science, technology

Meanderings about science, technology, computers, networking, space, energy … anything techno (except techno music).

tablet ease-of-use test – Surface 4 Pro & reMarkable

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I’ve got my two tablets – the Microsoft Surface 4 Pro and the reMarkable.
Even the names begin to give away their characteristics.
It all began with a sore shoulder.  Those of you who read this know why the shoulder is sore, and several kilos of books and binders in my backpack made the shoulder ache big-time.  A tablet would allow me to carry ebooks and store my notes in electronic form rather than paper.
So I bought the Surface.  Really nice to use – except writing on it was glitchy, more so sequentially after each update from Microsoft Update.  Slick, fast, lightweight, powerful.  But glitchy sometimes.
After a year or so, I found an ad for reMarkable, a tablet that uses e-ink.  It’s a cross between an e-reader and a limited version of a tablet.  It does have limits, but I can stare at it for hours without my eyes popping out of my head.  The surface of it, as suggested in their ads, actually does feel for the most part like I’m writing on paper.
Keep in mind that I’d tested these in the classroom, coffee shop, home, inside, outside, in the dark, in sunlight, under pressure, at my leisure – in every imaginable scenario.
I recently loaded up AutoCAD, Revit, AutoCAD Civil 3D, and Inventor on the Surface.  They work well, but the Surface is somewhat under-powered for this.  Pretty good though.  An acceptable second to the HP ZBook 15 that the school provides.  I also put ebooks on the reMarkable and used it as a textbook e-reader.  It’s a little slow to flip from page to page, but it’s not slow when it comes to writing.
So I created a couple of videos.

12/14/2017  6:30 PM    167495387 tablet ease-of-use test Microsoft Surface 4 Pro 20171214_182812.mp4
12/14/2017  6:26 PM    103571641 tablet ease-of-use test reMarkable 20171214_182504.mp4

Have a look and see a comparison.  I cast no judgment on each one since they’re clearly different machines.  I thought I’d sell one of them once I decided.  But I see now that they’re both designed for very different tasks.  I guess I’m keeping them both.

last day of classes, mice, magazines, & banjos

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As the title of this journal entry states, today is the last day of classes for this term.  I did my final exams for STS-2260 Statistics / Applied Research I and EDD-2268 Architectural Design II.  The goofy thing is that I think I did much better in my weaker subject, Stats, than I did in the one that gets my blood going, Architecture.  But we shall see.  My other two classes – ENF-2250 Fluid Mechanics and EDD-2255 Process Design I.

I got a subscription at the suggestion of my Architecture prof – Fine Homebuilding.  I haven’t gotten my first issue yet, but they did offer a free two-week online subscription.  Nice, except that I can’t print, can’t store it for later, and can’t get past page 32 of the issue.  I also asked my prof about a magazine I read ages ago called Architectural Digest.  His idea is that it isn’t what it used to be but is still an interesting read about various architecture of well-to-do folk around the world.  But I’m more interested in ideas and such that will help me in the ordinary-folk architectural world.

I’m finding it hard to play the banjo and use a normal (i.e. cheap) mouse.  Why?  Ages ago, on my 16th birthday, I guy hit me and Ron Ripley while we were crossing the street on our bicycles.  His leg was broken and fingertip torn off, and my hand was broken.  To this day, my right ring finger bends somewhat toward my middle finger when curled.  I got a new mouse – the CAD Mouse from 3D Connexion – and even put racing stripes on it, allowing me to speed up my Revit, CAD, & Inventor use.  If only putting racing stripes on my banjo would help me play faster and better.

Sundry things:

Tomorrow I’m getting an oil change for my little Kia, pulling the forms off our experimental concrete blocks, and giving blood.

calm after the storm

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Things are settling down now.  I’ve been on my ulcer meds for about two weeks.  Only one somewhat nasty attack during that time.  I’m happy for that.  The doc said the third time I get this there’d be some major s*** to deal with.  I’m hoping this is not the case.

There’s a kind of calm these days.  I can feel it about here and there.  Instructors are not as go-go-go as in the past, no work stress to deal with, no wondering how Father is doing, Mom is doing better these days (made gravy for Sunday’s turkey dinner), Floyd has no issues to speak of, friends (most) are understanding of the various things that have gone down, and the yearly Hell is gone (Pete knows all about this).  Calm before the storm?  No, after.  Feels good.  (Knock on wood.)

I’m not as behind in classes as I was.  I’m actually ahead in one but behind in another.  The rest are good.

I fixed my stereo.  …  Ha!  They don’t call them stereos anymore, do they?  My home entertainment system.

The fan had been making noise, so I cut it out with some metal snips.  In the process, I ended up destroying it.  I just wanted to squirt some WD40 into it.  So much for that.  So I duct-taped a computer fan with a limiter to it.  It seems to work just fine.  A bit overkill, but it is quieter than before.

