reticulated (u/reticulated)

reticulated commented on Microsoft makes Zork open-source opensource.microsoft.com/... · Posted by u/tabletcorry

drob518 · a month ago

When I was 14 or so, in the early 1980s, a friend and I who had been playing Zork thought it would be fun to design a game ourselves. We actually wrote to Infocom with a proposal that we write a new game for them and they let us use ZIL and the Z-machine to implement it. Surprisingly, they actually wrote back to us and politely declined our offer. In hindsight, while we knew how to program in BASIC and assembly language on our Apple IIs, we would have been lost making a game with ZIL. That’s to say that Infocom made the right call. Still, it said something about the company that they treated a couple kids with respect and didn’t laugh in our faces. I wish I still had the letter.

reticulated · a month ago

My goodness, I could have written this word-for-word. Similar age, same Apple II BASIC and 6502 upbringing (roll sleeves and call -151) and also wrote to Infocom. We were in the UK so even more surprised to get a reply similar to yours several weeks later. Sadly my letter is also lost to various house moves. Or eaten by a grue.

reticulated commented on ReMarkable Paper Pro Move remarkable.com/products/r... · Posted by u/ksec

prmoustache · 4 months ago

Does-it have a lockscreen and is it reasonnably good in term of security? That would be the only incentive for someone who want to keep handwritten notes without having to lock the notebook in a safe every time it is left unattended.

I am not thinking security against state actor, rather people within same household/office who might have too much curiosity.

reticulated · 4 months ago

Yes. Assuming the Move is the same as the Pro, it's PIN-protected with hardware encryption at rest.

reticulated commented on ReMarkable Paper Pro Move remarkable.com/products/r... · Posted by u/ksec

twalichiewicz · 4 months ago

They’ve poured effort into replicating the feel of a notebook: restricted toolset, textured screen, stylus handwriting, etc., but I'm at a loss why this is worth hundreds of dollars plus a subscription instead of just using paper notebooks.

- Paper-like feel? Actual paper still wins.

- Undo, folders, search, tags? Flipping through a notebook and adding sticky notes gets you there faster.

- Templates? A $10 pad of graph or dotted paper gives infinite variety.

Handwriting-to-text and cloud sync is perhaps the strongest case, but even there it's probably faster to draft on paper and digitize with keyboard or speech.

reticulated · 4 months ago

I was sceptical at first too then gave their 100-day test a try with the bigger Pro and have the Move on order.

I see the benefits over paper as:

- Search. Still in beta, but you can now search handwritten notes. Seems to work well even with my scrawl.

- Integrations. Just "send to Slack" for now but rumours from YouTuber Kit Betts that more are coming.

- Working at night. The backlight, whilst lacking in temperature control, is handy at night or when ambient lighting is poor.

- Backups. Annoying it's a paid subscription, but I consider it more like insurance against data loss at $3 per month.

reticulated commented on ReMarkable Paper Pro Move remarkable.com/products/r... · Posted by u/haraball

hartator · 4 months ago

Pretty disappointing release.

Over the years, I have bought 3 reMarkable 2 and 1 reMarkable Pro. That move to colors and having to charge a pen instead of more features (a Kindle integration will be sweet), faster devices, and focusing on better feedback on writing seems a bit of a fumble.

reticulated · 4 months ago

I doubt Amazon would facilitate any kind of legitimate Kindle support outside of a web browser.

I've got the Pro and, whilst a little to heavy for my liking, charging the marker is a no-brainer - it just attaches to the side for storage and charges wirelessly. Faster would always be appreciated of course.

Curious about your last statement as I find the writing feel best in class. Having tried a couple of others, admittedly a few years ago, the Pro felt the most natural to write on.

reticulated commented on MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max apple.com/newsroom/2023/0... · Posted by u/ValentineC

trynewideas · 3 years ago

> With up to 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model, creators can work on scenes so large that PC laptops can’t even run them.4

...

> 4. Testing was conducted by Apple in November and December 2022 using preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with Apple M2 Max, 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 96GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD, as well as a production Intel Core i9-based PC system with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 graphics with 24GB GDDR6 and the latest version of Windows 11 Pro available at the time of testing, and a production Intel Core i9-based PC system with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics with 16GB GDDR6 and the latest version of Windows 11 Home available at the time of testing. OTOY Octane X 2022.1 on preproduction 16-inch MacBook Pro systems and OTOY OctaneRender 2022.1 on Windows systems were tested using a scene that requires over 40GB of graphics memory when rendered.

Two things:

- The Quadro RTX 6000 shipped in 2018 and the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is a 12GB card vs. the 24GB 3090 or 3090 Ti, much less a 4090. I get that it's a marketing eye-roll claim, and it's cool to see a laptop post up against those specs, but why is Apple even bothering to measure performance against 4-year-old or under-specced cards? I wouldn't expect a 40GB OctaneRender scene to run on a 12GB gaming card or 4-year-old Quadro on any system.

