Unpopular Tech Opinions

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

~4-5 years, ever since i got my second laptop(15.6") and it was too big and clunky for my bag and not nice on my lap either. Therefore i deemed them unworthy of laptop and will not recognise these things as laptops

Ah... well... you're wrong

 

15.6" laptops have been around for over a decade and has been the standard for most of that time.

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

im not that harsh on it, i just dislike laptops that big. Too cumbersome and they dont go in my nice bag either

Oh I agree that they tend to be too bulky. That's why I ended up buying the 13" version of the HP Spectre x360.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

Ah... well... you're wrong

 

15.6" laptops have been around for over a decade and has been the standard for most of that time.

sure, im not going to think of them as any more of laptops just because im wrong

2 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Oh I agree that they tend to be too bulky. That's why I ended up buying the 13" version of the HP Spectre x360.

I have handled those at work, they are very nice. Good pick

[dalekphalm]

11 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

sure, im not going to think of them as any more of laptops just because im wrong

I have handled those at work, they are very nice. Good pick

Thanks! I wanted something that was convertible, had decent specs, and a pretty good battery.

 

The battery is excellent if you turn down the brightness and are aggressive on the battery profile - but that's the only thing that could be better. If you use it at a decent brightness and performance profile, the battery doesn't last as long as I'd like.

 

It does have one odd quirk where if you plug headphones in, there's about a 3 second blank before the audio kicks in (it's not lagged or anything - once it kicks in, it's the correct audio). Then the audio is totally fine, unless you pause audio for more than 3-4 minutes - then the same 3 second "blank" comes back.

 

It's bizarre - was never able to get HP to resolve that issue (and it wasn't bad enough to warrant sending it off for RMA).

[Rolling2405]

On 9/18/2019 at 6:28 PM, Den-Fi said:

AMD DOESN'T CARE

ABOUT YOU.

It's a company not a person they are their to make profits.

[EldritchMoose]

On 10/6/2019 at 11:45 PM, Ravendarat said:

Notches, why do people give a damn if a phone has a "notch" on it. FFS its like a 1/8th to 1/4 on an inch at the edge of the phone. People that complain about this or actually factor it into a buying decision when picking a phone will never make sense to me, its so ridiculous.

Honestly, I hate the things on principle. I've never seen a solid reason to include a custom cut-out on phone screens that vary greatly in size, shape and position between even phones made by a single manufacturer. Had it become an agreed-upon industry standard, at least, content could have been designed with that exclusion in screen real estate in mind, but as it stands, all it has accomplished is the fact that developers and creators had better keep anything important away from the edges of the screen because you don't want to accidentally exclude the people who bought a phone that has a hole or black spot on that part of the screen, all to be able to boast about a bigger screen-to-bezel ratio in the marketing communication.

 

That said, you're not wrong, because while I did include it in my purchasing decision when I bought my new phone, I did end up buying an S10 over the notch-less Note models, so this particular principle was somewhat flexible.

[dalekphalm]

Unpopular opinions? Android is overrated. And Windows Phone 7/8/10 was an excellent mobile OS that was killed largely due to lack of app support (which can in part be attributed to Google refusing to port Google Services apps over, and repeatedly blocking Microsoft's first party YouTube apps).

[MrFixitBlankFace]

Apple is better than Android.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

Apple is better than Android.

*Nods, then returns to the shadows*

[Guest]

12 hours ago, EldritchMoose said:

Honestly, I hate the things on principle. I've never seen a solid reason to include a custom cut-out on phone screens that vary greatly in size, shape and position between even phones made by a single manufacturer. Had it become an agreed-upon industry standard, at least, content could have been designed with that exclusion in screen real estate in mind, but as it stands, all it has accomplished is the fact that developers and creators had better keep anything important away from the edges of the screen because you don't want to accidentally exclude the people who bought a phone that has a hole or black spot on that part of the screen, all to be able to boast about a bigger screen-to-bezel ratio in the marketing communication.

