IT... Computing....

[Flat Earth Society]

That's true, refresh rates are important for gaming. 60Hz displays aren't able to display more than 60 FPS and so on.

I didn't look into it enough, but indeed, that's a pretty nice display. If I can find any laptop with an as good display for less money, I'll let you know though assuming this is what you're looking for.

[dr_st]

Speaking of monitors... I just got an ASUS ProArt PA278QV from my employer - a very nice display, and I struggle to find use for it, as my old displays, even from 2010, still work perfectly.

[Steo]

When it comes to monitors, the problem is there's always a trade off. TN for example has the best response times, for the least motion blur, but the downsides are the viewing angles and colour accuracy. VA has good contrast, and decent colours, but bad viewing angles and bad response times, so they have motion blur at high speeds. IPS monitors have good viewing angles, decent colours, but a limited contrast ratio, and also not the greatest response times.

There's always a trade off, unless you put money into an OLED, since they're amazing for everything overall, and have perfect black levels. The problem is that OLED is very expensive, and the one issue is they can be prone to burn in. It's highly unlikely to experience the burn in unless you use maximum brightness and leave static images on the screen all the time for a ridiculous amount of hours, day in, day out, but on a desktop this could happen with the taskbar over a long period of time. I doubt anyone will leave their screen on maximum brightness though.

[dr_st]

When it comes to monitors, the problem is there's always a trade off. TN for example has the best response times, for the least motion blur, but the downsides are the viewing angles and colour accuracy. VA has good contrast, and decent colours, but bad viewing angles and bad response times, so they have motion blur at high speeds. IPS monitors have good viewing angles, decent colours, but a limited contrast ratio, and also not the greatest response times.

This used to be the general situation, but it's a bit outdated. Response time is no longer a limiting factor (honestly hasn't been for over a decade, but 60Hz has become a limiting factor). At first >60Hz monitors were only available in TN+Film, but now they exist in all technologies. I suppose the main trade-off in IPS vs VA is color accuracy at all angles versus contrast. Really no reason to get TN+Film for anything at all (except price). IPS can be expensive still in certain segments, VA is in the middle.

There's always a trade off, unless you put money into an OLED, since they're amazing for everything overall, and have perfect black levels. The problem is that OLED is very expensive, and the one issue is they can be prone to burn in. It's highly unlikely to experience the burn in unless you use maximum brightness and leave static images on the screen all the time for a ridiculous amount of hours, day in, day out, but on a desktop this could happen with the taskbar over a long period of time. I doubt anyone will leave their screen on maximum brightness though.

OLED has great black levels, but due to risk of permanent burn-in, and so I do not recommend for computer work or very long gaming sessions, since you are bound to have static UI elements (desktop or game) which may cause said burn-in. I thought that maybe it is less likely on OLED from the past year or so, but apparently it still happens. With that said, if lowering the brightness to, say 50%, increases the mean time to burn-in by a factor of 10 or more, then maybe it's not such a big issue.

[Steo]

This used to be the general situation, but it's a bit outdated. Response time is no longer a limiting factor (honestly hasn't been for over a decade, but 60Hz has become a limiting factor). At first >60Hz monitors were only available in TN+Film, but now they exist in all technologies. I suppose the main trade-off in IPS vs VA is color accuracy at all angles versus contrast. Really no reason to get TN+Film for anything at all (except price). IPS can be expensive still in certain segments, VA is in the middle.

It's true that 60Hz has become that way. At this point, if I have to use a computer with a 60Hz screen, the cursor even looks sluggish. It's also true that technology has improved over time, meaning each type of display has also improved majorly. It still depends on the panel quality despite the display type though, for example, I got a new laptop recently, and while the screen is IPS, it's a terrible one with only 64% sRGB coverage. Due to this, I'll be purchasing a better screen for it after Christmas which actually has decent colours.

At home, I have both a TN and VA monitor side by side. The TN actually still has pretty decent colours compared to the earlier TN panels we'd have seen.

OLED has great black levels, but due to risk of permanent burn-in, and so I do not recommend for computer work or very long gaming sessions, since you are bound to have static UI elements (desktop or game) which may cause said burn-in. I thought that maybe it is less likely on OLED from the past year or so, but apparently it still happens. With that said, if lowering the brightness to, say 50%, increases the mean time to burn-in by a factor of 10 or more, then maybe it's not such a big issue.

I have an OLED TV at home too. It's amazing for a TV, and even for games. I've had it for over 2 years and never experienced any burn in. You'd probably have to be playing the same game every single day to have any sort of chance of causing burn in from the UI. I even played GTA like crazy at one point and I've never even remotely had this issue. This is one of those things where your mileage may vary though, and in my case it's been fine. I guess it really depends on how it's used in each household.

[dr_st]

I got a new laptop recently, and while the screen is IPS, it's a terrible one with only 64% sRGB coverage. Due to this, I'll be purchasing a better screen for it after Christmas which actually has decent colours.

