[HN Gopher] The home computer as a cultural object is physically...
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The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing
(2007)
Author : cfcfcf
Score : 122 points
Date : 2021-06-14 07:00 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (contemporary-home-computing.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (contemporary-home-computing.org)
| RocketOne wrote:
| I just entered the time space continuum and emerged in Geocities.
| coldacid wrote:
| Between this and another post containing hundreds of 88x31
| buttons, tell me about it!
| MarcScott wrote:
| I've just bought my first desktop in about 20 years. The main
| reason, the bloody clutter.
|
| I have two (work issued) laptops, one that runs Windows and one
| for NixOS, both with SSDs that are too small for me to dual boot
| effectively. Then there are my two external monitors, my
| mechanical keyboard and mouse. I need a keyboard and mouse switch
| as there are an inadequate number of USB ports on the laptops and
| I want to share peripherals, USB-C hubs on the laptops to get
| video out to more than one monitor and also provide power
| simultaneously and read/write SD cards.
|
| My desk is an absolute cluttered mess.
|
| Minimalist laptops/tablets just end up producing more clutter for
| me, are hard if not impossible to upgrade, and tend to suffer
| from planned obsolescence. Now I don't need to travel to work
| every day, I'm happy to have a desktop at home and then use a co-
| working space with a Raspberry Pi when I do need to go into the
| office.
| foobarian wrote:
| The biggest desk/workstation upgrade I have had in years was
| putting my monitor onto a wall-mounted arm. The desk space
| under the monitor magically opened up into a vast empty plain
| that I could then fill up with... more cables. But at least I
| can do more now :-)
| duxup wrote:
| I remember being able to borrow the big old Apple II from school
| (my mom was a teacher so in the summer I could borrow them for a
| time... otherwise they just sat dormant in school).
|
| It sat on the kitchen counter like an appliance / shrine.
| sunstone wrote:
| My home computer(NUC/LinuxMint) has melded with my dumb TV.
| Working very nicely so far.
| dlevine wrote:
| I recently rebuilt my gaming PC with a Ryzen 5000-series.
| Surprisingly, it has become my main work PC, and I haven't used
| it much for gaming. It's faster than my i9 Macbook pro, and
| another benefit is that I can only work when I'm sitting at my
| desk. With a laptop, I can do work pretty much anywhere. Which is
| a double-edged sword.
| masswerk wrote:
| Regarding the physical presence of a small computer, something I
| actually miss is people hitting the monitor, when in despair,
| rather then the true culprit (as in "the box"). - There's
| actually some kind of magic in this misdirection.
|
| With flat screens, this isn't a thing anymore. (Also, the kind of
| despair that would urge someone to attack the machine, has become
| increasingly more abstract, as has the underlying architecture
| causing the despair. What would you do? Take a plane to hit "the
| cloud"?)
| baud147258 wrote:
| I mostly hit the keyboard. And curse (loudly at home, under my
| breath in the office)
| amerine wrote:
| I'm 36 right now and have always made sure to have a desktop
| computer with accounts for each family member and it's used all
| the time.
|
| I agree it's a feature that's disappearing, but if anything it's
| because people are getting more personal computers, like a laptop
| or modern smart phone, than ever before.
| swiley wrote:
| Smartphones are not personal computers. They should be but they
| definitely are not.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| IMO this is an underrated setup. Laptops are nice, but having
| an 'official', stationary, desktop computer builds up
| associations and mindsets that help with whatever it is you do
| on it. I didn't have a desktop until I was 26 and it was like
| going from studying in random chairs and tables to having a
| proper desk.
| ghaff wrote:
| I have about a 6 year old iMac and MacBook Pro. I'm guessing,
| depending on specs, when I upgrade, it will be to just (the
| rumored) 14" Apple Silicon MacBook Pro.
| [deleted]
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| I have more "home computers" now than ever before. It all started
| when I figured out you can network boot the Raspberry Pi. Now I
| have one connected to a cheap monitor in nearly every room in the
| house. Because you can switch what OS they boot into just by
| renaming a symlink on the server, sometimes they play music,
| sometimes they show movies, sometimes they show live TV,
| sometimes they browse the web.
|
| I'm probably a little eccentric but I really enjoy this a lot
| more than simply carrying a laptop around the house.
| tryauuum wrote:
| That's pretty cool. I think if the monitors are thin enough and
| wall-mounted, they ought to give a house a sci-fi look
| dkdk8283 wrote:
| I detest mobile: I find the interface very difficult to use. I
| would give up mobile way before giving up my desktop. I realize,
| though, that I'm in the minority.
| rossdavidh wrote:
| 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 out desktop
| (intended for gamers, I think) and now has the most powerful
| computer in the house. She still uses her phone and (when in
| school) her Chromebook, but when she's in creator (not consumer)
| mode, she uses her desktop.
| samatman wrote:
| 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 level that is. I
| certainly don't edit at a level where the difference between
| Logic and LumaFusion becomes apparent, and I expect that Apple
| releasing Logic for the iPad is a matter of when, not if.
|
| The iPad is also as expensive as a good laptop, so in more than
| one sense those two categories are converging.
