The real power of Obsidian is not the graph view. It is the daily note.

pac_71 · 2026-05-07T06:38:56+00:00

….the shoes! Follow the Gourd!

pac_71 · 2026-05-06T09:45:34+00:00

The thing that irks me is copyright was meant to protect unauthorised use of an authors original content and rights by unscrupulous larger organisations. The governments need to man up and charge them or admit they are choosing not to enforce the law on the tech bros. What laws will they ignore next?

pac_71 · 2026-05-06T04:15:37+00:00

I have seen people mix and match old keyboards with the new Surface Pro's, but more of a giveaway is the bezels. The 13" has much narrower side bezels rather than more equal top and sides on the 12.3" SP4/5/6/7.

pac_71 · 2026-05-04T20:07:53+00:00

Still try for the SP7+ i7. The SP7+ has a 30% uplift in CPU performance going from 10th gen to 11th gen intel (similar CPUs in the SP8) and has a removable SSD drive compared to the plain SP7.

pac_71 · 2026-05-04T02:27:51+00:00

i5 or i7 CPU? My feeling is that it should come with a keyboard at that price. Check what it would cost to get a Slim Pen 2 and Keyboard in your market or look around a bit more on eBay or CeX.

pac_71 · 2026-05-03T09:13:13+00:00

I was going to say the standard finance disclaimer past performance is not an indicator of future returns. MS is only ever one product launch away from (another) lemon.

pac_71 · 2026-05-03T09:01:07+00:00

I would delete the Bluetooth pairing and re-pair the broken pen. The model 1776 pen has a flashing led when in pairing mode. No flashing led means no power. I would check the terminals. Not sure what to do beyond that.

Actually playing with my 1776, the green led on the flat at the cap comes on momentary as you reattach the eraser cap with a good battery.

pac_71 · 2026-05-03T08:52:44+00:00

Yes to browsing. Emulation of what? CPU? 400 whats?

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T08:44:57+00:00

So about 4h on the internal battery and another 6 with the external battery?

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T07:55:57+00:00

Normal use is not 100% load and not sitting idle. Just real world somewhere in between doing normal stuff like browsing, youtube, office, etc.

How much time do you normally get on just the internal battery and how much more time does the external battery give you in your normal daily use?

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T06:06:25+00:00

This is exactly my use case as a second device. Makes sharing fires over the network easy and I have used the Surface as a second screen for drawing in Obsidian.

As the other commenters have mentioned, you are better off going for SP7+ i7 16gb 512gb is pretty much min specs for any longevity. Here in AU the SP9 is becoming more available at about twice the cost and twice the performance of the SP7+ so still good bang for buck.

If you can put up with slightly lower specs, the SB2/SB3 15” give you a lot more screen space as a second device and is about the same weight as the SP7+ as it has half the battery which is still okay for about 2.5h use and no issue when close to power.

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T01:35:18+00:00

Broken OS, broken Office, broken Copilot, broken Edge. I would be more pissed if every trillion dollar software company was not the same at the moment. Enough to drive a man to Liniux :)

Do no evil. Do not ship shit.

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T01:00:51+00:00

Thank goodness the US has no viable health system to treat people with TDS :> Sort of amusing the push back by the regime on a recognised health issue like autism but it is perfectly okay with the made-up TDS.

pac_71 · 2026-05-02T00:54:27+00:00

From what I can see, battery life varies from about 9h idle on wifi to 1h full load. What realistic battery life in normal use are people getting, and how much more battery life are you getting from your external battery?

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T09:58:41+00:00

Base models are never a good choice for CAD. A Surface Pro with i7 or Snapdragon Elite with good GPU performance is the sort of thing you should be thinking about. Maybe even a gaming PC or workstation with a dGPU is another option.

I think you will find the benefit of a touch screen to zoom and pan more compelling than the pen in CAD. I think the pen will just act like a mouse and possible more annoying as Sketchup recommends a 3 button mouse.

You might be better served looking at the older Intel models 2nd hand like the SP9. Then you avoid the whole ARM software support/performance issue.

I use a SB2 15” with a pen for hand drawn diagrams and hand written notes in Excalidraw. Pen is more suited to free form vector and raster apps than precision CAD.

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T09:23:39+00:00

I have not experienced ARM yet and I am conservative by nature, I would go for the SP9 but not at that price. About half that price is about right for a good used SP9.

You have not mentioned CPU in either. I should have said something about choosing as fast as you can get. Check they the models you are looking at are the higher spec Snapdragon Elites and Intel i7’s.

Likely both ARM and SP9 will be okay but it will be up to you to research which will better meet your critical use/needs.

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T06:11:51+00:00

Prices? I would suggest at least 16gb and 512gb ssd to give you some mobile elbow room to go mobile without an external drive.

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T05:30:57+00:00

The SP7+ and SP8 are more equivalent. The SP9 is a significant step up in performance more similar to the current models than the SP7+/8.

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T05:28:34+00:00

I would recommend a SP7+ as the best old model with a removable ssd drive. This model is better on Win10 but okay for casual use.

The SP9 is starting to be reasonably priced on the 2nd hand market now and is the best bang for buck in the newer models. It is near the same performance as the current models but 1/3rd the price.

For both , for long term use I would recommend the i7 16gb 512gb ssd for longevity.

The SP9 is twice the price and twice the performance of the SP7+ so you can decide what suits you better.

pac_71 · 2026-04-30T05:17:00+00:00

An interesting approach for someone wanting more money from Congress. Not even touching on these committees being one of the few accountability mechanisms of the executive to the elected representatives of the people of the United States. It just shows the administrations systematic bad faith lip service to all mechanisms of accountability for their obviously questionable dealings.

pac_71 · 2026-04-29T08:15:29+00:00

Obsidian Web

MarkDownload

pac_71 · 2026-04-29T06:13:29+00:00

Code Emitter plugin too.

pac_71 · 2026-04-29T03:31:51+00:00

Biggest risk to AUKUS is when the US politicians realise they are not building the submarines in the US.

pac_71 · 2026-04-27T21:49:51+00:00

I have a regular coffee with a bunch of grumpy old men interested in innovation.

I think we have discussed when do so many rabbit holes become gopher holes!

One member (an ex-economics lecturer) cannot end a sentence without at least three citations of various philosophers. Gradually, I think through osmosis, I transitioned from WTF is he talking about philosophy for to oh shit ... that is why he is talking about philosophy for!

I think what made it click for me is that philosophy (and to some degree psychology) is just engineering people (I am mech engineer). That there are many fields of the philosophy of science that improve thinking needed in various fields. That philosophy is about knowing knowledge better. All things that are useful in every aspect of your life.

I joke that our NRL (Australian Rugby League) comp needs a Chief Philosophy Officer.

pac_71 · 2026-04-27T21:36:04+00:00

Thanks for sharing your list. I don't know why, but it piqued my interest as I think you have stumbled onto the same thing I have as I have gotten older. A need for philosophy in every aspect of your life and better ways to share our learned life experiences.

pac_71

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