Apple will never satisfy my lust for cheap, powerful hardware

DarkAudit

DarkAudit

PatrThom said:
I don’t know if Steve Jobs hated games so much as worshipped productivity, and he viewed games as a distraction and a seductive enemy of productivity, therefore not something worth emphasizing.
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Steve Jobs also essentially committed suicide by stupidity, so I don't think he's the one to hang your hat on.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

DarkAudit said:
Steve Jobs also essentially committed suicide by stupidity, so I don't think he's the one to hang your hat on.
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He valued his work higher than he valued his own life, and it caught up with him.
He also expected everyone else to have the same priorities, and then would get frustrated when they didn’t.
I don’t know as I would call that “stupidity,” exactly. He elected to burn out rather than fade away, and quite literally paid for that philosophy with his life. A lot of us might call that “stupid,” but it’s well-known that he was Buddhist, so the prospect of a definite, fast-approaching end probably was not as much of a concern for him as it might be for you or I.

—Patrick
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

PatrThom said:
He valued his work higher than he valued his own life, and it caught up with him.
He also expected everyone else to have the same priorities, and then would get frustrated when they didn’t.
I don’t know as I would call that “stupidity,” exactly. He elected to burn out rather than fade away, and quite literally paid for that philosophy with his life. A lot of us might call that “stupid,” but it’s well-known that he was Buddhist, so the prospect of a definite, fast-approaching end probably was not as much of a concern for him as it might be for you or I.

—Patrick
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I think DA's referring to the fact that Jobs tried to cure his cancer with acupuncture and stuff.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol...er-with-alternative-medicine-for-so-long.html

In spite of pleas from family and friends, he tried to cure himself through acupuncture sessions, drinking special fruit juices, visiting "spiritualists" and using other treatments he found on the internet.
Some cancer experts have said that Mr Jobs may have extended his life or even survived if he had promptly tackled his cancer aggressively with scientifically proven medical treatments.
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PatrThom

PatrThom

Tinwhistler said:
I think DA's referring to the fact that Jobs tried to cure his cancer with acupuncture and stuff.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol...er-with-alternative-medicine-for-so-long.html
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...and also the fact that incidentally increasing your fructose intake might NOT be the sort of thing you want to do when you are having problems with your PANCREAS, for Heaven’s sake, yes.
I’m of two minds on this one. I mean, if he had been forcing someone else to undergo the questionable treatments, then yes, I would’ve been more worried, but I’m Libertarian enough that if that’s what he wanted to do to himself in spite of the large amount of advice to the contrary, well, that’s his decision to make.

—Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

Well, one thing I can't complain about is Apple's customer service.

Got a refurb macbook pro delivered last thursday, and the next day it wouldn't boot back up. Tried all the usual tricks, but it was bricked.

Took it in today to the store without an appointment, and while I had to wait 30 minutes to meet with someone they confirmed it was bricked and gave me a new one.

Unlike many places where if they replace a device the old warranty is still in place (which was the 90 day refurb warranty), they said the new machines come with the full one year warranty and that's what I'd get.

So while I have wasted several hours due to this issue, I still feel like they did right by me.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

stienman said:
Unlike many places where if they replace a device the old warranty is still in place (which was the 90 day refurb warranty), they said the new machines come with the full one year warranty and that's what I'd get.
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FYI, the certified refurbished page where Apple sells their refurbs has this message right up top:
refurbapple.png

What's more, you are still allowed to get the extended warranty on a refurb unit, same as you would with a new one.
The 90-day warranty is the one you get on a repaired unit when it has no warranty left of its own.

--Patrick
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Sticking this here because it involves an iPhone.

I picked up a refurb iPhone 6S Plus for travel, so I can leave my main phone (a regular 6S) and my iPad at home (I'm in the every-pound-I-can-not-bring-without-smelling-like-armpits-is-good school of travel).

So I got the phone over the weekend. And now merely from poking at it a little, making sure it works, and downloading a couple apps for funzies, my regular phone now feels perishingly small.

I think they fucking got me, guys.
 
strawman

strawman

SpecialKO said:
I think they fucking got me, guys.
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Yeah. I made fun of my mother in law because of her huge samsung phone years ago, choosing instead to carry a tablet and a phone everywhere.