|
| I'm sure your daughter made the right decision for her, I'm
| just taking the opportunity to build on your comment with a bit
| more evidence that the home computer is a vanishing breed.
| bluescrn wrote:
| > A tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for
| video editing
|
| Doesn't the sandboxing and limited access to the file system
| get in the way?
|
| Can you export video to non-Apple formats, collaborate with
| other people via a version control system, easily import
| footage from non-Apple devices, and so on?
|
| Can you even cleanly separate your video editing project from
| your personal holiday photos/videos? (Does iPadOS expose a
| directory structure to the end user yet?)
| machello13 wrote:
| Have you ever used an iPad? I get the feeling you don't
| really know how it actually works.
| bluescrn wrote:
| Haven't used one since the iOS/iPadOS split, so honestly
| don't know how much more flexible they've become.
|
| More familiar with iOS on iPhones though, but can't see
| how I'd do 'serious creative work' - which usually ends
| up involving large numbers of files that need keeping
| organised - on an OS that's traditionally tried so hard
| to hide the underlying file system from the end user.
|
| And I've never tried connecting a camera or video capture
| device directly to an iOS device, so not sure what is or
| isn't possible in that area.
| ipaddr wrote:
| 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?
| digitalsushi wrote:
| It's unfair to change the verb from use to build.
| zepto wrote:
| > Doesn't the sandboxing and limited access to the file
| system get in the way?
|
| No.
|
| > Can you export video to non-Apple formats, collaborate
| with other people via a version control system, easily
| import footage from non-Apple devices, and so on?
|
| Yes.
| handrous wrote:
| > Doesn't the sandboxing and limited access to the file
| system get in the way?
|
| Why would it get in the way? Any video editing software on
| it's going to be designed with that in mind, and will share
| with other video-related software just fine. Lots of
| desktop video editing software (Premiere, to pick one)
| start with "OK, step 1, import all the clips/videos for
| this project into this program" so even in the worst case
| it's gonna look a lot like the same workflow as video-
| editors are used to, and those workflows exist and became
| the norm _on desktop_ before iPads even existed.
|
| > Can you export video to non-Apple formats
|
| Of course. Why wouldn't you be able to?
|
| > collaborate with other people via a version control
| system
|
| Never seen it for video editing, including when I worked at
| a video production company, though that was years go so
| maybe version control's normal even for amateurs and small
| shops now? If it's around and popular I'd be surprised if
| there's not "an app for that" or it's not built-in to some
| of the higher end editing software on iPad. If things still
| operate like they used to then you're talking a NAS shared
| over SMB for largish projects, or Dropbox for smaller ones,
| for collaboration, probably, and both those are fine with
| iPads.
|
| > easily import footage from non-Apple devices
|
| Sure, why not?
| Nullabillity wrote:
| > Why would it get in the way?
|
| How do plugins work on iOS?
| handrous wrote:
| Not sure that they do. They _could_ , but I don't know of
| any significant video editing plugin ecosystems on iOS.
| Stuff's too rich for my blood--$200 to make overlay text
| look a certain way? $400 for a noise-reduction algo? Not
| for me and my casual stuff. Again, if you want _actual_
| pro software, you 're looking at one of a couple desktop
| application vendors, that's true. If you're looking for
| pro-tier software for home use, and learning that pro-
| tier software is your main goal and/or you actually need
| what it can provide, then you're probably talking Adobe
| Premiere, specifically, and yeah, that's desktop only
| (and about $250/yr). If you just want to learn the
| process and techniques of non-linear video editing and
| put together (potentially quite good) edited videos or
| films, the iPad's capable enough (with the benefit that,
| in the original use case posted here, it's also a damn
| good drawing tablet and you can use it to _shoot_ your
| videos, too, again, if you don 't have actual pro-level
| needs), but I wouldn't argue it replaces a desktop with
| Premiere, for a bunch of reasons including that everyone
| assumes you've got Premiere (and often Aftereffects, too)
| available, when it comes to plugins.
| armadsen wrote:
| > collaborate with other people via a version control
| system
|
| LumaFusion has pretty nice integration with Frame.io,
| which is as close to something like GitHub for video as
| I'm aware of.
|
| (Disclaimer: My day job is as an engineer working on
| LumaFusion.)
| sithadmin wrote:
| As someone with formal training and experience in video
| production with Final Cut Pro and Premiere...I find editing
| on iPad to be an utterly infuriating experience.
|
| I gave it a sincere try, but the UX is so utterly subpar that
| it's simply not worth the time or effort anymore. The file
| management on iOS is atrocious: support by various editing
| apps is questionable at best, and even if it wasn't, it's
| incredibly slow. Waiting while importing high-res videos off
| SD media to the file system, then turning around to wait an
| equally long time for the media to get imported into your
| editor is extremely irritating. There's also not a lot of
| serious competition in terms of quality editing apps. It
| seems like everything other than Luma Fusion is gimped to the
| point of near-uselessness for anything but the most basic of
| cut-and-crop type workflows.
