![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
more of the awesomeness
Other than desperately wishing that there was a nubbin or touchpad on the new wireless solar keyboard, I am astoundingly happy. I'm still really happy with the new computer as well. I guess when I splurge on buying myself nice things, I really mean it.
The keys are just the right amount of tactile and audible. My typing improves by the dual reinforcement. It's not the same kind of hollow clacky that I get from the laptop's keyboard. And I'm not trying to say that the laptop has a sucky keyboard, because it really doesn't. But underneath the laptop keyboard is computer, so there's probably something between there even if it's just air. Also the laptop keys don't feel like they can take the kind of abuse I deal out on an average basis. Especially the arrow keys.
Weirdly I am finding that the laptop screen is improved by being farther away. There were some issues with font sizes and such, but for the most part, this is pretty good even at about a meter distant.
There are still some browser configs that need to happen, so it knows to preferentially use serifed fonts and that closing the last tab means nothing in regard to whether I want to close the whole browser. But I'm not importing my previous preferences from the old machine.
I absolutely love the fingerprint reader. I'm so glad I sprung for that. If Firefox would use it as my master password, that would be golden. (Right now it doesn't have a master password, but my computer hasn't left the house yet and no financial data has been exchanged. (ps. yes I know not to do that using the unsecured wireless keyboard. And yes my wifi link is encrypted, er, to some extent. I'm not sure it's sufficient for like taxes or something.))
On the other hand, I am shocked by how much I miss having a backlit keyboard. At first when I was ordering the Saitek, I thought it was a novelty. But it was a gaming keyboard (which generally means it's built more durably and the key programming has a chance in hell of working) and the price was tolerable. But having exactly what I needed lit up, lit up, was amazing. I can stand the lack of key lighting for the geek coolness of having a solar keyboard, but I'm really irked about the laptop keyboard not having that.
That's another thing I really desperately need to solve. I'd managed to get the *scum sucking, fuckwitted, bastard-child's underage miscarriage's microscopic penis driven idiocy of a* CapsLock key to pretend to be a shift key. I even remembered how I did it, so I could get the insert key to pretend to be backspace (which is what I'm usually aiming for when I accidentally hit it.) and I can set Scroll Lock to actually be something anyone might want. (On my laptop's keyboard, ScrLk is the non-blue (for "hold the blue function key to get this behavior) while NumLk is the Fn-'d version. The hell? Although, admittedly, since there's no separate keypad I can see why people would think NumLk would be kind of stupid. I really wonder if I can set separate behavior for internal and external keyboards. Like I'd prefer the external keyboard to always have NumLock on by default, and the laptop not ever. I'll have to look into that.
I am extremely pleased with everything I bought for this new experience. $1100 (about, with tax and everything) for the computer, $50 for the keyboard, and about that again budgeted for a wireless trackball or mouse. I'm still thinking about getting a docking station and a large screen but I like the portability for now... Although I think I would like the portability a lot more if there was space on my desk for the new computer to live. So I'm going to be cleaning my desk today. Bleah.
I was somewhat concerned when I was computer shopping that I wasn't choosing wisely. I didn't know if I was going to care if the processor was i5 2.5 or i5 2.7 or i7. It didn't mean anything to me. I assumed that the more expensive options were better, but I had no idea whether they'd be noticeably better. I was also unsure whether I wanted to spend the money to get the lighter variant. I think, if I was honestly planning to carry this with me anywhere, I should have sprung for it. I wouldn't want to carry this weight on a daily basis. But while using it, I find that I am not at all bothered. I can tell that I wouldn't want to go backpacking while carrying this machine. But if I needed something to go backpacking with more than a phone, I think I'd get a tablet for Christmas. (Not that I'm a Christian who celebrates it, but most things like that go on sale either for the holiday or immediately afterward, so like all squeeze-a-dime level misers, I buy myself stuff "for Christmas".)
All in all, the only thing keeping me from wishing I'd done this 3 years ago is that I've attempted to use Simon's laptop which is from that era.... it has a fucking switch that toggles whether the wifi is on or off.... and if you ever change it, you have to restart the machine because it won't ever be able to reconnect to the network. It's possible that I would have been happy last year, but at least I'm pleased with what I have.
I like Windows 7 a lot more that Vista. I like it better than 2K too, but I think some of that is because 2K is from 10 years ago!!! It's hard to imagine why they released Vista, I sort of assumed it was because W7 was going to suck and they needed something really horrible to make W7 look good in comparison. But it's more like Vista was horrible because they'd gotten out of practice in releasing OSs.
What I like best about my new computer is that everything just works. When I tell Simon that, he makes horrible faces and calls me a closet iPerson. I pointed out yesterday that the Microsoft EULA is hardly less totalitarian than Apple. I get why unix is a good idea. I get why I should want to control everything about my environment. I really do understand. But I'm tired of hewing my way with a machete through the weeds when I'm going exactly the same way as the paved highway. There's really no need to suffer needlessly.
Anyway. I bought something I needed that I thought would please me. And then I bought side things I thought would make it even better. I am pleased and it is better... both even moreso than I expected.
