The contenders to replace my old Dell 27" monitor:
Samsung 28" 3840x2160 TN display for $749.
Dell 24" 3840x2160 IPS display for $1199.*
LG 34" 3440x1440 IPS display for $1299.
The Samsung is cheapest by a good margin, but it's a TN panel, and I've been using IPS screens on my desktop since I first moved away from CRTs.
The Dell is a very high-quality screen, but it's the smallest, and runs exclusively at 3840x2160. So it's not great for gaming unless you have something like the new Radeon 295X2, a $1500 500W liquid-cooled monster.
The LG is actually lower resolution than the others, but it's huge and wide enough for three workable documents side-by-side.
I think there's no bad choice here; they all look like excellent monitors. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money or space to buy one of each.
* It was A$1699 at the start of the year. That price is coming down fast.
You wouldn't really want to go DOWN in size, would you?
Posted by: Wonderduck at Saturday, April 19 2014 12:19 PM (Kv7m+)
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TN panels are the cheap ones, where the colour, brightness, and contrast shift when you look at them from an angle. IPS panels (also known as PVA and other TLAs) are the expensive ones, where that doesn't happen nearly as much.
I'd rather not go down in size or panel quality, but there's no ideal solution at present... At least, not at a reasonable price. The only solution that gives me everything I want would cost about $7000, because I'd need the monitor itself (close to $3000), a super-high-end video card to run games at 4K resolution because the monitor only does 4K (around $1800), and a new computer to put the video card in because it won't actually fit in my current computer (upwards of $2000).
So if I give a little on panel quality, I can get pretty much what I want for 1/8 the cost.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, April 19 2014 01:20 PM (PiXy!)
Their take: If you're not doing professional graphics work where colour accuracy is key, go buy one. If you are, go buy one and keep a standard-resolution colour-calibrated monitor for doing colour checks.
I do some design work, but entirely for web, not for print. To a first approximation no-one at all browses the web on colour-calibrated monitors, so no matter how accurate your own setup is is, no two people will your work see it the same way. So good enough for me.
I think I'll get the Samsung when it arrives next month. Unless the price of the Dell 24" comes down even further...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, April 19 2014 02:24 PM (PiXy!)
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If you don't need ridiculously-sized monitors like Pixy, IPS prices have come down drastically relative to TN. I bought an Asus 22" VS229, then gave it to my son a month later, and replaced it with another Asus, the 23" VX238, which is actually a step up, and while I bought both on sale, they were both within spitting distance of non-IPS monitors (I paid maybe $10-20 more in each case and it was totally worth it.)
The VX238 is pretty awesome: it's insanely bright, has 2 HDMI inputs, and built-in speakers that are better than you would expect, given that the monitor is massively thinner than the run of the mill (for example, it's probably 1/3 as thick as your average Dell monitor.)
Posted by: RickC at Saturday, April 19 2014 02:34 PM (0a7VZ)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, April 19 2014 03:49 PM (PiXy!)
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Well, no, I thought that was covered by "don't need ridiculously-sized monitors like Pixy."
Posted by: RickC at Sunday, April 20 2014 10:16 AM (0a7VZ)
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Except that the Dell I listed is a 24" monitor, barely larger than the ones you mentioned. For the first time, more pixels doesn't necessarily mean a larger screen.
Your point about quality IPS displays being much more affordable than in the past is very true, though.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, April 20 2014 12:32 PM (PiXy!)
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Oh geez yes. After mentioning what I use at home, I'll point out that at work, they bought me some TN Dell monstrosity. It's much dimmer and the colors aren't nearly as vibrant. I'd pay more than $20 more for IPS, frankly, and when it comes time to replace my current POS box I might just ask them to get me something better if I spring for the difference.
Posted by: RickC at Tuesday, April 22 2014 07:43 AM (ECH2/)
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Check out the seiki 4k at 39 inches. Not a super fast refresh rate but it's only 499 at amazon and is pretty great for coders / developers
Posted by: McDirty at Tuesday, April 22 2014 12:56 PM (9uMB5)
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No-one seems to sell Seiki in Australia, or I'd have one already.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, April 22 2014 02:34 PM (PiXy!)
First Apple's SSL library had a serious security flaw, but that's okay because I don't use Apple's SSL. (I have an iPad, but it mostly just sits there.)
Then GnuTLS had a worse security flaw, but that's okay because I use OpenSSL.