|
| iPad did have a slight edge in terms of render performance
| and efficiency versus ultraportable notebooks like the
| MacBook Air for a brief period between the A12x-based Pro
| release in 2018 and the release of the M1 MacBook Air in
| 2020, but now that the M1 Air is on the table, it's well
| worth the few extra ounces to go with a M1 MBA for mobile
| video editing.
| samatman wrote:
| Editing video on the iPad is, it pains me to say,
| "disruptive".
|
| I believe you when you say it's infuriating to someone with
| formal training, used to the professional tools. I wouldn't
| know, this is how I've taught myself to edit video.
|
| It's inferior and the software is cheaper. The hardware
| isn't necessarily, but it sure is if you own an iPad and
| don't have a dedicated machine for editing video.
|
| And the experience is steadily improving, and at some point
| it might well "worse is better" the specialized hardware
| and expensive software which is the industry standard.
|
| Or it might not. Time alone will tell.
|
| It's worth pointing out that the current iPad Pro also has
| an M1, so the choice between an MBA and an iPad Pro is much
| less clear along that dimension.
| sithadmin wrote:
| I generally agree with you and recognize that I'm coming
| at this from a somewhat niche perspective.
|
| I think the thing that frustrates me the most is that
| Apple has repeatedly failed to fix the performance and
| usability issues related to file management that have
| plagued iOS/iPad OS since the feature was introduced.
| Fixing the poor performance + increasing versatility of
| the file manager (or allowing 3rd party file managers
| like Android) would massively improve the editing
| workflow on iPads, and for me, would probably push it
| into the 'good enough' tier of performance that might
| lead me to leave my MacBook at home when editing video on
| the road.
| megameter wrote:
| There's definitely some latent potential for video
| editing to be redefined along broader task-and-genre
| lines. That is, in essence, the difference between
| "consumer" and "pro", because a pro is burdened by having
| to reshape the medium in utmost detail to fit a structure
| that they planned, while a consumer expects a readymade
| media which simply "filters" their efforts through a
| predefined strategy.
|
| Since video editing is no longer governed by literal
| machinery, it can deprofessionalize into a set of smaller
| consumer languages, though if you imagine all the forms
| of editing that exist, it's unlikely that we'll have
| total coverage anytime soon.
| smoldesu wrote:
| The iPad Pro is a device that definitely _can_ edit video,
| but I really only use it as a last resort. For me it has
| never been a question of power, but a question of comfort:
| the M1 could be the fastest CPU in the world, but what do I
| care when I can 't run 32 bit software on it! And then
| there's the ergonomics... unless you're using a
| mouse/keyboard with the iPad, it's an insufferable
| experience: even then, it's not a given that your NLE of
| choice will even support keyboard shortcuts, and then we're
| back around to square one again...
| simonh wrote:
| What's wrong with 64 bit software?
| smoldesu wrote:
| Arguably, a lot of the same things that are wrong with 32
| bit software. If we're being pedantic, both of them
| should still be supported: but they aren't.
| ecshafer wrote:
| This is honestly an absurd proposition. A 13 inch screen Ipad
| pro with a keyboard and 2TB of memory is $2500. Video editing
| is something you want power, and a lot of screen real estate,
| and a good form factor. Even with the GPU shortage, you can
| buy an extremely powerful, capable, video editing desktop
| with two large 27" monitors for $1k. Even before you consider
| limitations in sandboxing, multi-application usage, and
| freedom, the Apple Tax for this makes a non-starter. If you
| go with the lowest end specs, that is still $800, which you
| can buy a significantly more capable desktop for video
| editing at that point, then you will be editing video on an
| 11" screen, with no hotkeys or keyboard, and only 128 GB of
| storage (good luck).
| handrous wrote:
| It depends on what you're doing and what your budget is.
| Shoot & edit on one device, _plus_ an excellent drawing
| experience, is pretty compelling when you 're talking about
| a device for a kid to learn on, and the main things it'll
| be used for are video & drawing. You don't need 2TB of
| built-in storage for that, either.
|
| Only way I can see that _not_ being the option to beat, is
| if your goal is to learn the UI (not the concepts or
| techniques) for pro-tier desktop editing software. Then,
| yes, of course you have to have a desktop. I think "non-
| starter" is overstating the case against the iPad, for the
| particular tasks and user-profile stated.
|
| > video editing desktop with two large 27" monitors for $1k
|
| I _need_ to know where you 're buying monitors.
| Talanes wrote:
| If I'm spending that kind of money on a teenager, not
| putting it all into one easily lose-able device is a
| value-add of it's own.
| samatman wrote:
| There's nothing absurd about it, you're just looking for
| something to get mad about.
|
| Your reference to the so-called Apple Tax makes that
| perfectly clear.
|
| What I actually said is that I, personally, find it
| fabulous for video editing. I made it clear that I'm an
| amateur who doesn't make heavy use of any advanced
| features, and furthermore said that I'm sure that the
| daughter made the right choice _for her_.
|
| You blew into my mentions getting mad about price tags,
| which I never mentioned. Your assertion that someone can
| get better performance than the M1 for $1K _including two
| large monitors_ (high DPI?) is something I 'd need to see
| backed up, because quite frankly I don't believe you.
|
| The one thing I'm quite confident of is that the iPad is
| superior for drawing to a PC and Wacom tablet, because I've
| used both. I'm quite confident from your pugnacious and
| unpleasant reply that you haven't used an iPad for either
| video editing or drawing.
| machello13 wrote:
| > A 13 inch screen Ipad pro with a keyboard and 2TB of
| memory is $2500.
|
| The 2TB memory is accounting for like half the cost there.
| You can get a model with less built-in memory and just use
| an external drive and the price drops down to like $1400.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Or Apple could stop ripping off their customers and we
| could just be comfortable paying them a reasonable amount
| of money for a reasonable amount of storage.
|
| Is that too much to ask?