 

That said, you're not wrong, because while I did include it in my purchasing decision when I bought my new phone, I did end up buying an S10 over the notch-less Note models, so this particular principle was somewhat flexible.

IMO, the G6 from LG proved that you can have very thin bezels and a very high screen-to-body ratio. I've always appreciated a little bit of bezel so my fingers have somewhere to grab, and it acts a buffer for when I drop it since the bezel will absorb some of the energy.

[spartaman64]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:31 AM, Arika S said:

I have an X1 Carbon at work and use neither the trackpad or nubbin. Maybe I need more practice with it, but the nub just feels slow and inaccurate.

 

On 9/20/2019 at 8:44 AM, Crunchy Dragon said:

Slow: I set the sensitivity to max.

Accuracy: came with practice, it helped to make it move faster as well.

i just use the nub for scrolling, having to constantly swipe with two fingers to scroll is annoying it takes much less energy to hold down the middle button and the nub

[Zando_]

On 10/8/2019 at 11:28 AM, dalekphalm said:

How long have you had this opinion for? Because 15.6" was the de facto standard laptop size since... well.... Windows Vista days at least - even Windows XP laptops were common in 15.6".

 

In fact, smaller sizes were rare for a long time.

Oh and don't forget, not all laptops are created equal. See the XPS line, the 15" is the same size or smaller than many laptops with 13" screens, and the 13" is smaller than the old 11" macbook air (screen is taller but it's slightly thinner IIRC and not as wide). Massively smaller than my 13" mid-2012 MBP. Going off screen size as a measure for what makes a laptop is just silly, given the massive fluctuation in laptop sizes irrespective of the size of the screen. 

[kaiju_wars]

On 10/1/2019 at 10:12 PM, Schnoz said:

Nintendo should have switched the Switch to a 12 nm process to make the battery life even more amazing. Personally, I would happy pay $20 or $30 more for it.

They released the hardware revision with faster NAND and the Tegra X1 on a smaller die.  It's apparently 12nm but Nintendo hasn't confirmed it yet, but people have taken the Switch apart.  But it does have better battery life and it's the same price as the OG Switch.

 

[kaiju_wars]

2 minutes ago, Schnoz said:

The spec has been confirmed to be 16 nm instead of 12. But for the same price, I can't complain.

 

Here's the specsheet of the original and new Tegra X1 chips.

Ah, then I was mistaken, my bad.  But still, I'm glad for a smaller node and better battery life overall.  I've been thinking of buying the new Switch but I keep hearing rumors of a Switch Pro, so I'm waiting.

 

[Uttamattamakin]

The "year of the Linux desktop" already happened.   If we define it as the year where more people were using some flavor of Linux or the other, directly or indirectly (by accessing websites hosted on Linux servers) on any device.   Linux killed windows when Windows phone died. 

Linux killed windows so dead that the Windows phone we were all waiting for is running Linux (Android).  Linux killed windows so dead that Windows is not even an option for that windows phone for some reason. 

[mr moose]

On 10/9/2019 at 3:28 AM, dalekphalm said:

He never said that - and your link supports this. It's a myth perpetualized repeatedly, even on this forum.

 

Not only that but I have seen people re tell the story as it being 512K (clearly confusing the IBM hardware limitations of the day with more standard software values). 

 

This just furthers the proof that majority of what we think we know is wrong.

[mr moose]

5 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

The "year of the Linux desktop" already happened.   If we define it as the year where more people were using some flavor of Linux or the other, directly or indirectly (by accessing websites hosted on Linux servers) on any device.   Linux killed windows when Windows phone died. 

Linux killed windows so dead that the Windows phone we were all waiting for is running Linux (Android).  Linux killed windows so dead that Windows is not even an option for that windows phone for some reason. 

Amazing, I can't imagine why anyone would not consider that an unpopular opinion.

[Uttamattamakin]

17 hours ago, mr moose said:

Amazing, I can't imagine why anyone would not consider that an unpopular opinion.

