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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#621

Post by pdimitar »

slantyyz wrote: post #547
pdimitar wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so very tempted by this laptop but there's one requirement I will never forego -- the backlit keyboard. If they make a second iteration of that model with a backlit keyboard I'll run to the nearest store and I WILL JUST BUY IT right there and then.

Serious question - can someone explain the appeal of the backlit keyboards? I notice it's a big deal whether you're a Mac or PC fan, but I generally don't understand it. Is it for people who can't touch type without looking at the keyboard? Admittedly, my desktop keyboard is backlit (I had to buy a gaming keyboard to get the macro keys I wanted), but the only purpose of the backlight for me is to know which of the fo…

As others have said, it helps quickly orientate yourself before you start typing. It's hard to explain rationally but having that makes me much more productive.

I've been practicing by my work (as a programmer) and actively learning it aside -- typing without looking, and I am damn good at it.

There are however different use cases. Sometimes I have long reading sessions. Suddenly I decide the story is too big and want to stop reading it. Or I try to find a keyword in it. Or a hundred more things.

If I am to use programming terms, it reduces your bootstrap time when you want to use the keyboard after a period of inactivity.

...That, plus the fact that most are gorgeous and simply very nice to look at. There are definitely aesthetical factors as well, won't deny the facts. So it's 50% subjective, no doubt.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#622

Post by lmm »

ChristianBundy wrote: post #570
lmm wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matter of opinion. I've seen better OpenGL performance on Linux on the same hardware, for example, and better filesystem performance too. (I'd also be much less productive without the customizability of Linux window management, but that's getting into more subjective territory).

On Apple hardware? Which?

It was a work-issued Macbook, can't really give you anything more specific than that.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#623

Post by debaserab2 »

debaserab2 wrote: post #592
miahi wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The html part only is 25KB; you got 13k because you had everything cached from previous sessions.

You're right, however, a full page load with caching disabled was 747k. Heavy, but nowhere near 100mb. Where's the source on that?

Wow, ok - go ahead and down vote me on that without commenting. I was genuinely curious if there was some part of their site that actually was 100mb (it sounds extremely crazy but sadly feasible).

Re: We Need a Better PC

#624

Post by jolux »

hguant wrote: post #169
jordanpg wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these things are considered features of homebrew, not bugs.

Nonsense. Absolute rubbish. Being broken is a feature? Changing /usr/local instead of being sane? Leaving old versions of packages lying about instead of cleaning them up? Breaking when the Apple devs wonder if it would be fun to switch things up a bit under the hood without telling anyone? The one thing I can think of that's a "feature" is that brew compiles locally, instead of pulling down a binary, but even that h…

What exactly is wrong with writing to /usr/local? It seems to fall in line with the FHS standard, at least as far as I can tell.

Sometimes older versions of different packages may be dependencies of newer packages. This is a thing that happens with software. When it's not a problem, `brew cleanup` gets rid of old versions.

Most of the time brew does install binaries, they're called Bottles. When it can't find a binary, it compiles locally. Yes this is sometimes annoying but it's not a deal breaker, at least not for me.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Breaking when the Apple devs wonder if it would be fun to switch things up a bit under the hood without telling anyone." This has never happened to me or anyone I know and furthermore Brew is a Unix compliant tool and OS X is a SUS compliant operating system.

Sorry if I'm sounding harsh, it just sounds a little like you're a Linux user who doesn't or possibly hasn't ever used OS X. Brew is not a panacea but it's honestly pretty good. There's also MacPorts if you're used to more old-style tools and a couple other package managers as well. You can even use Nix on OS X.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#625

Post by redblacktree »

lmm wrote: post #471
christoph wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people use a laptop throughout the day like in our office - plugged into a large monitor, mouse, keyboard and put up on a desktop stand. You then have the flexibility to just get up and walk into a meeting with it or walk out at the end of the day with everything just as you left it and carry on working on the train should you need.

The Macbook isn't very usable in that space though, since they have no first-party docking station support.

I do it. I have four plugs to connect and disconnect once a day. (i.e. no dock) I don't really mind.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#626

Post by PeterisP »

lmm wrote: post #427
manyxcxi wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BULLSHIT I live in the command line and use a modern toolchain. Package management has no bearing on my development. mvn, npm, composer, gem, and pip all work just fine. Home brew gets you the OS packages and I've yet to run into an even remotely popular package not in a Homebrew repo somewhere. On top of all that- with Vagrant and (or even just) Virtualbox you have whatever flavor of Linux you want running on your d…

> I live in the command line and use a modern toolchain. Package management has no bearing on my development. mvn, npm, composer, gem, and pip all work just fine. Home brew gets you the OS packages and I've yet to run into an even remotely popular package not in a Homebrew repo somewhere. When you're building for a managed runtime it's fine. When you're building native code not so much.

