#also!!! i got myself a new laptop with a bigger ram!!!

[all-the-angels-stare]

🌧️ The Weeping Great Serpent 🌧️

[microsoftflightsimulator2024pc]

How to Download Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Microsoft Journey Simulator 2024 discharge date

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Pilotwings 64

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[alunclewe]

Recomputered

Well, I haven��t posted anything for a while, and as usual, I have an excuse, and it’s maybe not even quite as bad as my usual excuses.  I’d been without a laptop for more than a month; I’d posted before about the issue with my laptop, but, well, it took longer to get any sort of resolution than I had expected.

I won’t go into all the details of the reasons for the delay, but to make a long story short: The e-mail updates from Best Buy’s Geek Squad say that "It's important to us to keep you informed during every step in the repair process."  This is a lie.  The old laptop turned out to be irreparable, which didn’t come as a surprise, but which I should have been told about a lot sooner.  I’m still getting it back, though, because aside from the broken screen it’s still perfectly good, and there are still uses to which I can put it.

Anyway, I have a new laptop now, with more RAM than my old laptop, albeit a smaller hard drive, although it’s an SSD drive, which... I guess is good?  And I’ve got all the software I use the most often installed on my new laptop: the Adobe Creative Suite, Blender, Microsoft Office, Finale, Final Draft, Notepad++, browsers that aren’t Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge...  (Not Toon Boom Harmony or Storyboard, though, because I can only have those installed on one computer at a time, and it makes the most sense to have it installed on my desktop since that’s what has the bigger monitor attached to it and, more importantly, my Wacom Cintiq.  I didn’t have it installed on my old laptop, either.)

And yeah, on the one hand you could argue that not having a laptop shouldn’t have prevented me from updating, since I still have my desktop, and I do almost all my art on my desktop anyway.  However, not having a laptop still limited my productivity for two reasons: first, that obviously I can’t take my desktop with me and work on the go on it, and second, that when I was home I had to use my desktop to do what I’d normally be using my laptop for.  Also, typing was kind of hard on my desktop because it has a cordless keyboard which has been very glitchy lately, which is probably just because its batteries are low, so I really ought to find the new batteries that I know I have around here somewhere...

So, now that I have a laptop again, I should once again be able to ramp up my productivity.  Which includes but is not limited to the following items:

Inktober.  Yes, I know October is over.  But I only got through the first five days of Inktober, and I figure I may as well eventually finish the rest.  Better late than never?  (That doesn’t mean this is going to be a high priority for me, though, so there won’t be a new drawing every day.  Maybe I’ll shoot for at least every other day, though.)

NaNoWriMo.  I have completed novels for Nanowrimo three times, I think?  Two of those times were novels that were, ah, based on existing IP so I couldn’t really publish them even if I wanted to.  The third time, though, resulted in a novel that’s in serious need of rewrites (yet another thing I really need to get around to), but that with some rewriting and polishing I think really stands a good chance of publication. But having completed NaNoWriMo three times, I decided to set myself more of a challenge now and start completely from scratch.  That is to say, the three times that I succeeded I’d had a basic outline of the plot and characters before I started, although they evolved quite a bit during the writing.  This time, I figured for a bigger challenge I’d approach it like 24-Hour Comics Day—that is, I’d go in with no idea of what I was going to write, and all the plotting and outlining would be done within the time limit (the 24 hours for 24-Hour Comics Day, the month of November for NaNoWriMo). This is not the first time I have set myself that challenge, and... I admit, I haven’t yet succeeded.  I think maybe I tend to be a little overwhelmed and sabotage myself.  But I’m going to try again and see what happens this time.  And I think what I need to do, maybe, is approach it more, again, like 24-Hour Comics Day.  On 24-Hour Comics Day, I don’t plan and thumbnail the whole comic before I start.  I plan out my general idea, maybe I plan the ending or maybe I have no idea how it’s going to end until I get there, and then I just get started and make up the details as I go... and so far, despite every year worrying that this will be the year I don’t finish, I have yet to fail to complete a comic.  I have a general idea for my NaNoWriMo novel this year now; I have names and basic concepts of the six main characters; I think it’s time to start writing.  Yeah, I’m getting a very late start on that, but I just need to write at least, let’s see.... 2,500 words a day.  Yeah, that’s definitely doable.  It should be noted that in my last successful NaNoWriMo attempt, my novel was about twice as long as the 50,000 “required” by NaNoWriMo, so I actually wrote more than three thousand words a day... so this isn’t unprecedented.

The Very High Seas.  That’s that animated pilot project (that isn’t Teras Terrace) that I’d been posting about lately.  I have plans to pitch it, but at this point realistically I think I’m shooting to have the pitch ready by January or February 2020.  Even so, I want to have a completed pitch document, a pilot script, and a complete pilot animatic (this last item is probably overkill, but eh), so if I want to get it done by then I have a lot of work ahead.

Speaking of which, I do hope to update with one new piece of art later today, so I have a recent post that isn’t just a wall of text like this one.  But it’s such a relief to finally have a laptop again...

[murfeelee]

Hey, I am a huge fan of your CC but I wanted your opinion as a Sims fan. I'm currently torn between getting some expansion packs for TS3, however my partner is encouraging me to just switch to TS4 since it's newer/still being updated. I know you only do TS3 content but wanted your opinion on making the switch for sticking to what I got. My main concern is how well my computer can handle more TS3 expansion packs vs what's out for TS4. Thank you so much for the beautiful content you create!

Hi! Thanks so much for the message; I’m happy that you like my stuff! :)

I’m going to publish this, cuz it’s actually pretty important, as folks have asked my thoughts on switching over before: 

IMHO: TS3

I’ve talked about lag and TS3 before. I’ve been playing TS3 nonstop since the basegame’s release day.To date, I’ve rarely ever had problems running the game, even on my 10 year old HP Vista laptop, that only had 4GB of RAM (I used FPS Limiter to bypass the Launcher and keep the game from crashing to desktop; worked like a charm! Good info here X X). Excluding Pets and Island Paradise, I had all of the other EPs installed on that PC with no problems.

My newer laptop’s a piece of crap Win10 Dell, but it has 8GB RAM & a i5 2.5/2.7 GHz processor, and I’ve been running ALL of the EPs on medium-high graphics settings with a EFFTON of CC just fine. :) 

Note: I NEVER play in fullscreen mode. 

TS3′s got way more content than TS4, but as long as your PC’s got the RAM and the processor speed, TS3 runs well. I noticed that it lags more the higher the settings are, so it depends on the graphics card you use, in that case – I heard weirdness about TS3 not recognizing certain graphics cards, but IDK – both of my laptops have integrated chipsets.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe it’s different on desktops. :\

I’m unfortunately playing TS3 on 1.69 on the Dell, and I bloody hate being forced to use Origin and the Launcher to boot the game.But I keep Origin offline and idle in the tray the whole time – nyanyanya, EA! XPPPPPPPPPPPPP 

IMHO: TS4 (Rant Alert – naturally)

As a simmer who’s deliberately stuck to TS3 (even after all these years that TS4′s been out), my opinion’s going to be biased.    

I don’t see myself making the switch to TS4 any time soon, cuz I’m clearly not EA’s target demographic for that mess. 

I love fanciful gameplay (understatement of the year). I’m not here for realism. Yes, TS3 had to wait 7 EPs for the Supernatural EP, but during the interim we had the Spellbook, Crystal Ball, Voodoo Doll and Cauldron at the Store; the Ghost Hunter in AMB and Magician in SHT; Unicorns as Pets, and the Genie & Vampire lifestates. That was 3 years into TS3′s run. Not to mention, IIRC, the same year we got Supernatural, we also got the Showtime EP, the Seasons EP, Lunar Lakes, Sunlit Tides, Lucky Palms AND Monte Vista (2012 was the effing year). 

TS4′s 4 YEARS old, and I’m still waiting for the fantasy! Get Together, Get Famous…Get a better idea already, EA! DANG! >_sad, and Get to Work had no business being an EP; having Doctors and Cops should’ve been basegame, or a free patch like the Toddlers were – wtf with all this half-baked effery and generic packs?! Adding a first-person-mode so you don’t even get to see the sim you just spent 10 frikkin hours creating in CAS – frikkin inspired, EA. >_>

Wanting the new shiny is all well and good, but EA’s gonna have to pry my fully customizable open world game with transportation and CASt and World Editor and CAW/CAP and all its derivatives from my cold dead clutches, sorry. XD

So, yeah, I don’t really have anything positive to say about TS4. Maybe if they make a Supernatural/Makin Magic EP sometime before the next decade arrives, I might take a gander. But even then that won’t be enough for me to RETIRE my TS3 game by permanently switching over. Why would I? I’m not saying TS3’s better, cuz that’s relative and subjective, but it’s certainly bigger; there’s more to do and explore, (me? give up World Adventures, ITF, and Supernatural? HA!); and I don’t like the playdough-looking Lazy Town aesthetic. 

[growingstrongorsomething]

1. A Letter to Future Aliens

Original Prompt:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/b0pesi/wp_all_humans_on_earth_voted_to_assign_you_the/ “Now, we will turn to New York City, where United Nations assembly are reviewing letters and emails from the shortlisted candidates.”

My family are watching the news stream live from my computer. We lounged about in front of the computer, as it is placed on a coffee table. We aren’t very rich, but I managed to turn a small profit from blogs and Youtube channels. Truth be told, there are also a lot of professional writers, journalists, and philosophers sending their applications. Their names are listed on UN website, and my name is the 1065th.

“Thank you, Azizah. As you can see, the world leaders are busy reviewing the papers. I was told that eloquence of writing isn’t the only prerequisite to be selected. Prospective writers to this letter must also have active participation in aiding the hardcore poor and marginalised communities throughout the whole world.”

“The list will further be shortlisted to fifty best choices, and anyone throughout the whole world are free to vote for the best writer.”

My younger brother lies down on the tiled floor with a huff. “Mom, it’s boring. Why do I have to watch this?”

My mother lightly grabs his head and squeeze it a bit. “So that you know how the world works.”

The wait is filled with speculations by some experts thinking who could be the chosen fifty. Many names are from Africa, some from Europe, and a few from China. I think JK Rowling are also discussed, though I am more surprised that George R.R Martin aren’t included. He’s a sci-fi writer, he should at least be considered.

“The results are in, Azizah. We are now ready to broadcast the names chosen to be voted on by the Earth’s population.”

And the names are read aloud by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He says many names I don’t know about, and a short list of their achievements, which I often see on Facebook or Instagram. The news is getting long, and my mother is already at the kitchen getting some fried banana fritters and black coffee to pass the time.

It took an hour before we turn our heads back to the stream. There has already been thirty names. “And for the thirty first name, we choose Januarius anak Idrus, a citizen of Malaysia. Born in Sabah, he has aided a lot in educating stateless children through the use of wireless connections and even funded internet availability for extremely rural areas.”

They took my bluff! It’s just my grandfather’s village. But my parents are esctatic, hugging me tightly and do I hear a sniffle?

The streaming continues, but my family are already too excited to bother.

“Start writing the letter, son. We will see Januarius name soar across the world!”

“We will help you all we can, but be quick, later people will beat you to it.”

I sleep soundly, too tired to take in the stress. My parents are laughing and loving each other throughout the night.

My younger brother wakes me up the next day. “Jan, jan, wake up!”

“What, why Felis?”

“Newspeople are coming! They want to interview you!”

The journalist is a petite woman. She sits in a single person sofa, comfortable in her seat. I on the other hand, is rummaging through my hair so it will look a bit more presentable.

The interview is embarassing. I barely have anything to say, haven’t researched anything, and worst of all, my face is sagging like rumpled carpet when they took my picture! By the way, what should I write anyway?

“Hello, my name is Maisarah. So, is your name is Januarius bin Idrus?”

“No, it’s Januarius anak Idrus.”

“I would like to ask a few questions. Firstly, how did you knew about the contest to write a letter to the aliens?”

“Well, me and my friends are browsing the internet when one of them, Saiful, shows me a Facebook post. It shows the contest, but I thought it’s a joke. So I write just a generic email and send it to them. World peace, economic equality, less pollution, all the good stuff. I also have to send some resume, so I hope I got at least a job out of it.”

“Will you send the same letter to the aliens, or will you rewrite a new letter?”

“I think I will have to. Apparently NASA does have correspondences with the aliens, but I have no idea what exactly they are offering.”

“Will you be consulting anyone to help with writing this letter?”

“Of course! I have no idea how to start this time. I don’t think I can answer you any more questions, since I haven’t prepared anything yet.”

“That’s alright. Will you let us interview you, next time?”

“Yes, yes please. Please give me a call first.” I wrote down my phone number and give it to her.

Now the problem of what to write is getting bigger in my head. Should I ask for world peace? End of poverty? Beginning of space travel? The silent whirr of my laptop fan might as well be a loud engine hum. Everyone is at work or school, and I am here staring at a blank Word document. Might as well call a friend.

“Hey, Hisham, can I go to your place?”

His place is a school. Not of brick and fresh paint and strong zinc roof. But of throwaway planks and board, lacking paint and old zinc roof with holes here and there. But the school is filled with children singing the alphabet song. Hisham is leading them, his smile shining bright from half a mile away.

I waited until his class is over. Hisham grabs me by the shoulder. “Hey, you have become fatter! How have you been?”

“Been healthier every day. Have you started building new school?”

Hisham leads me to a chair by a table. “We have just contacted a social advocacy group willing to help build one.”

We ate a few fried banana fritters as we chat. Hisham keeps spilling the beans. “Of course, we do have our own money, and have free volunteers too. You want to join?”

I would like to reject, but I haven’t been carpenting for weeks. “I will when I am free. If you are about to start, tell me.”

“Of course. But, what brings you here?”

I don’t know my face is obviously showing when asking for something. “Well, I have been chosen by the UN to write a letter to aliens, asking for help.”

Hisham pours more coffee to his cup. “You know our situation here in Sabah. You should speak about that.”

“But I am representing the Earth, not just Sabah.”

“There are many marginalised people. Stateless, minorities, hardcore poor, culturally oppressed, you name it. I do my little part. You expand it to the whole world.”

The visit is good, but I am not satisfied with the answer I get here. I walk back to my car when a kid is cupping his hands to me. I give her a ringgit. She shouted, and a horde of children suddenly appeared. At least, I still have enough money left for oil.

And now I am staring at the damn blank page. I try typing something. “Dear aliens ...”

No, too darling.

“To aliens of Planet Xenoniah I humbly...”

Eugh, grovelling.

“Greetings to leaders of Planet Xenoniah ...”

Isn’t that too formal? Am I supposed to be formal?

I am about to ram my head to the tabletop, but laptop is in my way. So I move it forward, then introduces head to desk. The pain is fogging my sight even more. Mentally, fortunately. My eyesight is still as clear as it always been without glasses.

Searching Google about child education is quite a chore. Half of it is about how to develop a child’s mind. Which is rather useless as my little brother taught me middle-school level math.  Then I searched about education for stateless and hardcore poor in countries throughout the world.

Many groups are already working on it. One research even shows how older children can help younger children learn English with apps and videos. But there is something missing in all this.

I try to find what the children do or became after they’re adults. There seems to be some classes on entrepreneurship for adults, but they seem to not bring the children in.

The next day, my handphone falls on my head. It should only be a small nuisance, if not for the fact that my handphone is the brick phone Energizer recently launched.

“Hello?” I can feel the heft of my phone on my forehead and cheek.

“Yo, congrats on your short selection! Have you wrote something?”

“Is that Eric over there?” I look at my phone screen. “Of course you are. I have no idea really.”

“Have you tried writing about poverty?”

“Poverty’s too big an issue. Can you be more specific?”

“You know microloans? Try to ask for that.”

“You want me to write a letter so they lend us a hundred dollars?”

My phone erupts with laughter of many people from the other side. “Try that. For the lols.”

“Heh, lol.”

Eric talks some more about how the soup kitchen he is running isn’t actually lacking in potential food waste. But they lack cars or trucks to carry all the leftover food quickly before they become prime source for compost.

“So I should ask for faster than light travel?”

“Wormholes. Something like Doraemon’s As-You-Like Door.” Eric is referring to a door gadget which opens immediately to a new location.

“Well, I try to make it sound formal.”

My parents return home for lunch, as usual. My sister cooked them some chicken in soy sauce and onions. And the vegetables are sauteed cabbage. The smell is heavenly. And the lunch is somewhat calm.

My father breaks the silence. “Have you started writing?”

“Nah, I don’t know what to write.”

My mother swallows her rice. “Try writing for world peace.”

“Isn’t world peace up to us?”

