A demo of modular electronics with Pockit as of early 2022, after several upgrades in the recent months based on everyone’s feedback.
One for the true nerds, not sure about everyone else.
Category: PCs
Make Your Own Pocket Computer
Penkēsu (Japanese: ペンケース) is a retro-style handheld device powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a 7.9 inch widescreen display (400 x 1280 resolution), and a 48-keys ortholinear mechanical keyboard… More here.
If you want to build your own, go here. If I had the time I would give this a go, and the technical knowledge and patience and commitment. I have none of those.
Is a Mac safer than a Windows laptop?
When it comes to getting a new laptop, many of us have a favourite operating system. But, which platform is actually the safest – Mac or Windows?
We spoke to several security experts to get an idea of how vulnerable each platform is, what attacks you need to watch out for and how to keep your device safe – no matter which one you use. Here’s what we found out… More here.
A Mac is…
Qualcomm’s answer to Apple Silicon is coming… at some point
And most of the PCs with Qualcomm chips released to date have been significantly slower than similarly-priced models with Intel or AMD chips. But Qualcomm says that could change with its next-gen chips, which the company says are expected to arrive in consumer devices in 2023… More here.
2023 seems hopeful and by that point how much further ahead will Apple be? Also, and perhaps more importantly, these chips will be for Windows PCs. The problem word here is ‘Windows’ which is not exactly efficient.
Making the Laptop Commonplace
“People don’t want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper.” Full tweet is here.
Kind of funny, kind of great, always interesting to look back.
why windows’ taskbar beats osx’ dock (2011)
It could be argued that I’m doing it wrong, expecting OSX to act like Windows instead of adapting to what OSX offers. For a long while OSX has had exposé, a single button that temporarily resizes and repositions all of your windows (or makes snapshot thumbnails, based on how you think of it) so that they are all visible at once. OSX Lion’s Mission Control furthers that paradigm. While I might be getting old and curmudgeonly, I don’t like exposé as much as Windows’ system, in part because it lacks the “quick bounce back” of alt-tab, where a quick tap of alt-tab brings me back to what I was last working on (Windows has a really good “most recently used” algorithm for tasks, an easy to miss but hugely important detail that Just Works.) More here.
Good stuff by Kirk from 10 years ago. Kind of relates to my Windows rant from yesterday.
Windows 10 is as cold and unemotional as ever
I received a new work laptop this week. It was much quicker and powerful enough to cope with every piece of software I need to use in my job. It was also long overdue, but the jump in performance makes my work days a lot easier.
It also came with Windows 10 which was new to me as I use a Mac at home and was on Windows 7 before.
What surprised me, in 2021, was how dated Windows still feels and how unnatural it is to use. The coldness of the interface, the obvious visual breaks between each area of the interface and the general lack of depth hit home quickly.
None of this matter for me because I use it for my work and so it is genuinely a tool in the software and hardware sense, but it is HORRIBLE!
Yes I am a macOS user and have been for many years, but the difference in style and the way the two operating systems work is starker than ever before. One appears to be evolving to fit human beings more each year while the other still looks and feels like a computer programme in the most unemotional way.
It may have advantages over macOS, numerous advantages in specific areas, but to me it genuinely is HORRIBLE!
8 Classic Operating Systems in your browser
If you want to emulate Windows 95, Mac OS X Lion, and more, you’ve come to the right place. Here are eight classic operating systems you can access in your browser… More here.
Of no practical use of course, but a nice trip down memory lane.
Designer Desktops
If you’re like most people, you stare at your computer or tech devices more hours than not throughout the day, so why not make it something cool to see? Each month we enlist artists, designers and companies to create cool desktop wallpapers with beautiful patterns and quotes that you can download for free to use on desktops and mobile devices. Take a look back through all of the Designer Desktops we shared each month of 2020 and download any and all you love! More here.
Some of these are very attractive in an understated way.
The future of Moore’s law seems uncertain
Moore’s Law was first proposed in 1965, then again in revised form in 1975. Assuming an 18-month average doubling period for transistor density (it was ~1 year early on, and lately has been ~3y) there have been about 40 doublings since the first IC in 1959. If you ever go to Intel headquarters in San Jose, you can visit the public museum there that showcases this evolution… More here.
A quick, but worthy read.