Root Access

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Journeyman Geek

02:13

@MiG I can wholeheartedly recommend the surface pro series

barlop

03:11

I'm a bit out of touch, but I noticed that back in the days of 800x600.. whenever resolutions would then get higher, e.g. to 1024x768, everything on the screen got smaller. And then what happened was people started getting interested in bigger screens, like from 14" to 15" to 17", 19" and so on. Did winxp or win98 have any option to decrease the pixel size, so that at higher resolutions, things weren't smaller? Even looking at Windows 7, I see an option to increase text size,

but no option to change pixel size

i'm thinking it might be possible to keep the screen at a particular size, and have a higher resolution without everything getting smaller, would it be?

Journeyman Geek

@barlop you can scale the UI

barlop

does win7 have that option?

Journeyman Geek

uhhhh

I think? I've not used 7 in ages nor do I have a 7 box handy

barlop

which win versions have you seen with that option?

Journeyman Geek

Its per system, newer ones let you do per display

barlop

03:13

pushing a button on the display?

Journeyman Geek

I'm half certain 8 onwards did, with enhancements, but I have only 10/11

Set UI scaling per display

barlop

ah ok

strange that they didn't have such a feature in the win98 days

like it took so long to get that feature

Journeyman Geek

Multimonitor is still uncommon

barlop

well i don't mean for the "per display" benefit, but for the scaling benefit.

Journeyman Geek

high res... eh, T220 aside, most people run fairly common resolutions

@barlop people run dissimilar monitors

barlop

03:15

do you remember a time when people had 14" square screens in 640x480 and stuff was big, then got massively smaller at 800x600 and even smaller at 1024x768, . and still with the 14" monitors?

Journeyman Geek

Dual 4k/27" one 1280x800/10"

I have 150% on my 4ks and 100% on my little screen

@barlop I'm that old yes

barlop

Maybe people got bigger monitors because they felt forced to by the increased resolutions making everything smaller, and no scaling options?

Journeyman Geek

IBM T220/T221 LCD monitors

The IBM T220 and T221 are LCD monitors that were sold between 2001 and 2005, with a native resolution of 3840×2400 pixels (WQUXGA) on a screen with a diagonal of 22.2 inches (564 mm). This works out to 9,216,000 pixels, with a pixel density of 204 pixels per inch (80 dpcm, 0.1245 mm pixel pitch), much higher than contemporary computer monitors (about 100 pixels per inch) and approaching the resolution of print media. The display family was nicknamed "Big Bertha" in some trade journals. Costing around $8,400 in 2003, the displays saw few buyers. Such high-resolution displays would remain niche...

@barlop naw

I'd say it was LCD TVs

it was cheaper to use the same panels in both and just swap out the controller cards. Also made more sense for multimedia.

hence 16:9 everywhere (since that was the common TV aspect ratio) and 720p/1366x758/1080p/UHD being standards over 'friendlier' aspect ratios for text

while TVs were 4:3, that was very much a CRT thing

also with LCDs things were smaller. a 29 inch CRT was a beast.

so people got bigger screens as more of the volume was screen

barlop

03:35

hehehe good point the size of the back of the old screens put people off bigger screens

3 hours later…

MiG

06:45

@JourneymanGeek Considering one... preferably with a keyboard / dock and hopefully taking 1-2TB NVMe SSDs... Which one are you using?

@JourneymanGeek probably less uncommon now that every TV comes with one or more HDMI connectors... I like the interchangeability between 'TV' and 'extended desktop' a lot tbh

@JourneymanGeek had a desk against the wall in those days, kinda had to put the monitor sideways or the keyboard (and me) wouldn't fit :D

Journeyman Geek

07:01

@MiG the SP 7 128gb

or was that 8? the one before the latest one

SP7

Hennes

Speaking about old people and old windows versions: I just read that as serpice pack 7.
(so NT era, nohing else went near that many SP)

And then my coffee kicked in

MiG

07:29

@JourneymanGeek that's NVMe right, and user replaceable?

