floobie

Well that was a profound read. It makes me sort of question how much I really know.

Though, over the years, I’ve developed somewhat of a credo that I try to live my life by:

Care a lot about a few things, and little about most things.

I can apply this to my emotional state. Letting everything bother you is a recipe for heart disease. But, there are a few things that I really care about that I feel I need to let truly bother me. Certain injustices or exploitations towards myself or others will truly rile me up. But, most other things that set average people off don’t bother me at all.

I can also apply this to ambition. Trying to be good at everything is pointless. Trying to know everything is pointless. There isn’t enough time for it in life. Instead, I’ve identified a few things that I need to be passionate about and give my fullest of effort, and I’ll just do the rest to sufficiency.

The Internet is a wonderful tool in this regard. It allows you to obtain sufficient knowledge for all that other crap you don’t truly care about, but need to know something about for whatever reason. There’s a reason Wikipedia is so popular. It’s never the most thorough of sources, but it’s capable of giving you a general understanding of damn near anything. Not only that, but it can also provide you with a seemingly infinite supply of information to apply to the things you do want to pursue with all the passion you can afford.

An example I can provide for that is music. Specifically, in my case, playing guitar and synthesizers, and recording, engineering, and mixing the music I create. The latter two are particularly difficult if you want to create a professional sounding product. You need to know how to get the best recorded tone out of your instruments, you need to know the software you’re using inside and out, you need to know the exact bits of the frequency spectrum that make up the important sounds of any given instrument, you need to have a very deep understanding of the waveform and signal processing. Literally 100% of the knowledge I’ve acquired on those topics has come from the Internet. If I’d tried to use books, I don’t think I’d be nearly as far along as I am (I still have a lot to learn, though). Books are generally long, contain a lot of extraneous information, aren’t nearly as filterable as anything on a computer, and only give you one point of view. Just reading through a mixing forum on the Internet gives me access to the exact same information, information more specific to question I’m trying to answer, and with hundreds of different opinions on how to best apply it.

My point: The Internet, when applied properly, has the potential to be the best of both worlds. You can gain a superficial understanding of everything with it. And, you can gain a deep understanding of anything with it. Books are awesome. I love reading fiction. But, save for a few exceptions, if I want to gain a deep understanding about a given topic, I’m better off using the Internet.

I did include this line for a reason: “at least, every Samsung I’ve seen”. ie. I was being upfront about the fact that I haven’t directly seen or used the SIII. Forgive me for generalizing, but I’m not directly attacking the SIII here anyway. I’m just pointing out the merits and shortfalls of different materials.

Also, there’s a difference between scratching a phone with a watch and scratching it with the surprisingly abrasive crap that resides in the average pocket. The Moh’s hardness of the watchband he used could’ve been as low 3 if it’s aluminum, up to about 6.5 if it’s stainless steel. But, the little particles of sand that inhabit one’s pockets, typically quartz, have a hardness of about 7. So, while going at the back of your phone with a set of keys or something might seem like a pretty definitive test… it’s certainly dramatic… it doesn’t account for everything. Aluminosilicates are pretty scratch resistance because they do have a pretty high hardness. Andalusite, for instance, has a hardness ranging from 6.5 to 7.5. Silimanite around 7. Kyanite is a bit lower at around 6. I don’t know what the composition is of the synthetic aluminosilicate used for phones, but it is likely decently high. Usually what scratches on these phones is the oleophobic coating, not the glass itself.

Call it whatever you want, but the durability of the materials definitely matters. And, in this “plastic” vs. polycarbonate (also a plastic), metal, aluminosilicate debate, your priorities will dictate which you prefer.

The glossy plastic (apparently a polycarbonate as well?) stands up very well to being dropped. It’s flexible, and allows for a removable battery panel. On the down side, the finish on it (at least, every Samsung I’ve seen) will scratch and rub off quite easily, though. Metal, polycarbonate, or glass are much more rigid, and won’t stand up as well to being dropped (they’ll either dent/deform, chip, or shatter respectively). But, their scratch resistance has, in my experience, been much stronger.

Personally, I don’t drop my phones. But, I do put them in my pocket a lot. I’ve had a glossy plastic Samsung phone, and the gloss/finish on it was significantly rubbed off and scratched after owning it for about a year, and never dropping it. My iPhone 4S (aluminosilicate) and my previous Nokia E71 (metal), have not suffered a similar fate. Even after 3 years of use, the E71’s metal enclosure was scratch free. I can say the same about my iPhone so far. If I ever drop my iPhone, it will be in a lot more trouble than that old Samsung would’ve been (though I never dropped it either). But, given how infrequently I drop my phones, I’d rather have a phone made of something that will stand up better to the abuses I tend to put phones through (pockets). If you drop your phone a lot, the plastic Samsung uses is probably the way to go.

I’m getting the feeling they should add this option in. It isn’t something I’d ever use, but a lot of people seem to want it. Some for practical reasons (you), and many I’m guessing just for ideological reasons.

Personally, I loathe the idea of putting loads of time into a character and not being able to enjoy playing it with my friends. For that reason, I literally never created a single player character in Diablo II.

For characters that are going to be used for multiplayer, they just have to be always online. Otherwise there is a 100% chance that people will cheat like crazy.

Seconded on all counts. I loved Diablo II, but was never able to play it as consistently, and for as long in one go as I’ve been playing Diablo III. It really does suck you in.

The changes made to the interface and skill system are awesome. Just like with Starcraft II, Blizzard have effectively removed any difficulty associated with tedium and interface limitations, and enhanced difficulty associated with actual gameplay. Not being able to leave town portals scattered throughout the map to escape to if things get hairy has made the game a fair bit more difficult for me. But, not having to waste inventory space on a tome of town portal removes interface tedium. The same can be said for artisans, the skill system, health potions/orbs, the various mana equivalents, and so on.

