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Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

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Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#41

Post by semi-extrinsic »

y2bd wrote: post #36
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pen: Jinhao X750 ($10) is a no-brainer. Or the Platinum Carbon desk pen ($12) if you like really thin lines. Notebooks: Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm1917, or equivalent quality. Should be around $15 depending on size. Moleskines are no-go (ink bleeds through page) Ink: Private Reserve is a nice starting point. I am particularly fond of their foam green. $11 for a 66ml bottle. Shop: I really like Goulet Pens. Goo…

I'd generally recommend the Pilot Metropolitan over the X750, I feel as if the Metro is a "surer bet" when it comes to QA, and it's only around five bucks more. Plus the Metro comes in fine and medium nibs so you have a bit more choice there. Source: I have $100+ pens but I'm using a Metropolitan literally right now.

Interesting. My X750 sees quite randomly varying usage, and I really like how it's easy to "hard start" it after a couple weeks of non-usage. Is the Metropolitan similar?

Edit: after reading some reviews the Metropolitan is now on my buy list. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#42

Post by lelandbatey »

icpmacdo wrote: post #30

Can I get the Hacker News recommendation on the best affordable pens and notebooks?

Depends on what you want, as there's a lot of options. However, I will share the pens and paper of various kinds I like:

    pens:
        [0] Pilot Razer Point (Black, very fine point)
        [1] Uni-Ball Stick Micro Point (Blue, ball-point but with fluid ink)
        [2] BIC Cristal Ballpoint (Black, extremely cheap)

    Paper:
        [3] TOPS The Legal Pad (white, standard us size, wide ruled)
        [4] Staedtler Engineers Notepaper (lightly gridded)
        [5] Moleskine Notebooks (Large size, hardcover, gridlines)
[0] - http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Razor-Point-Marker-Stick/dp/B000...

[1] - http://www.amazon.com/uni-ball-Stick-Micro-Roller-60151/dp/B...

[2] - http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Cristal-Ballpoint-Pen-Medium/dp/B0...

[3] - http://www.amazon.com/Legal-Inches-Perforated-White-Sheets/d...

[4] - http://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Translucent-Bond-Pads-100/dp...

[5] - http://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Notebook-Squared-Not...

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#43

Post by semi-extrinsic »

icpmacdo wrote: post #37
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pen: Jinhao X750 ($10) is a no-brainer. Or the Platinum Carbon desk pen ($12) if you like really thin lines. Notebooks: Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm1917, or equivalent quality. Should be around $15 depending on size. Moleskines are no-go (ink bleeds through page) Ink: Private Reserve is a nice starting point. I am particularly fond of their foam green. $11 for a 66ml bottle. Shop: I really like Goulet Pens. Goo…

I appreciate the reply, I have had a few Moleskines but the pages seemed relatively thin, is that your reason for them being a no go?

Updated to say the ink bleeds through. I use a Moleskine, but only with a 3B pencil.

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#44

Post by wwweston »

Animats wrote: post #28

"He’s built a computer with almost zero latency—when you do something, the computer reacts instantly. Here, Bathiche has solved that infuriating problem where you write or draw on a screen, and the ink is always a half-second behind your finger." So few people get that. Alan Kay once wrote in the 1970s that it was as unacceptable for there to be a delay between user action and response on a computer as it was unaccep…

http://lowendmac.com/2006/vintage-macs-with-system-6-run-cir...

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#45

Post by Osmium »

Animats wrote: post #28

"He’s built a computer with almost zero latency—when you do something, the computer reacts instantly. Here, Bathiche has solved that infuriating problem where you write or draw on a screen, and the ink is always a half-second behind your finger." So few people get that. Alan Kay once wrote in the 1970s that it was as unacceptable for there to be a delay between user action and response on a computer as it was unaccep…

> Especially on phones. When you click or touch something, something should happen right now, even if more will happen later.

Interestingly, Apple are really pushing this now. They've just demonstrated new predictive tech to get response time down to ~ 30 ms from ~ 60 ms on iOS devices (if I remember correctly, this is based on a publicly available WWDC talk).

That said, 30 ms is still far too much. Microsoft made a good demo showing just how noticeable 30 ms of lag is compared to none at all (linked on this page by sosuke). But it really just goes to show how poor this current generation of capacitive touch-based devices is. And Apple's software-based approach, though it helps, is not sufficient without new hardware too...

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#46

Post by frandroid »

melling wrote: post #17
frandroid wrote: post #5

How many tens of millions of dollars has Microsoft sunk in Surface, tablets and other touch technologies, only to have Apple eat their lunch? How many billions sunk in MSR every year yielding no commercial products? Microsoft has always needed to get their product vision from somewhere else, and for all of the hoopla about Nadella and open sourcing everything, that core fact about Microsoft hasn't changed. It's reall…

I'm a bit of an Apple fan, but let's be honest, Apple isn't eating Microsoft's lunch. Apple has 18% mobile market share, and it seems that they've broken into the double-digits in desktop share: http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/07/mac-achieves-highest-u-s-pc...

I'm talking about how Apple obliterated Microsoft in the tablet and smartphone markets, which Microsoft had several years of headway in.

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#47

Post by frandroid »

ethanbond wrote: post #8
frandroid wrote: post #5

How many tens of millions of dollars has Microsoft sunk in Surface, tablets and other touch technologies, only to have Apple eat their lunch? How many billions sunk in MSR every year yielding no commercial products? Microsoft has always needed to get their product vision from somewhere else, and for all of the hoopla about Nadella and open sourcing everything, that core fact about Microsoft hasn't changed. It's reall…

Microsoft seems to be perfectly successful to me, no? R&D, by virtue of being R&D, rarely makes it to the market in a recognizable form. My guess is that the lessons learned there certainly have been applied to their real profit centers.

> it's not like like don't succeed on those products

I acknowledged that they are successful. But they aren't successful in creating new markets; they succeed in invading existing ones.

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#49

Post by flarg »

icpmacdo wrote: post #30

Can I get the Hacker News recommendation on the best affordable pens and notebooks?

Pilot G-Tec-C4 Rollerball Pen is affordable and well regarded with a practical narrow stroke. Have used these for many years. Silvine pocket notebooks are affordable and well made.

Re: Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback

#50

Post by frandroid »

Someone1234 wrote: post #15
ethanbond wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft seems to be perfectly successful to me, no? R&D, by virtue of being R&D, rarely makes it to the market in a recognizable form. My guess is that the lessons learned there certainly have been applied to their real profit centers.

Plus their massive patent portfolio has definitely paid off in various ways. PS - I don't personally like software patents, but you cannot deny they make money for research-based organisations.

The patent portfolio is a good point, I'll concede that.
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