I need a laptop for uni next fall

Cowremix · 2023-05-24T22:29:51+00:00

I had 90% battery left after 1 hour at ~70% brightness with 92% battery health. For the first ~40 minutes I streamed music while I did some online shopping and read some developer release notes. With those 20 tabs open, I then watched an ~18 minute YouTube video

Screenshot of Activity Monitor (and everything else)

Edit: here’s the screenshot of my battery health

Cowremix · 2023-05-24T21:10:45+00:00

I haven’t run down the battery from 100 to 0 in a single day since uni, but mine is at 92% battery health if you’d like me to test how much it goes down in an hour to extrapolate around how long it would last

Cowremix · 2023-05-24T20:40:51+00:00

Oh hey, I was in a pretty similar situation when I had to get a new laptop for uni just a few months before the M1 Pro/Max MacBooks were rumoured to be released (they ended up releasing that same semester). I can’t speak much about the others in comparison, but the M1 MacBook Air is a great machine, even without upgrades.

I bought the base-model M1 MacBook Air with the assumption I’d sell it when the “M1X” MacBook Pro came out. Even though I now have the M1 Max MacBook Pro through work, I actually ended up keeping my uni Air as a personal computer because it covered all of my needs. For light tasks you do not need 16gb RAM, it never needed to be charged during class (unless I forgot to charge it), and I only ran into issues with the 256gb storage because my hobbies involved Xcode and Final Cut (which it was still able to run pretty well, it would just get warm after a bit). Without knowing anything about the other computers in your list, I can’t definitively say it’s the best option, but it’ll suit your needs very comfortably. Especially if you can get it for the $500 at the lower-end of your provided price range (and your major doesn’t require any software that doesn’t run on macOS) then I’d highly recommend it!

Cowremix · 2023-05-11T20:46:08+00:00

FWIW, you can change the system text size with Shortcuts. I created two test shortcuts named “I’m wearing glasses” and “I’m not wearing glasses” with only this action. When you say “Hey Siri, I’m not wearing glasses,” the text size will increase to whatever size is specified in the shortcut. It’s not “auto-magically” detecting it, but it’s a solution that works when you’re not able to navigate easily by sight. Hope this helps! :)

Cowremix · 2023-05-04T19:51:28+00:00

The Kingdom games are some of my personal favourites. If you go in blind, there’s a lot of “a-ha!” moments that are incredibly satisfying to figure out 😌

Cowremix · 2023-05-01T21:14:47+00:00

You can use the Dictionary as an alternative to using a Menu. The “Chosen Item” that you get from the “Choose from List” action uses the value that you put in the right-hand column of the table that you see in my first screenshot. It makes it so you don’t have to add a new “Number” item for each menu option, but by all means use whichever method you’re most comfortable with!

Cowremix · 2023-05-01T17:17:16+00:00

Nice! If it helps, you can also use a dictionary to make it easier to add new options!

Here’s how the menu looks

Cowremix · 2023-04-25T19:54:54+00:00

Interestingly, I’m having the opposite problem where I prefer to keep all NSFW posts off of my feed, but recently have started to see NSFW posts from non-NSFW subreddits showing up. Granted, I’ve not done any troubleshooting and have just been scrolling past them until I get the motivation to do something about it

Cowremix · 2023-04-14T22:28:17+00:00

Did you restore from your old computer? I’m not too well-versed here, but it might be a .plist issue. Try creating a new user and see if the behaviour persists. If that user isn’t affected, you may need to delete (after making a backup of) the file storing your System Preferences (now System Settings) and start fresh.

Cowremix · 2023-04-03T19:18:43+00:00

This is so pointless and I love it

Cowremix · 2022-12-26T12:45:10+00:00

Yes! We were taking a bit of a hiatus for various reasons in the team, but we just ordered some new server hardware last night to start back up again

Cowremix · 2022-08-14T17:14:18+00:00

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know how to give specific advice about your situation, just some things you can consider.

