My goodness, I could have written this word-for-word. Similar age, same Apple II BASIC and 6502 upbringing (roll sleeves and call -151) and also wrote to Infocom. We were in the UK so even more surprised to get a reply similar to yours several weeks later. Sadly my letter is also lost to various house moves. Or eaten by a grue.
Me too, except my letter was to Sierra On-Line and my experience was on TRS-80 6809. Really classy reply asking me to write back when I finished school.
I recall sending a letter to them asking them for information on how they compressed their images for their hi-res adventure games. While they replied, they said it was a trade secret. I was kind of bummed. But being a 12 year old kid who barely understood the 6502, it probably would have gone over my head.
Lovely to hear this about Infocom and SOL. The former was my obsession throughout the mid-late 80s on my Atari 800XL, and then the latter for the next few years after getting a 386SX in '89.
I doubt Amazon would facilitate any kind of legitimate Kindle support outside of a web browser.
I've got the Pro and, whilst a little to heavy for my liking, charging the marker is a no-brainer - it just attaches to the side for storage and charges wirelessly. Faster would always be appreciated of course.
Curious about your last statement as I find the writing feel best in class. Having tried a couple of others, admittedly a few years ago, the Pro felt the most natural to write on.
> Having tried a couple of others, admittedly a few years ago, the Pro felt the most natural to write on.
I found the Supernote Nomad to be much better for writing. And it uses Wacom's superior EMR tech. Precision, no charging, and lots of pen options from different vendors for different purposes.
And as Kindle is crapware, I demand, and therefore welcome, its absence on any device in my possession.
Apple have caveated the comparison by specifying "PC laptops" and according to NVidia's own site [1], and clicking through to see the actual specs [2], there aren't any currently available that out-spec a 16GB 3080 Ti.
I'll admit I haven't gone spelunking down the specialist laptop manuafacturer sites, but on the surface it seems to be not an unrealistic claim.
> creators can work on scenes so large that PC laptops can’t even run them
You can't open a 40GB scene entirely in GPU RAM on any single-GPU system, laptop or otherwise, because there aren't any 40GB+ GPUs.
But you can open a 40GB Octane demo scene with out-of-core loading enabled on a Windows laptop with 64GB of RAM. Hell, Otoy has a demo from 2018 of a Windows system loading and editing that "worst-case" 40GB scene entirely out-of-core at 60fps.[1]
So the suggestion is that the M2 is doing it without enabling out-of-core loading because all system RAM is in-core. Which is cool, and something Otoy's CEO was boasting on the M1 MBP's release day two years ago.[2]
So why bother going through the motions of benchmarking anything like this against 2+-year-old systems, just to make a claim the M1 also made, just less precisely?
For context, I'm British. Until relatively recently automatics were so rare you'd often see an actual sticker on the back of the car warning the driving style would be somewhat different (e.g. braking on downhill stretches).
The vast majority of the cars on our roads in the UK are still manual, but the tide is changing and not just with the introduction of EVs. There exists a legal quirk whereby you're not licensed to drive a manual car if you've passed your driving test in an automatic. Until that legislation is updated, I expect there to remain a strong demand for manual transmissions amongst learner and new drivers.
Personally, I'm of an age where simplicity and convenience are valued more in my life. Parallels include choosing Apple devices where I'd previously been all-in on Windows, Linux and Android; consoles over gaming PCs; and I'd also include home automation despite the initial set-up. Both our family cars are currently (non-EV for now) automatics and I can't see myself or my partner ever voluntarily going back to manual cars. I can push a single button to start, select drive and go. Even the handbrake is automatic.
Anecdotally, my social group is very much of the same mindset. Increased traffic on our small island has all but removed any romantic idealism around driving a sporty manual car on an open road. Now that driving here is more of a chore than a pleasure, anything that helps ease the burden is going to become the default.
In Iceland—until recently—there wasn’t even an option to take the driving test—nor the required driving lessons—on an automatic. You had to take it on a manual. Also most people bought a manual as their first car (as manuals were always cheaper and more available). However among my age some (wealthier) people bought automatic as their first car, and promptly forgot how to drive a manual. It is rear, but I’ve met a couple of people that simply don’t know how to drive a manual (as if they were American) even though they took the driving test and lessons on one a decade and a half ago.
