4 ms·

Disagree strongly. Computers are way uglier now than they were in the 90s (beige boxes). There is an arc in every art. It starts with the bare bone essentials,

Disagree strongly. Computers are way uglier now than they were in the 90s (beige boxes). There is an arc in every art. It starts with the bare bone essentials, exposing the spirit and greatness. Then it becomes popular and amasses cruft until its unbearably overloaded and ugly. Then it gets stripped back to its original form, regaining its glory. And then we repeat.

theandrewbailey 12y ago
Agreed. I started noticing 5 years ago that laptops started getting really... I don't know, tacky? Not to mention the dozens of stickers that no one thinks to peel off. Also, anything marketed towards gamers tends to look like it has enough pieces and glow so much that it might be mistaken for a nuclear reactor.
- comex 12y ago
  Depends on the manufacturer, of course. Apple's laptop visual design over the last decade or so has been basically conservative, but you can really see the improvement from the original MacBook Pro from 2006: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_Pro_situated_on_a_wooden_table.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_P... to the unibody one in 2008: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Unibody_MacBook_Pro.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Unibody_M... Today's MacBook Pros look quite similar to that one (aside from being much thinner), but the light has been dropped, the power button has moved to the keyboard, and the "MacBook Pro" branding below the screen has been removed, resulting in a slightly cleaner look. The new MacBook is a more dramatic change: it will bring the branding back, offer three metal colors, and cram the keyboard into the body in a way that looks slightly awkward to me, but has the obvious advantage of minimizing the physical size of the device. Time will tell how well its design holds up. http://images.apple.com/v/macbook/b/overview/images/overview_keyboard_on_medium_2x.jpg http://images.apple.com/v/macbook/b/overview/images/overview... (No stickers, of course!)
rthomas6 12y ago
This is why my current desktop is in this case: http://www.fractal-design.com/media/77283f52-3505-40db-8167-7d1149c876b4 http://www.fractal-design.com/media/77283f52-3505-40db-8167-... Super quiet, functional, and minimalistic. This was my previous case: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CTlM72mKL.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CTlM72mKL.jpg At first I thought it looked great, until I realized it was loud, dusty, poorly designed for airflow and wire management, and annoyingly bright at night. This case was a Civic with ground lighting and a huge spoiler. The new case is more like a Tesla.
- simoncion 12y ago
  Which of Fractal Design's cases is that, and about how much did it cost?
  - rthomas6 12y ago
    Fractal Design R4, and I think I paid about $120 for it at a Microcenter. You can probably get it for cheaper online.
  - rthomas6 12y ago
    Fractal Design R4, and I think I paid about $120 for it at a Microcenter. You can probably get it for cheaper online.

theandrewbailey 12y ago

Agreed. I started noticing 5 years ago that laptops started getting really... I don't know, tacky? Not to mention the dozens of stickers that no one thinks to peel off. Also, anything marketed towards gamers tends to look like it has enough pieces and glow so much that it might be mistaken for a nuclear reactor.

comex 12y ago
Depends on the manufacturer, of course. Apple's laptop visual design over the last decade or so has been basically conservative, but you can really see the improvement from the original MacBook Pro from 2006: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_Pro_situated_on_a_wooden_table.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/MacBook_P... to the unibody one in 2008: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Unibody_MacBook_Pro.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Unibody_M... Today's MacBook Pros look quite similar to that one (aside from being much thinner), but the light has been dropped, the power button has moved to the keyboard, and the "MacBook Pro" branding below the screen has been removed, resulting in a slightly cleaner look. The new MacBook is a more dramatic change: it will bring the branding back, offer three metal colors, and cram the keyboard into the body in a way that looks slightly awkward to me, but has the obvious advantage of minimizing the physical size of the device. Time will tell how well its design holds up. http://images.apple.com/v/macbook/b/overview/images/overview_keyboard_on_medium_2x.jpg http://images.apple.com/v/macbook/b/overview/images/overview... (No stickers, of course!)

rthomas6 12y ago

This is why my current desktop is in this case: http://www.fractal-design.com/media/77283f52-3505-40db-8167-7d1149c876b4 http://www.fractal-design.com/media/77283f52-3505-40db-8167-... Super quiet, functional, and minimalistic. This was my previous case: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CTlM72mKL.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CTlM72mKL.jpg At first I thought it looked great, until I realized it was loud, dusty, poorly designed for airflow and wire management, and annoyingly bright at night. This case was a Civic with ground lighting and a huge spoiler. The new case is more like a Tesla.

simoncion 12y ago
Which of Fractal Design's cases is that, and about how much did it cost?
- rthomas6 12y ago
  Fractal Design R4, and I think I paid about $120 for it at a Microcenter. You can probably get it for cheaper online.
- rthomas6 12y ago
  Fractal Design R4, and I think I paid about $120 for it at a Microcenter. You can probably get it for cheaper online.