Eventually, I had to eat my words when I got the 6+ (and now the X) simply due to the number of pixels on the screen (I can read tiny type, so it's not so much the size, but how much information it can display while being legible - That said, it's still a large screen). I stopped carrying a tablet once I got that phone, and even though I miss the tablet for some things, I'm ok with this setup.

It's interesting how things changed over time for my everyday electronics carry:

Flip phone (had an analog modem so I could use a laptop to dial into servers at work)
Flip phone + PDA (HP iPAQ)
PDA phone (slider keyboard, windows ce 6)
PDA phone + MP3 player (all hail the zune!)
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3G + tablet (iPad with unlimited cellular)
iPhone 5 + tablet (same ipad - lasted a long time) <-- at this point, I bought a wallet case, so I'm carrying one less non electronic thing as well)
iPhone 6+
iPhone X + apple watch

Lots of steps combining the functions of two devices into one. So I guess the next step is to combine the phone and watch into just the watch. I can't see that happening anytime soon, the watch isn't nearly functional enough, but I can't go back to just carrying the phone either, and there are times when I just have the watch with me and it fulfills the function of emergency communication along with many other well-used features.

I'd really like to carry less in my phone wallet case, and fewer keys, so those are the next things that will eventually see combined into the phone or the watch. In theory, I could start using Apple Pay, but not everyone accepts it locally. I only have one business I need a key for that has a phone app for their door locks. If I could get my vehicles and own home wired for the phone, though, that would take care of a good chunk of my keychain. Not likely to happen anytime soon - that's expensive.

I don't think the phone will ever replace the blistex (lip balm/chapstick) I always carry, though, so I'll never get to the point where I'm only carrying one thing.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I remember that Dilbert series where they made a pecking order based on the number of electronic devices worn around their belts.

--Patrick
 
strawman

strawman

There are no aftermarket systems that allow you to eliminate your car key and use your phone, though. You can buy cars that have this feature (rare), but I'd have to roll my own if I wanted it.

However, they've just released the digital key specification, which means that we should see cars in a few years that use your phone for everything, completely replacing the key and keyfob - https://www.valuewalk.com/2018/06/digital-key-replace-car-keys-phones/

PatrThom said:
I remember that Dilbert series where they made a pecking order based on the number of electronic devices worn around their belts.

--Patrick
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Didn't the guy with the portable fax machine win?
 
evilmike

evilmike

Does anyone have experience using python 3 and tkinter on a Mac? I've been trying to help someone trying to run a script and it dies with a fairly generic sounding error message (I don't have it in front of me at this moment or I'd quote it.) This occurs both in IDLE and the command line.

The system is running macOS 10.12, has a 64 bit install of python with version 8.6.8 of tcl/tkinter.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Is it running 10.12.0? Or has it been updated to 10.12.6?
Not enough experience here, either, except that Google points me here as a start.

--Patrick
 
evilmike

evilmike

Thanks. It is 10.12.6.

The maddening thing is that it's everything that should just work. I was even able to verify the version of tcl/tk as 8.6.8.

Another point of data, it doesn't appear to like pygame 1.9.4 either.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Python is one of those things that everyone tells me I should learn to further my career, and that I am positive I could pick up quite easily, but without any incentive to do so I am unlikely to learn it.

--Patrick
 
evilmike

evilmike

I find Python really easy to work in, but it's a pain to try to distribute something to a system that doesn't already have Python installed.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

I am debating a Mac Mini to be a permanent non-cloud synced full-res photo repository. I am not sure the new one fits my needs better than an older one with a Fusion drive, but hopefully the older one, especially a certified refurb, will drop in price now.

(Or I spend that money on a Synology Base Station and matching RAID drives and store all my media there)
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

If you're going for a photo repository, you should definitely be first considering dedicated storage solutions like Synology or QNAP. No Mac Mini has ever been built with "storage" in mind as its primary use, they are always about cramming processing power into as few cc's as possible. Additionally, the storage in a Mini is just that...operating storage. There is no redundancy for archival purposes, and there is no way to increase that storage at a reasonable price. Now if you're getting a Mini because you want to hook it to a bank of external drives, that's another story, but the stuff about redundancy, etc. still holds.

--Patrick
 
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PatrThom

PatrThom

(First a comment: Why is this thread not in the tech category? That's always been a head-scratcher)

Onward to the actual message!

