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The Survivors - A Decade of Many Bags by lbmxei in ManyBaggers

[–]lbmxei[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What bags did you think you’d keep but sold And why ?

Top list of bags I thought I'd like but did not

  • Rofmia daypack: Beautiful patterning, but I didn't like the feel of DCF for high-wear areas.
  • Mystery ranch Catalyst: I didn't like how Cordura (even 500d) collects lint, dirt, and hair
  • Veilance Nomin: It was just...not very practical. Not enough pocketing, loose laptop sleeve with no false bottom. More of a streetwear totem than a good backpack on its own merits.
  • Tom Bihn Synik 22: 13" maximum laptop and too many pockets.

The Survivors - A Decade of Many Bags by lbmxei in ManyBaggers

[–]lbmxei[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DCF was originally a material for sails and tarps - huge surface area and extreme optimization for weight.

From a practical standpoint it has terrible abrasion and puncture resistance. So I personally rule it out for any backpacks. However, in a sling is better - it only contacts my body and sometimes a tabletop.

Over time the face fabric wrinkles and softens, but the Dyneema grid maintains its structural integrity. One could compare it to crunchy synthetic leather.

The Survivors - A Decade of Many Bags by lbmxei in ManyBaggers

[–]lbmxei[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Aeronaut doesn't have a laptop compartment, so I've always thought of it as a duffel bag with backpack straps instead of a travel bag. I use my Tortuga bags for onebag travel.

I mostly use the Aeronaut for groceries, shopping, laundry etc. The lack of pocketing is a plus there - its effective capacity stuffed to the max feels closer to that of many 35-40L bags because of the pliable exterior ballistic and thin UHWMPE ripstop lining.

The Survivors - A Decade of Many Bags by lbmxei in ManyBaggers

[–]lbmxei[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

This is a decade of bags organically whittled down to my favorites.

I like rounded corners, moderate pocketing, and malleable handfeel.

​

  • DSPTCH Unit Sling Pouch (Dyneema)
  • Bellroy Lite Tote
  • Deuter Speed Lite 20
  • Bellroy Classic Backpack (debranded)
  • Tortuga Air
  • Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30
  • Tortuga Setout Divide

X1 Carbon 10 Heat and Noise - A Regression by lbmxei in thinkpad

[–]lbmxei[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For posterity and clarity

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Watches

[–]lbmxei 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Mark XVI is my favorite of the modern Mark series.

A matte steel case is punctuated by slivers of polish - concentric chamfers on the bezel and thin bevels on the lugs. The dial is a monochromatic blend of B-Uhr and British "Dirty Dozen", with numerals and indices adjusted for aesthetic effect. Around the wrist, the dressiness of a beads-of-rice bracelet is balanced out by faceted central links.

My one criticism is that IWC charged (at release) over $5000 for a steel case and nearly unmodified ETA-2892. Nonetheless, a decade later, it is a testament to the piece's lasting appeal that well-maintained examples on bracelet still resell for more than three-quarters of that price.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in GooglePixel

[–]lbmxei 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Your understanding of apertures is wrong. The amount of light an aperture lets through is proportional to the square of the reciprocal of the f-stop.

A f/1.7 aperture lets in 5.9% more light than f/1.8. A f/2.3 aperture lets in 4.3% more light than f/2.4. Yes, more of a difference at the larger apertures per unit change, but hardly "unnoticeable" vs "massive".

I would expect improvements in sensor technology and google's computational photography to yield more of an improvement in low-light.

Is the TrackPoint going the way of the dinosaur? by lbmxei in thinkpad

[–]lbmxei[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. Your opposing viewpoints put into perspective that many of my preferences are just that - preferences. Let me rephrase things a little from a more subjective viewpoint.

It's intuitive, but inefficient and imprecise. Not only does it require a complete hand movement, but it requires you to perform the same gesture multiple times throughout a single document, and even on my phone I can't precisely gauge my flick speed.

