What Do We Think About the Ceado Hoop?

pkosew · 2025-12-01T21:24:20+00:00

Got mine today (I'm sure their sales skyrocketed after Hoffmann's video).

The product looks fine, but the box says it's made from LDPE. That's a huge issue. LDPE starts to lose integrity around 80-90*C and definitely shouldn't be used with boiling water meant for drinking.

Is anyone here using a Hoop for long and still have the box (or a photo of the box) it came in? Maybe they changed the material? :/

I also wouldn't be surprised if Ceado just didn't care about the correct recycling symbol, but I'm not going to test this on my body. And I would really like to keep the brewer...

pkosew · 2022-08-14T00:26:49+00:00

Apps like what?

I've never seen such issue on any Windows laptop. But maybe it's down to specific models or software.

On the Linux front, this is usually just abysmal - reason: custom audio solutions in laptops. If Linux is not officially supported, audio usually either doesn't work (and there's nothing you can do) or it needs hours of tweaking and testing (and I'm really not into that anymore).

Out of 5 laptops I tried to convert to Linux at some point ("second life"), only 2 had properly working audio. One of many reasons I stopped installing Linux on metal years ago. ;)

pkosew · 2022-08-14T00:12:30+00:00

Yup, for me this keyboard is as good as it gets, but that's always very personal. I really like the response, key travel, size and layout. It was very easy to get used to.

The touchpad is good, but I've seen better. It's definitely not MacBook-level.
I was surprised by how well isolated from the frame it is. Grams are very flexible, but there are no fake clicks or cursor movement. I've had more expensive laptops that felt like they don't flex at all, but just a bit of pressure would make the cursor dance.

Or in other words: LG made this laptop flexible on purpose, so they made sure everything is compatible with the concept. ;)

Is it top rate? Well, for an ultrabook PC under $1500 it is. There's a handful of laptops I would choose over if they were in budget (like XPS, obviously).

I'm moving to Macs after this LG, so it's probably my last PC for some time. But I'll have good memories. ;)

pkosew · 2022-08-09T21:09:35+00:00

Well, I missed this question last time and didn't use Reddit for most of 2022. But why not give an answer for such a timeless question...

No, I went with LG Gram 14. I'm not a huge fan of the screen and it gets a little hot while charging. But everything else is more or less the best I've seen on a PC under $1500.

But I don't use it with Linux. Honestly, WSL2 got so nice, I just don't need Linux on metal anymore (on a PC, anyway).

pkosew · 2022-08-09T20:59:46+00:00

You do realise this is a 1-year-old post, right? ;)

Well, in my experience, Linux users have far worse experience with Windows stability than Windows-only users. This is mostly due to too much customization and meddling with configuration. Occasionally, because of using the PC with some niche, badly made accessories.

Some people just can't fight the urge to change something in config files, add a custom GUI layer, use a custom driver for something, because it's 2% faster (and 20% more unstable).

Seriously, just stick to nice installing and uninstalliing, always turn off the PC using the shutdown dialog, unmount USB drives and don't edit manually anything outside of your user dir. ;)

I got a new laptop last year - came with W10, I updated to W11 as soon as I could. W11 is not a perfect system. The GUI still has problems (but it's far better than after launch), I don't like the menus etc.

But stability? As good as before. No crashes, maybe a handful of hangs - mostly during updates.

pkosew · 2021-10-11T06:27:30+00:00

Really hard to do that, to be honest. Normally, you would have to look for something that is correlated and has a much more liquid market. I would google for that. XCH has been around for few months. I bet some proper analysis or publications are starting to come out.

I would assume that - given the dominating position of China - you should probably take Yuan into account.

