Ye Macce Threade

[Knuckledragger]

Everyone's favorite high-pitched, hyperactive, hypoglycemic, hyperborean tech dropper seems to quite like base M4 Mini:

 

[MexicanDragon]

I'm looking at going back to Android in the near future, I do belieb, so this came at a good time... since we're talking about our second favorite Canadian.

[Knuckledragger]

M4 Mini finally arrived today.  It only took AMZN a month to ship it. I've had a longstanding tradition of naming my Mac Minis (now 4 in number) after film directors.  Previous machines were Kubrick, Fellini and Ulmer.  The M4 is Kurosawa.

 

I'd say I forgot how much of a PITA it is to set up a new machine, but that'd be a lie.  I remember, and it always is one.  Google is reasonably painless.  Still haven't gotten my password manage up and running yet.  Steam initially locked up and refused to play nice, but after a force quit and restart it acted fine.  I have no real interest on gaming on this machine but I figured I'd give it a bash.  Tomb Raider 2013 works just fine and looks quite good.  It's not really my kind of game (I got it free with the GPU I bought in late '13 and played it for 38 minutes) but trying out again it seems ...fine.  The M4 plays it at 1080p constantly above 120FPS. 

The real headaches will be slsk, Transmission (torrent client), inheriting my Backblaze backup state and ...actually setting up Kurosawa s a server to replace Fellini.  I have to get my two Windows boxes to play nice with it as well.  This process should take well into next year.

[Knuckledragger]

"We have iMac at home."  A temporary system I cobbled together for my (sainted, octogenarian) mother from spare parts: a 2012 Mac Mini, 1920x1200 Lenovo monitor of about the same age), a Macally compact keyboard and a Microsoft Trackball Explorer that's now 25 years old and a bit of a collector's item.  It all works just fine.  This photo is actually a little out of date.  I've since replaced the trackball with a conventional mouse (mum did not like the trackball at all), added USB speakers, a webcam and a printer.  The Lenovo is actually a really good panel.  16x10 monitors were never really consumer products.  It's only 60Hz, but it's LED backlit and its color accuracy out of the box blows away every non-Apple display I've ever owned.  There's a reason I've hung on to it for over a decade now.   The Mini is an interesting story in that I bought it refurb'd from OWC and it was supposed to be a 2014 model.  They sent me a 2012 and by the time I figured it out, the return window had long closed.  This is only one of many examples of the precipitous drop in quality OWC has exhibited over the last decade.  Things are so bad that I'm scuttling my plans to buy one of their 8 bay enclosures because I just don't trust them.  I'm now looking at an equivalent (and cheaper) model made by by QNAP.

Also, observation: The base model M4 Mini is such a good deal, it utterly kneecaps the refurb'd market and does a lot of damage to the used one.  I spent several hours a few nights ago looking at the Minis for sale on various sites (including Apple's own) and nothing comes close to the price/performance of the base M4.

[Dusty Chalk]

https://www.apple.com/iphone-16e/

[Knuckledragger]

Today I did a significant update to "We have iMac at home."  Today at Chicken Alley I picked up a used Apple Thunderbolt display for $60.  It was pretty grimy and the power cord (which is permanently attached, because AAPL) showed signs of being yanked on.  Of course, the display didn't work at all, but it served to remind me that I already had one.  It's a slightly different model, I got it for $25(!) and it happens to work fully.  I spent an hour removing the monitor, speakers, webcam and USB hub (the Thunderbolt Display serves all of these functions) and got it working with the 2012 Mini.  

They work together seamlessly.  That Macally mini keyboard is awful.  Mum figured out something like 1/3 of the keys don't work properly with shift.  That's not a "bad keys" issue, it's "something is wrong with the chipset" one.  I've been shopping for decent third party Mac keyboards that are small sized and not crap.  The market is terrible.  I don't want crazy clicky Red switches.  I don't want to pay over $300 (Seriously, look at the price of an HHK these days.)  Keychron makes a lot of great models, and they are Al.. Out. Of. Stock.  Unless I want a $275 Bluetooth one.