ja27

I'm a simple man. Node/Express with probably MariaDB and React. Maybe give Tailwind a spin. Same with next.js if I had the time.

Would prefer go on the backend but language switching when doing frontend at the same time is a bit of a pain.

12.9" iPad Air, especially if the iPad Pro moves to OLED and even higher prices.

Rebrand the current iPad Mini as a Mini Air and introduce a low-cost Mini again even if that means previous-gen chipsets.

Move everything to USB-C and USB 3.0+, none of this USB 2.0 bullshit they did on the phones.

More RAM everywhere. App reloads and resprings are killing me when trying to get any real work done on an allegedly "Pro" iPad.

Mine (Tampa Hackerspace) is alive and reasonably well.

COVID was a big drag but we clamped down on expenses and had built up a nest egg in case of emergencies so the financial hit didn't do us in. It really wiped out a lot of the social aspects of the community and we're still struggling to get those back.

Rent hurts but we were lucky to lock in a long-term contract with a fixed annual percentage increase. It's still by far our biggest expense.

My opinion and experience is that a makerspace / hackerspace can only succeed with at least one person that's nearly 100% dedicated to running it, mostly without pay. The founder(s) probably have 5-7 years before they totally burn out so unless they've found and built up some others that are just as dedicated, it's hard to sustain a space.

A big lesson from running a hackerspace is that you can't apply logic like that to commercial real estate. They'll let it sit empty for ten years rather than reduce the price.

Mine still has an iOS 5 book on those two shelves. 11 years old.

Yeah but those are the crappy years at the end.

But seriously, if you're fairly sedentary and not watching your diet especially saturated fat and carbs, you should definitely get an annual blood glucose and/or A1c check. Type 2 diabetes can wreck your quality of life with eyesight issues, numbness, muscle issues, etc. on top of the increased risk of heart attack or stroke. I have two friends that have had strokes due to unmanaged, undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. One is luckily well enough to return to work but the other will likely never work again, can't drive, can barely hold a conversation, etc.

I just stalk eBay's Buy It Now. Got an i7-7700T w/32GB RAM and a 256GB NVMe for $163 shipped+tax. Previously got an i7-6700T with 1 stick of 16GB RAM so it was cheaper to match that for 32GB total.

If you can get friendly with local electronics recyclers or auction buyers you might do way better.

Yeah, an X270 is my newest Thinkpad. I got it as kind of a beater for a vacation that COVID cancelled. That or an X280 feel like kind of the sweet spot for usable almost modern small Thinkpads that can still be upgraded. USB-C port for charging, video out, etc. $70 FHD display panel. Can take two SSDs (one small one in the WWAN slot). It's been mostly fast enough for everything except heavier games but software builds can be slow.

Coworkers were always amazed when we'd be at lunch and I'd pull out my phone and make a code change or fix an issue right there. It's not that hard. Much easier with an external keyboard though.

I used to grab my iPad Pro (a 2018 12.9") a lot more. Battery life used to be a factor but these days my M1 MBP probably gets better life. Since I got the Magic Keyboard for the iPad (which is awesome), it's not much lighter than the MBP either. I'd cry a lot less if it got a liquid spill, which would probably only take out the $300 keyboard.

It does pretty much force me to single-task, often either in a document or a terminal (Blink), which can be a real advantage at times. But so often I'll need to swap between a browser, Slack, Trello, a terminal, etc. that I'll end up with background apps getting killed due to memory pressure or the dreaded "respring" where the base UI completely reloads.

So the iPad now mostly makes a good reader (indoors only though), note-taker, and video watcher. It'd be good as a travel monitor if goddamn Sidecar could work more than 24% of the time.

They’re out of date now but John Siracusa’s toaster reviews on the ATP podcast were amazing content.

I have one (i7-6700T, 32GB RAM) that cost me about $250. Runs proxmox. A few VMs for trying new BSD/linux releases, Plan 9, etc. A Windows VM. A minecraft server. A couple dev/test servers. I have another small PC next to it running stuff like Plex and webhosting that I'd like to containerize and move to a VM on proxmox.

Trivia: Those recordings of her are mostly from the dress rehearsal the night before. They had power issues during her live performance and she refused to come back onstage after the show to record another take. So the concert-goers didn't get to hear this version.

I have the 2018 12.9" iPad Pro.

Honestly it was mostly a media consumption device until I got the Magic Keyboard (the one that's a case w/ keyboard + trackpad). Now it's like a somewhat crippled 13" Macbook Air but I use it a lot more for "productivity". With that case it might be heavier and thicker than the M2 Air.

It used to be good when I wanted better battery life than my MacBook, but my M1 MBP beats the iPad on battery now.

I get some good focus due to the iPad almost forcing you into one application at a time. If I even tab away from the terminal to a browser window, there's a good chance I'll loose my session and have to reconnect + tmux attach. So I mostly multi-task by looking things up on my phone.

For being productive, I use Blink as a terminal and do a lot of coding + sysadmin that way. I use Inspect Browser to get a lot of the browser dev tools you're missing on iPad Safari / Chrome. I use Trello for a lot of project management but bleh on the UI these days. I don't use it enough but Goodnotes is a good paper notebook replacement especially if you have a Pencil and get into using lots of page templates. I should draw more in Procreate but I don't. I keep a ton of notes in Apple Notes. I read a ton of books on the iPad and it's a great size for technical books.

