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The home computer as a cultural object is physically vanishing (2007)
- beckingz 5y agoThis website is a blast from old web design. Nice!
- annoyingnoob 5y agoThis style should be called Ransom Note.
- drivingmenuts 5y agoBack then, it was, if not the height of design, at least within the horizon. Now, it just looks deranged and unreadable.
- chrisco255 5y agoIt's a shame Twitter Bootstrap wasn't around in 2007.
- ergot_vacation 5y agoDesign is both a linear progression and an infinitely looping circle/pendulum. Things were really free and organic at first. People got frustrated with this, and rising tech companies gave them "clean, modern" design instead. It was embraced because it was easier on the eyes, and faster to use in general. But now I think there's a growing resentment toward the "clean, modern" look, because it's simplified every drop of soul and humanity out of digital interfaces and expression. The pendulum will probably start to swing in the other direction soon.
- jephson 5y agoThis particular page design can be read as an intentional response to Web2.0, something the authors of this article considered to be part of a broader campaign to remove "amateur" production from the web. They published a book, Digital Folklore, expanding on this idea a few years later: https://digitalfolklore.org/ https://digitalfolklore.org/
- spiritplumber 5y agoIt just needs blink tags
- munk-a 5y ago... or Dancing Ants.
- ergot_vacation 5y agoI'm of mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, it sure is hard to read. On the other hand, in small doses I kind of enjoy it after the super sanitized corporate nothingness most of the web has become now. One glance at this page and there is zero doubt in my mind that it represents the genuine expression of an actual human without layers and layers of forced censorship and editing by some "platform." The web was never supposed to have "platforms" in the first place: Youtube/Facebook/Twitter etc are all fundamentally rent-seeking parasites in a way most people don't even appreciate today. The web was supposed to just be a place anyone could put up a document with some links to other documents. Cheap, simple, easy, fast. Then some services cropped up to help make some of the frustrating parts easier and quicker, and eventually the "services" ended up eating the web alive.
- Threeve303 5y agoThe correlation between creation and consumption based on the device form factor is something to consider. A desktop computer often provided a good balance between the two. Now with the corporate web, perhaps it’s no accident consumption devices have become so widespread.
- yupper32 5y ago> Cheap, simple, easy, fast I mean, this page is not simple, easy, or fast to develop. Instead of just writing a simple article, the author had to source/create at least 2 dozen images with no value only to lay them out on the page in the middle of paragraphs, making the article as hard to read as they could muster. Enjoy the nostalgia and break from modern clean websites, but anything else justifying the look of this page is just crazy. And connecting it to modern services and the downfall of the internet or whatever just sounds like you're trying to be edgy. We are in a massively better place now than a decade or two ago as far as the internet being accessible to everyone, both on the publisher and consumer side, despite the hate for big corps.
- beering 5y agoI think the title could use a "(2007)" notice because the same title analyzed today would be quite different, I imagine.
- stu2b50 5y agoI can only imagine how the OP would react to a reality where I'd estimate the majority of people use a thin candybar touchscreen brick with maybe 3 buttons as their primary computing device outside of work.
- kergonath 5y ago2007, really? From the looks, I’d have guessed 1995. Written by a time traveler who knew about the iMac G5.
- amerine 5y agoOh wow. Sigh. I didn’t even look at the date.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sunstone 5y agoMy home computer(NUC/LinuxMint) has melded with my dumb TV. Working very nicely so far.
- amerine 5y agoI’m 36 right now and have always made sure to have a desktop computer with accounts for each family member and it’s used all the time. I agree it’s a feature that’s disappearing, but if anything it’s because people are getting more personal computers, like a laptop or modern smart phone, than ever before.
- silicon2401 5y agoIMO this is an underrated setup. Laptops are nice, but having an 'official', stationary, desktop computer builds up associations and mindsets that help with whatever it is you do on it. I didn't have a desktop until I was 26 and it was like going from studying in random chairs and tables to having a proper desk.
- ghaff 5y agoI have about a 6 year old iMac and MacBook Pro. I'm guessing, depending on specs, when I upgrade, it will be to just (the rumored) 14" Apple Silicon MacBook Pro.
- swiley 5y agoSmartphones are not personal computers. They should be but they definitely are not.
- amerine 5y agoFair point. I guess I watch (my) kids use them enough (tossing iPads/tablets into this group too) to make me feel like they are a personal computer. But you are right. They are not.