Then OpenSSL had the worst security flaw of them all... But that's okay because the version of OpenSSL we're using here is older than the bug.
I will wipe and reinstall a couple of virtual machines that don't have user data on them yet, just in case.
Of course, while mee.nu was secure* Amazon, Google, and any number of other providers have been exposed to this bug to varying degrees for two years.** And the nature of the bug is such that attacks would not show up in normal server logs; it's a silent, pseudo-random data leak.
* Entirely because I've been too busy to migrate to a newer version of Linux and install proper certificates, not because of any specific virtue.
** It's been a busy two years. Seriously. I don't want to talk about it.
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Isn't it the case that this wasn't so much a bug as it was a deliberately-inserted exploit?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, April 09 2014 03:57 PM (+rSRq)
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No clear evidence of that. For GnuTLS and OpenSSL, it's open source and the changes are tracked, so we know exactly who introduced the bug and when.
The Apple bug is a bit dubious, since the specific bug should have been detected immediately by any code analysis tool or even the programmer's IDE (it left unreachable code), but again, no clear evidence that it was deliberate.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, April 09 2014 04:04 PM (PiXy!)
I mentioned recently how iiNet have been periodically upgrading my internet plan for free for eight years.
This leaves me with this "problem":
daily usage trends
anytime:8,325MB
suggested daily usage
anytime:125,024MB
I'm not sure that my connection is actually fast enough to download 125GB per day. Never mind finding that much content that I want. I just downloaded every current version of Linux Mint because it was there and I might want to try it some day. There's only so many Linux distros and podcasts out there...
I almost bought a new monitor (or two) last year. I have a Dell U2711, and while it's adequate, it's not a perfect monitor (and mine has a few flaws that have developed over the past couple of years).
So I've been looking closely at Dell's 4K monitors. The 32" model at around $3000 is simply too expensive; I might be able to afford it, but I have better things to do with the money. The 28" model is a lot cheaper ($829), but it's a TN panel rather than IPS, and it's limited to 30Hz.
The 24" model falls in between - it's IPS and a full 60Hz, but half the price of the 32" model ($1449). But it's not all that big, smaller than my current screen. Also, it doesn't have a scaler - the only resolution it accepts is 3840x2160. I have a Radeon 7950, which isn't a bad graphics card, but it's not up to playing the latest games at 4K resolution. I don't really care about playing games at 4K - I played Mass Effect 1 and 2 on my current monitor at 720p, and that was just fine - but if I have a monitor that only accepts 4K, I'm kind of stuck.
So, none of the Dells are ideal. But Samsung just announced their catchily titled U28D590D, a 28" display most likely using the identical TN panel as the Dell model, but with different electronics. Samsung provide 4k@60Hz via DisplayPort, and dual HDMI inputs for 4K@30Hz - or 1080p@60Hz. Or, for that matter, two side-by-side displays of 1920x2160, if for some strange reason you wish to do that. It can also do scalable picture-in-picture with the alternate inputs.
It has a fairly nice, minimalist industrial design.
And it costs $749. Australian. Including sales tax.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Saturday, March 29
Why PC Sales Are Declining
You can get a decent Windows laptop for $500.
You can get a horrible piece of crap for $500.
And there is no way to know which you are getting unless you verify the specifications of every single component and memorise Intel, AMD, and Nvidia's entire product ranges.
How is the average customer supposed to know that a 1.5GHz Celeron 1007U is nearly twice as fast as a 2GHz Celeron N2810?
Can you imagine if the 2015 Ford F-250 came with a 4-cylinder engine, when the cheaper F-150 came standard with a V8, and the manufacturer only listed max RPM on the brochure? Because that's what laptop makers do every single day.
And don't get me started on the continued existence of 1366x768 displays. Quad-core CPU, 1TB disk, 16GB RAM, 4GB dedicated graphics, wireless-ac, USB 3.0... And a screen from the flipping dark ages.
There's one major PC laptop maker who still provides build-to-order options in Australia, and that's Lenovo. Most of their low-end models have crappy screens, but you can upgrade them. The price to go from an outdated 1366x768 to a more reasonable 1920x1080? $55. Their W540 laptop comes with 1920x1080 as standard, but can be upgraded to 2880x1620. Price? $132.
If the price differential is so small, why does every laptop between $500 and $1500 have the same crappy screen?
