Wrapping everything up!


Efficient code would have not gotten me my pocket super computer, at least not for many years. That is all I'm really saying.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

I'd say the opposite: if efficient code and practices didn't exist then faster hardware would have been much harder to attain. It's practically impossible to make technical innovations while being lazy and slapdash. Try maintaining a medium sized application for more than 6 months or so without using sound, clean coding practice, and try telling me again that it is helping progress and innovation.

I also argue that hardware innovation has been driven predominantly for gaming / entertainment, which has, as a side product (and indirectly), helped exacerbate the current state of the internet.
 
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How about setting-up a box / vps just running a browser per X login. Donation to server costs gets forum members access. Connect via some remote-desktop app. Anyone tried this? All the javascrap woulde run on the vps and you might be able to hack-together a usable experience...
 
When I accessed the 'basic internet' of text and maybe a couple of images, I was using a dial-up modem, and pages would typically take longer to load than just about any website now, back then, in the UK, there was no faster way to access the internet from home, so it was the same for everyone. Back then, hyperlinks would often go to a 404, images were often missing (similar reason), layout standards hadn't really been established so every site was different and it was often hard to find things, etc. I could get a download speed of around 3 KB/s, so just having a single 30 KB image (which is tiny) would take 10 seconds to load.

Sure there was something nice about the basicness of it, the fact the source of the web pages would just be what was required to display the information, rather than analytics, tracking, adverts, etc. But on the flipside, we now enjoy insanely large amounts of content, free of charge, which is achieved by throwing all this other stuff at the user. There is a bit of a push at the moment for sites to offer the option to pay and avoid the adverts etc. and only time will tell how it all pans out, but I'm predicting that 'free' will continue to dominate. With advert blocking and script removal, it is possible to get a somewhat refined internet which isn't so bad to use!
 
Not entirely sure how that ties into what I was saying, or maybe the intent of what I was saying wasn't clear. I'm not suggesting the internet (or applications & programs) is progressing for the better. But more the point that the SIDE EFFECT of that progress is ever advancing hardware requirements, and THAT is actually progressing for the better.

If "the problem" of the average website being bloated inefficiently coded and making it so cell phones and pc's need 8GB+ of ram and a supercomputer to be able to not turn into a slug while using them. I am suggesting it's fine, and welcomed, because you now have a market where supercomputer processors and tons of ram are being developed and priced for the consumer and forcing the price of everything below it down. You can improve or totally gut/replace code, hardware on the other hand is a bit harder to accomplish. Efficient code would have not gotten me my pocket super computer, at least not for many years. That is all I'm really saying.

1) That's erroneous Keynesian logic. "Because we built something badly, we can sell more hardware." is ethically equivalent to "We made the part to wear-out quickly to sell more units." or "We don't talk about the side-effects because they induce patients to buy our other more expensive medication as well." or "We just, you know, steal a bit here and there to boost our alarm system business."

2) There are plenty of applications hungry for as much CPU/GPU power as we can throw at them - Video games have been a larger market than the movie industry for for a couple decades now.

3) Slapping the label 'Progress' on something (for e.g. a millionfold decrease in utility / CPU cycle) is not an argument: it's a rhetorical ploy, no more.
 
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When I accessed the 'basic internet' of text and maybe a couple of images, I was using a dial-up modem, and pages would typically take longer to load than just about any website now, back then, in the UK, there was no faster way to access the internet from home, so it was the same for everyone. Back then, hyperlinks would often go to a 404, images were often missing (similar reason), layout standards hadn't really been established so every site was different and it was often hard to find things, etc. I could get a download speed of around 3 KB/s, so just having a single 30 KB image (which is tiny) would take 10 seconds to load.

I don't know when you were on the "basic" internet, but layout standards were pretty well established by gopher. Granted, we didn't keep using that, we wanted to go do whatever we wanted to, so we did.

The Internet was much more interesting when sites were different, and people put content first instead of discoverability.

As for speed, considering that Internet connections are insanely faster these days... Sure, a website with not much on it might take 30 seconds to load back in the day, but today, most websites, even ones that are pretty basic, still can be measured in seconds for how long it takes to load. So, if we consider you were maxing out at 3KB/s, and I've seen modern download speeds over 30MB/s... Something is wrong, proportionally.

Though, I suppose that's largely due to giant libs being pulled in just to use a few functions.

I'm not sure what my point was here, but I think it's that gopher was cool and organized, and the web isn't fast enough considering modern connections and computer power proportionally.

