MrConfusion
Very Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2013
- Messages
- 331
... I just ordered another Pandora :wub: .
In theory that should just about summarize things, but since I feel talkative and the kids are finally asleep, I'll let the text flow for a while so you can all nod "yea" and fell happy about having the same beautiful device
...
In tech terms it has been a wonderful year indeed with this wonderful little device at my disposal! I don't think I've ever owned a device before in my life that would have become this "glued to me". Well, maybe the first Nokia Communicator, but that was for very different reasons... like being a phone and a calendar... the Pandora is just so much more . People I meet do notice I own one since they rarely see me without it popping up in my hands at some point...
Yes, I could easily still live without the Pandora, because I could switch back to my old setup (Palm devices for portability, laptop for Real Work). But I'd hate to do that. It would feel cumbersome, messy and inefficient.
The Pandora has basically now been integrated to my work workflow. All the little helping utilities and spreadsheets now run on the Pandora... they used to run on a Palm and a PC, PalmOS, Windows and Linux... some things here, some things there... all of it a mess... No more: all that stuff is in the Pandora now, because it is small enough that I bother to take it with me wherever I go.
And even better, whenever I have time to spare the Pandora provides me with the kind of entertainment I haven't been able to enjoy properly for ages: Coding and gaming, without wrist aches (the aches just don't seem to appear on the Pandora unless I really, really do long typing/gaming sessions with it!). And I can do these wherever, whenever, I have the chance for it. Especially for coding it has revived a hobby I almost forgot I had before the kids started "popping up" and my wrist started developing pains!
Though I've cursed the state of commenting in OSS several times I've had incredibly fun hacking stuff like SDL and the UAE revisions - integrating them to my environment the way I want them. And it's still WIP, because I code in spurs of a few weeks, then play a game with the "fruits of my labor", then code again... Incredibly fun! Really! I cannot thank ED enough for fighting the Big Fight and thus making it possible for me to finally get this device after years of waiting. While using this thing, I often feel like I'm 19 again. And not just because the games are the the same, but because the "feel" is just "right there", if you know what I'm saying.
I considered whether I should order a second 1 GHz Pandora for a very long time, what with the Pyra being prepared for launch and everything, but in the end:
[*]Fits my cool and practical existing leather "case" which I had some trouble locating .
When I start lusting after the Pyra I can afford it (unless ridiculously expensive) now that the Pandora has shown there is real value in owning one - that was always the main counterargument for getting the Pandora, the main reason I kept on waiting an eternity for Craig to deliver and didn't want to spend more money: "That thing looks like a toy... it's a spiritual successor of an overgrown gameboy, it remains to be seen whether it is really what it appears to be under the hood.".
I don't know yet whether I'll be in the first wave of Pyra preorders. Even if I do preorder it, it probably will stay at home for the first few months, because a lot of my work workflow now revolves around the Pandora and if it aint broke, there's no need to fix it... But we'll see how the Pyra project evolves... A lot of the discussion going on around the Pyra kind of doesn't concern me. For example, the keyboard layout does not really matter, as I will customize it anyways, just like I did on the Pandora. In fact I think it would be cool if you could order the Pyra as a "Das Keyboard"-like Ultimate version option (no labels on keys at all - choose your own layout, then memorize it).
I think for me, the Pyra could perhaps offer (in order of significance):
[*]C64 is pretty much "done for" already. It works, it's perfect enough.
[*](... aaaaand just so you are not left wondering: I really don't give crap about other devices, so improvements on things like N64 and Nintendo DS are just so much random noise to me)
It's amazing really: When I still didn't have the Pandora I always kept saying: "It's going to be replacement for the Palms, not for the laptop."... Yet, the laptop is exactly what it replaced: I rarely carry my laptop with me to work these days. On the other hand, when I'm on a holiday and I do not think I need the Pandora during the day at the Zoo, it's the Palm I still take with me simply to take notes and have a quick game of chess while waiting in the car... It's like: things turned out exactly as I did not expect them to turn out, but good anyways :rolleyes: .
And again: Thanks to ED for taking over when disaster struck!!!
In theory that should just about summarize things, but since I feel talkative and the kids are finally asleep, I'll let the text flow for a while so you can all nod "yea" and fell happy about having the same beautiful device
...In tech terms it has been a wonderful year indeed with this wonderful little device at my disposal! I don't think I've ever owned a device before in my life that would have become this "glued to me". Well, maybe the first Nokia Communicator, but that was for very different reasons... like being a phone and a calendar... the Pandora is just so much more
. People I meet do notice I own one since they rarely see me without it popping up in my hands at some point...Yes, I could easily still live without the Pandora, because I could switch back to my old setup (Palm devices for portability, laptop for Real Work). But I'd hate to do that. It would feel cumbersome, messy and inefficient.
