state for the rich. This is just another manifestation of the economy producing this result via individual consumer choice that manages to simultaneously enrich everyone at the top.

The way to stop this is through legislation and protest, but it's a battle because the state likes locked down computers too.

Re: I am seriously considering going back to desktop computers

#390

Post by X6S1x6Okd1st »

XCSme wrote: post #353
titzer wrote: post #248

What's crazy to me is how insanely overspec'd mobile devices are for what they deliver. If you went back in time and told 1999 me the following: I'll give you a computer with the following: * 256GB of solid-state storage * 6 CPUs @ 3+GHz * 8GB of RAM * Weighs only 200 grams * Battery-powered, lasts 5+ hours * 1440 x 3168 resolution display I would have been absolutely gobsmacked. Such a machine absolutely outclasses…

For me it's a mystery how phone specs are so good, but their performance is so bad. Always freezing, crashing, long load times, etc. I have an old PSP (PlayStation Portable) and whenever I turn it on I'm amazed at how fast and lag-free it is. This probably proves that the problem is most likely the software, not the hardware.

One of the golden things about gaming consoles is that software is typically written with the exact hardware in mind and there are pretty big costs on both sides of the vendor/buyer relationship.

You have the opportunity to be able to know exactly how all of your customers will run it and you have a good chance of having the extra $ to actually give a damn about performance.

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