My sister removes the chicken bones from the flesh. “Try asking for a lot of money to pay both sides to be at peace.”

“I don’t know, that makes us look very greedy.”

“You’re saying we aren’t?”

Well, now I have three ideas. Education for marginalised, wormholes, and money.

The next interview with the journalist comes a few days later.

Maisarah points the microphone a bit too close to me. I readjust myself to the back and she gives some distance. “Please tell us what your letter is about.”

“I want to ask for tools to build a type of school.”

“School?”

“Yes, it’s an odd school. Children went there to learn how to read, write, and count, the usual. But adults learn how to do crafts, such as carpentry, weaving, smithing. Some schools may even teach coding and business basics.”

“Don’t we have the same system here?”

“Well, the schools we have now are for the citizens of our countries. There is no infrastructure for the stateless of our countries. There are classes set up by social advocacy groups, but it’s for children and they don’t have enough funds to teach more people. There is no funds to buy tools and supplies to teach adults.”

“So, you want to ask for funding to build schools? Will it be any different from our system now?”

“Yes, for one thing, we receive outside funding, literally! Secondly, the schools are going to be borderless. Any stateless people or hardcore poor can join in from anywhere.”

“Anywhere, even from other countries?”

“Yes.”

“But, how will they travel to the schools?”

“For one thing, we know Planet Xenoniah can make wormholes. Set up some wormhole doors so people can travel from their villages to schools by literally walking a few hundred meters away.”

We don’t watch the final selection on TV, as we are invited cordially to Geneva to witness the event. At the end, the judges decide to compile three most popular letters to one. The end result is this:

“To our friend, the leader of Planet Xenoniah Coalition, Babluk Xinaphah Waristi,

We thank you for your offer of help, and we have prepared with our requests.

Firstly, we ask for wormhole technology, some funding and supplies, to build schools to teach our marginalised people skills and carfts to help them provide their communities with jobs and products.

Secondly, we would like to learn your knowledge on terraforming. We have chosen our first step to be the atmosphere of Venus, while we build Mars to be more Earthlike. Hopefully, we could expand the reach of our species and provide more resources for further advances.

Thirdly, we would like to visit your fine planet and host you. We would like to know how your culture functions and the history.

We thank you again for your aid, and may our alliance blossoms for as long as our civilisations exist.”

For my problem, I get a goodie bag with some Swiss chocolate and kopi luwak. And the letter will be sent by Chris Pratt, aboard a provided spaceship. Unfortunately, he’s just the one to give the letter at a mothership stationed near Jupiter, not the one actually piloting it. That is other people’s job.

I never think about the letter after that day. I am still rather jobless, helping around with social advocacy groups, and sometimes teaching at Hisham’s school. But one day, just as I am watering the plants, there is a sudden flash of light. Hisham steps out of the light, which have transformed to a gate.

“Hey, come! Class is about to begin!”

“You better start paying me.”

“How does RM 3 000 a month sound?”

Well, I have no excuse now. I grab my wallet, phone, and some books. “Let’s go.”

[specialability]

Extremely long life update:

tl;dr I bought myself a 2020 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 from BestBuy and it was an awful experience but it's in the mail, also I really like mastodon a lot actually, and my cat got worms :| if you read or scroll to the end you get cat photos as a reward.

A couple weeks ago I decided to buy myself a new laptop as Black Friday sales were starting (even though I live in Canada where Thanksgiving happened a month ago) and my current MacBook Pro is from 2015 and showing its age. The battery menu just says "Service Recommended" on it now. I basically can't stream sports video without closing everything else that's open. That sort of thing. I got a bunch of money in Sept due to being approved for disability support so I can afford something low-medium nice so I start searching for "budget gaming laptops" and doing a probably excessive amount of research. Most review sites decide to consider things "budget" if they're less than $1000 but they're going by USD and let's just say a $900 USD laptop goes for more like $1400 CAD if it's even stocked. So finding something that's actually under CAD$1000 involves a lot of manually checking multiple sites because of all the different possible configurations. I am repeatedly reminded of why I previously bought only Macs.

My criteria ended up being: under CAD$1000, AMD processor (because they play better with Linux), discrete graphics card, removable/upgradable RAM, upgradable SSD, not hideous, not extremely heavy or large, in stock.

I settle on two main options: Lenovo Ideapad 3 Gaming or Asus TUF A15, both of which were going for about $999 and were relatively well-reviewed but emphasis was made on the fact that they were heavy and battery wasn't great. Also the TUF is hideous. I'm not a student any more so I don't really need to worry about all-day battery life, but I also don't want something that basically needs to sit on a desk all the time plugged in to be used. Because I don't have a desk and there isn't room for a desk in my apartment. Which is why I'm buying a laptop instead of a desktop in the first place.

Anyway, I kept going back and forth because I wasn't really happy enough with either of them to justify the price, the configuration of the Ideapad that I wanted went out of stock so only a more expensive version was available, I had a bit of a meltdown on twitter where I started totally second-guessing myself and maybe I should just buy a shitty $300 refurb laptop?? Like what am I doing I don't need to game on a laptop, I've spent all these years not being able to play PC games and I still don't own any consoles other than the switch. Am I being too greedy??

And then it was like 4am and I was on the BestBuy site and they must have updated their sales at midnight because the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 showed up. (insert holy choir singing hallelujah) It actually matches all my criteria aside from being 14", which is a bit small but I can live with it. It has excellent reviews, better than the other two. It's actually small and light enough to be portable and and has a much bigger battery than the other two somehow?? AND it's on sale for $899 so great, I put in the order.

Nothing happens. No shipping notification or anything. Until two days later I wake up to the order being cancelled. No email even to tell me why. So I open up the chat and they say it's a security issue, the billing address you put in wasn't matched by the bank so the charge was refused. This makes no sense because I paid with paypal which has had all my info in it for ages and has always worked before. I google and there are people complaining about this on reddit so sure, fine, I'll redo the order and make double sure the address is correct. I pay directly without paypal. Next day, wake up, order is cancelled again. This time I call them. They can't override the system, but what the person says is I can physically go into the store and ask them to put in the order through their system and then I just pay at the store and therefore it won't be checked in the same way by the system. This is because I want the open box price that is $100 lower. If I was willing to pay the extra $100 for the non-open box version I could have just physically gone to the store in the first place, a week ago when I started all this. But fine. FINE. I want to buy this stupid laptop. It better be absolutely flawless when I get it because seriously. The only other place that has it in stock it is $350 more and is a newer version so I can't even just say fuck BB and go somewhere else and ask for a price match.

So after navigating the local transit situation which is totally off its normal route due to construction and then walking enough to give myself a blister I make it to the stupid BB store. First of all it's nearly impossible to find a sales person. Then she tries to pressure-sell me into getting the $999 version and then keeps insisting that I also need to buy the extended warranty. I almost buckle because I am into negative spoons but am saved by the fact that my credit card is, again, declined.

So I walk off and call my stupid bank, thinking they've cut me off for fraud because I've tried to buy this laptop so many times. Nope, says the person on the phone, you just hit your credit limit because the previous purchases are still sitting there pending and haven't cancelled yet. Once again I want to strangle whoever is in charge of BB's checkout system. I actually have a totally different credit card, but it's at home. Am I going to go all the way home and back again? Am I going to go home and try to order it online with the other credit card and run into the same problem?? Absolutely not. But the bank phone person actually ups my limit while I'm on the line with them, which is amazing, and gives me just enough space to buy the stupid laptop. I am seriously at the point where I'm doubting all my life choices and do I even want a new laptop my old one still functions what am I doing wasting money like this etc.

So I go back to the desk and the previous sales person is gone, thank god, so I explain what happened to the person who's there and they're, shockingly, like "sure we can def do that". So they log into their shit and we go through putting in my info and making sure they order the exact right one and then I pay for it (with no pressure sell of the warranty this time) and it goes through! I would be more excited if I wasn't so exhausted.

aside: it is so unseasonably cold out I can't believe it. it is never this cold around here, I never have to get my full winter coat out in November let alone there being snow and ice on the ground. climate change!! what are you doing!! we can't have incredibly hot summers and incredibly cold winters!!

aside2: the reason why I didn't want the warranty is that aside from it being like $25/month, more than my actual renters insurance, is based on my reading of it there is no coverage of accidental water damage. which is the no.1 reason why I might need repair. Anything else that's going to fail will either fail in the first year and be covered by the manufacturer or I'll deal with it myself. I'm not a pro repair person I don't even own a soldering iron but I can follow ifixit instructions. In my impatience for this laptop to arrive I have actually already looked up the instructions for upgrading/repairing various parts to make sure it's possible, because most cheaper laptops these days solder the RAM to the motherboard and therefore aren't upgradable in the future.

back to the main story: Being a depressed cynical person I am not jumping with excitement yet. The next day I wake up and... there's a shipping notice!!! They have printed the shipping label!! I have never actually achieved this stage of the purchase process before!!!!!!

It is now the weekend so the only progress that gets made is that the package is scanned in at the nearest warehouse. So the laptop exists. Or a box that a laptop should be in exists. It might arrive Mon or maybe Tues. I will believe it when I receive it intact and turn it on and it works. The only plus side of the trip to the BB is that I got to look at it and try out the keyboard and touchpad. The screen is indeed a bit small but now that I (my roommate) owns a TV that is less of a real issue. I am going to wipe and reinstall Windows 11 to start with and then dual boot it with Pop OS.

I am, at this point, both looking forward to and dreading getting used to using a non-Mac computer for the first time in ages. I've used WinPCs for work in the past, but never as my main daily use machine and after 10+ years of using various MacOSes I have such a deeply-ingrained workflow that it's going to take some getting used to. I learned to program in Unix! I know all the ways in which MacOS tends to break! I have already researched different desktop environments that might be more similar to Mac and made sure that my most often-used software has either a Linux version or an equivalent I can migrate to.

And of course the twitter meltdown is happening so I checked out all the different social media offerings that people were talking about and since a few of my techie / librarian friends moved to mastodon I put a little more effort into learning it than the other ones. In terms of their philosophy of decentralization and consent I am behind the software 100% but if of course depends on how it's implemented.

So I'm invested in finding one or more mastodon servers to live on in the future as a replacement or adjunct to twitter but already I prefer the interface and functions to twitter by a lot. For one thing, twitter hamstrung 3rd party clients a long time ago so the one I've been using for like 5 years is very clunky and laggy, but the tusky mastodon client looks pretty much the same and is incredibly snappy. I find myself much more motivated to use it and let it crosspost to twitter than use twitter and crosspost in the other direction. Even if I still mess up on most of the tweets I send and have to go back and fix the permissions or CW.

I have already moved one of my accounts to a different server from the first one I signed up to and have a second account going on a newbie fandom server. I haven't found my ideal server yet but I am looking at the more anarchist-oriented ones.

another aside, do I qualify for an ADHD diagnosis yet?: I understand the ass-covering required by saying 'no illegal stuff' but lol I am not a totally law-abiding person and am not going to totally censor myself on that, the DMCA can go fuck itself, scihub and libgen are great, and yes I occasionally shoplift from the pharmacy.

If I had the money I would probably just start my own, it sounds easier to install than Arch Linux and, if nothing else, I have a lot of free time. I wrote a really long screed on why I think mastodon (and the fediverse more widely) is better for fandom than twitter ever was but then deleted it because my knowledge changed just within the 24hrs since I wrote it. Anyway, I like it a lot, it has a nice vibe so far, I suspect that a lot of people will quit after this initial rush but that's fine. It's much less frantic than discord but allows for more frequent smaller posts unlike tumblr, so it's good for my kind of diary-style posting. Basically the main reason why I'm writing this post is because I haven't been able to write it out in bits and pieces properly because of all the twitter/mastodon migration.

With all this going on, I also had my cat show signs of being infested with tapeworms (ew) so I had to suddenly get him to the vet. The vet agreed with me and gave me some meds for him so hopefully that is dealt with. I haven't bought pokemon yet because I don't even want to play it, I just want to deal with one thing at a time... or preferably zero things for a while... It is hard to keep up with fandom when I am not even showering every day because I am so tired.

cat photo time: the fat one is the one with worms, but it's not the reason why he's fat (probably) the other one is my roommate's and he's a real gremlin

[tech-battery]

Dell XPS 17 (9700) review: The 17-inch laptop is back, and it's spectacular

Dell's XPS lineup has been among the best for years, and the company has gradually refined whatever pain points it did have, such as when it used to put the webcam below the screen. But this year, the lineup underwent a major redesign, with Dell chopping down the bezels even more, something that I wouldn't have guessed was possible.

The firm has long touted how small the footprint is on its laptops, always saying that the XPS 15 fits in the footprint of a 13-inch laptop, and that the XPS 13 fits into the footprint of an 11-inch laptop. With the XPS 15 fitting into an even smaller footprint this year, there was room for something bigger.

Dell announced the new XPS 17 in May, and it's the first new XPS 17 in around a decade. If you read my review of the latest XPS 15, then there are pretty much two things to know. The screen is bigger, and it's more powerful with Nvidia RTX graphics. In fact, it's the first XPS laptop ever with RTX graphics.

Obviously, these specs are for the unit that Dell sent me. The base model starts at $1,399.99, although that one has integrated graphics, a Core i5-10300H, an FHD screen, and 8GB RAM.

Design

While the XPS 17 was introduced alongside the XPS 15 redesign in May, this design was actually first shown in January at CES with the XPS 13. This design consists of a 16:10 display, narrow bezels on all four sides, and no USB Type-C ports. Indeed, if you put the XPS 13, 15, and 17 next to each other, they look nearly identical except for being different sizes.

The Dell XPS 17 is indeed the 17-inch laptop that can fit into the footprint of a 15-inch laptop. The most important thing that that means to me is that it can fit into a regular-sized bag. That's not always the case with 17-inch laptops; in fact, it's pretty rare. It's a bit heavy at five and a half pounds, but that's the kind of laptop that this is. It's got a lot of power under the hood, and it also fits into a small footprint. That combination makes the XPS 17 unique.

The top-down view is the one thing that looks the same. The chassis is made out of aluminum, and the laptop comes in a silver color with a chrome-colored Dell logo stamped in the lid.

The sides are silver-colored as well. This was a big change with the redesign since the sides have more traditionally been black. I think this gives it a much cleaner look. But as I mentioned, there are no USB Type-C ports, even on the 17-incher.

Instead, there are four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two of which are on each side. The bad news is that they're not full Thunderbolt 3 ports, so if you're like me and you work from a Thunderbolt 3 dock that has two 4K monitors attached to it, you won't be able to use the full resolution. My workaround was to disconnect one of the monitors from the dock and connect it directly to the laptop. Still, it's disappointing, considering how premium and powerful this PC is.

The cool thing about having two Thunderbolt 3 ports on each side is that you can charge the PC from either side. I know that this sounds like a small thing, but it's really nice, and it's a rarity in laptops.

Also on the right side, you'll find an SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack. I'm kind of surprised that the SD card reader is there with everything else being cut, but I guess it's nice that it's there.

Display and audio

The screen on the Dell XPS 17 is a flat 17 inches, compared to 17.3 inches on a traditional 17-inch laptop. The reason for that is because this has a 16:10 display, and to be clear, being that it's measured diagonally, this display is larger than a 17.3-inch 16:9 screen. It comes in your choice of 3840x2400 or 1920x1200 resolutions. Dell sent me the former, and it is absolutely beautiful.

It comes in at 500-nit brightness, so it works great in bright sunlight, and indoors, I only found myself using it at about 25% brightness. It also has 100% Adobe RGB, 94% DCI-P3, and a 1600:1 contrast ratio.

The colors are also nearly perfect, and that actually goes for whatever angle you're viewing the display from. Dell promises a 178-degree viewing angle, and it delivers. You can look at this thing from any angle and not see any visible distortions.

Plus, it's big. I'm not always a fan when companies make taller screens like this because it means that it's also narrower. But at 17 inches, there's plenty of screen real estate for everything.

The company also has something called Dell Cinema, which includes CinemaColor, CinemaSound, and CinemaStream. CinemaColor includes HDR technologies and more, and there's actually an included app that lets you apply different display settings such as movie, evening, sports, and animation.

The bezels are small, but that doesn't mean Dell removed the webcam, or moved it. It's shrunken down to fit into that tiny top bezel, and there's an IR camera for facial recognition as well. You're not making any sacrifices in that department like you would have been in the old days.

CinemaSound has to do with the Waves MaxxAudio Pro speakers. There's an app for that too, but this one is called MaxxAudio Pro instead of CinemaSound. The XPS 17 has large speakers on either side of the keyboard, and they sound fantastic. The dead giveaway is that it has both woofers and tweeters, a rarity on laptops.