My little Fujitsu also developed a problem.  A ribbon cable controlling the power supply broke.  I ordered a new used one online and put it in.  It took some monkeying, but it’s working now.  It’s now 12 years old, so it doesn’t compete with today’s computers, but it does make a good background music player.  “Ghibli” on “Study jazz” on YouTube.  Kevin introduced this to me during our final week of last term’s studying.  Look it up – unless you’re allergic to jazz.

slow server, howling server

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If you find the server here at ‘Allan’s Place’ a little slow lately, it’s because it’s doing some boinc work.  The CPUs are maxed out at 100% pretty much full-time now.

Because of that, the server is howling like a freight train, so much so that I couldn’t concentrate on my schoolwork.  So I pulled up its stakes and moved it to the storage room.  Peace and quiet.

…until something else makes noise.

my PHP’s too old (or, something wrong with my Moodle!)

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I’m trying to install Moodle on my newly formed server (newly online since 2017-08-20), but it shows a problem with my PHP installation.

Any ideas? Xibo states that my PHP may be too old because it doesn’t have php_fileinfo.dll included in its php.ini file.  It seems to me that I’d had Moodle up and running on this version (php-5.4.9-nts-Win32-VC9-x86) of PHP before.  Why not now?

one week left for Cassini

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Come a week from now, the Cassini space probe will do its final decent into the atmosphere of Saturn, all the while sending back data it’s collecting.  Pretty amazing what its collected so far.  Do some research if you’re interested.  Then, as expected, the signal will cease forever as friction from the atmosphere turns it into a fireball raining down on the planet.

JPL – Saturn
Curiositystream – Cassini and the crown jewel

double-tap and … what a drag

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I finally got this feature to work on my Surface 4 Pro tablet.  It’s called double-tap-and-drag or tap and a half.  I cursed this tablet for a few reasons since I got it.  Little picky things.  Annoying habits that it has that … well, I’m just not used to it!  “That’s not going forwards – that’s going backwards!”  Well, it’s fixed.  Just a setting in the touchpad settings.

Why is that so danged important?  Productivity, for one.  It’s faster than the two-handed click and drag method.  Yes, two hands.  I’m used to a touch pad.  Touch pads are faster, more convenient.  Yes, I know, I’m bucking the world on this one.  So be it.  If mice were suddenly brought upon the market now, they’d be laughed at.  “They’re just so dumb,” I’m confident I’d hear.  They’re a separate device.  You have to carry them around with you, and they you have to plug them into a USB.  You’ve gotta move your hand away from the keyboard, the ultimate in productivity (yes, I know, spoken like a true DOS lover, which in actual fact I’m not), … where was I?  Oh, yes … away from the keyboard, to another separate device, and then back again to the keyboard, only to do it all over again.  What a drag.  (Get it?  Drag?)  It’s like intentionally buying a manual shift automobile after years and years of automatics.  Oh, yah, there are actually people out there who actually do do that.  <ahem>  “I want a brand new Apple Bell and Howell.  With a mouse.”

Secondly, an integrated touchpad click built into the actual touchpad just doesn’t, in my humble opinion, work.  You can’t poise your finger on top of the left click button while moving your thumb across the touch pad.  One of them will screw up.  I’ve seen multiple times when I’m actually moving my thumb or finger around the touchpad without the dang arrow doing anything – just sitting there being confused.  “Oh, … not sure what to do … there’s another finger touching me … I’m so confused.”  Hmm.  Isn’t this touchpad supposed to see multiple touches?  And not be confused?

Oh, I could go on, but then I’d have to make a new category for my blog.  Something like “rant” or “nit-pick”.  …  Ooh, not a bad idea.  Anyway, I’m closer to liking my Surface 4 Pro again.  Warm and fuzzy.

second laptop image

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I took my school laptop in to be re-imaged – a second time.  I was expecting Steve to give me the gears about this, and he didn’t let me down.  I explained that I’d put the wrong drive to be imaged last week, so it must be done again, and that I wiped the first drive.  He noted that he would prefer that he change the drive to make sure it was wiped.  “What’s to stop you from using that drive after school is done next year?  You could be using all that free software.”

Frankly, it never dawned on me that I could do that.  I believed that none of it would work because it would all expire.  I would not be able to update the license for most software, and I wouldn’t be able to use the rest because I wouldn’t be connected to the school’s servers.

“I tried to find way not to bother you about this because I know you’re busy.  But I couldn’t.”  I asked a classmate, “T“, if I could image mine from his – a kind of carbon copy from his to mine – but he hasn’t gotten his done yet; T is out of the country until the very day of school.

new Ongoing Letter online … again

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Hi everybody.  This is the latest attempt at going on with my Ongoing Letter, my blog to the outside world.  It’s my third attempt at using a CMS (Content Management System) on a database server and the third generation of the allansplace web.  Hopefully it’ll take this time without any server-self-destruct buttons being pushed.  We shall see.

There are also some changes to the other webs.  If you already know the addresses, you’ll also know they’re not quite up-and-running yet.  Check back often.

In the mean time, enjoy!