Oh, that's right, it feels like everything these days is made at the expense of responsiveness.
 
I don't know when you were on the "basic" internet, but layout standards were pretty well established by gopher. Granted, we didn't keep using that, we wanted to go do whatever we wanted to, so we did.

Were they? Granted, the only software I have installed that will still download a gopher link is lynx (the old text mode browser), so I've never noticed most layout features beyond 8-space tabs. Reading up on it, gopher handles text either as plain text or html text, which won't let you do a 30-70% layout or anything like that unless you add css on top, or abuse tables. Apparently the center tag was still there in xhtml 4.01 but got deleted in html 5.

The amazon website annoys me these days. It loads pages pretty quickly but it can take up to a minute (60 whole seconds) to load fully for me, so if you want to zoom into a product image you have to wait. Even the reviews only turn up after about 30 seconds.
 
What I worry more is Debian. The software is pretty much outdated.
I could not compile a Qt application I developed at University because it needed a class that was available in Qt 5.8. Debian has 5.7 in its repo.

No need to worry, just upgrade to buster which currently has Qt 5.11. The freeze is in the coming weeks, so Debian 10 should be released in about half a year. Plenty of time before the Pyra comes out.

It is called a web-ring, get it right.
I started out writing for Holarse (German Linux gaming site), which at the time was in a web-ring called The Planet if anyone remembers that. :-D
It was organised by mmv1, who some might know from the Tux Racer fork PlanetPenguin Racer which incidentally was originally just called PPRacer but the Debian maintainers thought that sounded too immature, like being at the whim of Walmart as a game developer..
 
I also have a Gemini. I use it solely with Debian. It does the job well enough for me. I use it every day as a much more portable laptop for email and writing. It has replaced my Pandora.

However, I am looking forward to the Pyra for the openness of the design, both in software and hardware. Beyond the comments that ED has made (keyboard and screen), all of which I agree with, I want the selection of ports and slots that the Pyra has, in particular. The Gemini is seriously lacking in this regard.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
I also have a Gemini. I use it solely with Debian. It does the job well enough for me. I use it every day as a much more portable laptop for email and writing. It has replaced my Pandora.

However, I am looking forward to the Pyra for the openness of the design, both in software and hardware. Beyond the comments that ED has made (keyboard and screen), all of which I agree with, I want the selection of ports and slots that the Pyra has, in particular. The Gemini is seriously lacking in this regard.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

The upcoming Cosmo takes care of several of the Gemini's shortcomings - but lack of ports does not appear to be one of them. Also, there is no news on whether the Cosmo will somehow overcome the USB C failings of the Gemini. Two ports - HDMI adapter only works in the right one. Charging only works in the left one. USB C hub only works in the left one. Cannot charge through the USB C hub. Potential use as a 'desktop replacement' effectively crushed. I really hope they fix that for the Cosmo - it is my #1 nagging issue with the Gemini.
 
You've reminded me that the one really serious problem with the Gemini with Debian is that the HDMI adapter is not recognised at all. One of my intended use cases for the Gemini was to use it to give presentations when travelling. Definitely waiting for the Pyra!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
You've reminded me that the one really serious problem with the Gemini with Debian is that the HDMI adapter is not recognised at all. One of my intended use cases for the Gemini was to use it to give presentations when travelling. Definitely waiting for the Pyra!
Is Pyra's HDMI-out working?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Can you disable that spam in Tapatalk settings... please?
 
So this means I can put it on my TV in my Office and on my USB Hub whit Mouse and Keyboard and have a Desctop PC??
Will it use the same HDMI Cable like the GPDWin ??
 
I'll try. Sorry for the noise.
Seems like a software problem that calls for a software solution (filter out Tapatalk spam in forum software).
Built right in to Xenforo 2 it seems.
Spam phrases can be defined. If any of a user's first few messages matches theses phrases, an action can be taken. For example, some spammers submit messages with "watch film name online". We can match that with "watch * online" and simply block the message.
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/spam/

But I don't see if it's possible to just remove the matched phrase while leaving the rest of the post intact.
 
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So this means I can put it on my TV in my Office and on my USB Hub whit Mouse and Keyboard and have a Desctop PC??
Will it use the same HDMI Cable like the GPDWin ??
Yes, that's the use case. Just like the pandora but with iirc an extra USB1/2 port and HDMI out rather than the old tv-out cable, so you should be able to plug in both a mouse and a keyboard and hook it up over HDMI to a monitor or a projector. Or you can also use a bluetooth keyboard should you prefer.
 
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