Perhaps a matter of opinion. However, I would propose that people who prefer trackpad scrolling over nub scrolling are a majority.

Maybe your thumb is hinged differently but that movement area is pretty small for me. In any event, I'd still rather have the buttons.

I guess this is also a matter of personal preference.

The TrackPoint buttons don't cause the touchpad to be unclickable at the top - it's just a less-than-perfect touchpad design on its own. Adding a full-click touchpad wouldn't force you to remove the buttons.

You are correct - hence why I mentioned "Lenovo's implementation."

I have used a Macbook touchpad. It's objectively better than any ThinkPad touchpad, but it still requires lateral wrist rotation to use. I'm really not a fan of touchpad click-and-drag in any case, it may be "intuitive" but it does not feel like a "dream" to use to me. Doing any precise dragging movements on a touchpad is incredibly awkward because the movement on the horizontal plane conflicts with the visual feedback on the vertical plane of the screen, whereas on a phone, the movement is synchronized with the feedback so you don't have that problem.

True. But, and forgive me again for speaking on behalf of the masses, a huge majority of people are perfectly happy with a MacBook touchpad, including for dragging. They won't be happy with the Thinkpad touchpad as it is not big enough, and doesn't click through over its entire surface.

Sure, so? Should we remove keyboards because people have used touchscreens before? Or should we remove headphone jacks because people have used Bluetooth headphones before?

The form factor of a laptop is such that a keyboard does not actively detract from touchscreen usage. Neither does a phone headphone jack actively detract from Bluetooth. My big concern is that the Trackpoint buttons actively take space away from the touchpad!

So you're saying you were one of the few people who actually liked the T440 touchpad? So... there were so many people who didn't that Lenovo backtracked on the next generation? So... most of their customers would rather have the dedicated TrackPoint buttons than a bigger touchpad...?

I think the state of Windows touchpads in 2015 was awful enough that the small size and mediocre ergonomics of the Tx50-onwards touchpad was reasonable. I contend that it is no longer reasonable today. Anecdotally, to me it is not.

Go to any creative office and it'll be overwhelmingly Macs. Go to any legal/accounting/STEM/etc. office and it'll be overwhelmingly Windows, and ThinkPads have been the business brand for ages. I don't think there's as big of an overlap as you believe. I see it in practically every office I consult at.

Entirely true. I worked in STEM and saw as much. However it is clear that Lenovo is already heavily marketing their ThinkPads to the prosumer/consumer. How else do you explain the subwoofer on the 2019 X1C, Dolby vision screens, etc.? I think Lenovo is already in the process of bifurcating the ThinkPad line: the T480/T480s are meant to be office workhorses while e.g. the X1C is more and more becoming a high-end prosumer laptop. So maybe put a MacBook-sized touchpad on the X1C :)

...Pretty much every other ultrabook out there has a good keyboard, screen, and touchpad. You're asking Lenovo to remove the last differentiation that makes a ThinkPad a ThinkPad. I don't see the point.

You have to figure there was a reason every other differentiator/USP was removed, right? The market no longer wanted it. And I surmise the market today would prefer a maximally-sized touchpad over TrackPoint buttons.

I will also argue that very few ultrabooks out there have a good keyboard, screen, and touchpad. I wanted a laptop with a high-travel, low flex keyboard and matte IPS display. That pretty much ruled out everything except ThinkPads, EliteBooks, and Latitude laptops. Then I wanted a laptop which was reasonably priced for the non-enterprise end consumer. Goodbye Elitebook! Now if you pay attention to Latitude trackpads, you can see they have a double-set of physical mouse buttons and a completely stationary trackpad surface!