Indeed, this has four speakers, two of which are 2.5W and two of which are 1.5W. Obviously, they're used for different frequencies. If you're looking for sound quality and volume in a laptop, you definitely came to the right place.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard found in the XPS 17 is the same as can be found in its other clamshell laptops. Dell does have a technology called MagLev that it uses in the XPS 13 2-in-1 and XPS 15 2-in-1, but perhaps surprisingly, the technology didn't make it into the smaller, redesigned clamshells.

Dell didn't add a numpad, which is a decision that I'm happy with. I'm not a fan of the numpad, and it's not even easy to ignore because it moves the regular keyboard to the left, leaving it off-centered. I'll take the quad-speaker setup instead.

Key depth is 1.3mm, which is pretty standard for a consumer laptop these days. It's quite comfortable to type on, and it's definitely one of the better keyboards in a consumer laptop. If we were talking about commercial laptops, that might be another story, but we're not talking about commercial laptops. I find that I make very few mistakes with this keyboard, something that I do appreciate after using some keyboards that I've had some issues with.

There's a power button in the keyboard, which doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Unfortunately, you do have to scan your fingerprint after the PC boots up, as opposed to how everyone else with a fingerprint sensor in the power button does it, scanning your finger before it boots up.

Dell considers this to be a security issue, assuming that you might walk away from your PC between when you press the button and when it boots up and someone might sit in front of it. I have a bit more faith in the user than Dell does, and I think you'd get to know your PC and whether or not you're safe to grab a cup of coffee while it's booting up.

My favorite feature of the XPS 15 is on the XPS 17, which is that the Precision trackpad is massive. Huge trackpads are something that Apple introduced on its MacBook Pro PCs a while back, and I've been waiting for a Windows OEM to follow suit. If the real estate on the keyboard deck is there, I say use it. The large, clickable trackpad feels great, and it makes drag-and-drop operations a breeze.

Performance and battery life

Both performance and battery life are excellent on the XPS 17. This thing is great for anything. I used it for things from gaming with Forza Horizon 4 and Halo: Reach to 4K video editing to general work. Sure, there was the occasional bump in the road, particularly when it came to gaming, but it absolutely handled anything that I threw at it.

After all, this thing has top-end hardware for its class. It has an Intel Core i7-10875H processor, which has eight cores, 16 threads, and a 45W TDP. It's the better Core i7 from the H-series, the other one being the hexa-core Core i7-10750H. It's only bested by the Core i9-10885H, which is available in the XPS 17.

For graphics, it comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q with 6GB GDDR6. With RTX graphics, it supports things like real-time ray tracing and deep learning super sampling (DLSS). RTX graphics was how I knew it would support some solid gaming. You can get it with integrated graphics if you don't want the power at all, or you can get it with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti.

Keep in mind that this is a creator laptop, not a gaming laptop. It uses a 130W charger, while most gaming laptops are closer to the 230W range, and it doesn't have the thermals for it. This is primarily a work machine, but I'm here to let you know that it does have the power to play as well.

Even more impressive is battery life. I often say that you have to choose between power and battery life, and with the UHD+ display, you can bet that this uses a lot of power. I used it with the power slider one notch above the battery saver, and with the screen at around 25% brightness. I can tell you that you can easily get six hours out of this, and in many cases, you can take it further than that. With general work, I was able to get up to eight hours.

Of course, the touchscreen model comes with a 97Whr battery. In other words, this has one of the biggest batteries that you'll find in any laptop (much larger and you can't take it on a plane). The non-touch model comes with a 56Whr battery.

For benchmarks, I used PCMark 8, PCMark 10, 3DMark, VRMark, Geekbench, and Cinebench.

If you're not the type to go through benchmark scores, all you need to know is that this is a powerful machine.

Conclusion

My biggest complaint about the Dell XPS 17 is that it doesn't have full Thunderbolt 3 ports, which would have been able to handle two 4K displays on a single port. If that bothers you too, just wait for the next one. Intel's next generation of CPUs is going to support Thunderbolt 4, which is really just the full Thunderbolt 3 that I'm describing. My other gripe is that there's no cellular model. I realize that it's something of a rare feature on more powerful laptops, probably because it uses battery, but I don't care. It's 2020 and I should be able to work from anywhere.

Let's be clear that this is an absolutely incredible laptop that's nearly perfect. It's an absolute pleasure to use, no matter what you're using it for. If you're playing games, it can do that. If you're streaming movies, it's got a killer HDR display and stunning speakers. If you want to edit video, it's got the power for that as well.

All of it comes in a beautiful chassis and yes, a small footprint. The fact that this thing has a 17-inch display and can fit in a regular bag is a feat of engineering. Honestly, the Dell XPS 17 is in a class all its own, and I can't think of anything like it. If you're looking for a laptop that can do everything, this is it.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/new-year-2020-our-gadgets-wishlist-from-iphone-9-to-mi-tv-4x/

New Year 2020: Our Gadgets Wishlist, From iPhone 9 to Mi TV 4X

There’s nothing like having a shiny new gadget to play with. Well, until the second week anyway — when you start looking forward to the next one, eh? That would be funny except materialism is no funny topic in a world that’s facing a climate emergency. Thanks, unchecked capitalism. But that’s not going to automatically make you not want things, but the least that you can do when the planet is burning is be responsible. More so for tech stuff that use rare-earth elements. Don’t discard something that still works, and if you’ve to buy a new one, read about its environmental impact.

Depressed yet? Anyway, here’s what the Gadgets 360 staff will be keeping its eye on in 2020. It includes TVs, laptops, smartwatches, (wireless) headphones, gaming consoles and services, and naturally, phones. And… shoes? Yes, shoes.

Aditya Shenoy: Samsung Galaxy Buds, but better

Last year, I had put the Sena 30K on my wishlist. I didn’t buy it because I found it to be super expensive for what it offered. Cardo does make similar communicators that are better and well-priced but that’ll have to wait since this Chinese V6 Communicator I bought this year is working as expected.

I don’t need a tech product, but I am open to buying a pair of good truly wireless earphones. Currently the Samsung Galaxy Buds are on the list. I hope Samsung launches a successor soon with active noise cancelling. That would be something I’ll be interested to buy.

Buy: Samsung Galaxy Buds, if you can’t wait

Akhil Arora: a new console, maybe?

Someone ought to hold and shake me by the shoulders, just for saying that. A bit of necessary backgrounder: I own more consoles than new games I’ve finished this year, and more controllers than free hours I’ve in the day. And yet, I can’t seem to resist the temptation of the next generation, if only for the better graphics fidelity it will no doubt promise.

But I haven’t named one side because I’m genuinely caught: PlayStation has more exclusives, and Xbox has… Forza Horizon? Contain your astonishment, that’s my life. What Microsoft needs to do then essentially is announce Forza Horizon 5, exclusive to the Xbox Series X. That last bit is very important. Hope you’re (not) listening, Phil. Otherwise, Sony seems the safer bet.

Or maybe I’ll grow some brains and save the money for an upcoming holiday.

Buy: some sensibility

Akshay Jadhav: Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless ANC Headphones

In 2019, I assembled my new PC, primarily for editing and gaming at home. However, I couldn’t stretch my budget to accommodate a decent pair of headphones. So, in 2020 I am looking out for a killer pair of headphones to complete my setup and I have my eye on the legendary Sony WH-1000XM3 due to its insane active noise cancellation capabilities and superb sound quality. This headphone is still on the pricier side however when it comes to ANC with overall features, it is still slightly better than the Bose QC 35. In 2020, I am hoping that after Sony releases their new XM4 model, the XM3 will go down in price or I can find it on a discounted price during any sale.

Buy: Sony WH-1000XM3 Active Noise Cancellation Headphones

Ali Pardiwala: Apple Arcade

There are a few non-tech products I absolute NEED to buy — a new mattress and shoes — so I’m a bit short on funds for a big tech purchase. However, I do love playing games on my iPad mini (2019), and I think it’s finally time to set aside an extra Rs. 99 per month for Apple Arcade. It may not sound like much, but when I’m already paying for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Spotify, and YouTube Music, even Rs. 99 per month sounds like a lot.

Apple’s gaming service comes with a one-month free trial, and gives you access you a variety of quality games through a unique monthly subscription model. It’s a great way to access new games and might be worth it for me if I can play games that actually put the iPad mini’s power to good use.

Buy: Apple Arcade

Aman Rashid: Nike Air Jordan 1

In 2018, I remember wanting to buy the iPhone XS Max in Gold, but I just couldn’t because I had recently purchased the Galaxy Note 9 at that time, and admittedly my budget was also a bit tight. But yes, I do remember mentioning in my wishlist for 2019 that I would buy the next iPhone. So, iPhone season came, and I got the iPhone 11 Pro in Gold. And with that, I fulfilled the promise to myself of getting the next big thing from Apple.

So now what? Well, now I am having a good time with my iPhone 11 Pro. And looking at my habit of changing phones every year: do I want to upgrade to the iPhone 12 Pro or whatever its name is going to be? Um, I am not so sure right now. I think for me, the iPhone 11 Pro is a very good smartphone that ticks all the correct boxes. So as much as I love my current device, I am not very sure whether I will be upgrading to the iPhone 12 Pro or not.

But this is a question for September 2020. If the new iPhone does look enticing to me, then maybe I might just buy it. In the meantime, what else do I want? Well apart from phones sneakers are something that I am absolutely crazy for and believe me I have got a lot of them. So, iPhone 12 Pro in 2020? Not so sure. More Air Jordan 1s? Yes sir, please!

Buy: Nike Air Jordan 1

Gaurav Shukla: Apple MacBook Air (2020)

It has been a while since I upgraded my laptop and if I remember correctly both my existing laptops are now touching the five-year mark. So, I am thinking of going for the upgraded MacBook Air model that is expected to arrive sometime in 2020. As the latest MacBook Air model available in the market packs the eight-gen Intel core chips, I want to wait until Apple releases the refreshed version with at least the 10th gen Intel core processor options.

It will be my first personal MacBook as even though I currently use an NDTV-provided MacBook Air for official work, I have stuck to Windows for personal computers. I am hoping that not only does Apple upgrade the CPU in the next-generation MacBook Air but also switches the keyboard from butterfly to scissor-switch-based design that it has included in the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Harpreet Singh: AirPods Pro, Kindle Paperwhite

Last year, I wished to buy Apple’s HomePod in 2019. I waited for a large part of the year, hoping Apple will launch it in India. It didn’t. And then a very wise person I know suggested I wait until Black Friday, which is exactly what I did. I ended up with a generous deal on the HomePod eventually (yes, I had to buy one from the US).

For 2020, I don’t have any solid plans yet. I wish to save some dough, but then you never know. AirPods Pro, a new MacBook Pro 13-inch (ideally one with the new keyboard), and the all-new Kindle Paperwhite are still on my wishlist. Depending on the budget, I might strike at least one of these off by the end of next year.

Buy: AirPods Pro, Kindle Paperwhite

Jagmeet Singh: Apple Watch Series 5

It’s been more than a year since I have the Apple Watch Series 3. Although I’m still getting what I need from the 2017 model, I feel that 2020 would be the year when I would switch to a newer Apple Watch. I generally don’t consider it wise to spend plenty of your hard-earned money on a new Apple device that becomes cheaper in a few months of its launch. Thus, I hope that the latest Apple Watch would get some price drops in the future that would make it a better deal.

What makes the Apple Watch Series 5 a significant upgrade over the Series 3 is its new Always-On Retina display and the ability to record electrocardiogram (ECG). Both features have attracted me since the launch of the new Apple Watch model in September. However, its price tag of nearly Rs. 44,000 for the 44mm case is something that has restricted me to take the buying decision so far.

Apple is likely to bring some notable changes to its smartwatch family in 2020. Nevertheless, I don’t want to spend much on the next-generation Apple Watch and would go with the existing option next year.

Buy: Apple Watch Series 5

Jamshed Avari: nothing, hopefully

It’s highly unlikely that I’ll splash out on anything huge in 2020, or at least unlikely that I’ll plan to. At the moment, everything I have works well enough and isn’t too old. That doesn’t mean I’m immune to the temptations of flash sales or crazy discounts, so who knows how I’ll feel six months from now, and who knows what I’ll end up with! I’ve also developed a bad habit of buying SSDs and RAM because prices keep falling so it’s probably a fair bet that my various devices will end up getting a few minor upgrades.

Nadeem Sarwar: Pixel 4a

The Google Pixel 4a is at the top of my tech wish list for the year 2020 for many reasons, with one of them being the need to upgrade to a new phone. And now that the first major Pixel 4a leak has given us a look at its design, I am more now more inclined to buy it. The Pixel 4a will ditch its predecessor’s thick bezels and will opt for a more modern hole-punch design.

Prabhakar Thakur: iPhone 9, or SE 2

I am thinking of buying Apple iPhone 9 (also called iPhone SE 2) which is rumoured to launch in April 2020. According to reports, the phone may feature A13 Bionic chip and the same chassis as that of the iPhone 8. I hope Apple keeps the bezels thin and provides a bigger battery. I also wish the phone supports fast charging, but I guess I am asking for a bit too much from the company given its past record. A decent camera can be expected as well.

My decision to buy the iPhone 9 will also depend on its price. As per speculations, the smartphone may start selling at $399 in the US. My guess is that it might sell in India for $600 (roughly Rs. 43,000). Waiting for some great deals for the phone also seems like a good idea. iPhone 11 could also become cheaper later in the year. Eventually, it will depend on the best deal that I get both in terms of phone’s capabilities and price. For now, the iPhone 9 is on my mind.

Pranay Parab: AirPods Pro

I was fortunate enough to pick up the AirPods at a big discount a couple of years ago, and I hope 2020 will bring a similar discount on the AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro has active noise cancellation and excellent sound quality, as we’ve mentioned in our review and podcast, and that makes this a must have for me. While this is the product I want to buy, I will not be picking it up at its current price (Rs. 24,900). I’m prepared to wait till 2021 or till whenever there’s a big discount before buying it. Until then, I’ll continue using my AirPods even though the battery life is down to around 90 minutes at this point.

Buy: AirPods Pro

Roydon Cerejo: games, wireless earphones and chargers

Last year, I said I wanted to buy the Apple Watch Series 4 and, in all honesty,, I almost did. But then, better sense prevailed, and I ended up picking up a used, Series 1 instead. It just didn’t make sense spending the same amount as a mid-range Android flagship, for an accessory. My main need for the Apple Watch was notifications alerts and controlling media volume when using AirPods — all of which the Series 1 handles beautifully.

For 2020, I don’t have an immediate wishlist since I’ve already made pretty big purchases this year, the PS4 Pro being the most recent one. I’ll definitely looking to get more games for the PS4, as and when newer titles drop in price and hit CeX. I’ll probably look at picking up a new pair of truly wireless earphones too. I love my AirPods, but the Samsung Galaxy Buds have spoiled me with its superior audio quality. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the Bose Earbuds 500 or 700, which were teased this year for a 2020 launch.

I wouldn’t mind more wireless chargers at home too. It’s super convenient and now that most people at my place have phones capable of wireless charging, it makes sense to have more of them around the house.

Buy: Samsung Galaxy Buds

Sumit Garg: Mi TV 4X Pro

In 2019, I have got quite a bunch of things for myself. And if we are talking about tech, then my biggest purchase must be the Apple iMac. Yes, I finally got it for myself and I also remember putting it as my wishlist for 2019. And, in 2020 I can finally shift my focus to other things. You know, I just can’t ignore my love for big screens. So, after the iMac, the next purchase I want to make for myself is a TV, and I am pretty sure about the one that I want.

The Xiaomi Mi TV, which is a 4K 55-inch LED TV, is the one I have been keeping an eye on for quite some time. I really like the way it looks, I like its picture and sound quality as well, and on top of everything, the price tag it carries is also that won’t burn a hole in my pocket. I mean come on, for 40k, where will I find such an amazing TV. So, the Mi LED TV 4X Pro it is.

Buy: Mi LED TV 4X Pro

Tasneem Akolawala: Learning apps

There’s no big tech purchase that I’ve planned for 2020, mainly because I’ve got a little toddler in the house that is going through a phase of extreme curiosity. I might invest in a few paid learning apps for my kid, but no big bucks will be spent on tech till he grows up a little more. I also kept my 2019 new flagship phone purchase on hold, even though my iPhone 6s went kaput this year, as predicted. I’m making do with a budget Android phone for now that helps fulfil my texting and calling needs.

