Apple Made Me Buy a Windows HP Workstation

[antonis]

check this thing out:

http://rense.com/general69/future.htm

View attachment 634279

That's just a collection of bad ideas. Tap fingers on a table's surface ? Nobody can do that for more than 5 minutes. And having the keys drawn upon your fingers when your hands get close to the "keyboard", obscuring everything else ? What were these guys thinking ?

I'd prefer my iphone as a pocket computer anyday, over this. Add to it the ability to project the picture on a flat surface and it's already years ahead of this.

 

[flat five]

That's just a collection of bad ideas. Tap fingers on a table's surface ? Nobody can do that for more than 5 minutes. And having the keys drawn upon your fingers when your hands get close to the "keyboard", obscuring everything else ? What were these guys thinking ?

I'd prefer my iphone as a pocket computer anyday, over this. Add to it the ability to project the picture on a flat surface and it's already years ahead of this.

that article is over 10 years old

 

[grahamperrin]

… over 10 years old …

Why prejudge a thing based solely upon its age?

Would you dismiss a 1987 vision of things?

… Tap fingers on a table's surface ? Nobody can do that for more than 5 minutes.

If a pianist can play for more than five minutes, then a person can (more lightly) tap fingers on a table's surface for as long.

… keys drawn upon your fingers …

For many people, that's not a showstopper. As a touch typist, I rarely glance at the keyboard. It suffices to have a sense of where things are in relation to the home keys. That sense is quickly gained. If the position of the keyboard is fixed: I like the area between the home keys to be reasonably central in relation to the display.

So no matter how often I use the keyboard of an HP EliteBook 850 G2 – I have done so on a near-daily basis for a few months – I remain displeased by the mismatch, around an inch, between the two centres. When I use KDE Plasma 4 and prefer a panel to the left –

– the sense of an ill-fitting HP keyboard is increased.

Where there's an integral number pad to the right (in, for example, an EliteBook 8570p) the feeling would be even worse.

There's less of a mismatch on the notebook with which I'm most comfortable – an early 2009 17" MacBookPro5,2.

… http://rense.com/general69/future.htm …

I can't imagine using a projected display but some of the other ideas are good/great.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

[antonis]

If a pianist can play for more than five minutes, then a person can (more lightly) tap fingers on a table's surface for as long.

As someone who's being playing piano for several years, I can assure you these 2 things are not even approximately close. It would be painful for your wrists and your fingers to do that on a horizontal hard surface than will not subside under your fingers, for more than a few minutes.
[doublepost=1465029112][/doublepost]

that article is over 10 years old

Oh, missed that. It even has a date on top that I overlooked.

 

[grahamperrin]

As someone who's being playing piano for several years, I can assure you these 2 things are not even approximately close. It would be painful for your wrists and your fingers to do that on a horizontal hard surface than will not subside under your fingers, for more than a few minutes.

I, too, play piano. How can tapping – more lightly than striking the keys of a piano – be painful?

 

[flat five]

For many people, that's not a showstopper. As a touch typist, I rarely glance at the keyboard. It suffices to have a sense of where things are in relation to the home keys. That sense is quickly gained. If the position of the keyboard is fixed: I like the area between the home keys to be reasonably central in relation to the display.

keyboards without any feel_able registration marks are annoying since you have to look at them to get your fingers properly positioned.. i use the little bumps typically found on J & F keys for this and i suspect quite a few other people do as well.

 

[antonis]

I, too, play piano. How can tapping – more lightly than striking the keys of a piano – be painful?

Typing on a hard surface has many flaws. Regarding pain, even when tapping lightly, having a surface that won't subside returns some of the tapping back to the fingers (as it does not absorb any of the power used). Piano is a different case as you partially use some of your hand's weight to press the keys.

Add to this, that there won't be any feedback if you actually pressed something or not, if you are near the edge of the button or not, what is your hand's location on the keyboard etc etc.
Also consider the fact that by the time you'll get your hands near this keyboard, half of it will be drawn upon your hands. It'll just won't work.

It doesn't really matter, though. We are obviously beating a dead horse.

 

[grahamperrin]

… i use the little bumps typically found on J & F keys …

Me too, and I use them often, but that didn't stop me from taking an interest in projection keyboards. From 2009 onwards (thanks to the Wayback Machine for most of these), a few bookmarked items:

• http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-tablet-help-us-build-it/ where I commented, "I'll probably prefer a projection keyboard"
  
• http://www.projection-keyboard.com/
• http://web.archive.org/web/20090325054854/http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/
• in MacRumors Forums, Touchscreen Netbook + Micro-Projectors = ~virtual keyboard~
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20110711/http://www.laserkeyboard.org/projection.php
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20110712005641/http://www.vkb-support.com/
  
• http://web.archive.org/web/20110714091402/http://www.celluon.com/products/laserkey.htm
• http://web.archive.org/web/20110712194627/http://www.ipadaccessories.com/other-ipad-accessories/ipad-keyboards/ipad-bluetooth-laser-projection-virtual-keyboard/

Postscript

I wondered whether projection keyboards were a thing of the past but I see a few on Amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk//dp/B00N0QOYPI/ref=sr_1_19?sr=1-19#customerReviews a few positive reviews.

 

[toke lahti]

Emerald Green, with the Green Lantern Logo, Please.

And with green leds.

 

[toke lahti]

Also, with regards to defragmentation, with SSD's in practically everything, this is less of an issue (or no issue at all, really).

If you ar dealing with lots of big video files and disk images and don't want to advise your clients to keep their drives half empty, you should defrag.
Which reminds me of another file system thing: Do we need to wait for Mac OS XI (11) to get case sensitive file system? Will XI ever come?