I do use it side-by-side with my MacBook Pro, usually in Universal Control where the Mac's kb/mouse can control the iPad UI or vice-versa, but sometimes in Sidecar where it acts as another external monitor for the Mac.

But yeah a lot of the time it's a big video player, mostly Plex but some YouTube and Netflix.

I don't run it as a daily driver but sometimes I'll fire it up on my MBP or Chromebook for a few hours of work. I dial back a lot of the effects somewhat. I like the low-fi focus I get from using it it.

I do the same but use the VT323 Google Font: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/VT323

Absolutely not. Any computer connected to the internet, even behind a firewall / NAT / etc. is considered to be involved in interstate or foreign commerce and thus a "protected computer" subject to 18 USC 1030. It's not your actions that make it a protected computer. 1030(e)(2)

I have two in use:

Newest is a HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Mini, i7-6700T, 32GB RAM, 1TB M.2 SSD. I had the SSD, the machine was ~$100US on eBay, and came with 1 stick of 16GB RAM so a matching second was only ~$24. I think right now I could pick up the same for about $200 including the SSD. It runs Proxmox with a few VMs for Minecraft, dev work, a Windows desktop, etc. Really a pretty capable machine for light-ish duty. I can barely hear the fan most of the time and just 35W TDP.

Older is a Gigabyte Brix with a Celeron J4105, 8GB RAM, and an M.2 SATA SSD. It's primarily been my Plex server but hosts a couple Docker containers and a website. It has four external USB3 hard drives. They're getting pretty old but I sometimes see them pop up in usable configs for ~$100 on eBay. I normally never hear the fan (the hard drives are louder) and just 10W TDP.

I'm really considering getting another ultra small form factor like that HP, but with the 7th gen i7 so it has hardware support for encoding HEVC / H265.

I've also had an old i3 Thinkpad running until recently. Also nearly silent and bonus that it has it's own battery and display/keyboard when I need to debug something.

Batter and deep-fry it and we'll talk.

I co-founded and run a non-profit makerspace. 70% of our membership is in the IT field in some way. Getting to make something physical especially something small enough to show people is a big win for a lot of them. Some love CAD designing things to be CNC milled or laser cut or 3D printed but doing manual measuring, cutting, assembly, etc. in the woodshop is by far the most popular craft. If you have a makerspace / hackerspace in the area, it's a good way to get in some time working with your hands without (or before) switching careers.

I definitely see some paths for someone to make a living or even quite decent wage doing custom(-ish) work in a few areas but unless you get hired somewhere or partner with a business, it's a lot of marketing work or grinding on Etsy or at local shows.

Or hit . to start a browser-based VSCode for that repo.

The Inspect Browser app mostly makes up for not having dev tools in Safari.

The background app issue is my biggest problem. I kind of work around it by using my phone to avoid app switching on the iPad.

No, actually, the lack of a damn escape key on the iPad's Magic Keyboard is my biggest issue. Yeah I map capslock to escape but my lizard brain can't handle that. I have a pair of server-side tricks to map ` to escape in bash and vim but it's a pain when I'm hopping around systems all day.

Or Blink Code which runs VSCode in it's own browser control and has a filesystem extension.

https://docs.blink.sh/advanced/code

I had some coworkers that did this. They (husband and wife) lived on a farm with iffy power and internet so they eventually bought a house in some nearby suburbs mostly to work from.

It took me a good hour and left me pretty sticky. If you have a little money it's worth having someone else do it.

That's me. I definitely feel like I focus better with a single display and not having things like Slack, Spotify, etc. visible. The 16" MBP is about the minimum screen space I like.

Nice.

The iPad and Mac have Sidecar which lets you use the iPad wired/wirelessly as an additional display for the Mac but it's so damn flaky that I gave up and got the portable monitor.

I do carry a cheap HDMI->USB adapter (Elgato Cam Link knock-off) which lets me use my Macbook as a monitor for things like Raspberry Pi's but not sure what the capture rate is.

Viewsonic too. Lenovo has some nice looking ones.

The one I use now is branded YGG. I'd link it but someone already swapped out the Amazon listing to a different model. I think this is very close to what I have: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099DKQS8C/

It claimed 350 nits. Side-by-side with my M1 MBP, I'd say it might be close to that. A lot of them claim HDR but it's some bullshit definition of HDR - definitely not like the MBP's HDR mode.

I think it's a little bit of a crapshoot as to which panel and board you'll get no matter what the branding so somewhere like Amazon with free returns helps. There are a few more premium brands like Viewsonic and Lenovo.

I wouldn't have thought they were lesser-known, but I've been surprised how many people don't know about today's cheap portable external monitors. They're essentially laptop panels with a USB-C+HDMI board. $100-$150-ish and easily found in 15.6" and 13-14", 1080p or 2K. All the ones I've tried have 2 USB-C ports, mini-HDMI, and speakers. This all depends on what USB-C ports your machine actually has and the right USB-C cables, but a single cable can do power and display from the laptop. Or plug the monitor into USB-C PD source and the same cable will charge the laptop and run the monitor. Mine even has a third USB-C "OTG" port for USB 2.0 speed devices. Good for a second screen on the go or debugging single board computers.