Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Apple Studio Display

As a connoisseur of excellent displays - my main computer monitor is an Apple Pro Display XDR, and my TV is an LG OLED - what interests me most from yesterday’s Apple event is the new Apple Studio Display. They essentially took the panel from the 27-inch iMac, put it in an Apple-worthy aluminum enclosure, give it top-spec webcam, mic and speakers, then voila. For a princely sum of (starting at) $1599, there’s finally another external display option from Apple other than the aforementioned Pro Display XDR. That one commands a kingly sum of $4999.

Fan boys on the Mac forums are mad they’re not getting Pro Display XDR technology - namely full local LED dimming and HDR capabilities - at a smaller size for less than half the price. Of course, that was never going to happen. What we have with the Apple Studio Display is the LG UltraFine 5K monitor but in far nicer packaging. The LG still retails for $1299, so the Apple premium of $300 doesn’t seem absurd at all. I bet that aluminum enclosure is lovely to touch!

Would I have bought the Studio Display if it had been available at the time I bought the Pro Display XDR? Most likely. The price gulf between the two products is difficult to ignore (I could have bought two and still have money left over). Plus the Studio Display has speakers and a webcam, features that come in handy for a home office setup if you’re a minimalist like myself. Besides, I wasn’t yet spoiled by the wonderful black levels and high contrast of the Pro Display XDR.

But now that I am spoiled by the good stuff, there’s no coming down from the nicer of the two Apple displays. I can see why certain fan boys are frustrated: $4999 is a ton of money to spend on a monitor. Apple recycling a six-year-old display with none of the latest technologies like HDR or high refresh rate is probably not the progress we hope to see. However, just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s awful. I’ve had an 27-inch iMac, and that 5K display is still absolutely fine in 2022.

Not Pro Display XDR fine, but as ever, quality cost money. Suck it up, fan boys.

No Internet

Due to various circumstances totally of his doing, my brother is banned from using any Internet-connected devices. That is surprisingly difficult these days because many things more than just smartphones and computers connect to the Internet. For example, my brother had to switch television units with my parents’ Samsung because it’s old enough to lack any smart capabilities. What about gaming consoles? Those have been connecting to the Internet since the PlayStation 3 era. Therefore my brother is relegated to the PS2’s 480P experience.

As standard, computer of any sort is not allowed. Feel the urge to check twitter? Spend a few hours into a Youtube rabbit hole? Too bad. Impossible. My brother’s phone is the flip kind aimed at retired seniors that can only do phone calls and text messages. For someone who grew up in the age of the Internet, this situation must be tough. At least I’m old enough to have some training. I didn’t get decently fast Internet until high school; my first smartphone happened during the fourth year of college!

So I’d like to think I can go back to monk mode without too much agony. A few years back I actually went a whole week without my iPhone. I was definitely forced to be present and notice my surroundings more. There wasn’t a tiny screen to distract me constantly. No podcasts or music to listen to, either.

If I were my brother, now would be the golden opportunity to hit the books hard. Read anything and everything that interests me. Perhaps learn a foreign language, or a musical instrument. I currently do all of that (Korean and the piano, respectively) without being banned from the Internet, but I’m wired differently. Taking the enticing options offered by Internet away, what else is there for my brother to do? For his sake I hope he picks up a regular exercise habit, too.

What would you do if you suddenly lost complete access to the Internet for a long period of months?

Gas prices, batman!

Holy hell have gasoline prices shot up seemingly overnight. I filled up the M2 the weekend prior at $5.25 a gallon premium (thanks, California), and this past Friday it’s already changed to $5.75. At 10 gallons on a typical fill up, that’s a ~$5.00 increase for me. Not too terrible in the grand scheme of things, because I don’t commute. I get gas at most about every two weeks. But for those who do: this sudden increase has got to hurt.

As evident of the long lines at Costco - known for the cheapest petrol in town - of drivers queuing for gas. Delaying the rest of us from getting to our parkings spots and on with our shopping. Even if you’re entirely supportive of the Ukrainian fight against the Russian regime, you can equally hate the second-order effects at the same time.

Hey, it doesn’t cost gas money to drive virtually on Gran Turismo 7! The latest version of the famed racing game - celebrating its 25th anniversary - came out last week. And I won’t be getting it, at least for a while (super sad face). It’s just physically impossible for me to position my steering wheel controller setup in front of the TV (there’s a whole bed in the way). I don’t want to use the regular controller to play. Hopefully when PlayStation VR 2 comes out, GT7 will be a supported title.

At least reviews for the game are looking good. Seemingly a return to form of GT4, arguably the best title in the series, and the last Gran Turismo I played through seriously. It’s a true celebration of the automobile, at a time when electrification threatens the existence of our beloved internal-combustion engines. Disappointingly, my BMW M2 Competition is not featured in the game. Neither is my previous car, the 991-generation Porsche 911 GT3.

I guess I’ll just have to buy a Toyota GR86 to be able to play a virtual copy of my actual real-life car.

The good stuff

With a Whole Foods recently opened up near my home, I’ve been going there from time to time for groceries. The Target at the same mall closes way too early at 6:00 PM - due to rampant retail theft in San Francisco - so it’s nice to have an option all the way up until 10:00 PM. Though as a pro tip, the shelves aren’t as stocked during the evening hours, at least the few times I’ve been there. The stuff I buy is always available, however: milk and eggs.