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Onboard storage is just more expensive.
| jessaustin wrote:
| Lots of tasks don't benefit from ridiculous amounts of
| memory, but editing video does.
| simonh wrote:
| Thats actually storage, not RAM.
| samatman wrote:
| I'm sure this is true.
|
| I haven't found 256GB to be much of a limit in editing
| video, and I do shoot 4K. But I've only really worked
| with a couple hours of footage at a time, and I'm
| comfortable with keeping my "b roll" on my NAS. 512GB
| would probably be a better buy.
| eludwig wrote:
| >> 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 grade Intuos tablet (or the like) is a better
| match.
|
| One of the biggest reasons is that the Intuos has physical,
| raised "quick action" buttons which can be programmed to
| switch between tools, so you can zoom, rotate, brush, erase
| without ever looking at a keyboard or even looking away from
| the screen. This is crucial in certain workflows. Edit: also,
| the fact that your hand is never in the way on an Intuos is
| really key.
|
| Admittedly, this is a very specific use case, but I figured
| I'd mention it for completeness sake.
| pram wrote:
| An iPad Pro is great, but not superior to the Cintiq Pros
| imo. Especially the 24 inch and above. Once you've had the
| extra space you wouldn't be willing to give it up for a 13
| inch screen. I keep hoping for an iMac that you can use the
| Apple Pencil on for that reason ;P
| vlunkr wrote:
| > tricked out desktop (intended for gamers, I think)
|
| Generally this is just a marketing/SEO thing. A huge percentage
| of desktop hardware and accessories get the word "Gaming"
| slapped on the front even though they have nothing to do with
| gaming. Keyboards, mice, mousepads, headsets, speakers,
| monitors, cables, etc.
| foobarian wrote:
| Unfortunately these days it seems to be the only way to get a
| Nvidia 30x0 GPU. (By getting a pre-built computer).
| amatecha wrote:
| Indeed, I know a few people who have been holding out for
| months and months to buy a GPU on its own.. and they have
| settled for just purchasing a whole prebuilt system because
| they're sick of waiting. Pretty frustrating all around :(
| js2 wrote:
| > 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.
|
| My about-to-be-a-college-junior daughter has been creating for
| years on an iPad, and she's pretty good at it. She's
| transferring to VCU this fall for their graphic arts program
| and we just set her up with a new MBP and a Wacom Intuos. She
| started to practice on it but finds the experience of the
| external tablet and viewing an image on screen much less
| appealing than drawing directly on her iPad.
|
| For certain tasks, the iPad is superior input device.
|
| Maybe someday the iPad won't be hobbled by iOS and it will be
| fully suitable for desktop tasks too.
|
| (Currently typing this on an iPad air with smart keyboard.)
| markhahn wrote:
| quite an accomplishment of html cruelty.
| jms703 wrote:
| Laptops and mobile devices are an ergonomic nightmare. 13" laptop
| is great when working on a plane.
| asciimov wrote:
| A friends family doesn't have a single
| desktop/laptop/tablet/printer in their house. They all have
| decently highend cell phones. If the children need to type up a
| book report one of the adults brings home their work laptop.
|
| Meanwhile, I've moved back to desktops. If I ever need a laptop
| again it will be the lightest weight one I can get, and will use
| it to remote access my main machine.
| asperous wrote:
| 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.app.goo.gl/KfaJMqBp8JVkW6Yn8 [3]
| https://images.app.goo.gl/sVjkdWvKNrMN2xdD8
| mkaic wrote:
| I'm a filmmaker and visual effects artist who works with ray
| tracing rendering a lot, I'd say we're definitely a significant
| niche! Recently bought myself a new rig so I could render
| things 10x faster, totally worth it.
| ohazi wrote:
| Engineers who do mechanical CAD work using a specialized input
| device like a SpaceMouse [1] or similar.
|
| [1] https://3dconnexion.com/uk/spacemouse/
| mywittyname wrote:
| 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.
| vel0city wrote:
| You can get the latest A5000 GPU's on the pro-grade
| workstation laptops.
|
| You could Quadro cards on laptops for a long time. They're
| just the super thick stupid expensive models usually.
| robotnikman wrote:
| I think Lenovo offers Quattro cards on laptops, but IIRC
| they much more expensive than a desktop workstation
| drunner wrote:
| Not really a workstation, but seems like folks can take their
| homelabs pretty seriously too.
