random thoughts. rants. general nonsense.

[Gaith]

I can't believe it's blooming 2020 and there's STILL no Kindle (e-ink) device that you can plug/Bluetooth a keyboard into to create a non-LCD, eyestrain free word processor! (No, the Freewrite, which costs more than $500, doesn't cut it - far too costly for such a clunky-looking device for such a tiny screen.) It appears one can plug a Bluetooth keyboard into the 10" Boox Note2, which sounds great, but is also too damn pricey, at over $500.

However, there is this brand-new Dasung 13.3" e-ink monitor, which, yes, please! At just over $1,000, it ain't cheap, but I could definitely see it being a great investment for a work monitor in which text is pretty much the whole ballgame.

 

[asterixsmeagol]

I'm hoping that we finally get Kindles or tablets with color e-ink displays soon
Gizmodo: E Ink's New Electronic Paper Could Finally Bring Color to the Kindle

 

[Gaith]

^ Technologically, that's super-impressive. Not sure just how useful color e-ink displays would really be, though, apart from maybe digital picture frames that can go for days and days without a recharge. Whereas I imagine tons of consumers would love to plug their Kindles into their laptops and start typing their memoirs/novels/whatever on non-backlit screens. And if there were any 10" e-ink displays retailing at, say, $150 or less, that could be a huge boon for students burdened with reading countless PDF journal articles that shrink too much for use on normal Kindle screens. Not to mention textbooks...

 

[asterixsmeagol]

I think the biggest market for color e-ink is is reading magazines, newspapers or other online news, textbooks, and comic books.

 

[CatBus]

My wife and I have both been telecommuting for a couple months without anything resembling a home office.  Like, no desk, for example.  My laptop is literally on my lap all day, and so on.

I'm still holding out hope that this is a temporary aberration and that someday I'll head back in to work and never have to work from home again.  My wife on the other hand just bought a standing desk.  That is correct, she's the sensible one.

But that's not what I'm posting this for.  I just took a crash course in mechanical keyboards and already bought one for the home office-to-be (refrain: she's the sensible one).  Does anyone else know much on this subject?  This is strictly a typing scenario, no gaming.  I went with Cherry MX Brown switches (because I like the clicky feel but not the clicky sound), and some 40A-R 0.4mm O rings (again, not a fan of noise, just the tactile feedback).

Does mechanical really make that much difference?  I have this memory of keyboards back in the IBM PC days being distinctly better (and definitely louder), and not having that vaguely mushy feel of a modern desktop keyboard which I definitely don't like (and don't even get me started on laptop keyboards).  But I also recognize I can rose-tint the past just as well as anyone, and I might just be glossing over things best left forgotten like the PCjr's chiclet keyboard and plastic WordPerfect templates.  So are mechanical keyboards nice?  Pros, cons, unexpected benefits/problems?

 

[Handman]

Does mechanical really make that much difference?

Yes!  I use a 20 year old keyboard because so many modern ones are just the worst.  I can't give you any cons, if you like it, you like it, and you should get one.

 

[Duragizer]

I think Diane Lane would've made a good Lois Lane when she was young.

No, not because of her surname.

 

[Duragizer]

John Batman

 

[Gaith]

There's an excess of commercial breaks, but Slate just did a great podcast retrospective on Rebecca Black's infamous viral hit song "Friday." It's well worth a listen, particularly as it will doubtless give one a new respect for Black: when the mockery and negative comments started pouring in, and her 13-year-old self was asked if she wanted the video taken down, she decided to damn the torpedoes, and said no - and now, at 22, she's still a performing musician. Good for her, I say. 

That said, real music fans know that the best version of "Friday" was recorded by Dylan, back in the early 70s: 

 

[CatBus]

That said, real music fans know that the best version of "Friday" was recorded by Dylan, back in the early 70s:

 

[Duragizer]

I've found the perfect woman/man doesn't exist, or is very difficult to find. All the more reason for polyamory.

 

[addiesin]

I've found the perfect woman/man doesn't exist, or is very difficult to find. All the more reason for polyamory.

That's a weird way to spell humility.

 

[Duragizer]

I've found the perfect woman/man doesn't exist, or is very difficult to find. All the more reason for polyamory.

That's a weird way to spell humility.

While it's never happened to me, people have fallen in love with more than one person at a time. I don't think it's right to pressure those people to choose between their partners.

 

[addiesin]

I've found the perfect woman/man doesn't exist, or is very difficult to find. All the more reason for polyamory.

That's a weird way to spell humility.

While it's never happened to me, people have fallen in love with more than one person at a time. I don't think it's right to pressure those people to choose between their partners.

People can and should do what they want (with consent and without harming others, of course).

But my point is that your argument of there being no perfect people can have more than one conclusion. You are, after all, also a person. So it's probably a good idea to try to remain humble while judging others as imperfect.

 

[Rogue-theX]

Successfully breadboarded this, getting better at reading this stuff, a low power af amplifier for use with radios, toys and intercomms ect.:

Plugged a guitar into it, bass distorts way before treble (like the legendary deacy amp ), a cranked preamp in front of it makes some nice bright distortion with definition, so far so good, my plan is to have this be a backup for a diy transistor radio->guitar amp I whipped up which sounds wicked but I'm shaking everytime I go to use it, like its some glowing talisman and I could break it. I'll be using this with a modified nine volt nirvana tape measure boost circuit in front to drive it into insanity.

Random post complete.

 

[TM2YC]

^ I don't know what any of those words mean but it sounds very exciting all the same! Building your own music equipment... you're basically Kraftwerk.

 

[Duragizer]

Where's Neglify at?

I miss my Neggie.

 

[CatBus]

low power af amplifier

I'm sure it's very low power but I'm not sure it's worth swearing about

I'm on a slightly less hardcore home electronics/audio adventure.  I'm a big fan of SlimDevices Squeezeboxes, and one of mine finally died.  Since the company's defunct, I have to build a new one with Raspberry Pi gear.  Most of the work's already done by other people on the Internet, but that's still hard enough for me.  I don't yet have a device that makes noise or that works with a remote, but I can browse my music collection with a touchscreen and imagine the music in my head (...and the quality is great!).  I expect the audio to be an easy fix, the infrared receiver may prove trickier.

 

[Rogue-theX]

^ Interesting! I'm in a similar boat, my realistic 1985 receiver finally died last month, it was the only reciever I ever had that always sounded good and never needed adjustments or fiddling and now I have to hunt down a replacement. Oh well, lots of spare parts in there 

 

[Jrzag42]

There's disc and disk. I thought it was cut and dry that discs were flat and round, while disks are square storage devices. I guess it's not that simple, and either can be used for the flat round thingies. I hate the English language. Here we have two spellings of a word that both do and don't mean the same thing.