Computer Club

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Thu May 14, 2020 9:34 pm

for many months (years?), [mention]o-o-o[/mention], [mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention], and I have talked about how we needed to start our own Computer Club. for a long time, Computer Club existed solely as a neglected keybase team chat, but when keybase was purchased last week by my current Technological Enemy #1, zoom, I swiftly deleted my account and came to terms with the fact our Computer Club dream needs a new home. I can think of no better home than this BB.

I nominate as our newest member [mention]yourfriendclaire[/mention], who I recently learned is the proud owner of an Alphasmart 2000, a magnificent-sounding Computer Club–friendly technology.

as mentioned in Weird Things I Bought, I am current awaiting this cutie in the mail, which I am hoping will coexist nicely with a new Logitech G305 LIGHTSPEED mouse in white, which I requested as a bday present.

https://youtu.be/OAXQpOCcllE

so, some prompts: what's YOUR set-up? what gear are you trawling youtube to watch reviews? any RSS heads out there? got any cool tools to share? or any strong opinions about a ubiquitous tech tool/platform that you need to get off your chest? what should be the tenets of our Computer Club manifesto?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 15, 2020 2:32 am

I am Truly excited to LEARN and BE PART and also so filled with anxiety that I don't belong. CLUBS!!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri May 15, 2020 9:08 am

I already love COMPUTER CLUB so much. What do we do? We collect computer stuff? Okay!!

My life partner [mention]joni[/mention] and I went through a brief vintage computer-collecting phase when I was writing my book, and so we also have (if this is of interest) a Mac Classic, a Next Cube, a very weird portable Kaypro (Alan Kay’s computer company! Nobody ever talks about it!) and a Mac G3 tower. Kind of a grab bag & not all of them work but I found it very fun and instructive to fuck around in the interface atmosphere of each. We sort of stopped ourselves before we got too deep into this world because it is, of course, infinite.

What else?

Thinkin our next music video will be a HyperCard stack! I grew up with PCs and missed this particular pleasure...

alex · Post by **alex** » Fri May 15, 2020 10:32 am

Can I join Computer Club?

Here is what I have to offer:

A Commodore 64 that I successfully got to work and played Frogger on sometime within the last 5 years. I have an Okimate printer that I dream of someday getting to function with the Commodore.

I am on a very slow path towards creating a solar powered home server. I don't know much about electricity or servers so it is fairly slow going. I *think* I have all the hardware necessary for a very rudimentary setup, but got stalled out at getting the OS installed on an Olimex board. For some reason I think buying a mechanical keyboard will help?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri May 15, 2020 12:29 pm

oh, THAT kind of mechanical keyboard!!

o-o-o · Post by **o-o-o** » Fri May 15, 2020 3:50 pm

Hi everybody! to add to the conversation of what this could be:

demos
* your setup
* how-to (solar server!)

the joy of x
* the joy of org-mode
* the joy of markdown
* the joy of cow-say
* the joy of text to speech

Resourceful web publishing

Cozy computing

Data archiving for hoarders
Data hoarding for archivists

waferbaby · Post by **waferbaby** » Sat May 16, 2020 1:27 pm

Oh, if you're into computer setups and looking for something to read during This Tine, might I suggest my dumb little website over here? https://usesthis.com/

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Sat May 16, 2020 2:04 pm

Welcome [mention]waferbaby[/mention]!

waferbaby · Post by **waferbaby** » Sat May 16, 2020 2:49 pm

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 2:04 pm Welcome @waferbaby!