Say what you will about the online requirements and the server issues, but the game itself was clearly designed with the utmost of care, and it has made for a completely unrivalled experience. This a game I’ll be playing on and off for the next decade, or until they release another sequel. I will always come back to it, just as I did with Diablo II. So, for me, it’s a complete success.

A quick web search reveals that Nvivo benefits from a decent amount of RAM. Can you confirm this from your current experience with it? Given the Air’s 4gb maximum, I’m not sure if it would be enough for you. That could also depend on how you run it… if you run it with Parallels/Vmware Fusion/Virtual Box or if you run it straight through Bootcamp. The latter would definitely be less demanding. The rest of the components shouldn’t have any issues, though. Here are your options, as I see them:

1) If you need the computer ASAP…

… you could pick up a 13" Macbook Pro right now. Load it up with 8gb of RAM (buy it from Newegg and do it yourself… don’t get it from Apple), and maybe a faster hard drive if you feel like it. Maybe a 7200rpm drive, a hybrid drive, or a SSD.

… or you could pick up a 13" Air. Before doing so, find someone you know who has one, if possible, and simply give your software a try on it. If it runs to your satisfaction, you’re set.

2) If you can wait a bit, see what Apple releases in the next few months. I don’t think it’s inconceivable that they might start offering the Airs with 8gb of RAM, even if they don’t get the full Ivy Bridge refresh.

As for ergonomics, the keyboard and trackpad on the 13" Air are every bit as good as they are on the 13" Pro, at least in my experience. The Air is definitely a pleasure to use. It’s so damn light and thin that it really feels like you can whip it out anywhere with complete ease. Having used a 13" Air, 13" Pro, and a 15" Pro, the Air is in a class of its own. The 15" Pro is obviously bigger than the 13" Pro, but it doesn’t really feel like it (which is why I quite comfortably upgraded from a 13" Pro to a 15" Pro). The weight difference is negligible. But, comparing EITHER of the Pros to the 13" Air, the difference in size and weight is extremely noticeable. The 13" Pro, despite having the same screen size, feels like a much bigger and heavier computer than the Air. The screens are worth noting, as well. As I understand it, the Pro’s screen has better colour accuracy, but the Air’s screen has noticeably higher resolution (1280×800 vs 1440×900).

Gotta say, I really like that. The skin looks elegant and not over-bearing like so many others, the screen looks great, the hardware in general has a nice Japanese flair to it… very nice! It would be nice if Sharp and Panasonic re-entered the global phone market. I think they’d do pretty well and put some pressure on the current leaders. Some of the more Japanese features would be great to have globally. Water resistance would rule, and I really like the screen privacy thing.

Very well put. Hardware is definitely plateauing. There may be the odd innovation here and there that will really change how people use their phones, but things are more or less turning into “make a few numbers higher for the next generation”, much like the PC industry. The numbers will continue to go up because that’s what’s expected, but that won’t really be what affects how people use their devices. In this respect, I think the SIII did just fine, save for the screen (pentile needs to go away).

The less “tangible” things are what matter more now. The look/feel/construction of the device matters now more than ever. The Nokia Lumia 800/900, the One X, the iPhone 4S are exceptionally well designed phones. The ergonomics and construction are class-leading. The Lumias are down right slow compared to these new quad core Android phones, but that only really limits their appeal to tech nerds who can’t look past the spec sheet.

The other component, like you said, is software. When you install a new operating system on your computer, that’s what really changes how you use it. Compare Windows XP to Windows 7… massive difference. If you’d kept XP but upgraded the hardware, things would run a bit faster, but you’d still be looking at the exact same interface, and working within all of its limitations. Smartphones these days are pretty damn powerful, have as many sensors and input methods as a tricorder, have mind-blowing screens, data connections that are as fast as your broadband connection at home, cameras that render point and shoot cameras useless… software, at this point, will make much more of a difference to 90% of users than adding another core or a few hundred mhz to the cpu. I have to wonder how well the Android manufacturers will fare in the next few years, and this is precisely why. Google is by far the big innovator in terms of Android software. What the manufacturers tack on to their software is roughly equivalent to Asus pre-installing some software onto its Windows laptops. Unless it’s completely amazing and ground-breaking, the actual operating system is what will actually affect how people use the device.

The biggest hardware hurdle at this point is the battery, in my opinion. Sticking a battery in a phone that can keep the phone running and useful for more than 48 hours will dramatically change how people use their phones.

This article definitely captures the essence of Samsung as a company: they ride the spec sheet, give the consumer a few months of “wow”, and that’s it.

I can’t say I dislike Samsung, but I can’t say I particularly like them either. The first non-handmedown phone I bought was a Samsung. I’ve also owned several of their monitors over the years. The phone was nice for about half a year, at which point it started to look like I’d dropped it hundreds of times. It was more scratches and worn off finish than anything else. And yet, I never dropped the thing once while owning it for over three years. I always treated it well. My subsequent Nokia and iPhone both held up dramatically better. Same with the monitors, they looked great for a while. Great specs for the time! But, all of them just started to break in some way or another… dead pixels, burn in, backlights that would just turn off randomly…

Samsung is indeed a company that is completely driven by the spec sheet. And, given that so many people base their purchases completely on specs, Samsung will probably continue to be very successful doing this.

Xperia S maybe? Personally, I like the skin, the size isn’t quite as bonkers as the One X and S3, the camera is great, it has capacitative buttons (albeit not on the screen), and it has a nice matte plastic exterior, instead of the usual hyper-smudge glossy Samsung plastic.

I’m sure many will disagree on everything I’ve just said. But, I dunno, as far as Android phones go, I find the Xperia S the most appealing.