I would say that the same does apply for native code as well.

Developing native code means writing code, reading code and documentation, and interacting with the build system / debugger. Those tasks need to happen directly on the developer's workstation, but not the actual building and execution/testing of that native code.

This is better done in an environment with known state, i.e. either an isolated local or remote VM that will have the environment set up as required for production, and likely multiple different, incompatible environments, or some external hardware for many use cases of native code. Best practices and a modern toolchain would imply things like reproducible builds which you can't really have if you're building and running C or C++ code directly with whatever setup and libraries each developer has on their own workstation, no matter if they're on linux, windows or mac.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#627

Post by marklyon »

chjohasbrouck wrote: post #285
habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

I have both, and I find the things that Macs have that everything else is missing just aren't articulated on a spec sheet. The display on the Macbook Pro Retina is just flawless. The colors, the anti-glare, and the picture quality from all angles, it's just really well done. The brushed aluminum chassis makes it very cool and lightweight, great to travel with and keep on your lap. Excellent battery life. It's just a…

The XPS13 may fit what you're looking for, if you want a PC. Amazing screen (touchscreen even). Solid, great build. Not hot and heavy. They even have a special one built for linux.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#628

Post by vacri »

natch wrote: post #616
vacri wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how you respond to concerns about not being able to modify the physical hardware with both "apple totally lets you do that!" and "some things in life you just can't do!" The second comment is more amusing, given you then compare Apple's laptop with a battery case , instead of other vendors' laptops , whmo frequently provide free service manuals with exploded diagrams showing exactly how to open the thing and g…

I don't recall mentioning a battery case. But maybe you're replying to someone else? >the funniest part was the assertion that Apple don't design for beauty Where did you see this "assertion"? I think you're reading something else into what I said.

> I don't recall mentioning a battery case

If you attempt to open a lithium battery, it may burst into flames.

Batteries come in cases, whether it's the shell around a single battery cell, or the plastic armature that holds several cells. If you really want to go down this pedantic road of "I didn't mention a case!", then you should have called it a cell.

> Where did you see this "assertion"?

"I think a lot of it comes as a side effect of the intrinsic functional nature of every detail."

Again, pedantry isn't going to get you anywhere. You were suggesting that Apple was only minorly interested in physical appearance, but were first-and-foremost designing for function. This flies in the face of what Apple (and Jobs) are famous for, and their actions as a company. Their attention to design is not the side-effect you paint it as.

As a clear example: if physical beauty was not their main goal and only functionality was, then "you're holding it wrong" would never have happened. Any radio designer with half a clue knows that human touch changes the tuning of an antenna. This event was an unmitigated disaster for them, both in the short term (Jobs insults his users) and in the long term (users are now trained to hide the beautiful hardware inside crappy plastic holders). It was definitely an event where form took precedence over attention-to-detail function.

> I think you're reading something else into what I said

Well, I did "read it on the internet"...

Re: We Need a Better PC

#629

Post by abrowne »

Aeolos wrote: post #500
mbrock wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, the touchpad is frankly awful compared to my MacBook's. I've almost considered disabling it, because I keep brushing against it with my palm causing wild cursor behavior and accidental button presses. It's difficult for me to control even when I do it intentionally. But I don't use the mouse much anyway (hence ratpoison). The HiDPI screen is pretty good, I talked about it in a sibling comment. Chromium under…

I don't if this is available on Ubuntu, but recent versions of libinput are way nicer than the old synaptics touchpad driver.

Yes, for 15.10 (and 16.04) install xserver-xorg-input-libinput, then edit the config files:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/649103/proper-touchpad-thumb-...

Re: We Need a Better PC

#630

Post by tracker1 »

randallsquared wrote: post #602
tracker1 wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside, ticks me off to no end that Ubuntu removed the reverse-scrolling option (at least with a desktop) ... On windows, I use an autohotkey script to reverse the scrolling, and for media shortcuts (non-media kb). Ubuntu is the odd one out there for me now.

If you mean "natural scrolling", you can do it at a lower level in linux by remapping the "buttons" with xmodmap. Gnome ignores the system setting for this (or used to, at least; I don't use any Gnome stuff now, so maybe they've fixed it), but pretty much everything else in X will obey those settings.

Yeah, but it was a checkbox option in settings, and not something people trip over... they didn't need to remove it, at least they shouldn't, without another way to do it relatively easily.
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