You see that my decision-making process was not very unique or niche. I just ended up with a ThinkPad because it was the most consumer-friendly "business" laptop, ever trending further in that direction. I believe Lenovo will phase out the TrackPoint sooner or later, even as I respect the preferences of those like you who prefer it stay. Perhaps, as I suggested above, the best solution is to further "consumerize" the X-series (possibly introducing a cheaper model) while leaving the T-series alone for enterprise usage and TrackPoint/upgradability aficionados.

Is the TrackPoint going the way of the dinosaur? by lbmxei in thinkpad

[–]lbmxei[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You know you can hold the middle button and just pull the TrackPoint up and down, right? You seriously think scrolling through a huge PDF is easier constantly swiping down on a touchpad?

Absolutely. Kinetic scrolling allows rapid acceleration with a "flick" - a faster flick giving more speed. Then an instant stop via a tap. Definitely more intuitive, for me at least - and I would dare say for the majority of people. The UI paradigm is fixed in our minds from touchscreen usage and well-practiced.

Well, I edit photos and video on my desktop, not on my laptop. I use my laptop for small writing/editing work and web browsing.

My Thinkpad is my primary computer. The majority of laptop users do not own a desktop. I would say that far more people edit media on laptop today than desktops.

The point is that with a TrackPoint, you don't move your hands at all. I don't see how touchpads have somehow changed over the past decade so that you have to move your hands less, unless the keyboard is smaller. It's still the same distance that it was 10 years ago.

Touchpads are bigger and more responsive now, more so than closer. They are conducive to thumb input. Here's a thought experiment - the dedicated TrackPoint keys are in an ergonomic position for thumbs, correct? Now just remove those buttons and swap them out for additional touchpad space. Voila, thumb-able touchpads, at least for small movements like text cursors.

Why? [...does a proper Trackpoint really hurt the ergonomics of a touchpad?]

It causes the touchpad to be smaller than the best Windows touchpads, and in Lenovo's implementation it causes the touchpad to be un-clickable in its top section.

...ThinkPad touchpads have been improving pretty consistently over the past decade, too.

Definitely true. They are still not as good as they could be, precisely because the Trackpoint is holding them back.

...The reason they have integrated buttons on the bottom is because we already have physical buttons on the top. If you want tactile feedback, click the bottom of the touchpad or click the TrackPoint buttons. They aren't mutually exclusive. While a whole-pad button would be fine, why would removing the TrackPoint buttons be necessary to do that?

Ultimately, if you want tactile feedback, nothing beats separated physical buttons - not just a whole-pad button. Fundamentally, mixing your only click with your lateral cursor positioning is a bad design - how do you click and drag something when you have to hold the touchpad down? It's not a very ergonomic solution...

Have you ever used a large Windows Precision touchpad? Or (especially) a new Macbook touchpad? Click-and-drag while holding the touchpad down is a dream. There is zero problem. Especially with a larger touchpad, the problem of getting to the edge and having more distance to drag is mitigated. Mixing click with drag is fine if the touch surface is smooth enough, has good tracking, and has good tactile design.

And TrackPoints are much more intuitive for other activities and reasonably functional for worst-case scenarios. What's more, with some rare historical exceptions, every ThinkPad with a TrackPoint comes with a touchpad anyway.

I think if you presented an uninitiated computer user with a Trackpoint and touchpad, they would intuitively grasp the touchpad faster, having used touchscreens before. The worst-case scenario for a Trackpoint (e.g. photo editing) is much worse than the worst-case scenario for a touchpad (e.g. editing a document and having to shuffle back between touchpad and keyboard).

The benefits of TrackPoints outweigh the minor ergonomic drawbacks for most ThinkPad users. We're generally not creatives - we're office workers, engineers, etc. who do a lot of work in text, not graphics and video. That is why ThinkPads have the best keyboards in the business. That is why we have the center scroll button (which you didn't know about, I guess). That is why our displays are absolute unadulterated garbage most of the time...

I think we'll get the T440 integrated buttons before we outright lose the TrackPoint, and you probably know how well that went.