- echelon 5y agoThe home computer has been replaced with the iPhone. What boggles my mind is that the industry accepts Apple's restrictions on what kind of computing can happen, how their software can be distributed, and how their gross/margins are taxed. These devices have done a perverse thing to our field. Consumers love them, but fuck are they awful for freedom, business, and small time success. We used to build platforms in the open that we all benefited from (ie. the Web). Even Microsoft Windows was and is more open than these goddamn monopoly devices. The DOJ needs to rip Apple's control of the iPhone away. It's not their device anymore. It's the industry. Computing belongs to the people. It'd make for a healthier playing field, and Apple would still be making bank.
- threatofrain 5y agoPersonally I'm in love with the fact that Apple found a business model selling privacy and safety, while I'm also torn on the idea that Apple has been using their weight to bludgeon the competition into giving up a massive share of revenue. At the same time, the weighing of leverage is precisely how the market has and still works to this day. Thus if you send me out there to negotiate with Popeye's (which really wants you to create an account), or Walmart, Facebook, or even a small company making todo apps, I will simply not win, and neither will my family members. I love that cross-app tracking is now opt-in, because that's not something I'd ever imagine negotiating with any company, ever. I love the fact that all subscription-based services purchased through the iOS platform can be managed in a centralized place. And I will of course resent in my tiny, futile, pathetic way, those voices which say "Well, you as a free agent made these concessions in the marketplace. Didn't you get what you deserve?" Why can't there be a consumer choice to throw your weight behind a mega-giant who intercedes forcefully on your behalf, in a marketplace that is all about the weighing of leverage?
- shadowgovt 5y agoThere are dozens of hardware platforms running hundreds (if not thousands) of software stacks that a user can play with that aren't Apple's ecosystem. Everything from a Raspberry Pi to a Lenovo ThinkPad. It's a color-wheel of hardware and software out there.
- LeoPanthera 5y agoI have more "home computers" now than ever before. It all started when I figured out you can network boot the Raspberry Pi. Now I have one connected to a cheap monitor in nearly every room in the house. Because you can switch what OS they boot into just by renaming a symlink on the server, sometimes they play music, sometimes they show movies, sometimes they show live TV, sometimes they browse the web. I'm probably a little eccentric but I really enjoy this a lot more than simply carrying a laptop around the house.
- tryauuum 5y agoThat's pretty cool. I think if the monitors are thin enough and wall-mounted, they ought to give a house a sci-fi look
- RocketOne 5y agoI just entered the time space continuum and emerged in Geocities.
- coldacid 5y agoBetween this and another post containing hundreds of 88x31 buttons, tell me about it!
- asperous 5y agoFor the average person this might be kind true, however I can think of at least three places where desktop computers are very much cultural and symbolic: * “Gamers” or other enthusiasts with their battlestations [1] * Finace workstations with many monitors and Bloomberg terminals [2] * Potentially musician workstations as well [3] Any other niche ideas? [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ [2] https://images.app.goo.gl/KfaJMqBp8JVkW6Yn8 https://images.app.goo.gl/KfaJMqBp8JVkW6Yn8 [3] https://images.app.goo.gl/sVjkdWvKNrMN2xdD8 https://images.app.goo.gl/sVjkdWvKNrMN2xdD8
- dylan604 5y agoIf it is central to home computing, I'd say audio/music workstations are a bit outside of that. However, if you allow that, then a video workstation would also follow.
- danilocesar 5y agoPart of a musician "workstation" is already an ipad (or more). It's question of time, IMHO.
- handrous 5y agoAs a musician's tool, it's hard to beat a computer that fits neatly on a music stand and lasts all day on battery.
- yurishimo 5y agoEh, it depends on what kind of work you're doing within the music industry. Solo studio tracking artist? Yeah, an iPad is probably good enough for you to practice with and do some rough scratch recordings for demo purposes. If you're running a studio, you need the I/O to handle at least a few physical devices with dedicated PCIe lanes, and a high resolution input device like a mouse or trackpad to make precise edits in a DAW. Plus a keyboard. Audio/video editors love their keyboard shortcuts just as much as developers! While it may be possible to connect any one of those devices to an iPad, connecting all of them and making it easy to disconnect the iPad, makes it impractical in reality. The iPad in it's current format is not a great device for professional audio recording and mixing, and if you changed the format to better fit that workflow, you've now described a Mac Mini and you should buy one of those instead.
- Hamuko 5y agoMeanwhile Apple is trying to revive the iconic iMac G3 with the new colourful iMacs.