Abe · Post by **Abe** » Sat May 16, 2020 5:49 pm

I want to join.
I have an android phone for mobile computing, and also an iPad which has musical apps on it and also one crossword app.
I have a mac book in the music end of my studio that does music and a bit of web surfing.
On the other end of my studio, I have a PC tower that I use for work, web surfing, and gaming.
I have two data servers because I am a nerd. One is in the living room for movies and tv shows. The other is in the studio for computer back up and music storage.
I have a really old amazon tablet someone gave me. It has a weird broken problem where it cannot create or log into an account so it only has web browsing. I should give it away I guess, or put it in the kitchen for recipes. If you want it let me know.
I have a modular synthesizer system that has a few modules with little computers in them that can run apps that manipulate voltage. I don't use them that much because I hate using menus and remembering button combinations when I am making music. If someone made pretty posters that somehow conveyed this information I think they could make some decent coin.
My audio interfaces are also computers that run audio plugins on their hardware so they don't tax my music lappy and can be heard and manipulated in real time with no latency - it is magic!
I constantly look at vintage computers, but i have no space....
If work was not so busy right now I would be finishing personal projects and selling them to make space. I am grateful to be busy, but also look forward to summer where business usually slows down. It is so nice to be slow in Summer but my partner Anna is usually super busy in Summer as an event producer (but obviously she cannot do that so much right now). She is trying to pivot to organizing virtual conferences.

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Tue May 19, 2020 5:04 pm

Guys!

I am very excited to be in computer club. I am actually typing this on a very fancy mechanical keyboard with VERY FEW KEYS!!!! I AM USING A TRACK BALL AS A POINTING DEVICE! I AM LIVING THE DREAM!

POWER IS COURSING THROUGH ME!

I made a very hacky script that changes my desktop every five minutes to a random selection of two images from a folder on a different colored background! I am very proud of this!

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Tue May 19, 2020 10:25 pm

jamessumneriii wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 10:44 pm for weird things, i got the components etc for building these. figured it's this or ships in bottles:

@jamessumneriii consider yourself inducted into Computer Club!!

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Tue May 19, 2020 10:29 pm

w00-h00 !1!!

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Fri May 22, 2020 12:20 am

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention] hey what in the sam scratch is the definitely-not-the-anamorphic-skull-from the original in that holbein image?!

richjensen · Post by **richjensen** » Fri May 22, 2020 11:37 am

I really like this 4-bit processor made from marbles and rubber bands coding Rule 110 cellular automata.

https://youtu.be/QKnSRw_X2w4

Also this primer on Type Theory is dope.

https://youtu.be/qT8NyyRgLDQ

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Sat May 23, 2020 9:45 am

[mention]jamessumneriii[/mention] Hi!

I think ultimately this jpg came to me from Christian in one of his emails maybe? Or maybe just somewhere on the internet?

Can you tell me about the cases you used for those keebs? How did you program the lights?

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Mon May 25, 2020 3:26 pm

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention] ahahaha ok yeah anamorphic shen yun. makes sense

so the lighting is all on the PCBs you buy, with rim/edge lighting and/or per-key backlighting. (though I think you can also buy lights separately and for some boards and solder them on as well?). then you either snap in or solder in the keyswitches

for programming lighting and keymaps most boards use QMK which is a way to load keymaps and macros etc when you flash the board's firmware. but so far I've been using Via, which basically a GUI for QMK. lighting-wise, the presets, modes, and adjustments are usually included in keymaps, so I have a keymap layer that activates when I hold capslock, and then W/S is color saturation +/- and A/D is color value +/- for example

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Tue May 26, 2020 11:58 am

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention] or if you're looking to buy whole and not build i can recommend some brands with solid fun rgb color option and way better software than they used to have, that was my gateway drug, the beginning of my end

alex · Post by **alex** » Tue May 26, 2020 12:22 pm

[mention]jamessumneriii[/mention] Please do recommend those brands! I think these keyboards seem fun as heck and I really like the clicky-clacky..but having trouble justifying buying something that I already have a good one of...

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Tue May 26, 2020 10:13 pm

[mention]alexshred420[/mention] [mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention]

*sigh of resigned embarassment* ok. here we go:

so if you want to avoid rabbit hole of building and tweaking your own until the end of time, I'd say just buy a solid good'un and go. i keep using the word "solid" mostly because you prob want to pay a bit more (up to a point) which will get consistent switches and keycaps and things not being wobbly. it's all proportional to how much you use it

SOLID GOOD'UNS
on the gaudier side, despite the gaming brand rep, razer keyboards are really well built and have good software for making the lights go buckwild, both presets and then a scripting system (maybe a full API?) that's very programmable.

corsair has a good lineup build-quality wise and software is prob better than razer's but they tend slap these awful sci-fi fonts on the keycaps

good news though! keycaps are interchangeable, almost all will be "Cherry" type after the stem/post system on Cherry MX switches

