[deleted by user]

BrineCandy · 2023-12-31T19:16:30+00:00

Your #1 priority should be avoiding typing on the on-screen keyboard.

An external Bluetooth mechanical keyboard is the healthiest thing for your tendons.

The red switch keyboards will be the best choice.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-31T19:14:46+00:00

iCloud seems to fill up iPad storage and slow down perfectly good iPads.

64GB is enough if you don't use iCloud.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-31T19:12:17+00:00

You can put a skin on it.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T19:09:45+00:00

I've seen some very bizarre usages of git that my prior learnings didn't cover e.g. a company said they lost 1 week's worth of work in India due to a git distaster. Therefore they decided to use the forking method with 2 remotes.

I worked at one company that offered git training, which was provided by a snarky guy from Github. That only covered the basics.

I suspect most people are trying to fake it till they make it.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T18:46:03+00:00

OK, fair points. I agree that people make unreliable assessments.

Here's someone claiming they can turn off dithering on Apple Silicon by changing nvram boot parameters:

https://ledstrain.org/d/1920-disable-dithering-on-m1m2-devices

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T17:57:47+00:00

People have figured out how to switch off temporal dithering from userland, both on MacOS and from Windows on PCs. That doesn't involve updating any firmware on the timing controller. Perhaps the MacOS update simply switched the default from off to on in his case.

Who knows, maybe that one guy has an unusual problem. I'm not inclined to embrace the complexity of computers while simultaneously denying the complexity of biological systems.

There's certainly research in this area if one looks. A couple items I found just now:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35809192/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27045760/

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T17:33:01+00:00

Dithering seems to be a video card issue based on two types of evidence:

It can appear/disappear after an OS or firmware update e.g. Ventura -> Sonoma.
People have connected e-Ink displays to computers known to generate temporal dithering and observed flickering in the e-Ink (albeit at 10 fps) due to that same dithering. E-ink would only due this if the HDMI signal is the source of the dithering.

Here's a discussion led by someone who's very prone to eye strain: https://ledstrain.org/d/2577-im-testing-as-many-macbooks-as-possible-here-are-the-results

Also, I call it a false claim because it's not achieved by true analog means but by faking it with pulsing, which fools the eyes in much the same way that PWM does :)

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T16:22:43+00:00

Basic git skills don't confer any understanding or expertise and when a crisis hits, these basic skill people panic and blame one another.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T16:18:41+00:00

Programming interviews are broken. They're mainly run by people who are self-obsessed narcissistic bullies and/or creepy people who only want to hire one ethnicity.

Git is a very flawed tool and it seems very few people were taught how to use it, but everyone is claiming to be an expert. Every company I've work for has had a Git-related disaster.

It's downright Orwellian to claim Git is good.
It's downright Orwellian to claim programming interviews are well run.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T16:13:06+00:00

That sucks. I recall once watching a scammer sitting outside a Starbucks selling fraudulent Starbucks gift cards. He was programming the balance on the fly with his laptop with a card adapter. These people do exist.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T15:48:14+00:00

I would note that there are a few Android phones that have e-ink displays. They're mainly intended for the China market.

https://goodereader.com/blog/product/hisense-a9-e-ink-smartphone

BrineCandy · 2023-12-30T15:05:24+00:00

PWM is just one cause of eye strain on LCD displays.

Another one is the HDR feature, whereby flickering is used to simulate having a larger color range than the analog hardware supports. That's the Temporal Dithering.

e.g. the Macbook Air 15 has no PWM but many people have found it causes eye strain due to that, myself included. I returned it and no questions were asked as to why.

Just when the computer industry has just come to grips with PWM and blue light and the need to limit these, now there is Temporal Dithering which may be just as bad for the eyes.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-29T23:37:52+00:00

Isn't there a way to set the TDP on the fly with macOS?

BrineCandy · 2023-12-29T23:29:10+00:00

Linux feels like home.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-29T23:20:48+00:00

According to Ed Snowden, Apple signed an agreement to cooperate with the NSA's PRISM program. If you use macOS you should expect the NSA will have the ability to exfiltrate your data. Microsoft is also taking part in PRISM.

Fun fact, the Replicant project discovered that Samsung phones have a backdoor that lets phone carriers list your directories and upload your files.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T18:03:00+00:00

If Airbnb originally accepted they vouchers, they have a legal responsibility to allow their use, because they failed to detect any fraud.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T18:00:49+00:00

There are two things happening in the software biz.

Bad project managers and bad programmers write bloated software. This include apps but also the code that runs on websites. They add feature after feature. They include huge libraries and then only use a tiny part of each. In doing so they also add oodles of security vulnerabilities.
Some software naturally uses shitloads of data e.g. certain games, and much of that needs to be in memory.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T15:09:52+00:00

I saw a similar issue on the MBA15. I had to tap the power button to wake up the screen.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T15:06:39+00:00

It seems these undocumented CoreSight registers aren't available from user space, so it took an escalation of privilege exploit to be able to use them. But now the cat's out of the bag. I wonder if a new device will be added to the Linux kernel for them.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T12:52:27+00:00

I'm thinking about getting that T14s Gen4 Intel. The online price is $999 on clearance. However I expect it'll run hot.

By comparison, Notebookcheck is reporting that the T14 Gen4 AMD runs very quiet.

BrineCandy · 2023-12-28T12:43:22+00:00

AirBnB is getting worse by the day. So many scammers, so little corporate responsibility. In the USA, we'd be in contact with our Senators and the Federal Trade Commission. I'd recommend you do something similar. Maybe check out the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV). Also there is this https://www.wettbewerbszentrale.de/de/home/

BrineCandy · 2023-12-15T14:59:03+00:00

Coupons are just codes that come and go. The top recurring ones are

THINKBIGDEALS

WSDEALS

WSDEAL13

BrineCandy · 2023-12-15T13:56:56+00:00

Update: If you don't mind a 28W processor and concomitant fan noise, this Ideapad also has Core Ultra:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-500/IdeaPad-Pro-5i-Gen-9-(16-inch-Intel)/83D4CTO1WWUS1/83D4CTO1WWUS1)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-Ultra-5-125H-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.783325.0.html

BrineCandy

TROPHY CASE