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[celyndizon-cipm]

Section 10

Evaluation Essay

Before beginning my project I had to decide which topic or subject area I had most interest in. Knowing that my degree has different pathways that you can go in, I wanted to branch out and challenge myself to do something I have yet done. Although digital media is heavily web-based, I knew there were other outside directions that don’t consist of coding. Therefore, for creative industries I decided to take a step out of my comfort zone and achieve something bigger than anything I’ve ever done before. I decided to create a magazine. With a magazine I can showcase my skills in adobe softwares, creating logos, creating a layout design and collaborating with other people. However, identifying my client was difficult considering I was torn between basing it on my brother or my university football club. In order for me to pick one, I weighed out the pros and cons for each option. There were more cons than pros from my brother which automatically made me choose my football club (UPWFC). My primary focus of the project was to brand UPWFC and showcase them to the public, locals and University. And to help get them the exposure they need and to gather more girls to join women’s football.

Planning the project was important because it helped my time management and it also ensured that I had everything in order. To do so, I made sure to create a GANTT chart to guide me through the tasks and small deadlines to keep me focus on what needs to be done and when. The GANTT chart will also help show which part I would take the longest amount of time. I planned to have a template of the magazine done less than a month, gradually adding in content then all added content in less than 2 months. So in total, the magazine would be finished in 3 months maximum.  Along the process, time was delayed due to faults and miscommunication with my client, however it was still finished on time. Another method of accessing my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats was the use of a SWOT analysis. From the analysis, I had more strengths than weaknesses which gave me a confidence boost knowing that most sections were doable on my level. As for opportunities there were noted than threats which decreased my chances of encountering any problems during the project. The two major threats that did cause an issue during planning was personal problems and lack of communication. However, with my strengths I was able to overcome the issues and stay on track. Lastly, I created a risk assessment to outline what could be damage towards the project, e.g “laptop or software crashing” will create a delay in publishing the magazine, so to execute the problem I had to make sure to save every time a big change is made.

Whilst doing the project management methods, I went and set up a meeting with my client to ensure what their wants and needs are for this magazine. Beforehand, I prepared an interview to see an overall opinion on certain things that they may find interesting or wanting to change. During the interview I gathered data that was eventually used to create two questionnaires for the entire team’s input. The questionnaires were a mixed or ideas from the client and myself, I wanted to know their opinions on the ideas and their suggestions on what can be added. From what I accumulated, my planning and drafting for magazine layout was made easier. After, I began to note down all the suggested contents that the team, client and myself have mentioned and shortlisted down into six sections. Again, I weighed out the pros and cons for each and finalised which content had more to offer then I began to brainstorm each section to get an outlook on what can be included for each one. Also, the client insisted on including a lot of past and present photos to create a variety of past events. As for collaborations, I got in touch with a photography student who was known to be the main photographer for University football. Kwamephotography kindly accepted to collab with me and gave me the approval of using any of his photos. Another photographer came late during production as I was only introduced to him towards the end of our season. However, Sportsdnp took profile photos of each player during our football matches which saved me time from booking a studio and allocating a time for all the players to attend. The two photographers assisted me through the duration of the production which helped me focus on other areas of the magazine rather than capturing pictures, this was great time management and increase my networking skills.

As the pictures were being captured, I had to gather more photos of the girls in action and out of action (outside of football). I made sure I was aware of timing and using it to my advantages. I then began to gather content that was necessary, so I created a google survey to collect the players profile details; their names, DOB, degree, position and a quote or saying. Although it was hard to make sure the girls were responding back it kept me on track knowing that I’ve started early, this will then give me more time to draft the layout. As I started to collect the data I decided to make a list of the 1’s 2’s, 3’s ex-players and committee so that when production begins can I easily include them in.

Once all the correct data and material were gathered I began to storyboard the different sections to get an outlook, and to change any areas. I started off drawing a rough sketch (also known as wireframing) by drawing in boxes that would represent a text or an image. After a few drafts and finally accepting a final piece I started to use inDesign to start up this magazine. Since Blurb gives you an inDesign plug-in I used considering it already has a magazine template, which I then started to envision the draft and digitally create it in the program. Step by step I began the production, starting with the player profile since this will take up more time because of the small attention to detail.

During this assignment I have experience a lot of of both, negative and positive outcomes throughout the project. My organisation skills held back my time management and caused delays in terms of publishing, but during the whole I had the chance to enhance my creativity and improvisation as well as team work. On the other hand, my negative notes were mainly not having enough time to publish it  or going over the limit when not necessary. I struggled with starting inDesign because this was my first time using this software, but once I became comfortable and confident with the basic knowledge I started to find out new ways to do things. This was beneficial for me because it enriched my basic knowledge and understand of the software. My laptop was another technical issue that cost me a lot of time in terms of editing, since my laptop runs on a low memory ram the software became slow as I started to work through it. Also, my laptop crashed a few times due to lack of disk space and overheating. Luckily enough I had backed up my files and managed to restart the laptop every so often in case it shuts down again. The downside of the magazine was not giving myself enough time to publish and test the magazine enough times to spot the faults and mistakes. But, I managed to overview the project as I was creating it which saved me time from giving the finalised project a review.

As an improvement on behalf of the magazine, I could have gathered more content on the charity events that they have created and for who, a clearer player profile rather it being jumbled up together and sticking to my time management plan, so that next time I can afford the pressure of leaving it last minute. Since this being my first magazine, my lack of information had me stuck in the beginning and made me struggle in how to create and execute a one, but with the experience I had with AURA I managed to start myself and gradually starting to go with the flow of the production. Although I did not print out my magazine I figured that ebooks or e-magazine are more beneficial considering digital is becoming a primary source of news. Therefore publishing it in an ebook I can always change it or see what I can digitally improve. And my degree favours it by helping me understand the challenges you face as a junior intern. Taking from this whole experience of project management I have ensured to give myself an earlier deadline than to the submission so I can look over it and proofread it, if it was appropriate enough or if the features and content were all aligned. In regards to the software I have taken away qualities that will help me in future endeavours.

[slrlounge1]

My Experience with Apple as a Photographer and Creative Professional…

Disclaimer

Okay. Before I get started, let me say that I feel like the most unlucky person when it comes to electronics and major purchases. But, even with my bad luck, perhaps you will find this experience odd and worth sharing. What you are about to read is not doctored or manipulated to get more views, it’s simply my experience this past year with Apple products.

In the past, I respected and held Apple in high regard. However, I am by no means a “fanboy” of anything. I will use whatever it takes to get the job done, and I will tell you the pros and the cons of the tools I use. This is not a sponsored article, nor would Apple pay me to write this. They’d probably pay me not to. But that’s exactly why I feel it is important to share my experience using the new iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, and iPhone X. Here is a quick video that sums up my troubles:

Born Of PC

I was always a fan of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, but up until a year ago, I was by and large a PC user. Almost my entire world belonged in PC. It’s what I’d known since my teenage years, dividing my time between building my own computers, programming, and working at CompUSA (I really loved that job). I really loved PC for all the typical reasons. They are generally cheaper with plenty of DIY options for upgrades and more. Outside of that reason, I wasn’t particularly married to either side of the PC vs. Apple fence.

Over the years, I found myself having less and less time to build, modify and troubleshoot my own rigs. On top of that, Apple was consistently providing more reasons that made it possible to justify switching ecosystems. I loved their software to hardware integrations and the performance of Apple operating systems. A seamless experience between mobile and desktop seemed wonderful. On top of that, there was the App Store. However, what I appreciated most was the fact that their hardware/software systems were of the utmost quality and extremely reliable. At least, that was my perception.

Either way, less than a year ago (late 2017), I had enough motivation and justification to completely make the switch.

Swallowing The Bitter Cost Pill

When jumping into the Apple universe of products, we each have to accept the fact that we’re going to spend significantly more money than we would on other devices. For comparable performance results between a PC and an Apple, expect to pay 25-50% more on the Apple side of the spectrum. It’s no doubt a significant difference in price. However, we can accept this price difference more easily when we consider Apple’s sleek design, solid build quality, reliability, display quality, OS ecosystem, and more. That is until we can no longer expect those things from Apple. That’s where I stand today.

Let’s jump into the story.

Cupertino, We Have  A Problem

iPhone X

My business partner convinced me to jump into the new iPhone X upon release. Don’t get me wrong, Justin didn’t twist my arm. I’m always game for an upgrade. But, immediately upon receiving the new phone, I was frustrated by the fact that it felt as though Apple took a step backward in usability. The lack of a home button, the swiping left and right and from corners, all felt more difficult. Even getting the phone to flip on and recognize my face seemed more cumbersome than the simple home button design. Not to mention the new button layout leading to all sorts of wonderful screenshot mistakes. Still, I was game for learning the new design. However, even today, almost a year later, I still find the iPhone 7/8 to offer a better user experience.

Regardless, that was a small issue. Let’s get to the bigger one. Within roughly two weeks of using my new iPhone X, the smartphone started having issues. It would often freeze and crash. Very soon after, it completely died. I took it in for service and they said that it had a logic board failure. Then, they replaced the iPhone X without hassle. The Apple store is wonderful in that department. I also appreciated being able to take the phone into a store rather than having to mail it in for service. I made an appointment at the Genius Bar and they took care of it. Not a big deal.

Unfortunately, the issues haven’t stopped. The phone still crashes quite often. The OS is buggy, sometimes turning on and freezing for minutes. Now, with only a few months of use, my vibrate on/off toggle is also stuck.

Oh, by the way, my phone also fails to connect to the internet quite often. Despite having a full LTE signal (as you can see above), I can make calls, but I can’t send/receive data. T-Mobile and Apple do this amazing thing where they blame each other for the errors. T-Mobile says it’s the phone, Apple says it’s T-Mobile’s service. Odd, considering we have five iPhone Xs on the T-Mobile plan, and mine seems to be the only one having data issues. I’m siding with T-Mobile on this one.

No biggie, though; it’s just a phone, and AppleCare will take care of this latest issue. I just have to make the time to go get my third iPhone X back to the store. Something I’ve yet to do. Let’s move on.

MacBook Pro

In late 2017, I purchased a new MacBook Pro, which represents my first major step into the Apple ecosystem. This was the 2017 MacBook Pro and I purchased it nearly fully upgraded. It came equipped with a two-terabyte hard drive, as well as the fastest processor available at the time, 16 gigs of RAM, etc. I think the only additional option was a four-terabyte SSD. This required an amount of money that I wasn’t willing to pay.

Needless to say, this was an expensive piece of hardware. With Apple Care, I was looking to pay around $5,000 for this laptop, compared to $3,000-$4,000 for a comparable high-end PC. But, the price didn’t matter. I knew I was getting a reliable machine that I could use for live broadcasts, content creation and presentations with both CreativeLive and SLR Lounge. I expected a machine that could keep up with my need to edit images/video as I was preparing over 3,000 keynote slides over the next several months.

Unfortunately, a reliable machine is not what I received. Within a week of using the computer, I started noticing strange issues. For example, the mouse would regularly stutter; as I would move the trackpad, my mouse and keyboard would freeze temporarily as you can see in this video.

Later, depending on which USB-C ports were in use, the machine wouldn’t even start up which you can see here.

Shortly after, the laptop also started freezing and crashing on occasion. At the time, it was no more than a little odd considering it was a brand new machine and that it was an Apple. “Perhaps I just got a bad unit,” I thought to myself.

I took it to the Genius Bar to evaluate the situation. A day or two later, they said, “Your logic board is going bad and we need to replace it.” Just like before, when I took in my iPhone X, they replaced the logic board and it seemed like I had a new machine. Minus a day or so worth of time, I was back up and running. Sadly, within about week or two, it started having the same issues. This time, however, I started seeing other issues as well, like a graphics card failure. Here’s a video of the second machine.

Usually, when experiencing an issue with your computer, you can shut down the system or restart it. When I tried to do that here, the system went into a crazy, pixilated matrix view and it wouldn’t shut down properly.

Two different Apple MacBook Pros (2017 on the left, 2018 on the right), each with the same problem.

When I returned once more to the Genius Bar, they informed me that the logic board was failing again. They replaced the MacBook Pro, again. After having been replaced twice, it seemed to be operating pretty well until recently, when it started having the same issues once again as shown below.

I am on my third MacBook Pro, and it’s still not without problems. But, wait, you’ll find out that it gets even worse. For now, let’s move on to the iMac Pro.

iMac Pro

In January 2018, I made the final switch of upgrading my workstation to the iMac Pro. For the new workstation, I bought a specced out version of iMac Pro for roughly $7,000 with AppleCare. That represents a significant premium for what you’re actually getting. It has a beautiful screen and a beautiful design, but even then, you’d only spend $4,000-$5,000 on the PC side for the equivalent of $7,000 worth of Apple hardware. Again, I justified the premium because I wanted the quality and seamless experience Apple was known for.

In less than two weeks from the time I received the iMac Pro, I started experiencing the same exact stutter issues that I had with my MacBook Pro. Once again, I called into tech support. The cursor would freeze and stutter as you can see in the video above. Early on, it happened only upon startup. Within a few weeks, it started occurring during regular use of the computer as shown below.

While my MacBook Pro was in service, I had to make the iMac Pro work as it was my only machine. When I got my third MacBook Pro back, I finally reached out to Apple Support regarding the iMac Pro. This is where things went further south.

The Mysterious Disappearance Of Apple Support

I reached Apple Support fairly easily. I was quickly given an Apple Case Support person who was assigned to my case from beginning to end. She ran system analytics and other diagnostic before stating that she would need to send the information to the engineers for analysis. She told me they would be in touch within the next week. Meanwhile, the $7,000 iMac Pro sat on my desk as it would freeze/stutter too often to be used.

Keep in mind that during this time, I was using my MacBook Pro as my primary machine. I purchased external monitors just to be able to work more efficiently. Needing more screen real estate as I was creating content for the Complete Business Workshop, which we are currently releasing! (shameless plug).

At this point, taking the MacBook Pro or iMac Pro onto a production set was causing me severe anxiety. We always film with an in-studio audience, or via live online broadcasts. During each presentation and production event, I was constantly worried about the machines crashing or stuttering mid-presentation. My worries were justified when it did indeed happen. Oh, and by the way, the MacBook Pro we are currently editing this article on is also stuttering through nearly every word we type.

Back to the iMac Pro. After a week of waiting without any follow-up, I reached out to my caseworker. I could not get a hold of her, but I did leave a message and informed her about the status of my iMac Pro. She never responded, and I couldn’t get ahold of anyone who could help solve the issue. I soon found myself busy with productions for clients, Creative Live, and SLR Lounge. All of which took me out of the studio for a couple of weeks. When I got back, I still hadn’t heard back regarding the iMac Pro. In total, I sent four follow-up emails starting on March 23rd going to April 8th, and none of them had been responded to. The final email was sent to an escalated Case Manager to show them my experience (which we will discuss shortly).

Eventually, I just made an appointment with the Genius Bar and took the machine into the store. Apple of South Coast Plaza said that they needed a bit of time to run diagnostics, so I left it there. There was no loaner, despite the experience I had thus far. I was left without an office workstation while they attempted to fix the situation. During that time, it was back to using the MacBook Pro as a primary machine. Something that I am not a fan of considering it’s far more efficient to work from a more powerful desktop. A week later, I was informed that the issue was software related and that I’d have my computer back soon.

I relayed my doubts to them about the issue being software related. “If it’s just a software issue, why is it experiencing the same problems as my MacBook Pro?” I asked. I described to them the same stuttering, crashes, and graphics card failures, which mirrored what happened on the MacBook Pro when its logic board went out, not once, but twice.

Regardless, they repeated that it’s just a software issue and they told me I’d have my computer the next day. When the next day rolled around, they called to confirm that it was indeed a hardware issue, not a software issue. The said that the computer would soon be back with the engineers in Cupertino, and would take a few more days to complete. It took close to three weeks before I could get the iMac Pro back into my office, fixed and ready to go. And guess what? They had to replace the logic board and internal components once again.

Unfortunately, the story isn’t even over. The instant that I first turned the computer back on, I could see that my information had been wiped (this wasn’t the problem). The problem was that upon startup, it required an Apple ID set to an administrator Apple account that I wasn’t given the password to. Nobody from the store explained this. I soon found myself back on the phone again, calling Apple support, who then called the specific store at South Coast Plaza to provide me the password. Later that day, I was contacted and given that password to log in.  At that point, I had to log in, restore my account, then remove the administrative account manually. Typically, Apple support has always returned the machine ready to restore via Time Machine. 

Finally, A Breakthrough In Customer Service

After getting my computer setup, I reached out to customer service to let them know that I needed to talk to somebody about my overall experience with Apple. They sent me to a manager and I explained everything that’s happened. That’s when I also forwarded along the ghosted email correspondence. I also calmly shared with her my experience with my iPhone X, MacBook Pro and now iMac Pro.