WASD is very solid, good build quality, and relatively subdued (yknow compared to gaming brands), i really liked the one i had a while back (the WASD Code). most have white backlighting iirc, so no RGB afaik. they also have compact options, where razer and corsair basically have full-sized and tenkeyless, full stop

RABBIT BURROW BUT NOT QUITE THE RABBIT WARREN I AM DESCENDING INTO:
...that said WASD also sells barebones kits with hotswappable switches i.e. no soldering, as well as pre-builts that you can swap out later. it's a good if you want the option to try out different switches and/or see if clicky switches wreak havoc on domestic tranquility, things like that

another good option is drop.com, which has the drop alt (very well-reviewed) for sale almost all the time, as well as group buys that pop up for keycaps, sometimes for less-common keyswitches as well

(ok all that said i should google up some better-priced options, since someone could try one and just hate it)

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Tue May 26, 2020 10:16 pm

in less "showing my whole moderately obssessive ass" computer news, i somehow only now discovered WinCompose and i'm sooooo fucking fired up to never google and copy-paste accented characters, diacritics, arrow symbols etc which is what I've been doing since going from mac to pc several years back

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Sat May 30, 2020 5:34 pm

as I continue to await the arrival of my recent hardware acquisitions, what are everyone's go-to software, apps, and platforms? some of my most used:

– browser: Firefox
– email: Fastmail
– cloud storage: Tresorit
– text editor: Sublime Text
– RSS reader: Feedly*
– research: Arena + Zotero
– podcasts: Pocket Casts
– music streaming: Google Play Music*
– VPN: Mullvad
– FTP: Cyberduck
– torrents: Transmission*
– media player: VLC
– non-SMS messaging: Signal + Telegram

* these are ones I feel unattached to and would welcome suggestions of alternatives, especially for Google Play Music, which will soon be discontinued as is the fate for all actually useful Google offerings (still pissed about Google Reader).

although it's very buggy, I've also been using Kast a lot lately to host TV and movie nights with friends. would recommend for this purpose despite its flaws!

also I'm on the market for a screensaver for Mac OS X. are there any good artist/designer-made ones besides the ones from O-R-G?

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 12:52 pm

jamessumneriii wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 3:26 pm @Regular_Yaris ahahaha ok yeah anamorphic shen yun. makes sense

so the lighting is all on the PCBs you buy, with rim/edge lighting and/or per-key backlighting. (though I think you can also buy lights separately and for some boards and solder them on as well?). then you either snap in or solder in the keyswitches

for programming lighting and keymaps most boards use QMK which is a way to load keymaps and macros etc when you flash the board's firmware. but so far I've been using Via, which basically a GUI for QMK. lighting-wise, the presets, modes, and adjustments are usually included in keymaps, so I have a keymap layer that activates when I hold capslock, and then W/S is color saturation +/- and A/D is color value +/- for example

Oh my dude, I meant, how have you set the lighting up? Like does it show you different layers or contexts? I have recently moved to a much smaller size keyboard and I went with a very opaque case and non-doubleshot keycaps. In a sort of emo move, there are actually LEDs on the board, they are just shining in there in total darkness, invisible to all. But it would be cool if I could have the lights outline different contexts when I raise or lower a layer. Unfortunately, I heard somewhere that my preferred keycap profile doesn't have doubleshot keys yet, and I'm not really willing to change the case. Where'd you get those caps btw?

I went total pervert-style and got an ortho keyboard:

It is really hard to go back to using my laptop keyboard now.

[mention]infopetal[/mention]
Depending on OS-context:
- text editor, email, feeds, research, accounting, time-tracking, word processing, ftp/ssh: EMACS
- music player: MPD w NMPCPP or Rigelian
- email also: Airmail
- cloud storage/syncing: Syncthing
- browser: Safari, Chrome, qutebrowser.

I really, have to say that using various Emacs extensions to store notes (like Deft-mode f.x.) rules. Very flexible plain text stuff, can look really nice if you work on it etc. There's a lot of different implementations of different research tools (like Zettelkasten, or various nodal personal databases) that I want to try, but it'll have to wait until I get a spare minute.

