Razer Blade - Returned, A Poem

[fuzzynormal]

4 hours ago, Liszon said:

Sounds strange but it's ain't like I couldn't imagine a scenario like that.

Neither could I, but there it is.  Randomly.  Rather annoying.  Not the biggest problem in the world, but when you're at the desk for months on end, that time adds up.  Who knows what it is?  

4 hours ago, Liszon said:

If you build a specific hardware for it from a recommended part list, things go smoother

Indeed.  Same hardware all around except the integrated sound card, so you just bypass that with an external.  You can literally buy the same components, just half the price and then you also allow yourself upgrade room.

When I got my latest PC a half year ago, it was specifically for Premiere and to have a machine that would push the numbers, which it does.  I really wanted to like and embrace the setup.  But the fact that I can edit faster and easier on a 9 year old iMac literally using the same projects, that's enough for me to switch back to OSX.

Too bad too.  The first short film I edited on a consumer non-linear editing system was a simple comedy skit I did back in 1994.  It was a PC and Premiere must have been version 1.5 or something.  3 years later I used Premiere for a local TV series.  A few years after that, my first 16mm film was cut on Premiere and a PC.

But when FinalCut came out.  Forget it.  The integrated system, great hardware, and commitment of Apple to the product made it a no-brainer.  When things went wrong with FCP, you could figure out a real answer back then.  With Premiere, it was a crap shoot.  The hardware variables were maddening.  Trying to figure out deep BIOS settings, IRQ address numbers, manual OS registry editing; it was all computer sciency-bull shit to try and get all the components and software to play nice.  It was a time suck rabbit hole.  No thank you.

On the other hand, the DIY nature of PC builds is kind of fun...

Now with hackintosh, everything old is new again.

[andrgl]

People who can't adapt are dinosaurs. Your skills should be platform agnostic.

I still remember using iMovie on a Bondi Blue Mac. Anyone remember lusting over the XL-1s? <3 MiniDV and so many CCDs!

Now I couldn't give a shit if I'm using FinalCut, have a rig with RAID SSD scratch discs, or use MS Paint to quickly build a matte for tracking.

Fuck it, I'll cut a video on my phone.

[DBounce]

18 hours ago, andrgl said:

Now I couldn't give a shit if I'm using FinalCut, have a rig with RAID SSD scratch discs, or use MS Paint to quickly build a matte for tracking.

Fuck it, I'll cut a video on my phone.

Well then, if that's the case I'm imagine you are now editing everything on your smartphone. Good luck with that. 

[andrgl]

8 hours ago, DBounce said:

Well then, if that's the case I'm imagine you are now editing everything on your smartphone. Good luck with that. 

It's too bad right?

In the past having expensive gear like a 1DX and macOS basically meant you were a filmmaker.

Now that the tech is a commodity, a passionate 6 year old can have more YouTube views on a single upload than that filmmaker will ever have.

[Kisaha]

@andrgl If I could edit on my smart phone I would definitely would -but I am comfortably happy with 2 monitors and a TV screen! but the -without knowing or judging this 6 years old- there are some film makers that can change people's life.

Youtube views in my book are like friends on facebook, not important.

[webrunner5]

Well Steve Job was smart as hell for Giving away Apple computers to Schools both grade school, High School. Guess what they are hooked. Who the hell wants to learn another Operating System. Who wants to be seen as a outsider in College. Heck I live in a small College Town, Home of Miami University of Ohio, not a small college, 28,000, we are out numbered 2 to 1 students to residents wise.

Hell they all wear the same stuff, shoes, pants, jackets, Yoga pants, not complaining about that!, computers to boot. But I was the same way, in the same school, wow, going on 52 years ago.

[Snowfun]

I think the message behind this thread is to be extremely careful when believing what you read. I confess to giving serious thought to the Blade after the OP's post on 23rd Jan - fortunately I stayed with Apple. To (mis)quote Bloom - "enjoy reading my reviews but never base a decision on them". 

[Orangenz]

On 21/02/2017 at 1:46 AM, Andrew Reid said:

 

And the pricing is ridiculous... But you do get much better in-store support for 1 year than you would do with a PC.

 

That does seem a somewhat situational argument, but then we're rather lucky to have a fairly nation wide company filled with brainy asians who are mad crazy to try and help if anything goes wrong. It certainly is worth having that backup. I just don't get the fascination with having to use a laptop for editing (pc or mac) .. or a laptop put in a slightly bigger fancy shaped case.  