I'll go even further.  Since basically every web server runs Linux, and every computer use now requires some web based, cloud based, or other internet resource to work.  

 

Every other OS is now just a front end for Linux.  

The real computer we all use is one very decentralized world wide network of computers, the most important of which, now a days, run Linux. 

[mr moose]

19 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

I'll go even further.  Since basically every web server runs Linux, and every computer use now requires some web based, cloud based, or other internet resource to work.  

 

Every other OS is now just a front end for Linux.  

The real computer we all use is one very decentralized world wide network of computers, the most important of which, now a days, run Linux. 

I can see why that is an unpopular opinion also.  Considering the statistic don't really support it.

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/915085/global-server-share-by-os/

 

Linux has the lions share of web servers and routers etc (for good reason).  but actual compute servers and data servers are still all windows, Linux is more or less a conduit service on the internet, not productivity service.    I.E when a web store hooks into a database for stock control what database doe sit use? what is the server OS of the stores inventory and POS systems?

[Euchre]

Every form of security, even those of low robustness, is a useful layer in a total security approach.

 

Sounds like not an unpopular opinion, right?

 

Try suggesting that turning off SSID broadcast represents a useful layer of security in your wireless network. Many, many times have I been chided for suggesting it as part of the most secure wireless network setup you can have. Security through obscurity isn't a robust tactic by itself, for absolutely sure, but it is a valid layer in a deeply layered security defense plan. If you are where there are many visible APs, someone looking for an opportunity will go for ones they can immediately see first, unless you are already their specific target. Even if you are isolated in a rural place like I am now, if the SSID doesn't show up until someone communicates with it (the easiest way to overcome a lack of SSID broadcast is promiscuous packet inspection), someone is likely to assume you simply have no wireless network at all. Since availability of access is already low, it is easier to assume there is none and move on. Attacking a wireless network requires physical proximity, and a person or vehicle in a rural area that doesn't normally exist there stands out to everyone who is normally there.

 

This is just one example. There are others. Working retail, I have coworkers who won't use some security devices in their departments because 'they'll just cut them off anyway'. I remind them that they aren't there to be absolute security, but raise the bar of who will attempt to steal something, and slow even skilled and determined people enough that wary workers should be more likely to catch and interrupt attempts at theft. Relying on only one layer that is supposedly most robust, or giving up and applying none at all, is a worse solution than using every layer you can.

[Arika]

after a few weeks of having this laptop, and from years of using a thinkpad at work.

 

the Dell XPS keyboard is better than the Thinkpad keyboards.

[Jae Tee]

On 9/18/2019 at 8:49 PM, Derrk said:

I should be able to teleport by now

Quantum physics should solve this. 

[The King of the Undead]

Just now, Jae Tee said:

Quantum physics should solve this. 

wait so how close was supreme commander?

[Jae Tee]

5 minutes ago, will4623 said:

wait so how close was supreme 

Well if you can change or redirect quantum matter you should be able to send yourself like or with a signal (wifi) to an appropriate receiver. But then i would recommend getting yourself a copy just in case the signal goes awry, AKA: Cloning. 

[The King of the Undead]

14 minutes ago, Jae Tee said:

Well if you can change or redirect quantum matter you should be able to send yourself like or with a signal (wifi) to an appropriate receiver. But then i would recommend getting yourself a copy just in case the signal goes awry, AKA: Cloning. 

so dang they where close! Might even have bean right!

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 10/9/2019 at 10:31 PM, Uttamattamakin said:

The "year of the Linux desktop" already happened.   If we define it as the year where more people were using some flavor of Linux or the other, directly or indirectly (by accessing websites hosted on Linux servers) on any device.   Linux killed windows when Windows phone died. 

Linux killed windows so dead that the Windows phone we were all waiting for is running Linux (Android).  Linux killed windows so dead that Windows is not even an option for that windows phone for some reason. 

 

 

 

My contribution:

 

Music streaming services are a bad deal, and inferior to locally stored music.