The keys are just the right amount of tactile and audible. My typing improves by the dual reinforcement. It's not the same kind of hollow clacky that I get from the laptop's keyboard. And I'm not trying to say that the laptop has a sucky keyboard, because it really doesn't. But underneath the laptop keyboard is computer, so there's probably something between there even if it's just air. Also the laptop keys don't feel like they can take the kind of abuse I deal out on an average basis. Especially the arrow keys.
Weirdly I am finding that the laptop screen is improved by being farther away. There were some issues with font sizes and such, but for the most part, this is pretty good even at about a meter distant.
There are still some browser configs that need to happen, so it knows to preferentially use serifed fonts and that closing the last tab means nothing in regard to whether I want to close the whole browser. But I'm not importing my previous preferences from the old machine.
I absolutely love the fingerprint reader. I'm so glad I sprung for that. If Firefox would use it as my master password, that would be golden. (Right now it doesn't have a master password, but my computer hasn't left the house yet and no financial data has been exchanged. (ps. yes I know not to do that using the unsecured wireless keyboard. And yes my wifi link is encrypted, er, to some extent. I'm not sure it's sufficient for like taxes or something.))
On the other hand, I am shocked by how much I miss having a backlit keyboard. At first when I was ordering the Saitek, I thought it was a novelty. But it was a gaming keyboard (which generally means it's built more durably and the key programming has a chance in hell of working) and the price was tolerable. But having exactly what I needed lit up, lit up, was amazing. I can stand the lack of key lighting for the geek coolness of having a solar keyboard, but I'm really irked about the laptop keyboard not having that.
That's another thing I really desperately need to solve. I'd managed to get the *scum sucking, fuckwitted, bastard-child's underage miscarriage's microscopic penis driven idiocy of a* CapsLock key to pretend to be a shift key. I even remembered how I did it, so I could get the insert key to pretend to be backspace (which is what I'm usually aiming for when I accidentally hit it.) and I can set Scroll Lock to actually be something anyone might want. (On my laptop's keyboard, ScrLk is the non-blue (for "hold the blue function key to get this behavior) while NumLk is the Fn-'d version. The hell? Although, admittedly, since there's no separate keypad I can see why people would think NumLk would be kind of stupid. I really wonder if I can set separate behavior for internal and external keyboards. Like I'd prefer the external keyboard to always have NumLock on by default, and the laptop not ever. I'll have to look into that.
I am extremely pleased with everything I bought for this new experience. $1100 (about, with tax and everything) for the computer, $50 for the keyboard, and about that again budgeted for a wireless trackball or mouse. I'm still thinking about getting a docking station and a large screen but I like the portability for now... Although I think I would like the portability a lot more if there was space on my desk for the new computer to live. So I'm going to be cleaning my desk today. Bleah.
I was somewhat concerned when I was computer shopping that I wasn't choosing wisely. I didn't know if I was going to care if the processor was i5 2.5 or i5 2.7 or i7. It didn't mean anything to me. I assumed that the more expensive options were better, but I had no idea whether they'd be noticeably better. I was also unsure whether I wanted to spend the money to get the lighter variant. I think, if I was honestly planning to carry this with me anywhere, I should have sprung for it. I wouldn't want to carry this weight on a daily basis. But while using it, I find that I am not at all bothered. I can tell that I wouldn't want to go backpacking while carrying this machine. But if I needed something to go backpacking with more than a phone, I think I'd get a tablet for Christmas. (Not that I'm a Christian who celebrates it, but most things like that go on sale either for the holiday or immediately afterward, so like all squeeze-a-dime level misers, I buy myself stuff "for Christmas".)
All in all, the only thing keeping me from wishing I'd done this 3 years ago is that I've attempted to use Simon's laptop which is from that era.... it has a fucking switch that toggles whether the wifi is on or off.... and if you ever change it, you have to restart the machine because it won't ever be able to reconnect to the network. It's possible that I would have been happy last year, but at least I'm pleased with what I have.
I like Windows 7 a lot more that Vista. I like it better than 2K too, but I think some of that is because 2K is from 10 years ago!!! It's hard to imagine why they released Vista, I sort of assumed it was because W7 was going to suck and they needed something really horrible to make W7 look good in comparison. But it's more like Vista was horrible because they'd gotten out of practice in releasing OSs.
What I like best about my new computer is that everything just works. When I tell Simon that, he makes horrible faces and calls me a closet iPerson. I pointed out yesterday that the Microsoft EULA is hardly less totalitarian than Apple. I get why unix is a good idea. I get why I should want to control everything about my environment. I really do understand. But I'm tired of hewing my way with a machete through the weeds when I'm going exactly the same way as the paved highway. There's really no need to suffer needlessly.
Anyway. I bought something I needed that I thought would please me. And then I bought side things I thought would make it even better. I am pleased and it is better... both even moreso than I expected.
no subject
I'm fond of the fingerprint reader, too.
no subject
I hope you ended up being happy with your new machine too.
no subject