The Pandora has basically now been integrated to my work workflow. All the little helping utilities and spreadsheets now run on the Pandora... they used to run on a Palm and a PC, PalmOS, Windows and Linux... some things here, some things there... all of it a mess... No more: all that stuff is in the Pandora now, because it is small enough that I bother to take it with me wherever I go.
And even better, whenever I have time to spare the Pandora provides me with the kind of entertainment I haven't been able to enjoy properly for ages: Coding and gaming, without wrist aches (the aches just don't seem to appear on the Pandora unless I really, really do long typing/gaming sessions with it!). And I can do these wherever, whenever, I have the chance for it. Especially for coding it has revived a hobby I almost forgot I had before the kids started "popping up" and my wrist started developing pains!
Though I've cursed the state of commenting in OSS several times I've had incredibly fun hacking stuff like SDL and the UAE revisions - integrating them to my environment the way I want them. And it's still WIP, because I code in spurs of a few weeks, then play a game with the "fruits of my labor", then code again... Incredibly fun! Really! I cannot thank ED enough for fighting the Big Fight and thus making it possible for me to finally get this device after years of waiting. While using this thing, I often feel like I'm 19 again. And not just because the games are the the same, but because the "feel" is just "right there", if you know what I'm saying.
I considered whether I should order a second 1 GHz Pandora for a very long time, what with the Pyra being prepared for launch and everything, but in the end:
- The Pandora is fast enough for what I need it for and I've been using a Classic so far, so the 1GHz I now ordered will be even snappier!
- If I calculated right, the dots in the Pandora screen are slighly larger compared to the Pyra, assuming it's the BOE display that gets chosen (less DPI is better in my book and I still prefer pixellated text etc. to smoothed text)
- Important: The changes I've done to the software bits and pieces I use on the Pandora have taken so much time that I don't want to risk them not being trivially compatible with the Pyra
they probably are, but they aren't guaranteed to be and in any case there'll be major app and library revision changes, so porting the changes (especially kernel, SDL) to newer versions will be required
[*]Fits my cool and practical existing leather "case" which I had some trouble locating
.When I start lusting after the Pyra I can afford it (unless ridiculously expensive) now that the Pandora has shown there is real value in owning one - that was always the main counterargument for getting the Pandora, the main reason I kept on waiting an eternity for Craig to deliver and didn't want to spend more money: "That thing looks like a toy... it's a spiritual successor of an overgrown gameboy, it remains to be seen whether it is really what it appears to be under the hood.".
I don't know yet whether I'll be in the first wave of Pyra preorders. Even if I do preorder it, it probably will stay at home for the first few months, because a lot of my work workflow now revolves around the Pandora and if it aint broke, there's no need to fix it... But we'll see how the Pyra project evolves... A lot of the discussion going on around the Pyra kind of doesn't concern me. For example, the keyboard layout does not really matter, as I will customize it anyways, just like I did on the Pandora. In fact I think it would be cool if you could order the Pyra as a "Das Keyboard"-like Ultimate version option
(no labels on keys at all - choose your own layout, then memorize it).I think for me, the Pyra could perhaps offer (in order of significance):
- Longer battery life assuming downclocking etc. would save it - I don't think I'd switch software to heavier apps for most apps
Coming from Palm handhelds I'm still often left with a dead battery on the Pandora... I just cannot wrap my head around charging every fourth day or so... the Palm would go on for a couple of weeks if I only used it as a PDA - My typical day to day Pandora use is still as a PDA, not as a coding/gaming device... when I use it for hobbies I notice the battery easier than when I just pop it open after a day of standby...
- Faster Dosbox, with a second core to allow for Roland MT-32 emu process... well there goes the battery life then, though... plus I seriously doubt OMAP5 would be up to running current MT32Emu as it is: it has been optimized to reproduce the oscillators, filters and effects almost perfectly... but very CPU intensively
Yes, I compiled MT32Emu on the Pandora and toyed with the idea of cutting the fat, but it's a huge undertaking and there has been a lot of easier and more "quick returns" hacking to be done... It'll have to wait for the Pyra
[*]C64 is pretty much "done for" already. It works, it's perfect enough.
[*](... aaaaand just so you are not left wondering: I really don't give crap about other devices, so improvements on things like N64 and Nintendo DS are just so much random noise to me)
It's amazing really: When I still didn't have the Pandora I always kept saying: "It's going to be replacement for the Palms, not for the laptop."... Yet, the laptop is exactly what it replaced: I rarely carry my laptop with me to work these days. On the other hand, when I'm on a holiday and I do not think I need the Pandora during the day at the Zoo, it's the Palm I still take with me simply to take notes and have a quick game of chess while waiting in the car... It's like: things turned out exactly as I did not expect them to turn out, but good anyways :rolleyes: .
And again: Thanks to ED for taking over when disaster struck!!!