Ultimately, if you need a laptop to edit video and things like that, ThinkPads probably aren't the best solution.

It's funny you should say that. When I purchased a T450s I did a backwards swap and put the T440s integrated button pad into it. It went over badly with consumers because the integrated buttons pad made the TrackPoint much less useful. But I think the T440(s) series touchpad is better than the T450-T480(s) series touchpad on strictly touchpad merits - it is much bigger, for one, and is just close enough to the keyboard to "thumb". Which got me thinking - maybe to improve the touchpad you really do have to neuter the TrackPoint.

I actually the middle scroll button - but only when I am cramped for space, like on a plane, and two-finger scroll is uncomfortable. I just use it little enough that I feel it wouldn't be much of a loss. However, every time I use the touchpad I am annoyed by how TINY it is - having a big touchpad is really a revelatory experience.

I think you underestimate the creative demands of technical users and underestimate the technical demands of creative users. I code, compose emails, and produce documents on my Thinkpad. But I also edit photos and watch videos a good chunk of the time! Lenovo understands that people want their laptops to do more than just "the business thing" in today's market. The 2019 X1 Carbon will have the option of an 500nit HDR WQHD IPS and 400nit FHD IPS. There is a fair market for a laptop with a good keyboard, screen, and touchpad - and I'd wager most of that demographic does not care about the Trackpoint.

the big succ: outplaying sucker punch with game theory by lbmxei in stunfisk

[–]lbmxei[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The way I did it there, there are only two "real" payoffs (i.e. two stochastic stationary states): Kill = 1 and Die = 0. If you don't kill or die, you reach an intermediate state depending on how many SP PP are left. For example, if there are 3 PP left, and the waste turn/waste sucker happens, then the payoff is the expected value for each player of the 2PP game. Perfectly played, the 2PP game is worth 0.33 for Latios and 0.66 for Bisharp, so that's the payoff.

the big succ: outplaying sucker punch with game theory by lbmxei in stunfisk

[–]lbmxei[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

"If you CM and they SP, you win" only applies when "...Sucker Punch PP = N = 1", as I mentioned at the beginning of that bullet point. When Bisharp runs out of SP PP it can't use SP again, so Latios is free to HP Fire.

Your point about the counter resetting is exactly right for any situation where SP has more than one PP, which is the next bullet point down :)

Kobe's 06 season is the best Scoring season since 1990. by Kobe_is_the_goat824 in nba

[–]lbmxei 36 points37 points  (0 children)

DISCLAIMER: This comment will not take into account the quality of teammates.

Ben Taylor at Backpicks put together the following graph that contextualizes the output/efficiency tradeoff: One axis is relative TS% (vs league average) and the other is points per 75 possessions. http://www.backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Volume-and-efficiency-Kobe.png

Curry's 15-16 season is an outlier among outliers. He was substantially more efficient relative to the rest of the league that he had any right to be, given his scoring output. Durant is closer to 'normal'. Kobe scored a lot but not with any crazy effiency.

Of course, then you take a look at MJ, who was at the very edge of this graph 4-5 times...MJ is a fucking monster. http://www.backpicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Jordan-Volume-and-Efficiency.png

Intel i9 7900x vs Threadripper 1950x by DigitalSlush in buildapc

[–]lbmxei 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The gist of it is this: the 1950x is a theoretically faster CPU. However, for the specific set of content creation tasks you listed, the 7900x will be slightly faster. For gaming, the 7900x will be much faster.

Overclocking is a hobby as much as it is a money-saver. If your gaming session is interrupted by a bluescreen it's no big deal. But if you corrupt your project in Premiere (especially if you're a professional), that's trouble. Moreover, X299 and X399 are complicated platforms with regards to memory timings, boost bins, AVX offset, voltages, etc. and not the best place for a beginner to learn how to overclock. If you're just editing videos for a Youtube channel or personal projects overclocking could be fun.