| asdff wrote:
| These aren't cultural or symbolic uses, though. People who do
| these things need powerful chips and a cooling solution that
| allows them not to throttle under load. Most modern laptops are
| ultrabooks now with poorly designed cooling solutions (due to
| the thinness of the devices) that throttle under load and are
| unsuitable for these uses. Even M1 Macbooks have issues using
| multiple monitors.
| ozim wrote:
| 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 need to work on single device that allows
| me to jump on the plane and go anywhere, that is great idea.
| Well maybe I would need to carry a keyboard and mouse but I
| hope that screens will be available in every hotel room/office
| space with option to connect with a phone.
| dylan604 wrote:
| If it is central to home computing, I'd say audio/music
| workstations are a bit outside of that. However, if you allow
| that, then a video workstation would also follow.
| danilocesar wrote:
| Part of a musician "workstation" is already an ipad (or
| more). It's question of time, IMHO.
| yurishimo wrote:
| Eh, it depends on what kind of work you're doing within the
| music industry.
|
| Solo studio tracking artist? Yeah, an iPad is probably good
| enough for you to practice with and do some rough scratch
| recordings for demo purposes.
|
| If you're running a studio, you need the I/O to handle at
| least a few physical devices with dedicated PCIe lanes, and
| a high resolution input device like a mouse or trackpad to
| make precise edits in a DAW. Plus a keyboard. Audio/video
| editors love their keyboard shortcuts just as much as
| developers!
|
| While it may be possible to connect any one of those
| devices to an iPad, connecting all of them and making it
| easy to disconnect the iPad, makes it impractical in
| reality. The iPad in it's current format is not a great
| device for professional audio recording and mixing, and if
| you changed the format to better fit that workflow, you've
| now described a Mac Mini and you should buy one of those
| instead.
| handrous wrote:
| As a musician's tool, it's hard to beat a computer that
| fits neatly on a music stand and lasts all day on battery.
| egypturnash wrote:
| All of those musician's workstations have the actual _computer_
| hidden somewhere out of sight. There 's a monitor or two, a
| computer keyboard lying around(all wireless, it looks like?),
| but all those desks are dominated by musical keyboards, mixer
| boards, and speakers. Sometimes there's a laptop sitting on it.
| All the cables are hidden, out of the way.
|
| Take away the monitors and the computer keyboard, substitute a
| couple of multi-track reel-to-reel tape decks, and it looks
| exactly like what I'd see when I'd visit my dad at his audio
| engineer job in the 1970s.
|
| The computer itself is just an appliance, stick it under the
| desk next to the mini-fridge. Maximize the available surface
| used for _getting the work done_ ; as long as the computer's
| got enough airflow to not overheat when you push it hard, who
| cares where it is?
|
| Well, gamers care I guess, they all have those crazy light-up
| cases with clear sides to show off how much they spent on their
| custom-built rig. The computer's become an object of desire
| there.
| alliao wrote:
| I'm a gamer and my rig is a mini itx tucked away. I like it
| quiet and performant. Yes the market slaps RGB lighting on
| anything and everything gamer but it's up to gamers to buy
| them.
| vlunkr wrote:
| Although sometimes it's a chore to find something without
| the RGB.
| 411111111111111 wrote:
| I like having my case light up with the temperature of the
| components.
|
| I've never succeeded making it anything but a deep green
| and it gives me a nice and fuzzy feeling, knowing that
| everything is at an optimal temperature while the fans
| lazily spin behind the tempered glass.
| capeterson wrote:
| Ha! That's such a fantastic idea. I always keep my lights
| either off, or on white because I kind of dislike RGB
| lighting. I might have to look into this, did you use any
| specific software for this?
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I find the lights to be fun. I'm playing a game after all
| :)
| Graffur wrote:
| I am interested in something like this out of the loop with
| pc building. Do you have any more info about your rig
| online?
| my_usernam3 wrote:
| > Finance workstations with many monitors and Bloomberg
| terminals
|
| The only person I know who has a bloomberg terminal uses a
| remote machine and just a laptop at home and he works from
| home. However he is not involved in day trading directly so
| maybe those would need desktop computers just for the
| graphics.... although maybe even that can be done via external
| graphics card since the processing power I think is already
| there on powerful laptops.... now I'm curious.
| beckingz wrote:
| This website is a blast from old web design. Nice!
| drivingmenuts wrote:
| Back then, it was, if not the height of design, at least within
| the horizon.
|
| Now, it just looks deranged and unreadable.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| It's a shame Twitter Bootstrap wasn't around in 2007.
| ergot_vacation wrote:
| Design is both a linear progression and an infinitely looping
| circle/pendulum. Things were really free and organic at
| first. People got frustrated with this, and rising tech
| companies gave them "clean, modern" design instead. It was
| embraced because it was easier on the eyes, and faster to use
| in general. But now I think there's a growing resentment
| toward the "clean, modern" look, because it's simplified
| every drop of soul and humanity out of digital interfaces and
| expression. The pendulum will probably start to swing in the
| other direction soon.