- If 60% of VFX workstations are running Linux vs. 11% of macOS,[1] how does the M2 Max MBP stack up against a garden-variety Linux workstation?

1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15b-4GMTSEE9tyqeQdBfy_LZnxQI...

reticulated · 3 years ago

Apple have caveated the comparison by specifying "PC laptops" and according to NVidia's own site [1], and clicking through to see the actual specs [2], there aren't any currently available that out-spec a 16GB 3080 Ti.

I'll admit I haven't gone spelunking down the specialist laptop manuafacturer sites, but on the surface it seems to be not an unrealistic claim.

[1] https://store.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/store/laptop/?page=1&... [2] https://www.box.co.uk/82TD000WUK-Lenovo-Legion-7-Intel-Core-...

reticulated commented on The stick shift might survive the electric revolution robbreport.com/motors/car... · Posted by u/rntn

Symbiote · 3 years ago

> Until relatively recently automatics were so rare you'd often see an actual sticker on the back of the car

How recent do you mean? I know you get manufacturer brands like "5.1 GTI Automatic" on the back, but I can't remember ever seeing a warning sticker.

> Currently, manual cars still account for 70 per cent of the 31.7 million cars on UK's roads [1]

so it must have been a fair while ago.

[1] https://www.directlinegroup.co.uk/en/news/brand-news/2022/th...

reticulated · 3 years ago

You know what, I believe you're right. On reflection it's more like 15-20 years since I've seen one. Apologies for the bad phrasing.

reticulated commented on The stick shift might survive the electric revolution robbreport.com/motors/car... · Posted by u/rntn

reticulated · 3 years ago

For context, I'm British. Until relatively recently automatics were so rare you'd often see an actual sticker on the back of the car warning the driving style would be somewhat different (e.g. braking on downhill stretches).

The vast majority of the cars on our roads in the UK are still manual, but the tide is changing and not just with the introduction of EVs. There exists a legal quirk whereby you're not licensed to drive a manual car if you've passed your driving test in an automatic. Until that legislation is updated, I expect there to remain a strong demand for manual transmissions amongst learner and new drivers.

Personally, I'm of an age where simplicity and convenience are valued more in my life. Parallels include choosing Apple devices where I'd previously been all-in on Windows, Linux and Android; consoles over gaming PCs; and I'd also include home automation despite the initial set-up. Both our family cars are currently (non-EV for now) automatics and I can't see myself or my partner ever voluntarily going back to manual cars. I can push a single button to start, select drive and go. Even the handbrake is automatic.

Anecdotally, my social group is very much of the same mindset. Increased traffic on our small island has all but removed any romantic idealism around driving a sporty manual car on an open road. Now that driving here is more of a chore than a pleasure, anything that helps ease the burden is going to become the default.

reticulated commented on Shottr – macOS Screenshot Utility shottr.cc... · Posted by u/Brajeshwar

bestest · 4 years ago

This is an amazing piece of software. Does all that's needed — simple screenshots, very convenient crop / blur tool, annotation, arrows.

One question though — why is this free? I am ready to pay for this.

reticulated · 4 years ago

I came scross this utility a few months ago via a Reddit post and have been using it regularly.

The developer provides some insight into why it's free here [1]. To save you the click, they consider it a hobby project and decided the work to productise it is too great.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/s4uvpr/shottr_the_...

reticulated commented on Everything with a battery should have an off switch twitter.com/Foone/status/... · Posted by u/danso

Nanite · 4 years ago

Examples lying around in my house:

Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year

Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year

electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox

Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem

How much extra cost does a hard on/off switch add to the bill of materials?

reticulated · 4 years ago

Our kitchen scales have a single on button and auto power-off after a minute or so. I discovered completely by accident that holding the power button down for 3-4 seconds powers it off. Nowhere in any of the manuals was this mentioned (I went back and checked)

reticulated commented on Epic’s decision to bypass Apple’s App Store policies was dishonest, says judge theverge.com/2020/9/29/21... · Posted by u/pseudolus

reticulated · 5 years ago

I don't understand why Epic don't persue the argument of an unlevel playing field.

Amazon don't have to pay 30% for every transaction I make through the Amazon app on my iPhone. Same with eBay. Yes, I know Apple class these as different categories, but when push comes to shove what's the real difference here?

Epic are providing electronic assets that they have paid in-house artists to create and want to distribute in exchange for their in-game currency (V-Bucks). Why should Apple cream 30% off the top of that revenue?

Other than the electronic distribution, Apple has no fixed or variable costs relating to these in-game assets.

I fully agree Apple should take a cut of Fortnite being a reviewed, and therefore trusted, app on their store. I find it hard to justify the ongoing 30% cut of additional assets that bear no discernable cost.