Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

[leviathan]

I don’t understand skimping on things like laptops for your employees. In the grand scheme of things (and spread out over six years) would it really hurt that much to give your employee a proper machine to work with?

Yeah. This is something my employer gets: yes the up-to-date Macbooks and Dell Precisions with large screens and all the hardware inside are really expensive... but they are the main tools we all work with, and over the lifetime of 3+ years easily amortize their cost in increased productivity, even if the developers don't always need all the power but just feel better motivated for having it. Essential work equipment is just not something you effectively save costs on when your dev's daily rates to clients cover the price in under a week.

 

[GRtak]

I don’t understand skimping on things like laptops for your employees. In the grand scheme of things (and spread out over six years) would it really hurt that much to give your employee a proper machine to work with?

While I agree with you, I have been in the field and seen how equipment gets treated by some employees, and there are some that deserve the laptop from 1993.

 

[93Flareside]

I don’t understand skimping on things like laptops for your employees. In the grand scheme of things (and spread out over six years) would it really hurt that much to give your employee a proper machine to work with?

I agree with you, but the decisions are made by people who if questioned would look like US congress questioning Mark Zuckerberg...

Still, back then when I first got the laptop my boss thought the idea of touchscreen laptops for service techs that write up digital reports was too expensive. Rather get a normal laptop and USB signature pad. I thought it was a horrible idea and took the laptop a guy bought when his crapped out pn a job and it got replaced rather quickly, so the one I use sat on the shelf for a few months. I didn't want the signature pad and took the cheap laptop because it had a touch screen for the oh so important customer signature. Much easier to take a laptop, tap the signature field, flip the screen into tablet mode, have the customer sign, save document and close the lid. I was willing to take the underpowered unit unbeknownst to my manager and getting away with not using the signature pad.

It's just these days it's working a bit slow as menial tasks use a lot of cpu power despite memory maxed at 16GB and no longer being the bottole neck.

 

[NecroJoe]

I don’t understand skimping on things like laptops for your employees. In the grand scheme of things (and spread out over six years) would it really hurt that much to give your employee a proper machine to work with?

So much this. I was a salesperson who had to often share information from my computer to people and small groups. Not fun from a screen I'd be shocked was more than 200 nit brightness, and with speakers maybe twice as loud as just plugging in headphones and leaving them on the table. Then have me travel internationally and around the US to construction sites where there's limited electricity, with a battery that can only power the laptop for 2 hours if the screen is all the way down, and wi-fi is turned off, and no way to charge via USB.

 

[Matt2000]

I've seen both sides of the argument, I'm fortunate enough to have some control over it within the business I work for. We just don't buy cheap kit, but getting old kit replaced is always a challenge and Surface tablets especially can deteriorate really quickly.

Currently buying Dell Latitude 7420s at the moment, nicely built machines for the most part.

 

[NooDle]

I kinda agree, bur seeing colleagues go ‘my brand new 2k€ laptop broke because I closed the screen while there was a pen on the keyboard’ makes me question humanity….

So I’m kinda glad she got the ‘backup’ laptop from 3 yrs ago with a smaller screen.

OTOH all we do is connect to Citrix so the actual PC doesn’t need to be a powerhouse. I’m glad it is though, so I can use it on weekends to stream F1 races in HD to my TV…

 

[93Flareside]

something's fishy.

 

[Matt2000]

We cap our guest wi-fi at work because people brought the connection to its knees downloading shit on their phones.

Caught someone uploading videos to YouTube from his work PC many years ago too, during work time no less!

 

[93Flareside]

We cap our guest wi-fi at work because people brought the connection to its knees downloading shit on their phones.

Caught someone uploading videos to YouTube from his work PC many years ago too, during work time no less!

... I use work internet for iOS updates.

 

[Perc]

We cap our guest wi-fi at work because people brought the connection to its knees downloading shit on their phones.

Caught someone uploading videos to YouTube from his work PC many years ago too, during work time no less!

Shit internet or lots of employees?

 

[Matt2000]

Shit internet or lots of employees?

Both! We have to dedicate most of our gigabit connection to the link between offices because people work on some huge files. The YouTube uploader was in a small office that didn't have a very good connection at the time, we started getting questions when nobody could work on remote files.

 

[DanRoM]

It would be interesting to know how much of our Internet traffic at work is due to music streaming.

 

[eizbaer]

It would be interesting to know how much of our Internet traffic at work is due to music streaming.

I just switched spotify at work to "very high" quality streaming because for some reason that wasn't the case until now

 

[Matt2000]

Spotify doesn't use much, apparently only 1.6GB in the last 30 days on my home machine and I use it all the time on max quality. Streaming media at work has apparently used 4GB in the last 7 days but I can't be bothered to drill down. Pretty tiny little in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Perc]

MacBooks are excellent machines, especially the ones on sale now. They probably have an entire team of highly skilled engineers that does nothing but make sure that the hinge is weighted exactly right so it’s sturdy enough without lifting the bottom half of the machine off of the table when you open it. That’s not even mentioning the army they employ to make sure that the faked click in the solid state touchpad is perfect.

Then they bundle a charging cord that does this shit.

 

[NecroJoe]

MacBooks are excellent machines, especially the ones on sale now. They probably have an entire team of highly skilled engineers that does nothing but make sure that the hinge is weighted exactly right so it’s sturdy enough without lifting the bottom half of the machine off of the table when you open it. That’s not even mentioning the army they employ to make sure that the faked click in the solid state touchpad is perfect.

Then they bundle a charging cord that does this shit.

View attachment 3562937

From the same company that invents a entirely unique interaction tool (magic mouse), and then puts the charge port here:

 

[93Flareside]

From the same company that invents a entirely unique interaction tool (magic mouse), and then puts the charge port here:

Why isn’t that mouse made with wireless charging?

 

[leviathan]

Because it's from a time before working wireless chargers were a thing.

The charger port placement is idiotic, of course. Put it in the front like any other USB-chargeable mouse and let the thing be used like a wired mouse while charging. Some Apple design decisions are extremely bone-headed, especially ones from the "Jony Ive not checked by Steve Jobs anymore" era.

 

[Matt2000]

I'm looking at getting an iPad and I specifically want to use the Apple Pencil, I don't really like the cost of the 2nd gen. version but there's no way I'm putting up with the silly charging method of the 1st gen. Who thought that having it sticking out to charge was a sensible idea?

Unrelated, anyone have any experience with windsocks/dead cats for phones? I'd like something I can just stick over the end to protect the mic from noise. I tend to convert videos to mono where I've been talking so only having one end of the phone protected by the sock would be fine.

 

[leviathan]

I'm looking at getting an iPad and I specifically want to use the Apple Pencil, I don't really like the cost of the 2nd gen. version but there's no way I'm putting up with the silly charging method of the 1st gen.

Take a look at the Logitech Crayon. Less costly than the original Pencil, you lose pressure sensitivity but still get all the feature including tilt sensing which actually allows for really neat writing still, and the charging is done the sensible way around too.