In return, she responded with regret and asked, “Well, are there any products that you would like in the Apple store?” I initially declined the offer. I told her, “I kind of own what I want already. The only thing I don’t have is the HomePod, but not sure if I want that.” She then said, “How about I send you out a HomePod to thank you and compensate you for your troubles?” I explained the countless hours through the year that have been wasted on tech support. She responded back that sending me a HomePod was the best that could be done.

Honestly, I was grateful that they were willing to do even that. Few companies would do anything to acknowledge such an experience. So, that’s a small plus there. I knew there was nothing that could truly compensate me for my time or experience over the year. I accepted the HomePod, and just hoped this whole thing was done.

Apple HomePod

For those asking, “how was the HomePod.” Well, I don’t have much positive to report there. The speaker sounds great. It looks nice. But, beyond that, you shouldn’t be expecting much else. The HomePod is tricky to set up with the iMac Pro and once online, Siri can’t really do much. She can’t even play Spotify as she responds with “I’m sorry, I can’t do that” and requests that you use iTunes instead. Unfortunately, Siri has a long way to catch up to Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

It was in that moment, listening to this glorified speaker that I began wondering, “Where has Apple gone in their quality and product development? Where is the Apple that we all once knew?”

If Only It Were Over

I so desperately wished this was the end of this article, and of my experience. Unfortunately, it’s not. If you think I want to write/post more, you are wrong.

My third MacBook Pro is now experiencing the same issues that lead up to each of the previous logic board failures as can be seen here.

In addition, the iMac Pro has begun stuttering, freezing and crashing just as it did prior to being replaced. Now, it’s simply a matter of time before each machine stops working entirely, and has to go back to be serviced again.

Now, you won’t believe this part. I had an opportunity to upgrade to the 2018 MacBook Pro. A family member, knowing the issues with my 2017 model agreed to purchase it from me since it’s still so new and has AppleCare. So I bought the 2018 MacBook Pro. Can you guess what’s happened? Yep, already started to see issues with the 2018 MacBook Pro as can be seen in this image. This was, by the way, the same shutdown screen that we previously showed side-by-side on the 2017 model above. I see this lovely image every time I shut down the laptop.

Do I feel stupid? Yes. I feel like the idiot who’s made the same mistake repeatedly while giving Apple the benefit of the doubt that they clearly don’t deserve. Since publishing this piece my business partner, Justin, has had yet ANOTHER logic board failure on this iPhone X… I can’t make this stuff up.

Conclusion

Apple, as I once knew it, no longer exists in my mind today. In my opinion, the company that we all looked at as the pinnacle of innovation and quality control, is quickly vanishing.

If Apple were reading this right now, I would say that at a point in time I very much understood why someone would pay the extra money to buy Apple products. I understood what came with the Apple brand and you could say at that time that “you get what you pay for.” But today, that understanding,  quality, reliability, and goodwill behind the Apple brand have been completely eroded away. At least, in my experience.

When Steve Jobs passed away, I had my doubts about whether the company would continue to do what it did so well. Year after year, we’ve seen product lines receive modest updates as Apple throws out marketing terms like “revolutionary” for a touch bar that is anything but. Premature and underdeveloped products are released to capitalize on Apple’s goodwill (the HomePod). In the least, I expected Apple to keep up with the quality and reliability of the products that they have come to be known for. Unfortunately, it seems that year after year, quality control has dwindled as well.

On top of this, Apple’s product lines have expanded and become more complex. This goes directly against Steve Jobs mission to always simplify and focus on their core products and customers. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the Bluetooth AirPods. These were sold to me from a salesperson quoting a Steve Jobs line of “they just work.” Well, they work, most of the time. Sometimes I have to put them into the back into the base, reconnect, take them in and out of my ear, and after all of this… “they just work.” But, like all Apple products, when they work, I sure do love them.

Today, I buy AppleCare on every Apple Product I purchase. It’s not because I want it, it’s because I’m fearful that everything I’m going to buy is going to fail. This is a deceptive consumer practice. Apple has made each of us pay $300-$500 more for each product we buy because like me, other people are afraid that a day past their warranty they will fail, and they do! 

As it stands, I will use these products until they quit and AppleCare has expired. From there, unless Apple has changed, I have no reason to stick to a platform that has caused me so much more grief than the world of PC.

This has been my experience without bias or exaggeration. I will continue to always be open about my experiences with each of these companies and their products. I will also say that it’s not all negative. Beyond the hardware issues I’ve faced this year, I can honestly say that I love Apple’s ecosystem consisting of their OS, App Store, and software suite. In my mind, this is a huge reason to stay with the platform, if they can get everything else back on track. I genuinely hope that they are able to do so.

Discussion

My question to you all, is when does all the Apple goodwill end? Recently, Apple became the world’s first trillion-dollar company. Most of that accomplishment seems to be due to the ecosystem and world created by its past founders, engineers, and designers.

Today, Apple continues to reap profits on the efforts, much of which was put in over a decade prior. Meanwhile, in recent years it seems as their product, its quality, and overall service seem to have dwindled. Yet,  we continue to reward this and I wonder why? What are they doing today to keep you happy as a consumer? What is Apple doing right now, to justify spending time waiting in a line to give them your money, or buying every newly updated product?

I didn’t write this article to bash Apple as a company. I still love Apple, and I appreciate the vision that Steve Jobs had for the brand. I wrote this article to hopefully create a dialogue that can lead to positive change within a company many of us creatives love. I firmly believe that Apple products and hardware used to be far more reliable than it is today. It’s something that I am hoping will change.

This is where I’d love to hear your experiences. Negative and positive. Let’s dismiss the inner fanboy/fangirl and have some real talk. As always, please keep it civil.

This was my experience, how about the rest of you?

  from SLR Lounge https://www.slrlounge.com/my-experience-with-apple-as-a-photographer-and-creative-professional/ via IFTTT

[the-fitsquad]

Elements Of An Ergonomic Pc Station

Greatest Configuration For Organization Workstations With Windows XP

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Adding modular workstations to your workplace tends to make it easy to use the most of your valuable space. Bigger computer workstations supply a wider option of attributes such as lockable drawers, fixed desk pedestals, added printer – all of which supply extra storage space and free up the top surface for any other workplace equipment. In my case, PCI-Express 2. motherboard doesn’t take advantage of the most current PCI-Express three. graphics cards. Launch VMware Workstation from the Windows Begin > Programs menu. Hotels locate it most successful to settle a guest account although the guest is nonetheless in the hotel. It enables remote access to higher performance workstations or virtual workstations from a variety of different devices such as PC’s, Window tablets, thin customers and other workstations.

Figure 12. A laptop model with several supported graphics cards to pick from. On December 3, 1999, a 40-year-old tower-painting-business owner, his 16-year-old stepson, and a 19-year-old employee died right after falling 1,200 feet when the hoist line on a portable capstan hoist utilised to raise them up the side of a 1,500-foot-higher radio tower began slipping about the capstan, causing the hoist operator to shed control of the hoist line. Powered by Intel® Xeon® processors and NVIDIA® Quadro® graphics, this dual-processor workstation is a single tough performer. Prepared for the most demanding design and style applications, the Broadberry CyberStation Graphics® range can be configured with up to 1.5TB of memory. You can add users to the RealNex CRM either from Database Manager on the server Pc, or from inside the RealNex CRM Desktop application whilst logged in as an Administrator.

Often a basic laptop cart won’t suffice for your mobile office requirements – that is when you could want to contemplate a mobile workstation. Caching files off a USB Flash Drive is a lot more quickly then caching files off of a tough drive, so if you have a rapidly USB flash drive or SD or other kind of memory card, you can use it for Windows 7 Readyboost to speed up the overall performance of your residence computer which runs Windows 7. Hotels have to verify the solvency status of the business initial and also cross verify with the company’s banker just before listing the business on the list of credit approved companies of the hotel. Each technology serves a diverse function, But the potential spaces of overlap (utilizing your iPhone to watch streamed motion pictures as opposed to utilizing it to make a phone contact or send a text) tends to make, I believe, a precise definition of “new media” pretty challenging.

This is a bulkier, more traditional workstation laptop than some of our other picks, but thankfully this zBook backs it up with a lot more storage space, too. ThinkStation delivers the latest generation of Intel® Xeon® processors, which supply unmatched multicore processing efficiency combined with potent NVIDIA® Quadro® expert graphics in an innovative and extremely-usable style. Some workstations are made for use with only one particular application such as AutoCAD , Avid Xpress Studio HD , 3D Studio Max , and so on. Call us nowadays on 01865 820322 to go through your personal bespoke Pc desk needs and one particular of our specialists will be on hand to supply you with the data you require. Proof suggests that some GU083 motherboards help Quad-Core.

Even though ideal recognized for our workstations, Staverton has a considerably wider range of furniture solutions spanning workplace mobility, meetings, storage, workwall and integrated technologies also. Get an alert with the newest ads for “office workstations” in Toronto (GTA). You are going to want a lot of RAM to go with that processing energy, 8GB per processor getting the minimum you can get away with. You can discover a massive L-shaped desk to offer multiple surfaces to perform on, ornate executive desks to make an impression on these who come about to check out your office, or select from some of the greatest standing desks that are ergonomically developed for you to operate whilst addition to the vast array of sizes, our desks are obtainable in a number of designs to match your decorative wants.

The review unit was equipped with dual eight-core two.2GHz processors (Xeon E5-2660), 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA Quadro 4000 graphics card. If you are experiencing discomfort in your upper limbs (hand, wrist, neck, back or shoulder) take a look at your laptop workstation design. Up to four NVIDIA® Quadro® video cards can be mixed with the most current NVIDIA Tesla® P100 PCIe and P100 SXM2 GPUs or Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors to provide various levels of genuine time graphics, rendering and simulation performance, satisfying a fantastic variety of computational requirements and applications. Mobile workstations have changed the way we work on-the-go. An HP strong-state PCIe tough drive improves disk read-and-create speed, removing an additional potential bottleneck.

Now we don’t count on everyone to rush out and buy 1 of these machines HP is aiming them at markets such as 3D engineering and modeling and 8K video production, so they are almost certainly slight overkill for gaming and e-mail. These monstrous desktop computers run Windows ten Pro 64-bit and are geared towards creatives, visual effects artists, and anyone who demands an huge quantity of computing power at their fingertips. Corner desks are extremely effective furniture, gives different functionalities like storage and writing. InterPro’s range of high overall performance workstations and render options are all hand crafted and developed to surpass your specifications. The Crucial Management Service (KMS) is not supported in this mode. Also accessible are Z Turbo drives, which are incredibly quick PCIe M.two drives that HP touts as the subsequent gen in speed and accessibility.

The requested operation failed. Unfortunately, each options call for compatible graphics card, monitors that supports them, and suitable DisplayPort cables. The purpose why they nonetheless offer ideas is since that is the cards they identified to give the greatest overall performance with the software. One particular user says that their 27″ iMac fits nicely atop his mobile workstation, with a lot of space to spare- and it enables him when working from property to move his laptop workstation from the living room to the bedroom when organization comes over. If the outer edges of the keyboard are employed as landmarks for centering the keyboard and monitor, the users hands will be deviated since the alphanumeric keys will be to the left of the user’s midline.

DeltaV Workstation hardware is configured to give the optimum price functionality solution. Moreover, Dell supplies DDR3 SDRAM with up to 32GB¹ of technique memory and 1600MHz of memory speed and up to 16GB¹ of 1866MHz memory, the quickest memory obtainable on a mobile workstation, for higher efficiency and quickly access to massive information sets. Designed for CAD and other high-efficiency applications, the new HP Workstation pushes energy into a tiny type element. The new items showcase HP’s first-ever industrial design and style distinct to mobile workstations, with distinctive characteristics including a radial-brushed gunmetal finish, backlit jewel logo and orange-colored accents. Offer you Web access and typical desktop applications (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and so on.) as properly as on the web databases.

The key photocopier companies have responded to today’s demands in most offices by re-designing the standard photocopier into a company hub unit. Many believe that employing a hardware router or a software firewall is the only step essential in securing the network, but the truth is that these strategies are only the very first step to making sure that your network is 100 % secured. The Software Licensing Service reported that the license shop is already initialized. From 1 generation to the next we tend to see slightly enhanced processors, new graphics cards, higher capacity difficult drives, and possibly-if we are lucky-some tweaks to the case. Preconfigured Precisions are obtainable, but the particulars can all be tweaked and there are lots of possibilities to choose from — not least when it comes to the new Xeon processors.

A wireless card with excellent Ping Overall performance doesn’t supply any benefit for workstation customers as it is mostly geared towards on the internet gamers. MDofPC Doctor of Computer systems specialist expert repair services for all HP desktops, laptops, tablets, workstations, all in a single computer systems and servers, whether or not they are the active Pavilion series laptops and computer systems or the HP Blade series servers and other HP Touch Pads or retired, refurbished and discontinued HP models. For one, business desktops are built to final longer, and are simpler to service than customer PCs. Even the most strong laptop can be handicapped by a sub-par GPU, which is why HP Z Workstations come equipped with a option of industry-major NVIDIA® Quadro or AMD FirePro expert graphics.

Judging by the functionality (yes I have had it since it was referred to as Windows Server “Longhorn”), I guess I greater stick with Windows NT Workstation four. then. Even though it is true that throwing far more and faster hardware at a system will improve its overall performance, this also increases its power usage, and when you have an animation studio filled with hundreds of workstations, the difference among a system that draws 100W of energy and 1 that draws 500W can mean thousands of dollars in electrical energy bills per year. The WorkStation Series brings collectively the portability and convenience of mobile computing with the productivity of Pc computing, establishing an totally new category of tablet and smartphone accessories.

As with desktop processors, Xeons saw a leap in efficiency and compute power with the arrival of Sandy Bridge , which employed a 32nm design and style approach. Hearing all the damaging sentiments toward the Windows ten Education Item Key OS produced me actually cautious in upgrading from Windows 7. With matching info from each and every office’s workstation, the scope of the difficulty is shared amongst these two workstations and likely other workstations. We have a wide variety of desks in distinct colours for you to pick from, which you can match with rest of the furniture in your property and workplace region. Utilizing pictures to install the operating system ensure that only the DeltaV essential applications are installed and the program is effectively configured to offer the robustness and functionality necessary in a mission essential program.

Our technicians are seasoned experts with HP repair and solutions such as lcd screen repair repair, laptop jack replacement, motherboard repairs, difficult drive information recovery, power supply replacement, optical cd dvd drive replacement, reloading or upgrading windows, virus removal, spyware removal, windows optimization, troubleshooting blue screen or other errors, random restarts, overheating and shutting down are just a few of the hundreds of kinds of repairs we offer you for HP laptop goods. But these specialised systems are neither affordable or needed for the vast majority of artists, who will not only save a considerable quantity of cash by opting for a a lot more mid-variety rendering pc, but may even get much better efficiency from it also, depending on the application and workload.

Your account will be reset to the higher of either USD 100,000 or five times the total equity of the your production account. Our modern workplace furniture will reinvent the space that defines your workday and sparks the imagination of you staff and clientele. Find out how the UCLA Extension Architecture + Interior Design plan can assist you reach your expert objectives by attending our cost-free info session. Moreover, these processors contain encryption functionality overhead reduction features, and technologies enhancing run time and migration VM integrity. The new workstations incorporate Thunderbolt three (optional) and Dual 1GbE Ports (standard) to assistance the high bandwidth data transfer demanded by present and future users, as effectively as Microsoft Windows 76 help for legacy workflows.

A Workstation will not function if there are no workers of that Skill kind, even if Town Buildings give Increase bonuses to that Talent. CAD is broadly utilized for computer animation and particular effects in motion pictures, marketing, and other applications where the graphic design and style itself is the completed solution. Corner pc workstations such as L-shaped computer workstations use the corner space and space near the walls which would other smart stay un-harnessed. Monitor arms are also beneficial if you alternate between sitting and standing at your desk or share a workstation with men and women of varying height. Tiny, side-by-side workstations are ideal for these who perform on computer systems and do not need significantly space for dealing with clients. It never succeeded prior to due to the fact of the strong organization and vested interests that opposed it. In Harry Truman’s day, the American Healthcare Association assessed its members an additional $25 in dues to fight Truman’s universal wellness care program, and the AMA won.

The HP Z820 completed the test in half the time it took the single processor Scan 3XS. This model is equipped with one of the greatest workstation class graphic card on the market place at the moment, the Nvidia Quadro M5500, this is valuable if you are seeking for the maximum graphic overall performance you can get on a mobile workstation as properly as a model that is VR prepared. A server is a personal computer that supplies services or data to other computers, identified as customers. The 2200 PCI card is distinctively made and can be crafted into a number of machines like Tiny Kind Factors and Laptop docking stations. We are the UK’s leading supplier of low cost computers and workstations, specialising in new and refurbished Dell desktop PC’s.