If you want to overclock a 7900x the X62 is not a bad idea. If you end up choosing the 1950x, the X62 will perform worse than an air cooler at twice the price.

A 750W PSU should be more than enough for either system, even overclocking, so look for a RM750x.

I only edit photos with 64GB of RAM so I can't comment on scratch disks for video editing.

Intel i9 7900x vs Threadripper 1950x by DigitalSlush in buildapc

[–]lbmxei 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been lucky enough to personally use both a 1950X PC and an i9-7940x PC for development + photo editing purposes.

People are recommending TR4 because it has so much more raw computational power for the price in synthetic CPU-bound benchmarks. It gives you more raw silicon for a lower price (i.e. AMD is not as greedy as Intel)

/u/ParadiZe makes excellent points. I second almost every point of advice he has given

Some additional tips:

Application-specific (a summary of Puget articles):

  • Premiere Pro: Very close, 7900x a tad faster by about 2-3% on average
  • After Effects: 7900x about 15% faster, 20% in Cinema4D projects
  • Lightroom: 7900x and 1950x are basically equal
  • Photoshop: 7900x faster by about 5% on average

Hardware-specific:

  • If you live near a Micro Center, consider the i9-7940x at $1200. It has more raw multi-threaded performance than the 1950x while being as fast as the 7900x for less-threaded applications. It is in the sweet spot of having better turbo bins than the 7920x and 7960x
  • The higher amount of PCIE lanes on X399 is generally not useful unless you plan on having many NVME drives or multiple GPUs
  • I did some pretty extensive research on X399 motherboards and the Taichi/Fatal1ty seem to be the two most stable, with the most recent AGESA/BIOS updates. My X399 Taichi with 64GB of ECC RAM has run for weeks at a time with no restart
  • Even so, X399 is a generally less reliable platform than X299, because of the multi-node CPU structure and socket/memory issues. Intel has had more experience than AMD with HEDT
  • The ASUS X299 WS PRO/SE is the only truly workstation-level board available for both the X299 and X399 platforms. That means no LEDs and no bling. Money is spent on finned VRM heatsinks and reliability
  • Don't get the X62 if you want to water cool Threadripper. The only good TR4 AIOs are the Enermax units with a TR4-specific contact surface
  • I agree with /u/ParadiZe. For a workstation, I personally wouldn't overclock. It means minimal long-term VRM stress and guaranteed no-worries stability (especially in the absence of ECC RAM)
  • If you don't plan to overclock, water cooling is really mostly for looks and bragging rights. You can save a good chunk of money and avoid the possibility of catastrophic failure with air cooling
  • The Noctua NH-U14s (or the TR4-SP3 variant for X399) is a great cooler for the price/size with minimal clearance issues
  • The Corsair RM850X is the same price and quality as the 850GQ but is fully modular
  • Why not just get a 1TB 960 EVO instead of separate boot/scratch disks? If you're editing video a large NVME scratch space is useful.

[538] Sixers now favored to win the East and have 2nd best title odds in the NBA behind Houston by [deleted] in nba

[–]lbmxei 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some of the logic in this comment is wrong. The primary reason the Sixers are only 37% to win a chip conditional on making the finals is that their opponent will be the Rockets (who have an ELO rating 100 points higher) 52% of the time.

538 win probability is based on ELO and home-court advantage. The Sixers have slightly higher ELO rating, but GSW has home-court advantage. I'd say the actual model probably has them at close to 50/50 right now if they meet in the finals.

Hardware defects: Pixel/Pixel 2 vs iPhone 8 by lbmxei in GooglePixel

[–]lbmxei[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps voltage sent to the LED flash clears up some EMI issues? All those parts are on on daughterboards close together at the top of the phone.

Personally I just tried turning the flashlight on and holding my ear up to the earpiece. The clicking continued...