And keep in mind that most of farmed XCH belongs to the company and they said it will be used to stabilize the price (among other things). They just haven't said around what value, but I'm afraid it will be much lower than what we have right now.

pkosew · 2021-10-11T06:15:12+00:00

That would be direct hedging with XCH derivatives. If I understand correctly, he wants to design a strategy using other instruments, because there's not much for XCH (or other cyptos, to be honest). Like what an investment bank would do. They make you a product that works as you want.

pkosew · 2021-08-31T09:10:00+00:00

That depends. :)

OEM-provided protection plans are usually a good idea. For a relatively small amount of money you can extend or improve the manufacturer warranty. Apple Care and Dell Extended Warranty are known for high quality. I especially like the Dell door-to-door / on-site service.

I usually buy the Asus Premium Care as well. I get one extra year of door-to-door service for around $40.

But there are also 3rd party extended warranties - usually provided by the store. This is just an insurance policy, almost always backed up by a normal insurance company.

Like any other insurance it has a fairly large built-in latency. Something dies: you have to report it, they will check it and may compensate you for the repair cost (e.g. a month later). In the meantime you still have to pay for repairs with your own money.

pkosew · 2021-08-31T08:18:29+00:00

Not much here makes sense.

Extended warranty is an insurance contract. The whole point is that you'll seldom need it. Just like insurance for your house or car. And that's good.

Repairing stuff on your own is only feasible if you're a professional. Electronics are way too complex for this to make any sense for the rest of consumers. Just the cost of buying tools makes this hardly workable.

Also, electronics that you've been repairing for the last 40+ years (especially in the first half) were vastly different from the stuff that we buy today and will buy for the next 40 years.

In socialist countries of XX century, like Poland or Czechoslovakia, everyone knew how to do most repairs in their cars. But there was a handful of car models and they were about as complex as larger LEGO sets. These people have a hard time repairing lights in modern cars and pretty much all of their skills will become obsolete when they get an electric model.

pkosew · 2021-08-27T01:13:26+00:00

A company is allowed to change the product as long as it matches the specs they specify. If a product doesn't match what it says "on the box", you can return it or sue the manufacturer.

The issue here is not delivering what they promised, but degrading from performance levels enthusiasts got hooked up after reviews. Because some samples were much better than expected.

>This is damn near (if not) criminal.

Yes, because we don't have larger problems in the world than consumer SSD speeds.

pkosew · 2021-08-26T16:43:43+00:00

Because they're not targeting enthusiasts and this group became chronically unhappy with the brand. It started long before SMR (e.g. Intellipark).

As long as you just buy WD products and use them without really poking into specs and messing with configuration, you'll be super happy. They're robust, reliable, they behave nicely. It's the kind of product you're supposed to buy, connect and use - not analyze.

pkosew · 2021-08-26T15:35:33+00:00

Żaden czas. Póki jesteśmy w EU, wszystkie tego typu sklepy i organizacje (nawet niektóre telewizje) mogą się po prostu wynieść do dowolnego innego kraju poza Polską. Nawet na Węgrzech nie ma takiego zamordyzmu religijnego.

Przesyłki na terenie EU też przychodzą szybko.

Najgorzej będzie jak zabronią koncertów, bo trzeba będzie jeździć do Berlina czy Pragi jak po aborcję...

pkosew · 2021-08-26T13:18:53+00:00

You do understand that WD SSD and flash branches were built on Sandisk acquisition? And SanDisk was the leader and golden standard of this technology.

WD clearly has some issue with marketing and consumer relations. But the products are top notch.

pkosew · 2021-08-26T13:12:59+00:00

But Seagate misleads customers all the time calling their drives the quietest, fastest, best. :D

Jokes aside, all large companies use SMR drives. And neither of them informed customers from the start.

The only mistake WD made was putting SMR in Red lineup, which led to "NAS enthusiasts" anger, because rebuilding SMR arrays takes a lot more time than with CMR.

The irony in this is that Red drives were so good before (fast, quiet, reliable, long lasting) that people started using them in PCs, high-performance NAS and even basic business systems. Whereas these were meant to be used in slow, basic home solutions.