And with the capacity to load up so considerably memory, it is achievable to run numerous RAM-instensive applications at the identical time. ROUND ROCK, Texas, July 24, 2012 – Dell these days announced the next generation Dell Precision mobile workstations for engineering and design experts who need to have uncompromising performance and dependability wherever their demanding operate requires them. Office Workstations have evolved over time. HP is also placing a large emphasis on information security and the new workstations feature a number of technologies, some of which work beneath the OS, before the machine even boots. Management and authorization of users is constructed into these software systems, so that even with multiple users accessing the method at the identical time you will attain secure handle over it. Digital healthcare photos can be viewed remotely on a virtual private network online, or by means of a regional location or wide area network, again supplying a secure environment for viewing patient healthcare pictures and digital documents.

The computer desk and associated ergonomic desk are furnishings pieces developed to comfortably and aesthetically provide a functioning surface and house or conceal office equipment like computers , peripherals and cabling for workplace and property-workplace customers. Send a serious Raytrace demand to both and watch the Xeon’s walk away from the i7. These are two distinct CPU’s. Designed for the most demanding workstation and server-class applications. CSVFS failed operation as volume is not in redirected mode. All you want is a comfy workplace chair, and you’re set. Of course, a lot of mobile workstations have dual graphics processing systems: like an embedded card for financial battery life and a discrete (separate) video card for high-powered tasks.

The front workplace usually seeks payment for any outstanding guest account balance for the duration of the settlement stage of the guest cycle. Tesla’s massively multi-threaded, parallel-computing architecture, the CUDA C and Fortran language environments, and OpenCL help offer the utmost performance for your application. This sort of hardware tends to be thirsty, and, to that finish, HP will match the systems with up to a 1.7kW PSU.  Intel Cache Acceleration Application – Workstation (CAS-W) – Dell has deeply collaborated with Intel to bring to market place and tune the initial workstation enterprise-grade storage acceleration software application, Intel CAS-W, which improves workstation application overall performance. In HP’s personal words, this personal computer “was made to solve the overall performance and mobility requirements of artists, designers and digital imaging professionals who want to push Adobe Inventive Cloud and other expert applications to the limit.” So what tends to make this pc far more capable than HPs other two-in one solutions: the HP Spectre x2 and HP Elite x2. In a word: overall performance.

Rather than devote operating capital on additional employee charges, why not outsource your networking needs to a modest business IT help specialist. Make a decision what variety of storage (a desk hutch, bookcase, freestanding shelves, drawer unit, etc.) tends to make sense for the space you have obtainable and the quantity of storage that you want. The HP Z820 Workstation employs a selection of Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v2 processors that allow subsequent-generation PCI Express technologies. HP Z Workstations also function third-generation PCI Express technology, giving clients increased functionality and seamless integration of new graphics cards. Powered by ThinkStation workstations, Lenovo is also debuting its new e-commerce platform, the Lenovo eLounge, to give buyers a new, 1st-of-its-kind interactive way to knowledge Lenovo computing options on the web anywhere in the world.

These fall limiting devices are a preferred strategy of fall protection due to they engage nearly immediately minimizing the fall distance and significantly lowering the impact on the worker. The tool doesn’t work for me. When I try to add USB drivers to a USB with windows 7 currently on it it just requires forever but never finishes (left it on for over 8 hours). You can develop beautiful music videos proper in your house on your Computer employing this application. All MAINGEAR systems are hand constructed and supported in the US. As an Elite member of reseller rating with a score of 9.9 out of ten and rated A+ by the Much better Company Bureau, MAINGEAR service and assistance continues to be recognized with excellence in buyer satisfaction. At , we have been offering house workplace and organization furniture given that 2001.

The height adjustable desk is becoming an increasingly well-known sight in modern day offices due to the fact of their well being and productivity positive aspects. Your workspace must be the workplace equivalent of a sanctuary, but how can you get that with out resorting to such drastic measures as holing up in the bathroom with your laptop and BlackBerry? The professional chip differs from the customer GeForce cards in terms of a modified BIOS as properly as specific drivers, which are made for stability. We are designers, publishers and facilitators of a wide variety of experiential studying tools, resources, supplies and programmes. Functions like HP Sure Start Gen 3 (a self-healing, self-checking BIOS), TPM 2., Safe Authentication employing up to 4 authentication tools (which includes intelligent cards and biometrics like fingerprints), and HP Safe Erase are designed to make sure that the information on a workstation will not fall into unauthorized hands.

High-powered processors & expert graphics choices and up to 384 GB of memory give you seamless efficiency throughout graphics-intensive perform, such as visual effects and design and style visualization. View account balances, margin, funds available for trading, industry worth and portfolio data for all of your goods in the customizable, straightforward-to-study Account window. Note: If you are developing systems for resale, you can use the OEM version of Windows 10 Pro. Get 3X graphics performance5 with powerful M620-class expert graphics for demanding 3D models. The sharing economy has largely kept itself to AirBnb – or Uber -style rentals, but a business referred to as The Hive is attempting to extend the idea to graphics workstations with its “Amplicity Anyplace” pocket Computer. It’s the size of a huge smartphone and loaded up with a suite of Adobe video and photo apps, priced at $99 for a six-month subscription.

The state of Connecticut decided to create its personal databases for the reports it was evaluating each and every month, considering that it had been up to this time data was manually input and was consistently in error. There are many producers of the reduce-end 2D systems, which includes a quantity of free of charge and open source applications. This makes it possible for the GPU, which generally handles a computer’s graphics needs, to aid the CPU in processing information. With a single processor, the workstation can help 12 DIMM slots for a maximum of 192GB RAM (12 X 16GB RDIMM). You never want to drop your close friends or be labelled as a hermit so you can constantly say ‘I have deadlines to meet today but how about you contact round one more time?’ No-one would ever just drop in to say hi at a regimented spot of perform but folks who operate from residence are viewed by other individuals as not possessing ‘proper jobs.’ You need to set the parameters from the start so individuals regard your work as just as critical as a person who drives to and from the workplace every single day.

Dell tends to make a rock strong system and if you acquire a Dell Precision Workstation with Premier Support, it will be supported here in the US, not by a foreign contact center that barely speaks English. The Computer software Licensing Service reported that the Retailer upgrade license is not enabled for the present OS edition. This detachable Pc has up to ten hours of battery life 13 for maximum productivity and ultra-quick recharge (50 % in just 30 minutes eight). The HP ZBook x2 offers up to 4.two GHz of Intel®Turbo Enhance, 32 GB RAM over dual channels for much more responsiveness under heavier workloads like complex layering in Photoshop. Pc-more than-IP hardware-primarily based compression transfers only the rendered graphics pixel data over the network, ensuring a quickly and responsive remote expertise.

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[shaeroden]

Shaeroden’s machine - a written Vlog part 3: too busy with the tools

the night all the parts came, i decided to skip the writing and go ahead and build it.  the machine is all finished now, and i’m even writing this post from it.  it actually turned out to be a lot less laborious than i expected it to be.  and a lot more messy... so here is a comprehensive list of everything i bought, used, and installed.  and why.   all prices are as of 02/04/2018 1. the cooler master H500P - $150. i was in love with this case from the moment i saw it on a linus build.  200mm front case fans.  RGB case fans.  the RGB illumination can be pulse width modulated for some astonishing visual effects.  there’s also enough airflow capability in this thing to flush the entire case volume in a matter of milliseconds.  nothing you put in here will starve for airflow. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119327&cm_re=cooler_master_h500p-_-11-119-327-_-Product

i don’t think i could have asked for a better case.  not only does it look beautiful, it is littered with features that make it completely customizable.  the bottom shrouding comes in two pieces that let you cover both the drive cage and PSU.  in my build, i only covered the PSU.  there are vertically mounted PCI slots so you can have your graphics card displayed.  cable management shrouds.  140mm rear case fan.   when it arrived, the first thing i did was strip all the plastic off and paint the frame white along with some other modular pieces.  i had hatched a color scheme. cooler master’s drive cage design was truly remarkable.  the cage has what are basically drawers that the drives bolt in to.  the only problem with the design is that the SATA  power cables tend to be really stiff so it’s not as simple as just pulling out a drive... 2. AMD RYZEN 5 1600 - $200 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113435

i know linus says to not choose a processor based on fanboy-ism, but i totally did.  my previous laptop used to be the king of the campus when everyone else was running around with 2.4Ghz processors and i had the only 3Ghz, factory overclocked.  i knew what AMD was capable of, i was familiar with it, and i didn’t want to deal with Intel's child-proof processor clocks. i honestly think i went a little overkill based on what i plan on using the machine for.  i don’t plan on streaming games, so i probably could have got away with a ryzen 3.  but i had the money, and i also wanted to pair it with a decent graphics card, so i splurged. 3.  ASUS ROG STRIX B350-F GAMING AM4 AMD B350 - $120 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132988

i didn’t have very many stipulations on a motherboard.  the only things i was really looking for were  1. CPU compatibility 2. overclocking capability 3. M.2 drive slot. 4. not a ridiculous color the fractal heatsink on the bottom-right of the board has an LED bar that cycles through colors.  i know there is a way to change what it does, but i haven’t bothered to play with it yet.  i think i may try to make it temperature-related.  and also make them turn off when the machine isn’t powered on. 4.  CORSAIR ValueSelect 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 (x2 pcs) - $175 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233771

if there’s one thing corsair is known for, it’s reliability.  i chose this brand of RAM because it was on the approved compatibility list for the motherboard, and because corsair is no knock-off Chinese brand.   as for the speed, from everything i’ve read, speed differences yield marginal performance boosts.  this ram stick runs at 2133MHz, and having RAM that runs faster didn’t make sense from a performance-per-dollar perspective.  it’s not going to be a bottle neck that stops me from reaching +100 frame rates. i mean, there’s one thing to be said when your framerate differential is between 30 and 60, but between 60 and 120...  hell.  i wasn’t even going to buy a monitor that could crank more than 60 anyways. maybe i’ll upgrade when i cash out of a major investment again.  but for now, i’m satisfied.  it doesn’t look super cool without specially painted heatsinks, but it does the job. 5.  SAMSUNG 850 EVO M.2 2280 250GB SATA III  - $110 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147398

i had never used an M.2 drive until now.  and to be frank, i wouldn’t recommend it just yet.  this tech is still fairly new, so it’s got some unpolished bugs.  and besides, once it’s set up,  it will be just as fast as a standard SSD. if you’re building your computer to have a microscopic form factor, then i can say this would be a good idea, but when you have the space of a regular tower, just go with a 2.5″ SATA ssd. don’t get me wrong, this was a very good product.  my OS runs superbly, and it’s super fast and all, it was just a hassle and a half to get a windows OS to boot from this device.  if you have an existing hard drive and clone it to this thing, it won’t boot.  if, however, you install a fresh windows from a USB ISO, it should be just fine.  that’s preferable to cloning a hard drive anyways. 6.  WD Blue 1TB Mobile Hard Disk Drive - $53 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071F9MLJJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

the purpose of this was for basic overflow storage.  this is where i would be putting photos and games that i rarely ever play  i haven’t had to actually use it yet, but it is connected to the motherboard for when the moment comes.  i also have my 500GB from my old laptop, and a 70GB from my brother’s old build. 7. Corsair CX750M - $80 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139216&cm_re=corsair_cx750m-_-17-139-216-_-Product

this power supply is what gave me half the inspiration for my color scheme.  i didn’t actually buy this myself either.  this came out of an old build my brother had made.  he bought this PSU when he upgraded his graphics card, and his graphics card didn’t end up being compatible with the old machine.  so it sat in the garage for about a year before he said i could just take it.   it also helped me decide my price point, since it would probably be overkill in a $500 range build. i like that all the cables are black.  and it is semi-modular.  the motherboard trunk and CPU headers are permanently attached, but peripherals and PCI power adapters are completely removable.  having removable cables takes a huge load off of cable management. i just remembered i had talked about this earlier, but since this is a comprehensive list, i decided to mention it again for those planning on using my build as a guide. 8.  GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 (3G DDR5) - $380 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125906

this was the most difficult piece to choose, but i think i got the biggest bang-for-buck i could get to match my system.  graphics cards are overpriced already due to the great data rush, and of course i wanted performance-per-dollar.  these come in 3 and 6 GB models, and as far as i had read, 6GB really only makes a difference if you are running 2 monitors.  i only have one. when this arrived, i painted the top casing of this in white to match the chassis paint and compliment the color scheme. i haven’t measured the frame rates yet, but so far, no man’s sky runs buttery smooth.  compared to the kinds of graphics i got on my old laptop, this is above and beyond several horizons of benchmarks of course. 9.  LG 25UM58-P 25-Inch 21:9 UltraWide IPS Monitor - $175 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BV1XB2K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

it says $175.  i bought it used from a secondhand seller for $135.  i am stupendously pleased with this product.  it could be bigger, of course, but the screen ratio outweighs all of my hesitations.  it is an entry-level monitor so it only does 60Hz, but i could care less.   and as a person who repairs TV’s for a living, i knew full well that my future self would hate my past self if i got a curved monitor. don’t buy a curved screen.  it’s not worth it.  it’s all hype.  there’s no benefits to it.  OLEDs as well.   10. misc things and periphrials: a riser cable for vertical mounting the GPU: https://www.wish.com/c/56617f5a52c36947d6d7fa1b a case fan kit for the top brackets: https://www.wish.com/profile?uid=581eaebaeb025da9210d0811#cid=59f2f7bc87e82f6cec60b971 a mouse.  with RGB lights.  that’s rechargable just like a phone.  that also matches the tower color scheme: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716WR71M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 build story will be next post.   i did not end up using the EL wire.  at 5V, the shrill shrieking and whining of the AC inverter was too much to bear.  instead, i pasted these to the top and ran them off the 12V molex line through a switch:  https://www.wish.com/c/54f022d6372d401ae689e66b

[the-rift1]

@ that anon who asked me about the “talk about” post

1: Talk about the first time you watched your favorite movie.

I have a lot of favorites… mm I’d say inside out was probably my most favorite. And the reason why was well, it was the first time I met Aaron, which was cool, but also it was a movie that had like a headspace, although a lot more creative, and it was almost representative of how my mind works.

2: Talk about your first kiss.

My first kiss was in 7th grade on a field trip, when all the girls in my dorm room (just 3 other peaps) figured out that I never had been kissed. So when we played truth or dare, I said dare and one of the girls dared another to kiss me. God I was an awkward mess, and then I basically had a crush for like 4 years on that girl who kissed me. (yike) 3: Talk about the person you've had the most intense romantic feelings for.

Jesus, uh, well, they’re the love of my life and even though it’s been rough from the very beginning, they mean too much to me for me to let go, and even though they live like a thousand miles away from me I still want to have a life with them eventually, and just, I want them to be happy. 4: Talk about the thing you regret most so far.

I regret nothing, really. It’s kind of my philosophy to do things so I don’t regret never doing them. Well, I guess there’s one thing. I regret never being able to stand up to my mom when I was younger, but I don’t think that would have been possible if I was younger since I was still unable to put any distance between me and her, and her temper was very very short. So I guess there’s not much to regret.

5: Talk about the best birthday you've had.

It was my last birthday where I got to get together with my friends and we had a brunch and then they gave me two tiny derg plushies that were absolutely adorable because they were mini versions of my big Martin plushie and they’re Ginko and Safier. And I also got a handmade birthday card from Aidan which was neat cuz it had a derpy peridot n stuff. And then we went over to Aidan’s house and @fishdetective was there too and we had a hardcore battle of monopoly and then also played chessclock jenga. A couple days either after or before, I also got my first car!

6: Talk about the worst birthday you've had.

It's a hard tie between when I turned 15 or 16 and my parents just completely forgot my birthday or when I had to give my final senior honors project presentation which ironically fell on my birthday.. But I got to have tiramisu cake afterwards, so, I guess it wasn’t too bad.

7: Talk about your biggest insecurity.

I’m always afraid I look dumb in front of other people, idk. I try not to think about it and just tell myself that I really don’t care. Also when I wear new clothes, even if it’s like, a different type of flannel, I get pretty nervous. But after a day of wearing it or something, I’m fine.

8: Talk about the thing you are most proud of.