- runawaybottle 5y agoLaptops and tabletops are ubiquitous. The desktop computer is purely in the realm of the pc gaming enthusiast at this point.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mkl95 5y agoMy desktop computer -which doubles as my workstation- is going to be 10 years old soon. The replacements during these years make it a beast to this day, it beats a $5000 Macbook Pro into a pulp for a fraction of the price. I'm not considering ditching it for now.
- savant_penguin 5y agoMostly any pc you build with much less than $5k will beat a $5k MacBook pro
- mkl95 5y agoIn my experience, it beats mid to high tier iMacs as well. Those things get clunky for no reason.
- zten 5y agoiMacs are usually laptops in all but name. To hit the same thinness with a giant heat-producing screen, most of the parts are their mobile equivalents. Edit: on slightly closer inspection, this isn't true for the 27" models!
- mhh__ 5y agoThank god for them being thin, I actually had to throw away my 2013 iMac because it was just unbearable reading my emails with x-ray vision and noticing just how thick it is.
- asdff 5y agoWhat is hilarious is that the thin imac weighs the same 20lbs as the one that was a few inches thicker and had better cooling and user replaceable parts.
- kitsunesoba 5y agoThe 27" models have traditionally used off the shelf socketed CPUs though, which is unusual in AIOs. Regular 27" models use desktop i9s and the Pro uses a desktop Xeon. Both can technically have their CPUs upgraded even if opening them is a pain.
- ofrzeta 5y agoThere's nothing better than a huge display with high resolution, keyboard and mouse. The computer might be in a separate chassis or a laptop or whatever but a huge display and a mouse are indispensable.
- munk-a 5y agoHonestly, I personally love the aesthetic of big whirring fans and blinking lights. If you offered me an M1 MacBook Pro but it would be buried in a 7 foot tall cupboard plastered in lights and fans that occasionally, randomly, sounded like a jet engine taking off... I would be in heaven.
- Scramblejams 5y agoSome day I hope all of my home compute will be housed in something that looks like WOPR.
- asdff 5y agoStick the macbook in a mini fridge and reap the cooling benefits
- astrange 5y agoNot recommended in a humid environment. Maybe you could use those dry-aging bags.
- zozbot234 5y ago> buried in a 7 foot tall cupboard plastered in lights and fans that occasionally, randomly, sounded like a jet engine taking off... There might be a market for rackmountable hardware with the much-needed addition of proper RGB lighting (for improved performance).
- my_usernam3 5y ago.... I'd pay for that if its a good docking station as well!
- dlevine 5y agoI recently rebuilt my gaming PC with a Ryzen 5000-series. Surprisingly, it has become my main work PC, and I haven't used it much for gaming. It's faster than my i9 Macbook pro, and another benefit is that I can only work when I'm sitting at my desk. With a laptop, I can do work pretty much anywhere. Which is a double-edged sword.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rossdavidh 5y agoMy 15-year old daughter just recently got her first desktop. Why? Well, because instead of just consuming (which she does on her phone) or doing homework (chromebook), she wanted to do video editing, and also drawing using a Wacom tablet. She found that the non-desktop options were just not that great. Had it been a passing fancy, no doubt she would have done without the desktop, but it wasn't, so she got a tricked out desktop (intended for gamers, I think) and now has the most powerful computer in the house. She still uses her phone and (when in school) her Chromebook, but when she's in creator (not consumer) mode, she uses her desktop.
- samatman 5y agoA tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for video editing. I haven't hooked it up to a keyboard/mouse combo, or plugged it into a monitor, but it's quite capable of both of those things. I can tell you it's simply superior to a Wacom tablet for drawing, there I have a direct comparison. A PC/desktop will certainly exceed an iPad at some level: but now that the Pro model has an M1, it's unclear at what level that is. I certainly don't edit at a level where the difference between Logic and LumaFusion becomes apparent, and I expect that Apple releasing Logic for the iPad is a matter of when, not if. The iPad is also as expensive as a good laptop, so in more than one sense those two categories are converging. I'm sure your daughter made the right decision for her, I'm just taking the opportunity to build on your comment with a bit more evidence that the home computer is a vanishing breed.
- bluescrn 5y ago> A tangent, but I've found the iPad Pro to be fabulous for video editing Doesn't the sandboxing and limited access to the file system get in the way? Can you export video to non-Apple formats, collaborate with other people via a version control system, easily import footage from non-Apple devices, and so on? Can you even cleanly separate your video editing project from your personal holiday photos/videos? (Does iPadOS expose a directory structure to the end user yet?)