| jephson wrote:
| This particular page design can be read as an intentional
| response to Web2.0, something the authors of this article
| considered to be part of a broader campaign to remove
| "amateur" production from the web. They published a book,
| Digital Folklore, expanding on this idea a few years later:
| https://digitalfolklore.org/
| spiritplumber wrote:
| It just needs blink tags
| munk-a wrote:
| ... or Dancing Ants.
| ergot_vacation wrote:
| I'm of mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, it sure is hard
| to read. On the other hand, in small doses I kind of enjoy it
| after the super sanitized corporate nothingness most of the web
| has become now. One glance at this page and there is zero doubt
| in my mind that it represents the genuine expression of an
| actual human without layers and layers of forced censorship and
| editing by some "platform." The web was never supposed to have
| "platforms" in the first place: Youtube/Facebook/Twitter etc
| are all fundamentally rent-seeking parasites in a way most
| people don't even appreciate today.
|
| The web was supposed to just be a place anyone could put up a
| document with some links to other documents. Cheap, simple,
| easy, fast. Then some services cropped up to help make some of
| the frustrating parts easier and quicker, and eventually the
| "services" ended up eating the web alive.
| Threeve303 wrote:
| The correlation between creation and consumption based on the
| device form factor is something to consider. A desktop
| computer often provided a good balance between the two.
|
| Now with the corporate web, perhaps it's no accident
| consumption devices have become so widespread.
| yupper32 wrote:
| > Cheap, simple, easy, fast
|
| I mean, this page is not simple, easy, or fast to develop.
| Instead of just writing a simple article, the author had to
| source/create at least 2 dozen images with no value only to
| lay them out on the page in the middle of paragraphs, making
| the article as hard to read as they could muster.
|
| Enjoy the nostalgia and break from modern clean websites, but
| anything else justifying the look of this page is just crazy.
| And connecting it to modern services and the downfall of the
| internet or whatever just sounds like you're trying to be
| edgy.
|
| We are in a massively better place now than a decade or two
| ago as far as the internet being accessible to everyone, both
| on the publisher and consumer side, despite the hate for big
| corps.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| This style should be called Ransom Note.
| Hamuko wrote:
| Meanwhile Apple is trying to revive the iconic iMac G3 with the
| new colourful iMacs.
| runawaybottle wrote:
| Laptops and tabletops are ubiquitous. The desktop computer is
| purely in the realm of the pc gaming enthusiast at this point.
| beering wrote:
| I think the title could use a "(2007)" notice because the same
| title analyzed today would be quite different, I imagine.
| stu2b50 wrote:
| I can only imagine how the OP would react to a reality where
| I'd estimate the _majority_ of people use a thin candybar
| touchscreen brick with maybe 3 buttons as their primary
| computing device outside of work.
| kergonath wrote:
| 2007, really? From the looks, I'd have guessed 1995. Written by
| a time traveler who knew about the iMac G5.
| amerine wrote:
| Oh wow. Sigh. I didn't even look at the date.
| [deleted]
| echelon wrote:
| The home computer has been replaced with the iPhone.
|
| What boggles my mind is that the industry accepts Apple's
| restrictions on what kind of computing can happen, how their
| software can be distributed, and how their gross/margins are
| taxed.
|
| These devices have done a perverse thing to our field.
|
| Consumers love them, but fuck are they awful for freedom,
| business, and small time success.
|
| We used to build platforms in the open that we all benefited from
| (ie. the Web). Even Microsoft Windows was and is more open than
| these goddamn monopoly devices.
|
| The DOJ needs to rip Apple's control of the iPhone away. It's not
| their device anymore. It's the industry.
|
| Computing belongs to the people. It'd make for a healthier
| playing field, and Apple would still be making bank.
| ergot_vacation wrote:
| Turns out the PC was an accident of history. Not an endpoint
| like some of us saw it, but simply an unfortunate stepping
| stone to the ultimate goal of making a really smart toaster.
| The end goal was never really to empower people, it was just to
| create a new market for rent-seeking via lock-in on a shiny new
| black box. No repairs allowed. No modding allowed. And you can
| go fuck yourself if you want the source code for anything.
| "Micro-computing," as it used to be called, was never intended
| as way for ordinary people to gain freedom and agency. It was
| just supposed to be another tool for the rich and powerful to
| extract wealth from everyone else. And now, thanks to always-
| online requirements, inescapable updates and aggressive planned
| obsolescence, that dream is finally a reality. Welcome back to
| the farm serf. You never really left.
| sigstoat wrote:
| > Turns out the PC was an accident of history
|
| > The end goal was never really to empower people
|
| whose end goal would that have even been?
|
| you're talking like history possesses some sort of inherent
| narrative, instead of just being a bunch of people doing
| shit.
| echelon wrote:
| You could have a million downvotes, but you're eternally
| correct. Thank you.
| threatofrain wrote:
| Personally I'm in love with the fact that Apple found a
| business model selling privacy and safety, while I'm also torn
| on the idea that Apple has been using their weight to bludgeon
| the competition into giving up a massive share of revenue.