It would either have to be my own computer that I made which is an absolute gaming and art monster if you ask me, or my 6 foot long drawing, or my carey mask. I have a GTX 1080 with an i7-7700k core and also 24 gbs of ram, and about 2.5 TB of storage that fits in like, a small workstation tower with a budget of about 2000 dollars. And I’m going to make an even smaller one with about the same specs for my mom later this month cuz she has an 8 year old laptop and idk honestly how she gets anything done on that. I think I’m also pretty proud of Martin Dovohd and the creation of his adventures with Avery and Safier and Quinn, although we’ve never pinned anything solid down (because I’m a busy person and a lazy artist).

9: Talk about little things on your body that you like the most.

Whaaallle I like my hair cuz it’s rad but it needs a trim cuz it’s getting too long.. mm I like my hands, even though they’re tiny, but they function pretty well.

10: Talk about the biggest fight you've ever had.

I’d say the biggest fight was more like a physical and verbal beatdown from my mom and me silently taking everything because I was basically 12 years old…. Good times….

11: Talk about the best dream you've ever had.

Best dream? I was able to shapeshift into a dragon and do all kinds of shit. It was pretty long ago so I can’t recall, but I remember having an epic battle against another bigger red dragon and barely winning.

12: Talk about the worst dream you've ever had.

Um, probably one of the ones where I was raped or lost forever, or in a world where I was forgotten and people like close friends n stuff just don’t know who I am, or that one where I was being chased constantly by a murderer. Being shot by my best friend, straight in the head, on my knees. I got pretty dramatic dreams lol

God I just remembered last night’s dream which was fucking WILD because I was on this colonial ship, and idk if I was a stowaway or something, but I think there was this disease that started to spread and everyone was dying, so the captain decided to send me off on an escape pod and I was cryofreezed. So I ended up in a completely different solar system but I was sent to a prison since I wasn’t properly admitted and it was considered trespassing. I just remember seeing a sliver of a window to the outside world of the planet, and it was so vibrant and green.

13: Talk about the first time you had sex/how you imagine your first time.

It was alright, neither of us came actually.

14: Talk about a vacation.

Ok since it wasn’t specified, DREAM VACATION: Going to Japan, seeing cherry blossoms, trying out their hot springs, going to Tokyo, mmm idk. I don’t really have a specific itinerary planned. And then I would want to also go to Quebec city, and try out all the cool food they got and also go cross country skiing, and check out the snow festival. And then there’s that one place where it’s a snow hotel or something? Maybe that’s in France. I don’t remember. Also, I would love to road trip the entire US in a tesla. Specifically a self driving one cuz who wants to be at the wheel all the time lol. I also want to go to Sweden where I think they have a museum dedicated to machines playing music and it’s so neat. Oh yeah, I can’t forget about Yellowstone. And camping out there a night or so, when the sky is clear, and you get to see a million stars. Of course, this wouldn’t be worth anything if I couldn’t do it with someone tho. I think that’s where it’s the most fun.

15: Talk about the time you were most content in life.

In Rowan’s arms, when we first met. God, all I could think about then, was that, “I made it. I really made it. And it wasn’t all for nothing.” One of my dreams came to reality, and the only thing that I could have asked for more, was more time with him.

16: Talk about the best party you've ever been to.

Mmmmmmmmmm I’ve never really been to a party like a frat party, so, uh idk

17: Talk about someone you want to be friends with.

There’s this person at one of the dining centers that has really rad blonde hair and they just give out rad vibes and I just want to talk to them but I am just a bad nerd derg who can’t amount to their level. So. Yeah lol…

18: Talk about something that happened in elementary school.

I said fuck in third grade because my ‘friend’ wouldn’t stop singing “three little pigs” despite me saying please stop, and I got really frustrated and yelled, “Would you please fucking stop?” lol I broke down crying afterwards because everyone was staring at me in silence.

19: Talk about something that happened in middle school.

Rumors started spreading about how my friend who was a boy, that we “liked” each other, when in fact, we were just really good friends, and we agreed on the matter that that’s how it was and that people were trash. God he could make me laugh anytime even when I was super sad. It sucked that he had to transfer out when it got to high school though.

20: Talk about something that happened in high school.

Man, high school was fucking rough.. socially. I lost almost all of my middle school friends by the time I was a sophomore and I basically stuck to tumblr for comfort, cuz the school is very small and people already formed cliques that was already too late to join. I also wasn’t interested in them, since no one was a weeb like me. I really don’t want to talk much about this. Sorry.  

21: Talk about a time you had to turn someone down.

On what? What does this imply, relationship? Mm I broke up with Aaron but for the most part, literally everyone else leaves first. Or just straight up rejects me, it’s pretty lit.

22: Talk about your worst fear.

I have a lot of fears and one of the worst ones is that I lose my hands, or that I lose my precise motor functions and I can’t draw, do labwork, or play the piano, etc etc…. Also abandonment, and just ending up as an old hermit. No, actually, I think my worst fear is just rejection. If I knew that there wasn’t a possibility of being loved n stuff, I think I would be pretty content with just myself and just living in the woods with a solid internet and my computer and maybe some doggos and other pets.

23: Talk about a time someone turned you down. Lord, alright. So I think one summer, I applied to five jobs as like a cashier or something and they all rejected me so I think that was pretty weird, and then on the other hand a day after or so, I see one of my peers working as a cart pusher and I just felt so annoyed. Not at them, just exasperated.

 24: Talk about something someone told you that meant a lot. Well, someone told me that they would always love me. I find that hard to believe, personally, maybe because my mom told me that no one would love me unconditionally unless they were my parents. And some part of me always believed that, and another part of me always wanted to find evidence to refute it.

 25: Talk about an ex-best friend.

Ahsdkjflajhfdkljs how about let’s not

26: Talk about things you do when you're sick.

Lay in bed, groan, eat soup and produce a lot of mucus. I would usually game and watch movies if I had the luxury to, or just do hw. And also feel sad because I probably wouldn’t be able to see anyone and couldn’t hang out with ppl.

27: Talk about your favorite part of someone else's body.

Hands are really interesting. And also the worst to draw. But there’s just so much variance in people’s hands, which I think is cool.

28: Talk about your fetishes.

Um 29: Talk about what turns you on.

What 30: Talk about what turns you off.

Thrussy

31: Talk about what you think death is like.

Dark. Cold. Nothingness. Just, a stop. Maybe I get to be reincarnated as a rock or something. Or there’s a place for souls. No one knows. Idk.

32: Talk about a place you remember from your childhood.

I remember that there was a lake, like a block from my house and on special days with my Gramps I got to take out my toy motorboat and play with it but most of the time it got caught on the algae.

33: Talk about what you do when you are sad.

I game. I just distract myself to the point that I forget everything else. And I also watch cartoons n stuff.

34: Talk about the worst physical pain you've endured.

Probably that one time where I fell and the gravel gouched out a cubic centimeter of my knee. I bled pretty consistently and my mom had to pull out bits of rock when I got back home from that.

35: Talk about things you wish you could stop doing. I wish I could stop wasting so much time and actually doing important work lol. I don’t particularly have any nasty habits, really. I never bit my nails or sucked on my fingers.

 36: Talk about your guilty pleasures. hoarding chocolate. Hoarding food in general, and buying unnecessary tech stuff for myself. Also buying games when I already have too many to play with.

 37: Talk about someone you thought you were in love with. I’m pretty sure I was in love with the people who I “think” I were in love with? I don’t really understand this. Is this about like, past ex’s? I know who I love. Or I could interpret “in love” as a crush? Mm okay. Let’s have it that way. I had an infatuation with this girl who low-key reminded me of betty boop but like a better, sexy version of it. Her makeup was always on point and just had a really good aesthetic, and then I also found out that she liked hardcore metal, which is cool, but not my taste. So, like, super amazing aesthetic that was probably incompatible with mine.  

 38: Talk about songs that remind you of certain people.

There’s a lot of songs that remind me of people, but mainly Rowan and Aidan. Anything by Porter Robinson reminds me of the time when I was with Aaron. The Muppet song where they go “mnah mnah doo dooooo do do do” reminds me of Hila and that used to trigger me for a while but I’m chill with it.

 Some main ones that remind me of Rowan:

Paradise Valley by Honey and the Sting

Honeybee by the Steam Powered Giraffes

I Know You're Out There by Stephanie Mabey.

Ones that remind me of Aidan:

Give Up by the Postal Service

BGC418 by Big Giant Circles and also their entire Imposter Nostalgia album

any song by Wintergatan

39: Talk about things you wish you'd known earlier.

I wish I figured out what feelings were. Like, when I was young, I never made the connection between the words and the emotions that those words described. For the two years of me crushing on that girl I talked about earlier, I didn’t understand what my attraction meant. And that it was also okay to be gay. Yeah I wish I knew about that whole ordeal, and also how to socially navigate my way through high school n shit. I also didn’t understand the connection between the word guilt, and the feeling. I just knew I felt super awful and it was a really terrible pain in my chest and hands and that I just wanted to die from it.

40: Talk about the end of something in your life.

I don’t know, I’m pretty young, and there’s a lot of things that are just starting. I guess you could say it’s the end of the number of bad things that’s happened to me in grade school and the end of the ridiculous amount of bullying I had there, and hopefully never comes back.

[antiikythera]

nightmares

I woke up this morning to a nightmare. someone stole my car and was on the way to Denver, CO, final destination being Split. Josue was there physically to help me and he was nice, I suppose, in the way "leader men" are helpful. so being detached but still nice. not what I like, but better than nothing. good thing it was a dream. now I know for sure that the app is useless and not preventative. I told my mom about my dream vaguely when I woke up, and she said, "even asleep your car is giving you stress." yes, that's true. but the biggest thing about writing this down is that I didn't tell Georgina that I had this bad dream. I don't know if she'd care, too.

today I spent some time with my mom's friends. I like them. I like Alice because she's friendly and really funny. Claire isn't as friendly or outgoing, but she's really beautiful. I envy her beauty. I can never be as beautiful as her. I wonder if anyone sees me this way. anyway, we talked about Hamilton for a bit too. Claire is familiar with some of the songs, including "You'll Be Back". I didn't tell Georgina that we talked about Hamilton, but I really wanted to.

I took a nap today and I had another nightmare. I got really impatient with my grandma and I broke a planter. this scared me because this is obviously me having reached my breaking point, and getting fed up with her, and me being violent/too physical. none of this is me in real life tho. yes, I get angry, but I swallow it and never lash out physically. I'm just sad cuz I didn't tell anyone the details of my nightmare, even tho I really wanted to tell Georgina.

in fact, I haven't sent her one single message today. I feel both horrible and not bad. I guess this is how things will be forever from now on. I feel like I'm not enough. that's my in-conclusion. in conclusion, I wasn't enough, and that's that. but actually, if i listen to her and believe her, I should know that it's not because I wasn't enough. it was just... school, distance, difference. but I still feel like I wasn't enough because I wasn't compelling enough to be valued/chosen/prioritized along with those other things. this is how I feel.

I also feel very sensitive and invalidated recently, and I feel sad that I've had to keep all this inside. I guess that's why it's good I'm at least able to write about my feelings here. last Saturday, my mom FaceTimed her brother who gave the phone to my grandpa, who's hospitalized. I was curious and stuck my head next to my mom so half of both of our bodies were in the shot. my uncle told my mom to move the camera to the right. nobody acknowledged me. he probably didn't even notice it was me. I feel this so often. I always feel invisible and like ppl don't give me enough attention. it's especially sad when it comes from my family, and I've always felt second to that side of my family even tho I like them more. but time and time again, I see that I don't really matter to them as much. second, Jonathan made me sad today too. I know I'm sensitive, but I feel unhappy. I just feel like he was being dismissive of my thoughts about upgrading my laptop with a bigger SSD. based on preliminary research, I know there aren't many manufacturers of MacBook SSDs because they're not the regular m.2 sizes(dimensions), so they're more expensive. he said I should just get a regular one. second, he mentioned to me that he's gonna sell his PC soon and asked if I wanted any parts. I asked about his RAM and I told him I'd buy a stick from him, but that was shot down and I felt really, really dumb. like I wanted to die. and then my dad got upset with me when I told him Jonathan was selling his computer. guess I should just keep everything to myself then. honestly, at this point in my isolation, I really feel like no one noticed I'm gone, and no one would notice either. I should just leave and be gone.

finally, when I was showering, I got really sad and teared up and cried. what's new? I was really sad and I felt all these negative emotions. lots of self hate. I was tempted to talk to Georgina but I thought that if I really did reinstall Snapchat, I would see that nobody noticed I left and it would be even worse for my mental well-being. I'm quite positive she didn't contact me on there. also, I feel sad because I feel like I'm always the one thinking of other ppl. I know it's in part from my upbringing, especially how my grandma is like (this isn't that good), but I just feel like it's not giving me what I want/need back either. I constantly shower my friends with genuine happy/positive vibes, and I text them, but they don't always reply, and it's discouraging. it's not like I was a favor in return. I just want to show them how I appreciate them and I want them to tell me they got the message. but whatever, I should just let it go. just let everything go.

I wanna end this long report on a positive note: jonathan Rosa replied to my email tonight. it was nice that he did. now I'm glad I wrote to him earlier on in the application process. still wish I wrote to him in June tho.

I wonder when she'll send me a message again. do I ever cross your mind? I love you, darling. good night.

[wolfleblack]

In the past, I’ve often failed to see the appeal of gaming orientated laptops, largely because their battery life is so short that taking one on a train journey or something seems a bit pointless if there’s no nearby wall socket handy. Still, sitting in the middle of the woods playing The Witcher 3 is kind of cool. The laptop I was using to do this is the ST-Plus from Thunderobot, a predominantly western company who are now seeking to move into the eastern market with their products. As this is my first laptop review let’s see if I can muddle through this with my already limited dignity intact.

Let’s talk about aesthetics and build quality before we get into the juicy details about what’s underneath. The body is made entirely of plastic which doesn’t quite give the same premium feel as something like brushed aluminium but does help ensure a reasonable weight of 2.5. It feels solidly built with little creaking, the exception being around the screen where a bit of pressure sees the whole thing flex. When closed this flex is notable, too, as you can apply some pressure to the back of the screen and watch the plastic bend inward. At about 1″ thick you’re going to notice this thing in your backpack.

At about 15″ x 10. 5″ x 1″ you’re going to notice this thing in your backpack, but all things considered, it’s reasonably compact for a gaming laptop.

From a visual standpoint, it’s nothing exciting, being finished with a light grey paint and bright orange logo on the back that’s cut out of the plastic. To be frank, I feel like it looks a bit cheap in comparison to some other high-end laptops, although it also doesn’t look as gaudy and tacky as many of the “gaming” laptops on the market which look like they were designed by someone who had watched too much bad sci-fi. You wouldn’t feel out of place taking this out of your bag during class or in a cafe.

Along the left side you’ll find the power connection as well as an Ethernet port and USB 3.0 slot. You’ll also find a USB Type-C. HDMI and two mini-display ports as well. The right sports another two USB connections, one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0, plus 3.5mm jacks for your headset and microphone. The rear is left entirely for exhausting some of the heat that gets generated by the processor.

The screen is a 15.6″ 1920×1080 IPS panel with a 60Hz refresh rate. For the most part color reproduction is reasonable and the contrast is passable, but it isn’t particularly sharp with some noticeable fuzziness around text. The big weakness is glare from direct light, obviously a rather big problem when travelling on trains or just sitting at a cafe window. Even indirect light can result in a frustrating amount of glare, so you’ve got to be careful about how you orientate it. Sitting in my kitchen I still had to rotate the laptop to find a spot where the light wasn’t running the picture. With that said viewing angles are quite good, so if you fancy crowding a few people around to watch a clip or even a whole movie they shouldn’t have much trouble seeing what’s going on.

As for the audio the speakers deliver decent sound. There’s some tininess and the sound can come across as a bit flat, but for the most part the ST-Plus does the job of conveying gunshots, explosions, engines and the gratifying sounds of people being horribly murdered. Ain’t games wonderful? The only issue is that even at maximum volume they don’t sound particuilarly loud.

The keyboard sports RGB backlighting that can be customised if you fancy a little extra sparkle in your day-to-day life. More importantly, the keyboard itself felt surprisingly good for typing on. Sure, the membrane switches don’t provide the same level of near orgasmic satisfaction that their mechanical counterparts do, but they still felt nice, responding quickly without too much of that squishiness that membrane switches can sometimes have. The travel distance on the keys is short, but they provide enough feedback to ensure you’re never left unsure as to whether they activated or not. I wrote most of this review using it, and was genuinely happy with the experience. I’d have no problem doing my day-to-day work on it.

The trackpad is pretty damn good, too. It’s slightly sunken into the plastic body of the laptop and feels as though it’s made of the same material, and it tracked my movements very well with no notable lag or feeling of imprecision.  Left and right clicks are handled by two seperate buttons below the trackpad itself, and they both feel okay. They have some wobble and the click sounds weedy, but those aren’t huge complaints.

