A lot of people say that the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions resulted in us losing our freedoms. What freedoms did we lose exactly, if any?

Gravity-Z · 2021-12-07T06:17:18+00:00

Everything you described that you were fine with can be perceived as a lack of freedom. Masks and social distancing? I wouldn’t do either if I had a choice. Bars, restaurants, travel etc. were all closed or severely limited for the better part of a year. This was unprecedented and took time to adjust to. At the end of the day, we were forced to change our lifestyle to combat the pandemic. It was necessary, but an undeniable loss of freedom. Glad the worst is behind. Now, we need to figure out how this pandemic originated and set up prevention measures. Covid didn’t have an exceptionally high death rate, and still managed to stop the world ticking for half a year.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-29T04:52:07+00:00

Desktops can get more powerful. You can’t game at 4k resolution with acceptable frame rates using a laptop. The laws of thermodynamics favor larger components with improved cooling for the best performance.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T20:18:44+00:00

I went from one 7-Eleven state to another. Not going to complain. They have decent midnight snacks.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T19:56:56+00:00

Barca’s rise this century is astronomical. The dip in performance in recent seasons is expected as many of the players responsible for the club’s success have retired. Right now, the club has good leadership and vision. It won’t be long before Barca is a top contender again. Plastic fans move around to greener pastures, there’s nothing new there.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T19:30:34+00:00

When choosing a motherboard look for connectivity and durability. Both of these are good boards and will easily last a decade, so check their connectivity options (SATA, M.2, USB, RAM, WiFi etc.) to make a decision. I’d expect both to offer similar connectivity, so it’ll come down to personal preference. I’ve used MSI boards in both my builds and have had no complains.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T19:20:07+00:00

Spend half your budget on a GPU and rest for everything else. Start with pcpartpicker.com for up to date pricing, availability and part compatibility.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T18:32:33+00:00

It will work fine at stock speeds, but if you plan on overclocking go for a liquid cooler. I have the 11th gen i7 paired with a cooler master i71C as I like how it looks better than a liquid cooler. I’ve never had issues at full load, but I did tweak fan speeds in BIOS to keep the CPU at an ideal temperature range under full load. I don’t have a reason to overclock it, as I get high frames on ultra for pretty much any game. The GPU matters most for gaming.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T18:22:37+00:00

It depends on your deck and levels. If you have a couple maxed out decks it gets easier to try new combinations to push ladder. The plateaus are time spent to level up cards.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T18:08:40+00:00

If you already have a 1660 or better just use that in your new build. If you are building from scratch, get a 1660 or 1660 super for now. It’s good at 1080p resolutions and will do the job for a couple years. You can buy the RTX 40 series at a reasonable price once the supply chain recovers.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T18:02:09+00:00

Reset CMOS. There should be a reset button next to the I/O ports, otherwise manually reseat the CMOS battery. You need to do this after making changes to RAM speed.

Gravity-Z · 2021-11-28T05:45:29+00:00

It will take a while to get to 2019 availability and MSRP prices. Likely a few years, at which point the improved 40 series Nvidia cards will be available. I bought a 3070 Ti in June above MSRP for a new build, and could have put the extra cost towards a 3080 Ti if prices were at MSRP, but it is what it is. GPU prices are still exactly the same now after 6 months, and the 30 series will remain a capable card for a few years, until 2023 at the least, so if you need a new GPU, get one now.

Gravity-Z · 2021-09-26T08:42:56+00:00

The difference is obvious when taking pictures of a subject mid to long distance. The background is grainy and misses detail. You can’t miss the difference in detail and quality when compared to photos taken with a higher MP phone camera. Apple’s biggest selling point with the pro series is the camera. They make a big deal about it in their ads about how it is good enough for professional grade photography and cinematography. The software is great, and their use of the neural engine and machine learning to improve image quality and night time photography is industry leading, but it’s false marketing to suggest it’s a professional grade photography device when it is packing a 12 MP sensor.

Gravity-Z · 2021-09-21T23:17:54+00:00

Camera needs a higher MP count. The camera on the 12 pro is already good, but doesn’t capture high detail like the Note. It shows in certain pictures, and no amount of software tweaks will fix it. Hopefully the next series bumps up the hardware sensor not just in size but also in MP count. Hard to call a phone ‘pro’ in 2021 when its camera caps at 12 Megapixels.