I also really love syncing things with Syncthing, it's not really cloud storage per-se but I love it so much. It is so nice to just keep a folder synced without lots of hoopla.

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:00 pm

oh and:
[mention]infopetal[/mention]
Since they changed the way Quartz works in the new versions of OSX (or Mac OS or whatever) my antique Spectrum screensaver has totally stopped working. I would love to find a work around to keep using older Quartz screensavers or, alternatively, to find something delightful to use instead.

Post by **joni** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:27 pm

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention] https://github.com/agarrharr/awesome-macos-screensavers

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:40 pm

joni wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 1:27 pm @Regular_Yaris https://github.com/agarrharr/awesome-macos-screensavers

Dude, the Supreme one?

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 2:05 pm

Anybody rocking Dvorak?

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 7:54 pm

alexshred420 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 2:05 pm Anybody rocking Dvorak?

I know one guy.

Does anyone know anyone who uses COLEMAK?

Also, real question: has anyone set up an email server? Everything I read online says "Don't set up your own email server." Or like "I set up my own email server, and I regret it" or also "I set up my own email server, I love it" and then they describe a life experience that is truly terrible sounding.

But like, this is the first part of the internet, the most primal part. How come it remains so elusive? Why is the most basic and fundamental part of the internet also so painfully centralised and unattainable?

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 9:16 pm

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention]—my current understanding is it is not a matter of being difficult to set up an email server, but the likelihood of having something awry in your DNS causing your domain name to be blacklisted as spam is high. I feel like that became the case with the emergence of gmail and its black box spam filters.

update to my previous list: just started trying out riot.im this week, and it's working well so far for a small + secure group chat, although I'm still a bit perplexed by the process of verifying additional devices.

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:55 pm

[mention]Regular_Yaris[/mention] nice, is that a planck? i have a preonic on order rn, it'll be my first time trying an ortho

re lighting: ahh ok i haven't set up QMK or VIA to light up like that, but i think QMK could mayybe do it with a combination of macros? re the keycaps, the cyrillic set are from drop.com and the cyan/white set are maxkey cyan SA from kdbfans.com

w0lf · Post by **w0lf** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:01 pm

[mention]joni[/mention] these screensavers ! also i love usesthis, great site.

greetings fellow nerds, i have so much more gear but here is a lil taste of my day 2 day:

- i just got a new phone nokia 3310 3G i'm very excited about it. especially the camera. i'm too lazy to get an adapter and upload the few pics i've taken, but soon very soon.
- i also have an iphone xs ( x max, the biggun idfk) that i'll keep for travel
- macbook pro for home/travel (see how i really want to travel again)
- 27 incher imac + HP 2TB68A8 HP Business Z27 27" LED LCD Monitor - 16: 9-8 MS GTG, Black
- i use the big keyboard (love my numeric pad) + have several mice, but am considering ergo, they're just so fkn ugggg
- wacom tablet for when i'm feeling fancy and/or using illustrator
- dell gaming laptop sth like https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/4nyt that i use for internet art servers / running max patches / installations / etc
- i also have every other computer and phone i've ever owned since ~2005. i can't get rid of them idk what's wrong with me. and i'm so not a hoarder. but alas
- going to count my label maker bc it's so much fun and i label everything in my studio. it's kinda like a computer that spits out text and graphics
- hella media players i like these micca ones, buy them in bulk
- kindle e-ink, go to for research reads bc i can export my notes + dl epubs

jamessumneriii · Post by **jamessumneriii** » Sun Jun 07, 2020 10:46 am

[mention]w0lf[/mention] omg i just got a label-maker and i love it so much. i'm not a "since 2005 packrat" but i'm pretty dang packrat and it's proving to be a lifesaver for knowing what the fuck is what without opening boxes and storage containers

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Sun Jun 07, 2020 1:17 pm

I have so, so little to contribute to this technology conversation, but thanks for reminding me that I want and need and must have a label maker

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Sat Jun 13, 2020 1:55 pm

[mention]jamessumneriii[/mention] Hey, yes, it's a planck layout, but it's actually a NIU? Anyway, I often thought of getting a Preonic, thinking that getting rid of the numbers would bum me out. And there's a bit of that feeling, like, I don't know, anxiety...like is that really where '5' is? Especially earlier on when I was filling out passwords. But like, what's great is that everything is right under the home row. I also added 'h j k l' arrow keys on a layer so moving the cursor around by actually, moving my hand back to the arrow keys feels *terrible* now, so too does reaching up for number or function keys.