- zepto 5y ago
- duxup 5y agoI remember being able to borrow the big old Apple II from school (my mom was a teacher so in the summer I could borrow them for a time... otherwise they just sat dormant in school). It sat on the kitchen counter like an appliance / shrine.
- amelius 5y agoSo the MacBook/iPhone/iPad are not cultural objects?
- MarcScott 5y agoI've just bought my first desktop in about 20 years. The main reason, the bloody clutter. I have two (work issued) laptops, one that runs Windows and one for NixOS, both with SSDs that are too small for me to dual boot effectively. Then there are my two external monitors, my mechanical keyboard and mouse. I need a keyboard and mouse switch as there are an inadequate number of USB ports on the laptops and I want to share peripherals, USB-C hubs on the laptops to get video out to more than one monitor and also provide power simultaneously and read/write SD cards. My desk is an absolute cluttered mess. Minimalist laptops/tablets just end up producing more clutter for me, are hard if not impossible to upgrade, and tend to suffer from planned obsolescence. Now I don't need to travel to work every day, I'm happy to have a desktop at home and then use a co-working space with a Raspberry Pi when I do need to go into the office.
- foobarian 5y agoThe biggest desk/workstation upgrade I have had in years was putting my monitor onto a wall-mounted arm. The desk space under the monitor magically opened up into a vast empty plain that I could then fill up with... more cables. But at least I can do more now :-)
- _carbyau_ 5y agoAlong the same lines, have somewhere to put your keyboard and mouse. Bam! You now have a full normal desk to draw, paint, glue stuff, solder etc. I live in a 2 bed apartment with a 3 year old. My desk is an Ikea Ivar shelf with the computer sitting on the highest shelf to keep it all away from my toddler...
- dkdk8283 5y agoI detest mobile: I find the interface very difficult to use. I would give up mobile way before giving up my desktop. I realize, though, that I’m in the minority.
- jms703 5y agoLaptops and mobile devices are an ergonomic nightmare. 13" laptop is great when working on a plane.
- asciimov 5y agoA friends family doesn't have a single desktop/laptop/tablet/printer in their house. They all have decently highend cell phones. If the children need to type up a book report one of the adults brings home their work laptop. Meanwhile, I've moved back to desktops. If I ever need a laptop again it will be the lightest weight one I can get, and will use it to remote access my main machine.
- markhahn 5y agoquite an accomplishment of html cruelty.
- masswerk 5y agoRegarding the physical presence of a small computer, something I actually miss is people hitting the monitor, when in despair, rather then the true culprit (as in "the box"). – There's actually some kind of magic in this misdirection. With flat screens, this isn't a thing anymore. (Also, the kind of despair that would urge someone to attack the machine, has become increasingly more abstract, as has the underlying architecture causing the despair. What would you do? Take a plane to hit "the cloud"?)
- baud147258 5y agoI mostly hit the keyboard. And curse (loudly at home, under my breath in the office)
- mikewarot 5y agoRight before the pandemic, I was shopping at Best Buy, and saw HP 32" monitors on sale, cheap. (The old 2K, not 4k) Phoned home to check with the Misses, and she said no, get 2 of them, one for yourself, and one for sproutlet. Having a nice big screen really helped during the quarantine after getting sick, and the time after. It doesn't really matter what your "computer" is, be it an old Mac Pro tower, or an HP laptop, the Monitor, real Keyboard and Mouse are what make a desktop these days. The old beige box is optional now, the rest isn't.
- eyelovewe 5y agoPer usual, clickbait polemics that propose absolutes cause controversy. I realize that the comments here will largely be filled with people variously proposing that one do EVERYTHING with the iPad, and folks opposed to that. As this article is from 2007 and desktops are not extinct may I humbly suggest that a tablet device SUPPLEMENTS and COMPLEMENTS desktop and laptop computers running “full featured” operating systems (ones that allow you to manage files conveniently, for example, or configure the system as you wish it to be). The question is not so much about processing power, but of form factors. A PCI(e) based audio interface is still superior to a USB one in latency and jitter, commodity RAM in standardized slots as an easy consumer upgrade, one can speak of the physical space required for proper USB ports if OTG and a zillion fragile dongles aren’t going to work for you. The vast majority of content creators that I know, (including myself) use a tablet in conjunction with a traditional computer form factor. They use the tablet variously as a remote control, as an input device, and as a portable idea capturing device. It doesn’t replace a sound or video studio, it’s a welcome addition to one.