That’s because I buy the expensive stuff. Only the best organic milk from grass-fed cows. Only the best eggs from free-range chickens, fed organically. Sometimes the cheaper non-organic alternative would run out, but never the organic stuff. That’s how I come to buy organic: one time I was forced to because the Target was sold-out of cheap milk. After that I never went back.

I live by myself so the premium of few dollars is insignificant. If I had to feed a family of four, I too would buy the 60 eggs for five dollars at Costco. Instead, I use that same five dollars to buy a just dozen of the goof stuff at Whole Foods.

And I can definitely taste the difference in the free-range organic stuff, especially the eggs. I break two eggs into plain oatmeal for breakfast most mornings, so the flavor of the eggs is immediately apparent. The cheap stuff have an almost gamey taste that is absent in the eggs from humanely-treated chickens. The latter has a natural sweetness, and a more satisfying texture as well. It’s definitely worth the price premium.

Life in peace

Man did I pick a good year to delete the twitter app off my phone. I could have easily spent hours death-scrolling through the timeline when Russian invaded Ukraine last week. Not to say I don’t care about the well-being of Ukrainians. But checking up on the the minute-to-minute news is just not a productive use of time. What the heck can I do anyways? The happenings of the other side of the globe is something I have zero control over.

"Imagine all the people living life in peace."

It is interesting to see NATO refusing to intervene militarily on Ukraine’s behalf. Simply because Russia is a nuclear power. No one wants to risk an escalation towards nuclear war - for very good reason (San Francisco is often a nuclear target in movies). But that means if you’re a nation with nukes, you can invade another country with somewhat impunity. The United States knows this well, of course. We went into Iraq with nobody’s permission. Seal Team Six went into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin-Ladin clandestinely.

What NATO and rest of the world can do in response is to levy huge economic and social sanctions. Innocent Russian citizens - yes, even the rich oligarchs - will have to suffer the consequences of the actions by their President Putin. In this interconnected, globalized world we have today, I think sanctions should work in theory. Russia ultimately won’t risk a turn towards the situation of North Korea - utterly isolated from the world. You’d think at some point, Putin will capitulate and strike a deal.

The problem is: Ukraine and its citizens will have to suffer through a war to get there. Sad and tragic.

Ya'll nasty

Working in IT tech support, I’ve seen my fair share of absolutely filthy computers coming in for service. As someone who keeps my own stuff pristinely clean, I can’t fathom how others live with the grime that’s on their laptops. Dust and food particles all over the keyboard deck; fingerprints and oil on the screen surface. Needless to say, I wear gloves before I handle the laptops. Even before these COVID times.

I think there’s a spectrum of bothersome in relation to how dirty something is to people. Everybody can objectively attest to what clean is. No one would accept a brand new out of the box computer that’s full of dust. However, filthiness level is entirely subjective. A single smudge would bother the heck out of me, while others can live with a display full of fingerprints.

On that note, I always wondered why people feel the need to touch their screens (hence the fingerprints left over). Then I realized most are not. The dirt on the screen is actually caused by the keyboard deck. You type out an email with your grubby fingers whilst in the middle of eating a sandwich. That oily imprint then gets transferred to the screen when the laptop is closed. Mystery solved. The rest of you are filthy and dirty.

Every laptop that comes into my hands at work, I clean them up nicely before commencing service. Not because I’m doing the users a solid. It’s more for me because I don’t like working on a dirty laptop. Indeed, many of them remark on how clean their computer is upon returning to them. Like I said, we can all objectively agree to what absolute clean is. It’s the level of unclean that’s seemingly in dispute!

All about games

This past weekend I spent a cumulative 10 hours playing Ghost of Tsushima. Not since beating Gran Theft Auto 4 on the PlayStation 3 have I spent this much time playing video games. For those familiar, that is a very long time ago. I forgot how addictive all of this is! The royal you would delay going to the bathroom or making dinner just to keep going. No wonder it was easier back when we were kids: mother cooked the food!

As interesting as Ghost of Tsushima is, I am not playing it on weekdays. That’s the difference of being an adult: we can exercise self control. Sacrificing sleep for video games? No freaking way.

Anyways, the major gaming news over the weekend is that the review embargo for the highly anticipated Steam Deck expired. All the major players put out reviews for the new portable gaming device from Valve. From what I’ve read, the verdict so far that the Steam Deck is an incredible piece of hardware for the price, but the thing still need more time in the oven to be truly great. Electing to run the operating system based on Linux - rather than Windows - seems to be a major hurdle yet to overcome.

But it’s incredible to see PlayStation 4 level performance in a handheld device. Computing power vis a vis packaging size have reach a point where that is possible. It made me ponder: perhaps the moment is right for Sony to make another PlayStation Portable. I had a second-generation PSP and I absolutely adored playing MLB The Show on it. Seeing such demand for the Steam Deck - and the utter popularity of the Nintendo Switch, I think the market is there for Sony.

I’d certainly buy one to pair alongside my PlayStation 5.