TBH, I would prefer any IPS screen to any TN (especially a laptop TN). Some IPS are really so-so (as the one you describe), but at least they have color consistency across viewing angles. I am never doing any color critical work, so extreme accuracy or wide coverage are not something that I value really.

At home, I have both a TN and VA monitor side by side. The TN actually still has pretty decent colours compared to the earlier TN panels we'd have seen.

Yes, desktop TN monitors have come a long way and they are quite decent now (can't say that it applies to laptop TNs - those glossy ones may look nice, but still wash out like crazy).

I have an OLED TV at home too. It's amazing for a TV, and even for games. I've had it for over 2 years and never experienced any burn in. You'd probably have to be playing the same game every single day to have any sort of chance of causing burn in from the UI. I even played GTA like crazy at one point and I've never even remotely had this issue.

This is comforting to know. I purchased my first OLED TV a couple of months ago (only to see it get 15% cheaper one month later), and so far have been using it only as a TV (movies, shows), but the kids have been playing some Switch on it, and it's good to know that if I ever plan to use it for casual gaming (my gaming is rarely anything other than casual), that I don't have to fear the burn-in all that much.

[Steo]

TBH, I would prefer any IPS screen to any TN (especially a laptop TN). Some IPS are really so-so (as the one you describe), but at least they have color consistency across viewing angles. I am never doing any color critical work, so extreme accuracy or wide coverage are not something that I value really.

When it comes to laptop TN panels, they look awful and have the worst viewing angles in existence. It's true that I'd take any IPS over a laptop TN, but in this case, my TN monitor that I have at home is actually much better looking than this IPS screen. It's not just the colour accuracy I care about, but the colours look really washed out in general on this IPS.

Yes, desktop TN monitors have come a long way and they are quite decent now (can't say that it applies to laptop TNs - those glossy ones may look nice, but still wash out like crazy).

Some of them still look pretty bad but it depends on the one you get. I had an Alienware one before that I sold because the red colour looked more like orange, and green was more yellow etc., but the current one is pretty good for a TN.

This is comforting to know. I purchased my first OLED TV a couple of months ago (only to see it get 15% cheaper one month later), and so far have been using it only as a TV (movies, shows), but the kids have been playing some Switch on it, and it's good to know that if I ever plan to use it for casual gaming (my gaming is rarely anything other than casual), that I don't have to fear the burn-in all that much.

It should be fine for this. I have even played really old games with an OSSC on mine. The likes of SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis, all those kinds of games with a static HUD. Usually the TV will dim itself after showing the same image for too long to prevent burn in also. It can be a little annoying at times, but it's better than having the TV ruined.

[Elite Piranha]

Speaking of monitors... I just got an ASUS ProArt PA278QV from my employer - a very nice display, and I struggle to find use for it, as my old displays, even from 2010, still work perfectly.

It looks pretty good to me, according to the specs page, it has at least 100% sRGB, a Delta Value of less than 2, IPS panels, wide viewing angles, etc. It says "Non-Glare" (another way of saying "Anti-Glare" I guess), so I assume it helps you reduce eyestrain. However, I don't understand why there are 2 static contrast ratios.

I doubt anyone will leave their screen on maximum brightness though.

I guess that depends on the case, if you have a screen with an average brightness (250 nits), my guess is that you're going to need to leave it on maximum brightness very often (even if you're indoors). If you have a screen that can go beyond the 400 nits, I don't think you will need to use the maximum level of brightness (unless you have a laptop and you go outside in a sunny day). Also, I read somewhere, that if you have a matte screen and you want to have a better color viewing experience you can increase the brightness, to compensate for the fact that colors don't look as rich as they would with a glossy screen.

If I'm incorrect about something, I would like to know.

[dr_st]

It looks pretty good to me, according to the specs page, it has at least 100% sRGB, a Delta Value of less than 2, IPS panels, wide viewing angles, etc. It says "Non-Glare" (another way of saying "Anti-Glare" I guess), so I assume it helps you reduce eyestrain. However, I don't understand why there are 2 static contrast ratios.

It's possible they have different specs for different preset display modes. I got this monitor for a combination of favorable reviews, e.g. here, here, here, and a plethora of connections.

I guess that depends on the case, if you have a screen with an average brightness (250 nits), my guess is that you're going to need to leave it on maximum brightness very often (even if you're indoors). If you have a screen that can go beyond the 400 nits, I don't think you will need to use the maximum level of brightness (unless you have a laptop and you go outside in a sunny day).

That's pretty much correct. The thing is that the OLED panels tend to be quite bright - 500-600 nits.

[Steo]

Yeah OLED panels are really bright, though my bad laptop screen has a maximum brightness of 250 nits so that's on maximum brightness. It's getting replaced eventually though.

[PluMGMK]

I just realized in the last few days that it's easier to get GVim to go along with a "Dark Mode" setting on Windows 3.1 than on a modern Linux setup!