EDIT: Unrelated, but there is also a common myth in Iceland that manual transmission is illegal in San Francisco. I have no idea where it comes from, but after having lived in SF and returning to Iceland I’ve had more then one people ask me about this. (I even owned a manual 4-speed VW bus [known as VW Ryebread in Iceland] while living there).
I passed my test in a manual car in Britain, but I never bought a car. I've rented them when abroad, and have an account with the pay-per-minute electric cars, but at this point I don't want to drive a manual if there's an automatic available.
FYI: almost everyone learning to drive in Norway now does so with automatic and as such get a license for automatic only. Guess the same will happen in the UK pretty quick.
In my anecdotal sample the thinking is changing indeed from "I'll learn manual just in case I ever need it" to "screw it, automatic is available everywhere, and EVs are coming".
I haven’t checked. They are barely sold anymore. In 2020 ca 95% of cars sold were automatic (or electric). You can still get manual used and probably cheaper than used automatic because no one wants manual anymore (except some petrol heads and old people that don’t want to learn to drive automatic).
There's still a big demand for manuals here, not just from petrolheads either. They're popular generally but in particular with newly qualified drivers, and people who live in urban areas and drive only infrequently. They're just cheaper and more economical.
That being said it is shifting (haha) slowly- I think in the last couple of years the majority of new cars sold have been automatic. But most people buy used anyway so manual is going to be around for a long time yet.
I'm UK based and still drive a manual. The main reason being cost. I'm a super infrequent driver (maybe once a week for bulky shops or long weekend trips) and don't want to be paying through the nose for something that is a convenience not an essential. I drive a second hand 2013 Toyota aygo which was super cheap, is zero rated for road tax, incredibly reliable and ultra fuel efficient.
I'd be willing to bet I'm quite representative of other city based drivers who have the option of public transport, walking or cycling. That's why I don't see the demand for manual dropping any time soon.
Another difference I think is that with the stick, driver needs to be more prepared for moments to come on the road. Like you know that you are going to shift when you see the change in terrain ahead of you and so on. While with automatic this awareness is not required so you can expect the driver without stick to make more sudden changes. Of course not a rule.
I came scross this utility a few months ago via a Reddit post and have been using it regularly.
The developer provides some insight into why it's free here [1]. To save you the click, they consider it a hobby project and decided the work to productise it is too great.
Our kitchen scales have a single on button and auto power-off after a minute or so.
I discovered completely by accident that holding the power button down for 3-4 seconds powers it off. Nowhere in any of the manuals was this mentioned (I went back and checked)
I don't understand why Epic don't persue the argument of an unlevel playing field.
Amazon don't have to pay 30% for every transaction I make through the Amazon app on my iPhone. Same with eBay. Yes, I know Apple class these as different categories, but when push comes to shove what's the real difference here?
Epic are providing electronic assets that they have paid in-house artists to create and want to distribute in exchange for their in-game currency (V-Bucks). Why should Apple cream 30% off the top of that revenue?
Other than the electronic distribution, Apple has no fixed or variable costs relating to these in-game assets.
I fully agree Apple should take a cut of Fortnite being a reviewed, and therefore trusted, app on their store. I find it hard to justify the ongoing 30% cut of additional assets that bear no discernable cost.
Take your average high end mall, Apple negotiates with the mall owner to pay much less than other stores because having Apple around makes the mall more attractive. Equally unfair as the Amazon case?
Every business owner, mall owner, or head office of a franchise takes a large cut of the profits with likely little in fixed or variable costs. Saying this should change is like arguing society is fundamentally flawed. With the market as it is now Apple can ask for the 30% just for being associated with the brand.
I recall the hex address being D22 (so 3362) although it's been 30-cough-something years so I could be misremembering.
I built a full-on remote hacking utility that got to the point where it would download the remote victim's RAM, upload the infamous laugh sound, play it, then restore the RAM so the victim was - usually - back to before they got freaked out.
A small group of us built a multi-screen text scrolling and image display sequencing tool for the various school open days. I still recall the nervous look on the teacher's face as we deconstructed the computer lab to get all the Microvitec Cub's lined up! Those were fun times.
