Month: September 2019

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Never brothered read Intel’s errata sheets in the past. After reading the documents for some of the hardware that I have to deal with, I think I could use a stiff drink and a few checks for BIOS updates.

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Passing thought: it feels like just yesterday, all the things required their own separate chargy things.

Today, I pretty much have two special purpose chargers in my daily life. The classic barrel based laptop charger for my Latitude E series and the 3.5 mm -> USB-A cable that charges my I don’t think I wanna look up how old headphones. Which is really one because my laptop is never fair from a charger, and those headphones get charged every so many months.

To be fair my Xbox controller, Bluetooth keyboard, and my other headphones could also be counted as special in my little terrarium. But that’s because of they’re the last things I have running off USB Micro B for their charging needs, and none require frequent rechargings. But I look at these like the Mini B of old, pretty darned universal: just dying out over time.

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A few wild ass guestimates from the long term planning bin.

Remaining in beloved Android country: ~$650.

  • Galaxy Tab S6: $650.
  • I hate 16:10 tablets.
  • What comes next?
Turning to an iPad Pro: ~$780
  • 11″ 2018 model: $650.
  • Pencil 2: $130.
  • CPU on par with my desktop.
Turning to any other iPad: $479 ~ $589
  • 7th gen: $330 ; Air 3: $450.
  • Pencil 1: $99.
  • Lightning cable all the things ~ $40.
  • I already routed USB-C all the things.
The best price to performance in my opinion is the Air but simply put, I pretty much reject anything that requires a Lightning connection to charge. To me the cost delta between a regular iPad and a Pro is a time based one; e.g. by the time an Pro goes to the old folks home, just as much will have been spent on regular models in the name of faster SoCs. If Lightning cables littered my home the way USB-C and USB-MicroB cables do, I’d probably go Air.
I’ve been extremely happy with my Tab S3, and before it a Tab S2, and before that a Note 8.0. Damned 1″ crack in my screen and the occasional side effect of that becomes increasingly worriesome as time goes on. But other than that, it has been a perfect device for me.
Samsung’s Tabs S4, S5e (barf), and S6 make me question their road forward. No one else makes a suitable device. And the level of bugginess my Chromebook offers, the odds of me taking a 2-in-1 or tablet based Chrome OS device as an upgrade path aren’t very high. Unless Google changes in larger quality assuring ways, I can’t really call a Chrometab any better than suffering i[Pad]OS versus a real Android device.
The real question, I suppose is when my Samsung finally heads towards failure versus when my budget converges with a replacement.
Every now and then my device acts a smidge funny. Like today, it decided to stop taking pen input for a while. As far as I can tell the crack in the screen has not been visibly expanding but events like this seem to now happen several times per month. When you consider that if neither Direct3D nor bash are involved, my tablet is my primary computer at home and my secondary computer at work, that gives worries, alright. Sigh.
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Passing thought: I’m not sure what’s worse, that you can still get a really pocket protectors or that I was tempted to buy tw^H^Hone.

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There are times when Willow needs a reminder that patience is rewarded.

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Not sure that these photos capture the comfort and disturbed nature of these two dogs, or just goes to show how long my camera takes to adjust the colour balance in the dark of TV light.

My parsing of their expressions were that Willow is very comfy back there, and Misty is unamused by me shifting butt cheeks on the couch, in order to take a picture of them.

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Digital Trends: Xbox One S All-Digital Edition review: No-Disc Dystopia.

Personally, I think the price point is the whole deal here.

In concept the game discs are a nice idea, if you can’t handle downloading 60~80 GB in a single day beacause of your limited internet connectivity. In practice the disc is little more than a license key, for most games: you will still have to download enough data that it may as well be a small menary card with an activation code. For smaller titles the download might be a DVD or two worth; for big famous games it will still likey be Blu-Ray sized.

So really, all you are doing is making it so the disc must be in the drive to play, in exchange for being able to sell or trade the game in the second hand market. That’s great if it is something you will play once and dispose of next week. For the rest of us, we will probably take whichever one costs less or won’t require pants.

The reallity that the game will be complete and never in need of software updates is far more dead than releasing games on disc. Sadly IMHO, but at least we live in a world where publishers don’t have to snail mail you a floppy diskettes in x weeks before you can get through that dungeon without a glitch making your sabatons fall off, and your character endlessly spin eastward for the rest of the game.

For me personally, the win of my original model Xbox One having a disc drive is the ability to watch movies on Blu-ray. All of my other devices are limited to streaming files from my server or external services like Netflix; most of my devices don’t have an optical disc drive. And the one that does it’s used for ripping discs for my private home streaming needs. I don’t think you could walk into Walmart and expect to find a cheap ass Blu-ray player back when the Xbox One launched, so much as a free to good home VCR at the dump.