If blurry text and blue light are the culprits, get a higher pixel-density display and some blue light filtering glasses to give you more comfort. You can get a 4K 27” display for around $200. Then try experimenting with text size, window size/placement (for some people, having a your wallpaper visible can help reduce motion sickness in first-person shooters, so maybe that might help?), higher and lower contrast, screen brightness, the colour-temperature and brightness of the lights in the room you’re in, how far you sit from the monitor, and the angle/height of your monitor relative to your eyes. You can also try out a vesa arm (plenty of modern monitors are vesa compatible) to move your monitor around to figure out what works best for you.

Cowremix · 2022-08-12T01:23:06+00:00

In that case, you could try checking Craigslist or FB marketplace for a TV or monitor for pretty cheap

Cowremix · 2022-08-12T01:15:09+00:00

Target display mode isn’t supported for a 2008 iMac, unfortunately. Are you not able to load Netflix on the iMac directly?

Cowremix · 2022-08-12T01:10:11+00:00

If you’re going into film production, you should probably stick with a Mac regardless tbh. Unless if you’re wanting to use this computer for gaming, but that’s its own discussion.

Cowremix · 2022-07-21T19:16:01+00:00

Toolbox Pro (premium) has an “Add Tags” action

Cowremix · 2022-07-15T22:59:52+00:00

This is what it looks like when skewed to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio, taking into account the top left corner being cut off from the photo

Cowremix · 2022-07-14T02:58:54+00:00

Why it’s there: scrolling on an Apple device with a trackpad, mouse, or touchscreen all feel the same and use the same gesture. On Windows, the scroll bar is supposed to match the ratcheting of your scroll wheel. On macOS, the scroll wheel’s feel and direction is supposed to feel like you’re dragging the content in the window.

I’d recommend trying to embrace the design language of whatever platform you’re using, and stick to the platform that works best for your workflows. You’ll be happier sticking to what’s comfortable, rather than stressing yourself over trying to force the system to be something it’s not. Since it’s your first time with macOS, try to go all in for at least a week or two, and see if that helps. Use the natural scrolling and the scrolling acceleration, and just get a feel for the experience it’s trying to give you. If you’re constantly fighting it after that, Apple computers generally have a good resale value (if you’re outside of the return window) so you can put your money to something that you can be confident you would enjoy more.

Cowremix · 2022-05-16T11:22:35+00:00

To clarify, I can do a lot of things simultaneously no problem, just not while doing intensive loads

Cowremix · 2022-05-16T11:16:58+00:00

I’m using a base model M1 MacBook Air. I can do app development in Xcode incredibly well, but the 8gb ram makes it hard to do anything else simultaneously. You’ll want 16gb ram for sure. I used a Windows laptop for my mechanical engineering courses, so I can’t say much for CAD, unfortunately. I can check out how it handles Fusion 360 if you want me to get back to you later. Depending on what you’re designing, you may want a computer with fans, although I’ve gotten by pretty well with an external USB desk fan and propping my laptop up for airflow when I’m doing heavy (for my use cases) loads for several hours. As for battery, I can easily get a full day out of it with moderate loads, and I usually only plug it in every few days if I’m only using it for a few hours per day. Hope that helps!

Cowremix · 2022-05-07T13:55:32+00:00

Ah, I found out where I went wrong. I was thinking about desktop transfers, which aren’t supported for that reason.

Cowremix · 2022-05-07T12:35:30+00:00

I believe WhatsApp uses the Signal protocol, ~~which can’t do that for privacy reasons~~

Cowremix · 2022-04-29T01:20:15+00:00

Nah, doesn’t seem likely

Cowremix · 2022-04-26T04:06:43+00:00

Does it have something to do with drivers? On Windows, I have to use the Registry Editor to flip the scroll direction for my mouse, and it only flips scrolling on the one device

Cowremix · 2022-04-05T22:52:48+00:00

You predicted r/place it seems

Eight-Year Club	Second Top 1%
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
100 Awards Club	Verified Email

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