[jonpais]

1 hour ago, Orangenz said:

That does seem a somewhat situational argument, but then we're rather lucky to have a fairly nation wide company filled with brainy asians who are mad crazy to try and help if anything goes wrong. It certainly is worth having that backup. I just don't get the fascination with having to use a laptop for editing (pc or mac) .. or a laptop put in a slightly bigger fancy shaped case.  

Agree 100%. Editing and color correction on a 15" laptop alone is not ideal at all. I'll often begin editing a project on my laptop, then do final color correction (and sharpening and stabilization if needed) and final bits on my desktop. Mostly because I can't stand being cooped up in my apartment all evening. But I can see if you're away from home or office and absolutely have to edit a project on a laptop. I will add that my 27" iMac (2013)  performs flawlessly for editing 4K, glorified laptop or whatever.  One of the few electronics items I've purchased in my life where I didn't have instant buyer's remorse.

[Ed_David]

On 2/21/2017 at 7:40 AM, Andrew Reid said:

I was a Windows user for 10 years.

Mid-20's, I just wanted to start getting on with what I use a computer for, rather than nurturing and babysitting a powerful OS and set of customisable options, custom hardware, etc. So far last 10 years I have been on OS X.

The simplicity of Mac OS doesn't mean it's any less powerful than Windows, quite the opposite - much better memory management, less legacy code, better optimisation, better drivers and newer architecture all-round.

The UX is more consistent and the presentation is less flakey. Across all apps, the user interface is familiar, similar and refined. Across all apps in Windows - BAM different every time.

Windows slows down and starts getting unreliable after 6 months and you need to Google constant issues. Eventually it needs a re-install every year, whereas Mac OS will run for 5 years and be as fast at the end of it as it was at the start.

The UNIX OS is it is based on is a fundamentally more optimised, minimalist piece of code than bloated Windows.

You see it in Windows 10 - you have the new control panel interface, but the old one is still there under the hood and you can open that too.

Also I fail to see what extra features Windows 10 actually offers over Mac OS to make it compelling... Aside from the Surface Pro tablets, which I've tried too and ended up returning eventually because touch on a desktop OS isn't all the way there yet in terms of how useful it is long-term for serious work... It is quicker for some things but holding a finger to the screen for hours of creative work is actually much more tiring than using a plain old mouse and keyboard.

I wish there was a way that a company could come out of the ashes and build on UNIX in the same way for graphic professionals who need better computers but really like the elegance of OS X, aka UNIX.

I know a lot of the bigger dogs use UNIX - but an OS that also was for consumers, like if Adobe made an OS. Or if Adobe teamed up with a UNIX OS that was easy to use - no knowledge of coding.

So we could use the latest computers and cheaper computers and not be trapped to Apple's lack of support for their Mac Pro or making the macbook pro use last generation technology.

What do you guys think?

[kaylee]

26 minutes ago, Ed_David said:

I wish there was a way that a company could come out of the ashes and build on UNIX in the same way for graphic professionals who need better computers but really like the elegance of OS X, aka UNIX.

I know a lot of the bigger dogs use UNIX - but an OS that also was for consumers, like if Adobe made an OS. Or if Adobe teamed up with a UNIX OS that was easy to use - no knowledge of coding.

So we could use the latest computers and cheaper computers and not be trapped to Apple's lack of support for their Mac Pro or making the macbook pro use last generation technology.

What do you guys think?

THIS IS A FANTASTIC IDEA!!! I THINK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME!!!

i ~WISH~ there was an option really geared toward graphics pros like that!!!

[cantsin]

That OS already exists and is called Linux. (Today, practically all workstation/server variants of Unix are Linux-based, with the small exception of BSD and Sun/Oracle Solaris, the latter of which is practically dead.) Ubuntu Linux is the modern, user-friendly desktop Linux/Unix that people can easily install.

The only problem is that Adobe & Co. don't release their software for it.

[Ed_David]

6 hours ago, cantsin said:

That OS already exists and is called Linux. (Today, practically all workstation/server variants of Unix are Linux-based, with the small exception of BSD and Sun/Oracle Solaris, the latter of which is practically dead.) Ubuntu Linux is the modern, user-friendly desktop Linux/Unix that people can easily install.

The only problem is that Adobe & Co. don't release their software for it.

Yes, Linux has been around for a very long time - but I mean to simplify it, make it as easy as OS X - if Adobe could release it.  If they could see the void that is left in the creative professional world that OS X and Windows do not fulfill.  Maybe if they teamed up with HP or Dell, like Avid teamed up with HP.

