š¾ Our computers are more powerful than ever, but are we using that power? - More in this Geek in Review for 2022-04-15
By goz
Our machines are more powerful than ever, but are they better?
I spent š„this weekend reviving my 1994 Gateway desktop computer, installing MS-DOS and OS/2 on it. It got me thinking about this article, Raw power alone is not enough. How different is our work from 30 years ago?
The biggest change is the ease at which editing audio and video takes place. Thirty years ago users would be doing most of their work with actual film or tape. That is, unless they had access to machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars. All in all, this is a pretty niche area, most people are not editing audio or video.
What are they doing? Theyāre scrolling through social media feeds. For work they dealing with word processing and spreadsheets, with the occasional presentation, all things we were doing 30 years ago. With monumental increase in power, are we seeing a monumental increase in productivity? I would say while there is an increase, itās not anywhere related to the increase in power.
So, whatās next? Virtual reality has been talked about since the 80s, and now with tools like Unreal 5 we can create incredible worlds. Unfortunately, the attempts so far are too rooted in the scarcity of the real world. When objects have no cost in their duplication, it totally changes how you think about things in the virtual world.
I love it when a plan comes together
The internet can be a terrible, horrible place, but then there are times when it can have wonderful results. Reddit’s r/Place is one of those times. Starting on April Fool’s Day (which ironically is my most hated day of the year on the internet), participants were allowed to alter the color of a single pixel on a canvas. They would then have to wait until they were allowed to place another pixel.
You can see the results, and they are pretty good. Creating a picture required the cooperation of redditors on the site all the while hoping someone else wouldn’t ruin your creation. The results speak for themselves. Be sure to click and zoom in.
Internet Travels
Geek
- The worldās oldest pants are a 3,000-year-old engineering marvel | Ars Technica
- āStar Trek: The Motion Pictureā Is Great for Non-Trekkies - The Ringer
- Picard confirmed to end with third season, will feature more TNG guest stars | Ars Technica - Someone is going to have to let me know if season 2 is any good or not. I may wait for all of the episodes for Picard and Halo to drop and then sign up with Paramount+ for a month.
- Major Marvel Disney+ Show Officially Not Returning for Season 2 - I don’t think this is much of a surprise.
- Try your hand at Quantum Go Fish | Ars Technica - “No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!”
- Paramountās new Star Trek NFTs utterly miss the point of Star Trek - The Verge - I think a lot of what Star Trek has done fits into this category.
- The Director of Avengers: Endgame Explains Why Marvel Movies Have So Much Humor
Retro
- Gallery: These Wooden Recreations Of Classic Video Games Are Stunning - Nintendo Life
- Reverse-engineering a mysterious Univac computer board
- Ms Pac-Man has been removed from the new Pac-Land re-release due to a dispute | VGC
- Bandai Namco scrubs Ms. Pac-Man from its own classic game | Ars Technica
- Coca-ColaĀ® Creations Gaming-Inspired Coca-ColaĀ® Zero Sugar Byte - News & Articles - This is what Nancy Reagan was thinking about when she would ask us to “Just say no”.
- Microsoft Windows 95 Launch with Bill Gates & Jay Leno (1995) - YouTube - Windows 95 was a big deal, I remember hitting up Kmart that day to pick up a copy.
- Idris Elba says he grew up playing Commodore 64 games, never ever pirated them | PC Gamer - Just when I thought he couldnāt get any cooler. Too bad it wasnāt an Atari though.
- Old Vintage Computing Research: Tonight we’re gonna log on like it’s 1979 (Telenet, Dialcom and The Source)
- Three New Official Atari 2600 Cartridges Are Coming This May - GameSpot
Videogames
- Halo: The Official Cookbook (Gaming) - Look inside is turned off, so I can’t see if they have recipes for cooking The Flood or Harbinger.
- Ubisoftās first NFT experiment was a dumpster fire | Ars Technica
- Kingdom Hearts IV announced with a more realistic art style - The Verge
Science & Technology
- The DeLorean will be reborn as an electric concept car in August 2022 - The Verge - Flux Capacitor not included.
- Ukrainians use 'Find My' to track Russian troops who stole devices | Cult of Mac - I also saw pics of captured Russian tanks painted with the word Wolverines on them. I’m glad 80s culture is not lost on the Ukrainians.
- Things arenāt āback to normalā yet, but GPU prices are steadily falling | Ars Technica - Good, maybe I’ll be able to update my desktop sometime soon.
- āpiā no more: Raspberry Pi OS ditches longtime user account for security reasons | Ars Technica - I’m surprised it lasted this long.
- AMDās GPU drivers are overclocking some Ryzen processors without asking | Ars Technica
- Astronomers detect ‘galactic space laser’ - No word on what religion the space laser is.
- Could high-flying kites power your home? | Ars Technica
- Artificial fingertip gives robots nearly humanlike touch | Science | AAAS
- Hereās what happens when cops pull over a driverless Cruise vehicle - The Verge
Pop Culture
- Is streaming just becoming cable again? Julia Alexander thinks so - The Verge - It’s pretty bad. We’re debating on whether or not subscribing to each service for a month or so and then canceling until something we want to watch is added.
- Netflix actually added a short-ass movie category - The Verge - I missed the SNL skit.
Pot Pourri
- Mysterious benefactor returns Charles Darwinās missing notebooks after 20 years | Ars Technica - Maybe it took that long to read them?
- A few things to know before stealing my 914 - Hagerty Media
- home sweet homepage - I wish I had 1/8th of the graphic and html skills she has.
- Where you grew up may shape your navigational skills | Science News - It’s probably more of WHEN you grew up. If you can read a map, your navigational skills are going to be very different from those that have only used GPS.