Left: GVim running on Linux using GTK theme "Adwaita-magenta-dark"
Right: GVim running on Windows 3.1 with system theme set to "Plasma Power Saver"

It's not just a Linux thing either, I also had GVim on my old work laptop with Windows 10 and it likewise stayed white even though the system was set to Dark Mode.

It doesn't bother me that much since I can just use Vim from the terminal anyway

[Elite Piranha]

Does anyone here has experience with partitions and formatting external hard-drives? I normally create one partition to save back-ups (so I can restore my computer if I need to) and use the second partition to store other files. However, I'm not sure if I should use FAT32 or exFAT as a format; I read somewhere that exFAT was more susceptible to data loss if the drive is not removed safely, I wonder if that's true or if I misunderstood.

[dr_st]

I think it's more about the compatibility. FAT32 is compatible with pretty much every modern device, but cannot handle files over 4GB. With NTFS and exFAT you get limited compatibility - some devices/OSes only support one, some only the other, some both.

I will need to research which file system is more or less susceptible to data loss in the event of quick removal, however, one important thing that applies to all systems - is to disable write caching and set the removal policy to 'quick removal'. In Windows this setting will be available in the Device Manager under the appropriate disk drive, in the Policies tab. Don't know where it is on other operating systems, but I expect they all have such a setting.

[Elite Piranha]

I think it's more about the compatibility. FAT32 is compatible with pretty much every modern device, but cannot handle files over 4GB. With NTFS and exFAT you get limited compatibility - some devices/OSes only support one, some only the other, some both.

I will need to research which file system is more or less susceptible to data loss in the event of quick removal, however, one important thing that applies to all systems - is to disable write caching and set the removal policy to 'quick removal'. In Windows this setting will be available in the Device Manager under the appropriate disk drive, in the Policies tab. Don't know where it is on other operating systems, but I expect they all have such a setting.

Thanks a lot! I didn't know about that option. One partition is only going to be used for backups of a computer with Windows, so I guess NTFS or exFAT would be appropriate; however I need the second partition to be compatible with other operating systems, so I guess FAT32 would be the best option. The problem is that the Disk Management in Windows doesn't have the option for FAT32 (only exFAT and NTFS); I have an old mac computer that could help me turn the exFAT partition into FAT32, but I wonder if it is worth the hassle.

I really don't care about the 4GB limit of the FAT32 format, most of the files I use are not that big, and if they're I just use an app to break the file into smaller parts. What I really care about is avoiding data loss and compatibilty issues.

[Steo]

I've had a USB Flash Drive fail on me recently just because I tried to put Arch Linux on it because I wasn't in the mood to bother keeping maintaining LFS while I'm busy, but maybe I'll go back to it later. Anyway, it literally just failed with Rufus under Windows and that was the end of it, now the stick won't format and you can't write to it. I even had one do the same which I used to leave plugged into my computer that had the Windows 10 installation and some other files on it. I can't format that one or write to it, but I can still read the files from it and use it to install an ancient version of Windows 10. Technology likes being weird sometimes.

[Steo]

Bump!

A few months back, I finished a course in ITS Python. I was going to do a computer course in COMPTIA A+, which is essentially a computer science equivalent. I ended up being fairly busy for some time and didn't get to put as much time into it as I wanted to, and the info became overwhelming to all take in given I had a lot to do all at once. Instead of starting it again, I discovered the same place I done my previous course (and the COMPTIA one which was in progress) had started offering a more advanced Python course. I am currently undergoing this now, and it's mostly relating to object oriented programming, along with its many uses. It seemed a bit weird to me at first to understand what was going on, but then it became very clear as to why OOP is so useful. It was also mentioned that a person never even has to use OOP in their life if they don't want to, but it helps make bigger programs more efficient.

[Elite Piranha]

It is so frustrating when I can't eject an external hard drive safely, even after trying 5 different solutions.

[dr_st]

Do you really need to eject it safely? I haven't been doing this except under rare circumstances where I have ground to believe that there may be a stuck data transfer. Normally I just wait to finish whatever file transfer is going on, then unplug.

[Elite Piranha]

Do you really need to eject it safely? I haven't been doing this except under rare circumstances where I have ground to believe that there may be a stuck data transfer. Normally I just wait to finish whatever file transfer is going on, then unplug.

I guess not, but since I'm worried about something wrong might happen, I try to eject it safely whenever I can. Last time I used the hard drive to create a system image, but after it was finished I had problems to eject it, so I shut down the computer and unplugged the external HDD (one partition is FAT32 and the other one is NTFS). Besides I made sure the option for quick removal was selected (like you mentioned before in the thread), so I guess everything should be fine...

[PluMGMK]

It's the end of an era… https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-IA- ... -Linux-6.7
"Intel Itanium IA-64 Support Removed With The Linux 6.7 Kernel"