|
| At the same time, the weighing of leverage is precisely how the
| market has and still works to this day. Thus if you send me out
| there to negotiate with Popeye's (which _really_ wants you to
| create an account), or Walmart, Facebook, or even a small
| company making todo apps, I will simply not win, and neither
| will my family members. I love that cross-app tracking is now
| opt-in, because that 's not something I'd ever imagine
| negotiating with any company, ever. I love the fact that all
| subscription-based services purchased through the iOS platform
| can be managed in a centralized place.
|
| And I will of course resent in my tiny, futile, pathetic way,
| those voices which say "Well, you as a free agent made these
| concessions in the marketplace. Didn't you get what you
| deserve?"
|
| Why can't there be a consumer choice to throw your weight
| behind a mega-giant who intercedes forcefully on your behalf,
| in a marketplace that is all about the weighing of leverage?
| shadowgovt wrote:
| There are dozens of hardware platforms running hundreds (if not
| thousands) of software stacks that a user can play with that
| aren't Apple's ecosystem. Everything from a Raspberry Pi to a
| Lenovo ThinkPad. It's a color-wheel of hardware and software
| out there.
| echelon wrote:
| All 300 million American consumers doing all of their
| business, emails, dating, instagram, phone calls,
| photography, etc. on Raspberry Pi?
|
| No. The solution is to regulate iPhone and make it a common
| carrier / open platform. It won, and now Apple has to bear
| the consequences. If their device was in niche usage, you
| might have a case.
| shadowgovt wrote:
| What is stopping 300 million American consumers from doing
| their business, emails, dating, instagram, phone calls,
| photography, etc. on Raspberry Pi?
|
| ... and if it's "They don't want to; Apple's user
| experience is better for their use case," why should the
| government intercede to take that away from them?
| echelon wrote:
| > why should the government intercede to take that away
| from them
|
| Because Apple is the new Standard Oil. We've decided that
| too much power and control in one vertically and
| horizontally integrated company is bad for consumers, bad
| for business, and bad for the health of our capitalist
| enterprise.
|
| Under Apple's thumb it's much harder to launch a new
| product and be profitable. Apple takes too much and
| demands unreasonable things.
|
| Apple is the face of computing today. They've installed
| themselves as the troll on the bridge. They need to be
| reminded that this is not the correct or healthy role for
| them to play and that there are plenty of other
| opportunities for them to pursue.
|
| Microsoft post-DOJ emerged a healthier company. Apple
| will too.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| 300 million American consumers aren't using iPhones. Why
| this obsession? Seriously, 99% of your comments on anything
| remotely connected to Apple end up being this same thing.
| "A New Apple Variety has been Developed"
|
| echelon: Regulate Apple and iOS!
| echelon wrote:
| For crying out loud, this is for the disappearing
| _personal computer_!
|
| When could Apple's takeover possibly be more relevant?
|
| Apple needs heavy regulation, as do the rest of the tech
| monopolies.
| [deleted]
| amelius wrote:
| So the MacBook/iPhone/iPad are not cultural objects?
| ofrzeta wrote:
| There's nothing better than a huge display with high resolution,
| keyboard and mouse. The computer might be in a separate chassis
| or a laptop or whatever but a huge display and a mouse are
| indispensable.
| duxup wrote:
| Heck in addition to my keyboard I've been thinking of building
| a board with a bunch of buttons just for firing off random
| things.
|
| API requests when testing and so forth ... for whatever reason
| a separate set of physical keys makes more sense in my head.
| mishu2 wrote:
| Something like this? https://xkeys.com/xk24black.html
|
| I saw it recommended here a while ago, haven't tried it
| myself.
| OJFord wrote:
| Ouch, why on earth did that cost so much? That's an order
| of magnitude above what I'd expect.
|
| I get the appeal, but I still have unused function keys.
| (I'm using.. off the top of my head, F1-5.)
| MarcScott wrote:
| Or the cheaper, cooler and probably more hackable Keybow
| 2040
|
| https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/keybow-2040?variant=3239
| 9...
| plazmatic wrote:
| Huge display? What are you, a noob?
|
| 29" or bust. Nothing bigger nothing smaller. It's absolute
| perfection.
| munk-a wrote:
| Honestly, I personally love the aesthetic of big whirring fans
| and blinking lights. If you offered me an M1 MacBook Pro but it
| would be buried in a 7 foot tall cupboard plastered in lights
| and fans that occasionally, randomly, sounded like a jet engine
| taking off... I would be in heaven.
| Scramblejams wrote:
| Some day I hope all of my home compute will be housed in
| something that looks like WOPR.
| asdff wrote:
| Stick the macbook in a mini fridge and reap the cooling
| benefits
| zozbot234 wrote:
| > buried in a 7 foot tall cupboard plastered in lights and
| fans that occasionally, randomly, sounded like a jet engine
| taking off...
|
| There might be a market for rackmountable hardware with the
| much-needed addition of proper RGB lighting (for improved
| performance).
| my_usernam3 wrote:
| .... I'd pay for that if its a good docking station as
| well!
| yurishimo wrote:
| Linus Tech Tips has his personal rig in a 3u (?) rack
| mounted case in his attic. It can and has been done!
| munk-a wrote:
| Could you bundle in some decals - you know, to make it go
| faster?
| mkl95 wrote:
| My desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to
| be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it
| a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for
| a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.
| savant_penguin wrote:
| Mostly any pc you build with much less than $5k will beat a $5k
| MacBook pro
| mkl95 wrote:
| In my experience, it beats mid to high tier iMacs as well.
| Those things get clunky for no reason.
| zten wrote:
| iMacs are usually laptops in all but name. To hit the same
| thinness with a giant heat-producing screen, most of the
| parts are their mobile equivalents.
|
| Edit: on slightly closer inspection, this isn't true for
| the 27" models!