Journeyman Geek

don't know actually

never checked

MiG

I know apple likes to sometimes even glue stuff in place, hoping MS doesn't

Journeyman Geek

it might be soldered on

MiG

08:14

gotta closely check reviews then

Hennes

I am not sure whom, it think apple, but someone moved the NVME controller into the CPU die.
So def. not replaceble with a standard NVME SSD

ah, it was the M1

the M1 has a built-in storage controller to traffic data to and from the Mac’s solid-state drive (SSD)

but also macrumors.com/2021/04/06/m1-mac-ram-and-ssd-upgrades-possible

MiG

08:34

@Hennes "The RAM and SSD components on Apple's ‌M1‌ Macs are soldered in place, making the procedure extremely challenging, and there is reportedly a high chance of failure." - ugh

I prefer to stay outside of apple's sphere of influence tbh

Hennes

To be honest, that is what I expected from an apple device

MiG

yep

there'll be some sort of performance increase or reliability excuse, but undoubtedly the intended side effect is to make their devices as little user serviceable as possible

Journeyman Geek

09:21

@MiG windowscentral.com/surface-pro-8-ssd

the SP 8 is replacable if You find the smaller size of SSD

MiG

oh, thanks!

yeah, I've already gone through the NVMe form factor thing with the work laptop I'm currently using... I recall actually taking it out and measuring it the first time around :x

And being used to the comfort of SATA cradles, I was unpleasantly surprised when it turned out to be very difficult to find a compatible USB adapter for that thing

Journeyman Geek

I'm not in the market at the moment for now for a new laptop - but it'd be one of those or a framework (if I can get one)

MiG

not that it matters anymore now, partition's encrypted so I assume cloning won't work

framework?

Journeyman Geek

though the framework might be my 'last' laptop

MiG

oh interesting, modular design?

Journeyman Geek

09:25

yup

MiG

so someone took the fairphone concept and applied it to its big brother :)

Journeyman Geek

completely upgradable with USB-C/thunderbolt modules

MiG

disappointing battery life from the out of the box model apparently, and very long delivery times :(

is that still in general due to covid/evergreen/ukraine, huge supply problems with laptops and tablets?

Journeyman Geek

Well - I think I'm a few years away from a new laptop

@MiG and I suspect cause they're a small company

relatively

but so far, other than that I don't use my personal laptop much, the SP has been flawless

oh lack of USB ports, Its one C (that can charge at a pinch) one A and a micro SD card slot...

MiG

ouch, that's a bit limiting

I permanently have a logitech dongle in there

Journeyman Geek

09:45

its my throw in a bag pc , so I don't really mind, and I have 2 different USB things, one is all the ports, and the other does C to USB A x2 HDMI and ethernet

MiG

10:26

this one has two USB-A and one USB-C, that would be ideal

Journeyman Geek

Oh, the work one has passthrough

which 'saves' a port

(work laptop is 2x USB C and 2 USB A...

which is one port too few D:

I at most need keyboard/mouse (mouse is BT but needs ~~feeding~~ charging and works wired, KB is wired), speaker (same as the mouse), mysterious box....

MiG

same for the mouse - I have a touchscreen, but for maximum working speed I use the (gaming) mouse

G403 wireless, amazing piece of technology <3

Journeyman Geek

10:51

lol

I got this mouse free

Razer Pro Click? I was on the beta testing program for their debit card/mobile wallet app

5 hours later…

Hennes

15:25

tomshardware.com/news/doom-port-released-as-bios-payload

Doom from BIOS (So on an old pre UEFI system)
Snake on myt keyboard (no motherboard, just power and keyboard needed).
What is next?

1 hour later…

Journeyman Geek

16:30

@Hennes I THINK coreboot is UEFI

just a open source one that some systems support

Hennes

I went to a lecture about coreboot, about a decade back. (FOSDEM).
It was interesting. Boot, no memeory controller configured. Run all ops from cache, config system. partial restart.

But I lost track of the project since

6 hours later…