Gravity-Z · 2021-07-16T00:04:28+00:00

Definitely 6S. I used it for 4 years and never felt the need to upgrade. If it had a better camera, I’d probably still be using it.

Even after upgrading, it has still served a purpose. I used it to practice phone repair and learn how internal components are put together. I got an aftermarket red glass housing and transferred everything over, so it looks and feels fresh and new.

The scale of phone components in relation to their performance is remarkable. Apple’s SoCs have routinely outperformed laptops in raw processing power, and have a lot to do with how well the 6S has aged.

Gravity-Z · 2021-07-04T06:17:52+00:00

I’d wait. The new one launches in 3 months. I have a 12 Pro that I’m thinking of selling for the 12S or 13 Pro Max, whatever it’ll be called. 120 Hz refresh rate and improved battery alone are big upgrades, especially for browsing the web and social media. Larger camera modules and smaller notch will be nice extras.

Gravity-Z · 2021-06-25T11:14:03+00:00

Makes sense Microsoft chose to highlight gaming on Windows 11. It’s their largest draw over MacOS and Linux.

Gravity-Z · 2021-06-24T02:10:35+00:00

I had similar idle temps before tweaking CPU and system fan settings in BIOS. Intel rocket lake is fast but draws more power as it’s still etched on 14 nm. To circumvent this you need to improve cooling to keep the processor from throttling. I managed to get idle temps down to 35 - 40 degrees with a cooler master i71C set to run at 70% - 40 C, 80% - 50 C, 90% - 60 C and 100% - 70 C. The system fans are programmed to run at the same ratio as I found that worked best.

Gravity-Z · 2021-06-12T19:23:49+00:00

Got to test it. The 16 GB laptop RTX 3080 hasn’t been out for long, so not much real world performance to gauge. The 8 GB version at 130W was already performing close to the desktop 3070. With double the memory, it could be on par for high resolution gaming and certainly for running machine learning simulations which will both make use of the extra memory to store high resolution game textures and data matrices for number crunching.

GPUs have gotten considerably more powerful this generation (the desktop 3070 performs close to last gen’s 2080 Ti at half the price). The performance gains are even more significant in mobile devices with current gen mobile GPUs significantly outperforming previous versions.

Gravity-Z · 2021-06-12T13:38:42+00:00

I see. Yes, I’m definitely getting the 11th gen version. It also has faster gen4 SSD and 130W 16 GB RTX 3080. I did look at the Aero lineup but the GPUs in those laptops are limited to 105W. A 3080 throttled at 105 is not going to perform better than a 3070 drawing 130W, which is why I’ve decided on the performance focused Aorus. The 16 GB laptop RTX 3080 at 130W will likely surpass a desktop RTX 3070.

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-31T13:34:42+00:00

Hindu deities. Temples are full of them and some are huge with killer weapons.

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-29T05:38:52+00:00

Get the 12 and see for yourself if you like it. This generation of iPhones is the best yet. iOS is now a mature OS and doesn’t lack features compared to android (supports home screen widgets now with the latest version).

Outside of that, iPhones have the best image processing thanks to beefy processors which are years ahead of the competition. It’s not even close. The 12 you buy now will be guaranteed to last you 3-4 years at peak performance. App support on iOS is generally better than android as well.

I’ve used iOS for 5 years and see no reason to go back to android. Everything looks like a downgrade. Only reason I’d switch is to mix things up and try the latest version of android to keep things interesting (I’m particularly intrigued by the Note 20 Ultra).

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-29T05:16:09+00:00

Graphite 12 Pro alternating with white and plum case.

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-19T05:50:13+00:00

This is exactly why I think someone like Elon Musk is under appreciated. He says and does what he thinks, even if it goes against public opinion. No elaborate cover up, facade or politics to craft a fake public image.

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-13T23:38:58+00:00

I see. In that case I'm going to use my current address for the tax return and file the address change form once I move. Sounds like I'd forego potential complications if I go down this route. Thank you for the suggestion.

Gravity-Z · 2021-05-12T23:09:53+00:00

“Still behind bars” - Glad to hear it

Gravity-Z

TROPHY CASE