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| The 27" models have traditionally used off the shelf
| socketed CPUs though, which is unusual in AIOs. Regular
| 27" models use desktop i9s and the Pro uses a desktop
| Xeon. Both can technically have their CPUs upgraded even
| if opening them is a pain.
| zten wrote:
| Ah, cool. I was too focused on the GPUs! edit: which...
| actually appear to be the desktop-named parts! I swear
| this wasn't always the case...
| mhh__ wrote:
| Thank god for them being thin, I actually had to throw
| away my 2013 iMac because it was just unbearable reading
| my emails with x-ray vision and noticing just how thick
| it is.
| asdff wrote:
| What is hilarious is that the thin imac weighs the same
| 20lbs as the one that was a few inches thicker and had
| better cooling and user replaceable parts.
| bitwize wrote:
| When the M2 Mac Pro drops, the tables will turn: no PC will
| even nearly match it.
| baconshirt wrote:
| Cute
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| I don't see how that is possible. Desktop PCs have almost
| unlimited space -- cases can be measured in cubic feet.
| MacBooks are always space constrained because of their case
| size and weight minimizing, so there is an inherent
| disadvantage in the size of components like graphics
| boards. And a size disadvantage means fewer transistors and
| less cooling.
| function_seven wrote:
| Parent is referring to Mac Pro (the desktop).
|
| I blame Apple's product line branding for this confusion.
| I make the same mistake all the time.
| asdff wrote:
| To be fair the mac pro went through its own horrible
| shrinkage phase where it was not much larger than my $50
| air filter. The old aluminum case used to be pretty large
| and pretty spacious internally, with many extra bays
| waiting for you to give them purpose. Not sure how the
| newest one stacks up to the first mac pro/mac g5 case.
| system2 wrote:
| So an M2 can beat a AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX or a
| dual CPU mobo tower with 128gb ram, also a PCI nvme? LOL
| right.
| 988747 wrote:
| I do not see why not - performance of Apple processors is
| insane.
| grobibi wrote:
| My M1 Air renders and edits 4k as well as my ryzen 3700x with
| 64 gigs of ram and a samsung nvme. It loses out in encoding
| though. I cant get the same quality/size ratio with
| VideoToolBox as I can with NVENC.
| TchoBeer wrote:
| is it as portable as a macbook pro?
| mkl95 wrote:
| Portability is not a problem, my employer provides me with a
| powerful laptop that I keep permanently. They are different
| tools that serve me in different situations.
| hawski wrote:
| I have a Macbook Pro (though 15") and a PC, but also a
| ridiculously underpowered Chromebook with a crappy 11"
| 1366x768 screen. Lately I find myself when I'm on the run in
| the city to grab the Chromebook and ssh to my desktop (I've
| got Zerotier set up). This is my ultimate portable duo. It
| could be better, but it is lightweight, battery runs full day
| and I have all power I need. Then when I get back I have it
| even better with less latency.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| What's old is new again! This is how mainframe terminals
| worked.
| hawski wrote:
| That's a setup I wanted for quite some time and I know it
| was available for some time, but ubiquitous fast and
| cheap wireless Internet is something new I guess, also
| with all-day batteries all in a lightweight package.
| my_usernam3 wrote:
| Can you explain further? I'm guessing you mean once a
| mainframe's resources were outdated, it became a
| terminal?
| Jtsummers wrote:
| No. In the heyday of mainframes people would remote in,
| with a terminal. That's where the terminal protocols many
| people still use on a daily basis actually come from.
| Sending text over the wire to display on your terminal
| screen, you type into a keyboard which transmits your
| input across the wire to the mainframe which responds
| with new screen updates.
|
| Using your desktop remotely from a cheaper but more
| portable device is pretty much the same model (not the
| same thing, but model) as the way many people interacted
| with mainframes last century.
| Macha wrote:
| No, the users had crappy devices (terminals) which worked
| because they could access the compute resources of a
| bigger device (the mainframe)
| ecshafer wrote:
| For the same price point of a macbook pro you can literally
| get a more powerful desktop, and a more powerful laptop. Or
| an even more powerful desktop, and a laptop and just use a
| vpn with remote desktop like a normal person.
| pretendscholar wrote:
| Do you really think they wouldn't acknowledge the upsides of
| a laptop? Why is that relevant to raw flops/dollar?
| smoldesu wrote:
| I built an $800 budget PC 7 years ago, it beats my M1 Macbook
| Air in Blender renders by about 20%
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