Underneath the plastic shell sits an Intel i7-7700HQ quad-core processor running at 2.8Ghz with the capability to turbo-boost itself up to 3.8Ghz when needed, as well as a 4GB Nvidia GTX 1050 TI and 8GB of DDR4 RAM. Storage comes in the form of a 120GB SSD that contains Windows 10, ensuring snappy navigation throughout the OS, as well as a 1TB 7200RPM HDD for storing all those big game files. It’s a bit slow, but does the job.

For benchmarking I did two synthetic tests using 3DMark and Geekbench 4. On 3DMark I ran Firestrike where we got a reasonable score of 6838. On the Time Spy DX12 test it managed to get 2478. As for Geekbench 4 the single-core test resulted in a score of 2281, with a multi-core score 7530. Finally Geekbench 4’s compute test, running OpenCL, scored 75609.

Real testing was done via a suite of games, and inbuilt benchmark tools were used whenever possible with the highest quality presets available in the game’s options menu, with the exception of Rise of the Tomb Raider where only FXAA was used at the game’s on advice and The Witcher 3 where Nvidia’s Hairworks was disabled. For titles without inbuilt benchmarking tools I fired up FRAPS and ran my own tests. In Cities Skylines I spent an hour building a small community of around 3,500 residents before using FRAPS to benchmark a few minutes of gameplay involving me zooming in and out of the city. For The Witcher 3 I began a new game of the Heart of Stone DLC, taking a gallop on my horse through a small village and into a large city. Finally, The Phantom Pain was an airport assault where I first attacked the area via a helicopter with minigun attached and then jumped down for some closer action. Keep in mind that The Phantom Pain is capped at 60FPS, hence the highest you see is 62FPS.

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Looking at the graphs it’s easy to see that the combination of the i7-7700k and GTX 1050 TI isn’t good enough to hit 60FPS at 1080p with the settings cranked up, especially with some of the more demanding games like The Witcher 3, The Division and even Cities Skylines which only came out with a 40+ average despite it being a small city. With that said, some tweaks in the settings will net you those 60 frames per second without having to sacrifice too much visual fidelity on most titles, with bigger sacrifices obviously having to be made sometimes for the more power hungry games. And if you’re looking to play less stressful games like League of Legends or CS:GO then there’s not going to be an issue in terms of performance. Still, it shows that the GTX 1060 is the better choice for 1080p gaming, which is actually what the St-Pro laptop has.

Power comes at the cost of heat, and according to CPUID the ST-Plus can get rather hot. During benchmarking it noted the CPU reaching 84c, with the GPU hitting 88c. Of course, this was the system being pushed to its limits so you can expect it to run a bit cooler in real-world conditions with settings tweaked, but even then there’s a lot of heat being generated which bleeds through to the keyboard more than I’d like. More of a problem is how the GPU blows its hot air straight out of the right side of the laptop which is where right-handed people like myself will often be using a mouse for gaming, and being continuously hit with 80c+ air can become somewhat uncomfortable.

And when those fans start ramping up to combat the heat so does the noise. Under a full load the ST-Plus muddles the sound from its own speakers, so it’d be advisable to wear headphones in order to hear everything when gaming.

For battery testing I set the speakers to 50% and screen brightness to max before disabling the RGB backlighting on the keyboard. Then I set Windows 10 to balanced power mode, and to put the laptop into sleep mode when the battery reached 10%. The laptop was fully recharged before each test was started, and then Windows in-built battery tracker was used to calculate the amount of time between the power cord being pulled out and the laptop’s battery giving up. I began with the hardest test by putting Firestrike’s combined graphics and physics test in an infinite loop, adjusting none of the default graphical settings. Firestrike is hugely demanding, and thus managed to chew through the battery in just 41-minutes. With that done I charged the battery up and then set DiRT Rally to medium settings before putting it on a looped benchmark, again with the speakers at 50% and maximum screen brightness. This time the ST-Plus managed to last 72-minutes which is obviously nowhere near the length of a good gaming session. In other words, if you want to game for an extended period you’re going to have to plug the ST-Plus into the wall. Less demanding titles should provide more time, though. The final battery test was a 1080p video file played via VLC, once again on an infinite loop until the laptop put itself to sleep once the battery dropped to 10%. This is the lightest of the three tasks and so it managed 3-hours and 45-minutes of continuous play.

The small 47w battery life means if you want to do any gaming it either has to be a very undemanding title or a very short session unless you happen to be near a wall socket.  You won’t even get a lot of sustained usage just watching movies off the HDD or on Youtube, either.  With that said gaming laptops aren’t known being frugal when it comes to power, and the battery life I saw during testing puts it firmly in the “average” category. The trade-off for having powerful components to run games is that they chug power like an alcoholic chugs beer.

Thunderobot have a tough job ahead of them trying to move into a market dominated by big names like Alienware, Asus and Dell. Sadly their ST-Plus doesn’t manage to make enough of an impact as it’s no cheaper than other laptops in the same price/performance bracket, coming with a hefty RRP of 1,299 euros. There are other options, like the Dell Inspiron, that boast the same specs at a cheaper price with a considerably better battery life, although you do get a pretty crappy screen. Or you can opt for something roughly the same price boasting a superior GTX 1060 with about the same battery life or perhaps even a bit better in some cases.

With all that said it’s still a good laptop in its own right, it just doesn’t do much to stand out from the crowd. My experience with it was generally pretty good, from the quick start-up and snappy Windows navigation to playing games. The build quality is quite good, the specs are solid, the screen is okay and the keyboard is a pleasure to use. It isn’t a bad laptop. It’s just sitting in a crowded market.

      Thuderobot ST-Plus Laptop Review – Thunderobot? What A Name! In the past, I've often failed to see the appeal of gaming orientated laptops, largely because their battery life is so short that taking one on a train journey or something seems a bit pointless if there's no nearby wall socket handy.

[frettboard2016-blog]

Nine Days With an Absurd $nine,000 Gaming Laptop

New Post has been published on https://frettboard.com/nine-days-with-an-absurd-nine000-gaming-laptop/

Nine Days With an Absurd $nine,000 Gaming Laptop

There may also exist inside of you a preference that burns white warm for the Acer Predator 21 X, but you may by no means buy this PC. It is not for you, because in case you need this PC, you possibly can’t have enough money it, and if you may have enough money it, you’re probably antique enough to not want to spend $nine,000 on a PC that weighs as a great deal as a small toddler, and might even pick out up after itself.

But if you’re reading Gizmodo you’re nevertheless enough of a gadget fan to want to at the least recognize the $nine,000 PC. To that cease, I spent 9 days operating nearly completely with Acer’s ode to excess.

Here is its tale.

Day 1: The arrival This is certainly one of 300. “Why is there a dragon on it,” a person asks. “Why shouldn’t there be a dragon?” Our workplace supervisor seemed suspiciously from me to the box, which is the dimensions of 3 ten-12 months-olds squeezed collectively. “It’s a PC,” I defined.

While the workplace manager was incredulous, others were extremely joyful. “I need to sit within the container,” a colleague shouted even as snapping pictures.

Following the covered instructions, I managed to open the large cardboard box—as well as the almost indestructible Pelican case contained within. Desiring not anything more than to sport, I plopped the Predator 21 X on my knees as I would a MacBook. Fortunately, I used to bicycle plenty, so I’ve got sturdy thighs that don’t weep underneath the load of 19 kilos of pc—easily 4 instances the common weight of a PC.

When I informed inquisitive on-lookers the fee, they looked at me aghast. Why does a $9,000 device exist? I didn’t have a great solution.

So I pulled the trackpad out of its slot and showed human beings that it could be flipped over and used as more than a few bad. Everyone agreed that changed into very neat.

The trick earned the laptop its first “wow” unrelated to length or price.

After an hour and ten minutes of use, the computer died. It turned into after 5 pm, and I did now not want to locate outlets for the pics (two!) necessary strength components, so I left it on a coworker’s desk and went home.

Day 2: Set up Tobii eye trackers are usually chunky, but on a laptop this huge it disappears into the hinge. When I was given to the office, I sooner or later discovered shops for the 21 X’s two 330 watt strength resources and began to apply the computer in earnest. It comes with Tobii Eyetracking, however, it didn’t look like operating. The Nvidia six drivers were out of date too.

Nvidia GeForce unhelpfully uninstalled its drivers, and the PC broke for twenty minutes. I uninstalled the whole lot with the Nvidia name. Reinstalled. Inexplicably, the attention monitoring began running on the third restart.

After three hours of futzing with drivers and settings, I got Rise of the Tomb Raider strolling. My coworkers crowded across the laptop shouting their recommendation on how to walk in a direct line. Take a second, remember when there has been handiest one controller for the SNES at a shut eye party. This moment became like that, but burlier.

Yet there was precisely one coworker who did not care. She was the only who informed me to mute the computer earlier while she’d had sufficient of Windows notifications exploding from the computer’s four speakers and two subwoofers.

In case you didn’t think there was a subwoofer or. Now she turned into indignant because the paintings day turned into over and those had been peering at a PC. “Let’s move get beer” she bellowed.

The horde agreed. I saved my game and closed the PC. The battery turned into still not fully charged.

Day three: Making my way downtown, component 1 The wearing case. “You are taking this at the educate.” It turned into no longer a proposal. My boss and I agreed which you couldn’t evaluate a PC without checking out its mobility—how easy it changed into to p.C. Up and move around.

In the case of the Acer 21 X, it is a chore. Thanks to the mild curve of the show, the lid does now not sit flush, so the 19-pound computer can’t simply be shoved in a bag. The 21-inch show might crack. So I packed it again up into the Pelican case and headed home an hour and a half early.

No one questioned this.

A female supplied to help me deliver it down the second flight of stairs to the train, but I declined. “I want to try this for myself,” I said. With a MacBook Air, for contrast. On the educate, every person eyed me like you constantly eye the asshole with big baggage on a rush hour teach. It changed into most effective four:45 pm on a Thursday, but the teach crammed up to the closer to Brooklyn we got. When I arrived at my stop, I had to muscle my manner to the door and pray the wheels at the case didn’t roll over a foot. I am too delicate to be shouted at by cranky commuters.

Off the educate, I made it up one flight of stairs, a line of annoyed passengers forming at the back of me. A guy wordlessly held out a hand and helped me up the second one flight of stairs.

New York is nicer than you’d count on it to be. The MacBook Air looks as if a toy perched on a pinnacle of the 21 X. It is.Four miles from the train station to my domestic. The sidewalks aren’t the easy and smooth ones of the Flatiron District. They’re damaged with concrete jutting up out of the floor. On the day I delivered the Predator home, it had just rained, and at the same time as the streets had been dry, puddles of brown, stagnant lousy lay in a pedestrian’s direction at each intersection. I lifted and dodged and moved quickly domestic. The transport weight of the field is 70 kilos, and among the Pelican case, electricity supplies, and a 19-pound computer I turned into positive I turned into dragging all 70 kilos behind me.

The dog and cat were both alarmed by the monstrosity that took up house in our living room. That night my roommate arrived home. She noticed the laptop on my lap and couldn’t take her eyes off of it. “Is it like…For army?” she asked. Her voice changed into a whisper, barely heard over the hum of the device.

No. It changed into now, not for a navy.

Day four: I can not sense my feet

Powering on. The journey domestic had really affected me. Like the quality friend in a 19th-century novel, I became plagued by a cough and a sniffle and a weakness of indeterminate origin.

My only salve changed into the PC. I determined an area for its two plugs, settled it on my lap, and downloaded Mass Effect: Andromeda. The gadget did no longer just like the internet in my home and it took an hour, three tries to repair the internet, and one restart to download the game. $nine,000 buys a whole lot of PC, but it couldn’t solve fundamental issues of laptops plagued by means of weird net and old drivers.

The laptop rested on my thighs and destroyed all sensation underneath my knees.

“I cannot experience my feet,” I texted a friend at three:30 pm. Playing the game at the 21 X’s keyboard and the usage of its trackpad became a examine in painful frustration. I couldn’t get comfy. The Cherry Brown mechanical key switches had been great, and the trackpad gave me 0 problems, but the spacing among the keyboard and trackpad felt all incorrect, especially whilst the PC became sitting in my lap.

I, in the end, gave up and determined my Xbox One controller.

Gaming became immediately greater pleasant.

Day five: Never thoughts, everything hurts I played Mass Effect for longer than I must admit in a polite organization, and no less than the gaming overall performance is superb. The twin Nvidia GTX 1080 video cards and the dual 512GB SSDs in a speedy RAID 0 configuration, plus the 64GB of RAM and the Kaby Lake i7 processor method that is handily the quickest PC on the planet—with the aid of specs on my own. It had 0 troubles giving me a hundred and twenty frames according to 2d at the 2560 x 1080 21-inch show. And with two Nvidia GTX 1080 playing cards, it would be genuinely not possible for recreation play to lag

As lengthy as the laptop was plugged in. After a totally uncommon lavatory break, I sat go into reverse, balanced the computer across my lap and become startled to look the game had slowed to a move slowly. I end. Restarted. Played again. It was nonetheless slow. Then I found out the plugs had disconnected, and I changed into strolling on battery strength. I plugged lower back in and balance turned into restored The energy elements. You may want to swing them over ahead with the aid of their cords and likely kill a person. Until my controller commenced to randomly disconnect every short time. As if the PC knew I’d been gambling Mass Effect for 12 hours and needed a wreck. I got aggravated and powered off for the night.

Day 6: It’s hot in here The emblem lights up whilst the computer is on. Neat. It becomes over eighty degrees outside. The warmth didn’t trouble me, till I balanced the PC on my knee. Then I was reminded of summers in Texas, my god daughter sitting in my lap, all sharp bones and sweat and a furnace that could rival anything burns on your basement.

The laptop is like a toddler I can put in a container on the give up of the day.

The discomfort grew too bothersome for me to disregard. I attempted putting it on my secretary desk, however, it became too big—too heavy—to be supported. That gap. I ultimately gave up and went and performed Mass Effect on my ordinary PC. I straight away missed the expanded subject of imaginative and prescient the 21 X afforded me. The 21:9 ratio is actually awesome for gameplay—even on a smaller 21: at nine display like that of the 21 X. Moving to my 50-inch 4K TV ought to have meant the whole lot would feel bigger, however even as the belongings rendered by using the game had been large, the sixteen:9 ratio felt definitely claustrophobic.

Yet I persevered to play, due to the fact I did now not miss the heat, or the disconnects, or the crushing weight of capitalism on my thighs.

Day 7: A day of rest I stone couch, and labored hard at my task, and I used the 21 X as a stand to keep my telephone.

It was better this way.

Day eight: Making my manner downtown, part 2 My dog has a fear of packed bags. I am continually aware of it, distracting him with treats whenever I must % a bag for a ride. As I dismantled the X-21’s energy supply and carefully packed it back into the case, I seemed up.

The canine notion I changed into going for properly.

But I became now not. Instead, I took a Lyft to the workplace and an elevator up the stairs. “Is that a computer?” a co-employee laughed.

“Yes,” I stated.

Day 9: Goodbye old buddy I shot photographs in the afternoon. The pc felt heavier than standard, its fans and lovely little beeps have been a cacophony overwhelming the quiet hum of the newsroom.

The 21 X isn’t always a device intended for silence. It isn’t a system meant to be overlooked. It catches eyes, and earns feedback, and traces my arms when I want to transport it.

When I left that night time, leaving behind it, I felt no regret. It had reaped the reward it become constructed to earn. I had written approximately this $9,000 laptop, experienced it, so you—and your credit card—do not should.

Even now, long after it’s been put away, I nonetheless struggle to apprehend who it’s far for. It might be for those who spend $a hundred,000 on a car or a $5,000 on a cellphone. Yet, this is luxurious completed inside the plastic of peons. It’s a weird creature that cannot aesthetically attraction to the only-percent, even though they’re the simplest ones who should afford it.

So perhaps it is for the game enthusiasts. The obsessive individuals of the PC gaming community who fear over benchmarks and specifications like maximum of us worry over pricetags. Its sheer strength and the glowing lighting fixtures could be appealing to a gamer. But it can’t be upgraded. In 4 years, it’s going to, absolute confidence, be obsolete, its energy a rival only to smartphones or destiny all-in-one VR headsets. And for this reason, this will be a horrific buy for a gamer.

I think it’s miles best for you. The individual who read this assessment and continues to be reaching for their pockets, keen to have a $9,000 communique piece taking on all the area on their table. God rattling is it something to speak about.