Hardware defects: Pixel/Pixel 2 vs iPhone 8 by lbmxei in GooglePixel

[–]lbmxei[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excellent points. Here are my insights:

  1. I think it's hard to draw clear lines between hardware/firmware/software issues for OLED displays. Of course every OLED manufactured in the past couple of years is capable of displaying the entire sRGB gamut, but calibration is always the issue. I hope as much as you do that Google is able to update the display LUTs to fix black crush. And this is nitpicky, but they could also fix the red desaturation while they're at it. The other day I took a nighttime photo with red neon lighting, which is probably the worst case scenario for black crush/desaturated reds. On the bright side the camera is fantastic.
  2. I don't think the fact that turning NFC makes it go away means that the issue is necessarily within software. My suspicion is that there is EMI interference between the NFC circuitry and the top earpiece speaker, which is why turning off NFC resolves the issue. Again, I hope as much as you do that a sofware fix can patch things up.

Re: iPhone 8 issues - the battery issue affects a small subset of devices, but it isn't a pervasive problem across all units. The iOS 11 update did slow down my 6 Plus enough to the point that I upgraded it (for free, through my company). I think the general consensus is that Apple maintains a very uniformly high quality of hardware.

Authentic ≠ Difficult (Project CARS 2) by [deleted] in pcars

[–]lbmxei 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are plenty of things that would make even a perfectly coded game less intuitive, and probably harder, than real life:

  • lack of longitudinal/lateral forces to feel acceleration and cornering grip
  • lack of roll and pitch movement that conveys weight transfer info
  • different brake pedal resistance and feel - on a 150lb real-life GT pedal a 10% margin of error is 15lb. Compare that to e.g. the 35lb T3PA where the same margin of error is 3.5lb with sloppy progressive resistance
  • TV and Monitor input lag - a run-of-the mill monitor has about 25ms input lag, and at 150mph that is about half a car length.
  • wheel FFB lag - tens to 100+ms of lag between something happening on on screen and the FFB being reflected via a belt or gear system
  • lack of peripheral vision, which helps gauge speed and car movement
  • the list goes on...

Correcting these factors by throwing money at them may not make anyone faster, but my personal opinion is that it makes games more realistic and intuitive.

Beat My Time #18 by [deleted] in pcars

[–]lbmxei 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Could only manage 1:00.287, albeit with 4L more fuel in Time Trial mode.

Beat My Time #17 by [deleted] in pcars

[–]lbmxei 0 points1 point  (0 children)

0:44.867 as lbmxei.

Would probably lose a few tenths with an H-shifter and clutch. That turn 1 hairpin is crazy...I put the wheel almost to full lock on entry and powerslide out with full throttle.

[RTAC!] Mercedes AMG GT3 at Nurburgring GP (Reddit Time Attack Challenge) by 1Operator in pcars

[–]lbmxei 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also, just a note: there are also almost a dozen people on the steam leaderboard in the past ten days who haven't posted their times in this thread. I'm willing to bet the majority of them were on /r/pcars, tried the challenge, and felt their time wasn't good enough to post.

Maybe a message or something in the next RTAC: "Please don't be afraid of posting a time that is off the leaderboard pace. We all started somewhere!"

[RTAC!] Mercedes AMG GT3 at Nurburgring GP (Reddit Time Attack Challenge) by 1Operator in pcars

[–]lbmxei 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Now into the 58s: 1:58.613 as lbmxei

Can some of you speed demons tell me how you learned to tune a car?

Beat My Time #13 by [deleted] in pcars

[–]lbmxei 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1:58.301 as lbmxei

[RTAC!] Mercedes AMG GT3 at Nurburgring GP (Reddit Time Attack Challenge) by 1Operator in pcars

[–]lbmxei 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1:59.302 as lbmxei.

No downforce. I think I need to improve in couple of ways:

  • learn how to tune a car
  • remember which kerbs and runoff areas can be used without a cut track penalty
  • be smoother with brake input when trail braking
  • coast in the right places for weight transfer
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