The State of the PC: 2017

Improbable Insights

The personal computer evolution seems to be slowing. Apple seems to be ignoring high-end customers, 2-in-1 designs are proliferating, and the desktop PC stagnates. On the OS side, MacOS seems to be stagnating and Windows continues to be overly intrusive. What’s going to happen to the PC going forward? Eric, David, and I discuss happenings in the Mac arena, what's going on with Windows, the slowdown in CPU progress, how displays have been evolving, and how storage has become the real beacon of progress in PCs. Tools I now have this teeny Maratec Extreme titanium flashlight I obtained from Massdrop. For a flashlight that uses a single AAA battery, it's hella bright, and no bigger than a lip balm stick. I also pick up a white vinyl backdrop to help improve my studio photography. Oh, and I drop a Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake processor into my PC and notice... well, not much. It runs. It's supposedly faster. I can't tell. Dave plays around with STEMTera, an Arduino breadboard that also works with Arduino Shields and has a Lego-compatible bottom. He also delves deeper into Premiere Elements to try to process all the drone video he's collected. Trying to sort out what video is actually relevant turns out to be a big workflow task. Meanwhile, Eric's bailed on Twitter for a bit; even his tech and VC friends seem to be tweeting about politics 24/7, and it's making him cranky. He's also researching DC power supplies and exploring the idea of editing video. Eric still feels Oculus is the better VR headset, but Vive has roomscale nailed down more effectively. Fun The Expanse, season 2, rocks. 'Nuff said. Go watch it. I also wrap up reading Cathy O'Neill's Weapons of Math Destruction, where she deconstructs many of the biases, assumptions, and crappy implementations of algorithmic approaches to human problems. It's a critical book at a critical time in our history, and well worth a read. Now I'm on to reading Charles' Stross' Empire Games. David's having issues with his Apollo 121 Flight Plan recreation, which was a Kickstarter project; the issues seem more to do with the project being just a bit too ambitious rather than any malicious intent. He talks about more podcasts and looks forward to seeing John Wick 2. Eric's getting deeper into XCOM2. Will his plucky team of agents prevail? Stay tuned.