I think the thing that I like most about the ortho layout so far is that it really feels like a 'whole hand' experience. Hard to explain. The only thing I really had to relearn was the position of C and X which feel pretty weird compared to a more trad layout.

Regular_Yaris · Post by **Regular_Yaris** » Sat Jun 13, 2020 2:00 pm

Here's a question:

What's your least used adaptor? What is your least frequent connection? I'm in the position of maybe having to buy a new laptop and looking at the current offerings I'm thinking about all the new adaptors I'll have to let into my life, and also thinking about all the adaptors that I have hardly known, that just hang out in a little pouch with all the other adaptors.

I would say maybe Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 2 is the adaptor I have used the least, I think I used it once to like warg into someone elses' macbook? But that would be it. I honestly don't even remember really. Maybe I tried to use a iMac as a monitor once? Was that what I was trying to do?

matthew · Post by **matthew** » Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:49 pm

I got this delightful clacky boi in april https://twitter.com/matthewurl/status/1 ... 6483064832

And preordered these cute keycaps https://www.notion.so/Infinikey-Pastel- ... 78e4556773

But I had a hell of a time using the MIYA software to customize (virtualbox/windows vm heck) and learned from fiend of the site George W. to look for clacky bois that support https://caniusevia.com/

Also Steve I always get stressed by emacs, I’m impressed with you. Mostly I’m full time vim these days but sorta beep boop around. phpstorm is popular at work but it’s like ugly and I don’t care for it.

Desperately trying to not look too deeply and the keyboards because I can see myself gettin’ too artisANAL about em and it’s just nice to enjoy the pink LEDs

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:38 pm

three months later *my* clacky boi has arrived! my original Ducky One TKL order never shipped so I canceled it and ordered the Ducky One 2 TKL. we've only had 12 hours together so far but loving the clack.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:38 am

Am I allowed to ask a very dumb question here? It is about my 2013 macbook.

infopetal · Post by **infopetal** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:20 pm

[mention]m o l l y[/mention] if you've still got your 2013 macbook running I think you be the realest computer whiz here! what's up?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:35 am

I feel like I woke up and realized I live in a world where technology is at this place where a new computer isn't really necessary every handful of years like it was in 2006. I have an affordable lil' touchscreen chromebook that folds backwards and doubles as a tablet that I can toss in my bag and bring to work or sit and read from. But I use my macbook for all of my serious computing. My serious computing though mainly consists of this board. Or rather nothing that requires anything more advanced than what this board demands.
My question re my Late 2013 Macbook Pro: I feel like it is absolutely fine as a machine. The trackpad and keyboard are nice to use (compared to the chromebook or K's Lenovo Thinkpad) and everything is plenty big and powerful for me. My question is, the big boy is slowing down, the battery is finally giving up and the screen is a fucking mess (what the shit is this spiderweb garbage that happened to it? Someone once told me there was some kind of alcohol I could use to remove the layer that got funky?). Is it worth wiping the hard drive clean, taking it in to replace the battery and just keep on trucking? If it is not worth it, do you have any recommendations for a laptop that will feel as nice to type and surf on? Shelling out thousands for an internet/typing machine with its battery welded inside it just isn't a reasonable option to me anymore. Thank you for your assistance, Computer Club!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 9:39 am

I still have my late 2012 MacBook Pro for personal use (watching skate videos, browsing websites, looking at email, occasionally basic web development) and it's chugging along fine! Would be cool if I could have it for a whole decade.

A couple questions to help with a potential answer:
- how much RAM do you have?
- how much free hard drive space do you have?
- what processor do you have?

The Memory/RAM and processor info can be found in "About This Mac" in the Apple dropdown in the top left of your menu bar.