I use a 2009 Mac Mini as a server in my basement, because...well, it's a tiny little computer that I can have doing all the stuff I want to keep running all the time that only draws ~30W (on average). Minecraft, DNS, download caching, VPN access while I'm away from home, whatever I want to set up and/or try out. But it's from 2009, which means it maxes out at 8GB RAM, has only a dual-core 2.26GHz CPU, is limited to just SATA2 internally, only has 1 Ethernet port, etc. And while I did acquire some actual server-class hardware (relatively) recently, I'm not so sure I want dual 6-core processors and a ~1000W PSU churning away in my basement 24/7 at only 2-5% utilization, either.

So when Apple finally got around to updating the Mini this year to something "more pro-like" with more than 2 cores again, I was stoked.
...for about 30 minutes. Yes, mainly because of the price. But also cuz there's this:



Sure, there are a lot of asterisks in that video, but the message is pretty clear. I know Apple said they wanted to bring a more pro-focused Mini to market, and they arguably did do just that (within the confines of its tiny form factor), BUT there are so many inherent drawbacks to using it as a serious "pro" machine, while simultaneously there is no more US$400 "Oh I guess you don't need all the pro features" model for those of us who don't want to spend all that extra money and just basically want CPU+RAM+LAN in a box, especially since once you move up to the 6-core option, you're essentially spending just as much as you would to buy a quad-core iMac that is comparable in performance BUT with the iMac you would also get a 4k screen, a mouse/trackpad, and a keyboard.

Ah well. I'm already in the process of building a PFSense overkill routing box* to give me more flexibility with routing (basically because I want to be able to have MUCH more fine-grained control over our network, especially when it comes to restricting my son's machine(s)...), perhaps I will start looking into bare-metal virtualization and have it take on more responsibilities OR maybe I'll just buy a NUC or decommissioned 2015 SFF POS/desktop machine to replace it. We'll see.

--Patrick
*It's going to be based on Xeon E3-1275L V3** + Supermicro X10SLM+-LN4F for the curious.
**Ok this is weird, the 1275L is no longer listed anywhere on Intel's website. It's apparently been scrubbed for some reason and I could only find the link in Google's cache or on the Wayback Machine. INNNNnnnteresting...
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Yeah, saw the video. I'm not quite the Mac-hater that Louis (or even Gas) is (are), but he's not wrong.
SSDs aren't anywhere near as expensive as they used to be, and even if supporting M.2/U.2 NVMe drives is judged to be too expensive, there's no reason they couldn't substitute a SATA-based SSD in place of the SATA 2.5in drive they have in there now. They wouldn't even have to change the design at all! Just switch to the new drives!

Also it's not that the drive is glued in (it's held with ordinary screws), it's the display that's glued on.
But, since you have to remove the entire display to get at any of the other components of the computer, well, that complicates things.

--Patrick
 
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PatrThom

PatrThom

2016: Apple introduces iPhone 7, the first time different models of the same iPhone use multiple cellular modem manufacturers (adding Intel as a competitor to Qualcomm)
2017: Apple sues Qualcomm for ONE BILLION DOLLARS for not FRANDing properly. Qualcomm sues back, seeking import ban on iPhones. Apple withholds royalty payments. Qualcomm seeks ban on manufacturing/selling iPhones in China. Other people (Google, Microsoft, Samsung, the US FTC) either also sue Qualcomm or go on record as supporting the suit. Qualcomm NO U's back, suing suppliers.
2018: Broadcom attempts to acquire Qualcomm, but fails. Apple announces Intel will supply almost 3/4 of cell modems for new phones. Apple also challenges additional Qualcomm patents. Qualcomm accuses Apple of stealing its secrets and giving them to Intel. Apple admits some iPhone 7 modems keep failing and offers to fix them for free BUT it seems the only ones that are failing are the ones with Qualcomm modems. Tensions escalate.
2019: Apple: "Grrr!" Qualcomm: "Grrr!" "rowr!" "See you in court!" "Oh, I'll be there!"
...
APRIL 15, 2019: The trial begins!
APRIL 16, 2019: ONE DAY LATER Apple and Qualcomm Reach Settlement, Agree to Drop All Litigation (Also: Intel suddenly decides to exit cellular modem business just hours after verdict reached)

itsatie.gif


--Patrick
 
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