 

[toke lahti]

Does anybody feel like making a mock-up of Hermes and Louis Vuitton oMP? (o stands for old as it is anything but new now.)

omgMP?

 

[toke lahti]

He only used one video card. If he configured for two like the nMP, would likely put it on par with the price.

Ask yourself: which one is more important; number of cards OR total gpu power?

 

[toke lahti]

Ask yourself, why Industry is going into stacked, multiple GPUs on single interposer. Ask yourself, how you will be able to fit 40-50 GPU dies in any tower internally? Ask yourself, why Thunderbolt was codeveloped by Intel? Because external expansion IS THE WAY TO GO, to mitigate increased production costs of silicon on smaller nodes. That is very reason why AMD is already loud about scalability of the GPUs. That is why it is important for any OS to see all the GPUs connected to a single computer as a single GPU cluster.

It is the way to go for whole industry. All you people all the time rumble about in this thread and other threads, is dead idea of computing. I have been writing this for 2 years now, since Apple presented Mac Pro. You were not listening, even if every proof that I provided is getting into place(Mantle, HSA, Scalability, external expansion). Small form factor is the way to go for any type of computer. You will have 1-2 GPUs Fury Nano sized, regardless of brand(it is form factor for all HBM GPUs) inside the computer, and if you will want you will get another 40-50 GPUs is a GPU cluster box. You want to know what are 2 key reasons driving this? Efficiency, and production costs.

Mac Pro like computers, even if you like it or not, will be in close future the go-to design. And yes, Apple have made a bad decision. They shown the Mac Pro too early. But right now in, 2016 there is more to think about it, than it was in 2013.

So why you can't use nMP with eGPU?
You like the possible future more than the product itself?

 

[toke lahti]

I disagree. Apple just held a sneak peek at the the future of FCPX at NABB. There is no way they'd let the Mac Pro die on the vine so long as they are still invested in improving FCPX. Say what you will about the nMP, as I agree with most criticisms of the machine (I own 2 of them) but there is currently no better machine for FCPX. I cannot imagine why apple would continue to develop that platform if the best machines for running it were discontinued.

Maybe I'm old, but I'm missing computers that had an excellent price-quality ratio on more than just one app.
Maybe Apple has even bigger team on fcpx than on nMP? One developer, 5 ad people and 10 designers drawing pretty pictures?

 

[toke lahti]

Just wanted to share this article about switching to a Windows workstation - another HP, although more high end than mine - the Z840, written by a professional colorist. Nice piece:

https://mixinglight.com/portfolio/hands-on-with-the-hp-z840-part-1/

Also, I agree with his take on using an HP workstation. It fulfills that 4% of needs that Apple's range of laptops, desktops and iOS devices cover. Maybe Apple just has decided that they will leave the professional workstation market to Microsoft and other vendors. Nothing wrong with that, I guess.

What year was that written? Some might think that's relevant info...

 

[AidenShaw]

What year was that written? Some might think that's relevant info...

It has the E5-x6xx v3 processor, so it's the current model Z840.

 

[grahamperrin]

Do we need to wait for Mac OS XI (11) to get case sensitive file system?

OS X support for case-sensitive HFS Plus began years ago.

 

[flat five]

Does anybody feel like making a mock-up of Hermes and Louis Vuitton oMP?

They were out of LV cMP's.

[doublepost=1465267504][/doublepost]

I'd totally be up for a Captain America design.

[doublepost=1465268744][/doublepost]

Emerald Green, with the Green Lantern Logo, Please.

 

[flat five]

Cobalt blue and emerald green might also be nice.

(not really sure if that's quite cobalt blue)

 

[hiddenmarkov]

OS X support for case-sensitive HFS Plus began years ago.

Yep. Its a special install option you have to fire up. Go into setup consoles, reformat for journaled with case sensitive, go from there.

Just be advised many apps I have seen made the special note that they do not install well (if at all) on a case sensitive OS install. basically check your current vendors stance on this before you do it. And any potential future software buys.

 

[zephonic]

lol@FlatFive

Now you KNOW you should make one of the nMP Beats edition

(I personally would like the next MacPro to adopt the brushed aluminum look of the rest of the lineup)

 

[toke lahti]

OS X support for case-sensitive HFS Plus began years ago.

Like post #595 told you, you can't use it. But you can always try...
If apple wanted to make a transition, I guess it would need something like Rosetta emulation, when all new sortware should mandatory understand case sensitivity and old software has that emulation. After few years that emulation support would be taken away.

But I'm not sure if apple has plans for mac for so long in the future. Their message, at least between the lines, has been that post-pc era is also post-mac era...

 

[toke lahti]

I agree but it's a issue for legitimate users. If you own Photoshop for the Mac, it doesn't grant you the right to use it on Windows. Switching OS also means buying a new license for all platforms that you use.

Adobe has had a free crossgrade like forever. And with these modern monthly payments, even that doesn't matter.

Btw, if anybody can sell me their cs6, mac version, preferably master set, upgrade for fair price or full set very cheaply, I would be very interested!

 

[grahamperrin]

… If apple wanted to make a transition, I guess it would need something like Rosetta emulation, when all new sortware should mandatory understand case sensitivity …

The vast majority of users will continue to prefer case insensitive by default, so I don't imagine that transition.

 

[lowendlinux]

The vast majority of users will continue to prefer case insensitive by default, so I don't imagine that transition.

I thin the vast majority don't actually care for those that do it's ZFS or bust