Since mine from 2012 is still working fine, I might lean towards replacing the battery and potentially doing some other stuff (repairing disk permissions, clearing your system cache) to improve performance. But maybe depends on these answers. If you have less than 8GB of RAM, that could be an issue. A full hard drive can definitely affect performance as well.

Is your screen problem purely just muck on the screen or are the actual pixels fucked up? If it's the actual pixels, that might totally change my advice.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:18 am

[mention]alexshred420[/mention] you are very kind to give any shits about my guy.
processor: 2.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
My HD capacity is 250 GB, of which 46 is still available.

Apparently there was a recall on the screens from this year because of what is happening to mine, but mine had issues way after it was too late. It is a problem with an anti-reflective layer or coating? This: https://www.cultofmac.com/514741/apple- ... ase%20date.
Considering giving this a try: https://homeexplained.com/how-to-remove ... siest-way/

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:45 am

UPDATE: I didn't see the link about removing the anti-glare coating. I'd say go for it, because if it doesn't work you'll need to get a new screen or computer anyway.

If the screen is fucked, you might be looking at a minimum of $600 to replace that screen alone (and that's if you replace it yourself): https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBoo ... 23-034?o=4

Battery replacement is probably going to run you $50-60, also if you replace yourself.

So you're looking at around ~$700 just to replace the screen and battery.

At that point, I'd just cut my losses and get a newer refurb, these 13" MacBook Airs are from 2020 and $849 right now: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FWTJ ... 9674a77722

If I recall, perhaps you are a teacher? You might be able to get a teacher discount as well, thus saving even more money.

But maybe somebody else has advice on how to fix that screen more cheaply? If it wasn't for the screen, I'd say just upgrade the battery, do a couple of performance things and you'd be good to go for another few years.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:44 pm

Hello, fellow computer enthusiasts!

I want to buy a new computer to replace my 2010 iMac.

These refurbished series Mac Minis are attractively priced.
Do you think this is a good way to go for my general needs, or is there any special reason you would consider a laptop instead?

I figure I might be able to use the 2010 iMac as a display for the Mini. If not, I have other monitors laying around and hopefully I can get some kind of video adapter if the Mini needs it.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Sat Oct 24, 2020 1:34 am

[mention]alexshred420[/mention] thank you! I added the baking soda link about 5 minutes after I wrote the post because I did a quick search. It's not you, it's me!
I'll give it a go and happily pay double what you quoted for a friendly professional human to solve my battery problem if it means not having to buy a new computer.
Good luck [mention]RCH[/mention]! You are in good hands here.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:47 am

[mention]RCH[/mention] I don't know a whole lot about Mac Minis but they've always appealed to me. Like, if I never needed to move my computer out of a room, I'd probably get one. I mostly have a laptop because I need to go different places with my computer. It seems like _some_ iMacs are supported as displays but not all.

Post by **joni** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:32 am

I say don't treat screens as secondary objects, as they really are the thing you interface with the most. If you want a desktop, you can't get a computer and screen as nice as an iMac screen for as cheap as the iMac if you buy them separately. Recently [mention]kmikeym[/mention] bought one of those super-wide screens for cheap-ish, but it turns out it's not "retina," which truly makes a difference if you read anything on your screen.

iMacs after 2014 cannot be used in "target display mode" because the newer displays are too high-res.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:04 pm

Good to know—my thanks to you both. I looked more closely into it and a decent Mini costs more than I initially thought, even refurbished, so I’m just going to keep using this old one like I have.

Jona my mom STILL uses your old swivel iMac to do her taxes.

Ultimately I do want the best display and max RAM for Final Cut so I just can’t skimp.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:13 pm

Random but now that I have a job I’m missing my old office with the perfect setup... a PC with 4 monitors.

2 horizontal, stacked
1 vertical, to the right, and
1 bonus outward-facing screen for people walking up to my desk!
PLUS a networked personal laptop for presentations, testing, remote work, etc.

My dream workspace would include a huge flatscreen and the two stacked-one vertical configuration.

What would be your dream display setup?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:39 am

I cannot believe I'm just now learning about the macbook pro screen replacements, after my computer has just aged out of eligibility.
IT REALLY CHAPS MY HIDE!!!! Mac :/