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serinemolecule:

brin-bellway:

serinemolecule:

(Omitting a huge reblog chain to reply to)

@brin-bellway:

What do you *use* a 5-hour laptop battery for, anyway? I mean, more battery life is always better all else equal, but when I need to computer for significant lengths of time off-grid that is what smartphones are for.

Computers are just better than phones for every single task. [1] Sure, you use phones for off-grid time now, but that’s just because your computer doesn’t last long enough for that. I have a MacBook Air with 13 hours of battery life and it’s nice being able to use it all.

It’s also nice when I’m at home, being able to use it in the kitchen, on the sofa, etc. I move around a lot and it’s nice not having to also lug around the charger and plug it in everywhere.

If I wanted to leave a computer plugged in all the time, I’d be using a desktop, not a laptop.

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[1] With some exceptions: Phones are really only good for very specific things like “taking photos”, “using mobile apps of companies too lazy to provide a desktop/web version” (I’m calling you out, Google Assistant and Pleco).

I do agree that laptops are better than phones whenever possible, which means the entire point of smartphones is for the times that it’s *not* possible. Why are smartphones so ubiquitous, then? Why do high-end phones even exist at all, if that kind of money can get you a laptop with double-digit-hour battery life?

(I mean, there’s something to be said for the smaller size. But laptops can be made pretty small too if you need them to be, and as I understand it most people haven’t already stuffed their bag with as much gear as possible [link] and would have space for a small laptop.)

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I use a laptop rather than a desktop for two reasons:

1. I can use a couch rather than needing, like, a dedicated desk and shit.

2. I can take it to hotel rooms. (This was more important when we were richer and spending a week or two a year in hotel rooms, but there’s still reason 1 to think of.)

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I use my laptop battery under the following conditions:

1. When the living room is too noisy and I need to temporarily move to another room. (Even then, I can just bring the power cord with me and plug it in there, and I do if I expect to be there for more than an hour and a half or so.)

2. Power outages. The *only* time that I wish my laptop battery life was longer, since it *is* annoying having to rely on a smartphone in my own goddamn house.

Well, I mean, I kind of glossed over the biggest advantage of smartphones over laptops: General portability, in terms of stuff like “can put in a pocket or small purse” (joke’s on everyone else, I just go around with a purse big enough to fit a small laptop), and “does not add much weight for you to carry”, and “can be easily brought out and used and put away”.

(Even a small laptop would be awkward to just take out and use while walking or standing in line.)

Which I assume is the real reason people usually use phones, because I can’t imagine anyone would prefer typing on a touchscreen to typing on a keyboard. People talk about how phones are fine for passive content consumption, but I was led to believe the youth of today spend all their time texting!

But like for the specific case of “using a phone because you’re off-grid for significant amounts of time”, clearly a laptop would be better.

Also this is really making me wish I’d taken a picture of my setup in Seattle, in which I totally set up my desktop right in front of the living room couch.

Also, nice utility belt! People are usually impressed when my bag seems to always have everything they need, but I still don’t have that much stuff.

>>I can’t imagine anyone would *prefer* typing on a touchscreen to typing on a keyboard. People talk about how phones are fine for passive content consumption, but I was led to believe the youth of today spend all their time texting!<<

I don’t know about those people who text all the time, but if *I* needed to do significant amounts of off-grid typing, I’d probably get one of those foldable keyboards. (The hard kind that merely fold in half or thirds, not the flexible kind that roll up: we have one of the flexible ones, and it is annoying to use.) I don’t think I have *quite* enough space for one right now, and I certainly wouldn’t use it often enough to justify…I think they were $30? But if it became a thing I routinely needed I’m pretty sure I could arrange to have one with me.

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>>But like for the specific case of “using a phone because you’re off-grid for significant amounts of time”, clearly a laptop would be better.<<

I suspect you’re interpreting “off-grid” more strictly than I’ve been using it. If you do not, at this moment, have access to an electrical outlet and a Wi-Fi hotspot, you’re off-grid in every respect relevant to a computer, even if you are in the middle of a city at the time. If I’m standing in line, I’m probably off-grid (unless it’s a fancy enough line to have Wi-Fi, in which case I am only partly off-grid).

(for anyone about to say “but mobile data”: do I strike you as somebody with a good enough combination of situation and sanity to allow herself a data plan? [link])

(The main reason I wanted one of those solar-powered camping-focused phone chargers is *not* because I actually go camping: it’s because if my computer battery is finite I’m more reluctant than I should be to use it, the same way that people playing RPGs are stereotypically overly reluctant to use consumable buffs if they can’t reliably source replacements. It gives me peace of mind to know I can keep recharging my phone *even if the power outage continues*, even if in practice a power pack of the same size with no self-recharge capability would easily last me through any power outage I’ve ever experienced.

(The longest power outage we’ve had was 16 hours, starting ~1 hour after I woke up and ending ~2 hours after I went to bed. At the time I had a smartphone with a not-particularly-sucky battery and no power pack: I used it in a mildly power-consumption-optimised way for the first couple hours or so (screen on, no video), then began optimising more strongly for low power consumption (screen off, audio only).))

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>>Also, nice utility belt!<<

Thank you! :D

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #(”in which I totally set up my desktop right in front of the living room couch”) #reply via reblog #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #adventures in human capitalism

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