[jcs]

The challenge with *nix is there are so many flavors (versions).  Ubuntu and relatives are perhaps the mostly popular right now... What we do as software developers is download the source code for tools/apps and build for the specific version of *nix that we are using (this too can be a pain and time burner). This is great for back-end server products but not front end user-facing products. This would not be possible for mass-market commercial software like Adobe. The other challenge is UI development tools on Linux are currently very weak. Just debugging code on Linux with an IDE is currently very very weak. XCode on OSX and Visual Studio on Windows are still light years ahead of anything on Linux (Microsoft has released Code for Linux, but mostly for webapp development (not C/C++ which is needed for native apps)).

Working on Linux feels like working on a Model T vs. Porsche or Ferrari on OSX and Windows respectively (Windows still has the best developer tools, by far). C++ Builder used to run on Linux, however support was dropped: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/cbuilder . This is an incredible cross-platform toolset for C++ development. They could bring it back to Linux if there was a market. The challenge with Linux is most desktop Linux users don't pay for anything, and want everything for free (and/or pirate software). Until or if major software vendors can work out a model that works for Linux users (can't be totally free), don't expect any major products to be ported to Linux. AutoDesk and Blackmagic do support Linux, however that's for very vertical market applications (renderfarms are a good use for Linux, and having many seats in a (e.g. one-off movie) production environment where the OS is free can make financial sense).

I switch between OSX and Windows 10 frequently. Instead of dual-booting my 'old' 2010 12-core + GTX 980ti anymore, I built a brand new 10-core box (6950X) + GTX 1080 which I was going to make into a Hackintosh. After getting it running with Windows 10, I was so impressed with the superior font rendering, snappier GUI response, and ability to display a 4K desktop vs. OSX, as well as superior 4K editing performance and less crashes (really an NVidia driver issue- it is what it is), I dropped the idea of putting OSX on it. I use a special USB switch to switch keyboard and mouse input, and use the 2 4K Dell display's multiple inputs to switch between OSX and Windows 10 without having to reboot. Works really well in production.

I still use MacBook Pros running OSX, however modern software such as vMIX (for live streaming with efficient GPU acceleration) only run on Windows (not really enough space on the internal SSD to run Bootcamp at this point. It is possible to install Bootcamp on an external drive with a bit of effort (easiest with Thunderbolt, a bit more work with USB3), see YouTube for some examples).

[no_connection]

Mac have some nice things, but the frustration of getting it to work properly is bad.

Trying to copy file with finder? Nope you can't cause it fails at end of file because it is "in use". Yep, can't copy files that are in use. Good one OSX, good one. Thank you for ruining that 1h network transfer.
That was an annoying problem, until I found out that when finder creates the preview icon it locks the file. Yep, the very program you are using to copy the file is the one locking it preventing it from being copied. And according to the internet it is a problem dating back many years but noone at Apple cares to fix it.
This also happens when you want to delete files. I talked to a few Apple ppl how they handled it, turn out they just ignore the files that can't be deleted and just leave them there. All of them had experienced the problem but noone had the solution to fix it.

The solution is to disable the generation of thumbnails in finder. I found the answer online and the comments section was flooded with thank you notes.

[Mattias Burling]

15 minutes ago, no_connection said:

Trying to copy file with finder? Nope you can't cause it fails at end of file because it is "in use". Yep, can't copy files that are in use. Good one OSX, good one.

I just tried this because I had never thought about it or heard about it.
I can't replicate the problem, I can copy files all I want even when they are in use. What exactly do I have to do the make this occur?

[no_connection]

Can't find the link where I found the original answer to solve it. But here is a link showing how to fix it.
Not sure if it happen to everyone. But when copying files to NAS it sometimes happened and sometimes worked.

http://fredericiana.com/2014/10/16/finder-file-in-use/

[fuzzynormal]

Anyone dabbling with Resolve and Linux in editing?  I'm intrigued.  Would love a strong viable editing alternative.  

Didn't enjoy my first rodeo editing with Resolve, but I'm willing to try again...

[Ed_David]

I couldn't even get it to install.  That's how bad I am at real computing.  Plus I think you need a dongle for it - no free version.

3 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Anyone dabbling with Resolve and Linux in editing?  I'm intrigued.  Would love a strong viable editing alternative.  

Didn't enjoy my first rodeo editing with Resolve, but I'm willing to try again...

 

[Tim Sewell]

I think they just announced availability of the free version for Linux the other day.