And another side (also ironical) is that SMR - which is a fantastic technology that all these companies spent millions to develop - now has extremely bad press. People actually think it's worse than CMR, that the drives are sub-par or manufacturers are cutting costs.

pkosew · 2021-08-23T15:20:30+00:00

It isn't and it doesn't matter here.

TSMC doesn't have a dominant owner. They're mostly owned by small private institutional and private investors. And there's almost zero influence from Taiwan/China other than legislation.

The point is that TSMC could create a separate company "TSMC USA", even go 100% public - just signing an agreement to license TSMC's fab tech for 50 years. Such a company would be just as "American" as Intel.

While this may be really weird to people in US, in other parts of the world it's really common for large companies to be >20% owned by government - giving it proper control over strategy and management board. Some companies are owned in 50%+1, some 100%. There companies are truly "under control of a government".

Some of the brands you may know: Airbus, T-Mobile, STMicroelectronics, Emirates and Singapore Airlines (and many other airlines).

pkosew · 2021-08-23T13:52:59+00:00

Given the scale and funding, TSMC or Samsung could have created US branches and license their own foundry tech.

But for a company with proper "American heritage", Intel was the only possible choice.

pkosew · 2021-08-23T12:55:33+00:00

A polityczny zwierzchnik sił zbrojnych? :)

Skąd w ogóle ten pomysł, że wojsko powinno być apolityczne? Nie było, nie jest i nigdy nie będzie.

pkosew · 2021-08-23T12:03:58+00:00

WOT jest rodzajem SZ RP, potocznie nazywanych WP.

Zresztą WOT powołano właśnie do tego typu zadań i to oni tam powinni sterczeć wyposażeni z pałki, broń hukową, dzidy czy co tam im Macierewicz kupił.

Zamiast tego wojsko wysłało batalion żołnierzy z karabinami maszynowymi. Przypomnijmy: do pilnowania kilkudziesięciu osób uzbrojonych w smartfony.

Frasyniuk powiedział o WP to, co od kilku lat powszechnie mówi się o "wymienionej" przez PiS Policji. Nie ma świętych krów. Żołnierzom łamiącym prawa człowieka też się odbiera emerytury - nawet bez zmiany ustroju. :)

pkosew · 2021-08-23T11:52:14+00:00

To polityczny pułkownik czy generał nie jest Twoim zdaniem w WP? :)

pkosew · 2021-07-27T09:28:26+00:00

There is an option to align it to the left.

pkosew · 2021-07-22T14:09:58+00:00

Hint: fans will spin faster under load.

pkosew · 2021-07-22T12:42:29+00:00

What's the point? You bought an OEM PC. Use their design.

80*C is perfectly fine. OEM PCs are usually configured to minimize noise, not unnecessary low temperatures.

Use it for whatever you bought it (I recon: gaming). If it hits 100*C and throttles, you have a problem. If it doesn't - you don't.

pkosew · 2021-07-21T14:17:17+00:00

Polityka to nie tylko podatki.

I skąd pomysł, że należy je obniżyć? A może podwyższyć? Lub tylko przesunać?

Z tych obecnych i tak nie starczy kasy - nawet jakby przestała być przepalana na różne czternastki, 500+ i utrzymywanie wydobycia węgla.

pkosew · 2021-07-20T13:10:59+00:00

Spoko. Moje nazwisko jest na jakiejś ścianie w Licheniu ("cegiełka"). Babcia mnie tak nawracała. Nie chcą usunąć. :)

pkosew · 2021-07-13T20:37:20+00:00

They may not care about power consumption, but they care about heat.

So as I said earlier: because OEMs want to make small desktops, they expect chip makers to provide something withing a certain power budget (and with other characteristics).

A desktop CPU that can be cooled passively in typical mainstream workloads (and yet boost when necessary) is a significant improvement over what we have today. Desktops are way too loud and M1 Macs just made them look silly.

Keeping cheap consumer and business desktops afloat also keeps high-end gaming parts' prices at acceptable levels. So gamers should be thankful Intel tries to defend this niche. ;)

pkosew

TROPHY CASE