Answer: Because the manufacturers are dickheads.
The weird thing is that this is the exact inverse of the mobile phone market. Recent mobile phones are mostly 1920x1080 - twice as many pixels on a 5" screen as an average laptop has on a 15" screen. But most phones ship with a pathetic 16GB of flash, half of which is already used by the operating system. Doubling that would add about $10 to the price of a device costing several hundred dollars, but noooo....
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Monday, March 24
The Difference Between Science And Engineering
In both science and engineering, it is not uncommon to spend considerable time and resources calibrating equipment to make and verify a single measurement, only to find oneself saying, what the hell, that can't be right.
In both science and engineering, this event can lead to an unexpected change in the trajectory of one's career.
There have been such cases, however. In the 40's engineers working on radar noticed that sometimes their equipment picked up all kinds of noise and sometimes it didn't. After long and careful analysis they determined that it was noisy when the center of the Milky Way was high in the sky (whether in day or at night) and once they figured that out, they no longer had to worry about whether their equipment was failing.
But it was news to scientists, and founded the entire field of radio astronomy.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, March 25 2014 10:37 AM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Thursday, March 13 2014 02:46 AM (+rSRq)
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It's not so much that there's a "sucked into jet engine" code--because that has actually been documented--but that there's a "subsequent encounter!" If I were to survive being sucked into a jet engine I'd never go near another plane again, I don't think!
Posted by: RickC at Thursday, March 13 2014 06:24 AM (ECH2/)
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"Subsequent encounter" doesn't mean you did it again, it means you're back for more treatment.
Posted by: TheSquirrelPatrol at Thursday, March 13 2014 11:25 AM (da+4f)
Posted by: RickC at Thursday, March 13 2014 11:00 PM (ECH2/)
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The purpose of the tens of thousands of new medical billing codes is to make it impossible for a doctor to avoid mistakes. Under the ACA every mistake can be considered felony insurance fraud, and thus a lever to force doctors into compliance with unseemly requirements. It sounds funny that there are seven different codes for Macaw attacks separate from other bird inflicted injuries, but the purpose and penalties are pure evil.
Any how if i learned anything from Firefly it's that you only get to ride the engine intake once.
Posted by: Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at Friday, March 21 2014 04:12 PM (9O5Pr)
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I immediately thought of Firefly when I saw that code.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, March 21 2014 06:35 PM (PiXy!)
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That happens in one particular anime, too. Though Firefly was also my first thought. Along with the thought that the "subsequent encounter" guy in that show wouldn't have needed medical treatment (just laundry services.)
...and the "subsequent encounter" code would have been a possibility in the anime, even in RickC's sense of the term. Immortality has its downsides.
Posted by: Mikeski at Saturday, March 22 2014 02:56 PM (Zlc1W)
Eight years ago I signed up with iiNet for ADSL on their top-tier business plan, which gave me 1.5 mbits down, 256 kbits up, and 60GB of monthly downloads.
I'm still on the same plan, and paying the same amount each month. Only now I get 14 mbits down, 2 mbits up, and 1200GB of downloads.
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Every so often I'll log into my Linode manager (I don't need to except once in a blue moon anyway) and find that, hey, they've upped my memory/CPU/storage allocation just because.
I love those guys, especially now that the Fremont CA site isn't going up and down like a yo-yo anymore...
Posted by: GreyDuck at Wednesday, February 19 2014 06:32 AM (3m7pZ)
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That's pretty nice, GreyDuck--it's been my experience that they don't bother changing your plan for you if the new one's better and cheaper, they just keep charging you for your now-obsolete plan--the way I found out about this was looking at my hosting site and discovering that I'd been paying a plan for about two years after it was replaced with one much better. That has happened to me personally once, the place I currently work once, both with web hosting, and Verizon did it to me with Fios once (when I called about cancelling they pointed out that the plan I was on wasn't even offered any more and bumped me from 5MBps to 25.)
Posted by: RickC at Thursday, February 20 2014 11:54 AM (swpgw)
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Pixy? I need your help... there are still two rogue comments in my
"CONTENT > Comments > edit" screen that are so long that they've
pushed all the editing boxes off the edge of my screen.
I can't seem to find where to adjust the Editing screen to widen it, if
that's even possible. Could you please work your magic on this matter,
like you've done before?
Thank you muchly!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Monday, February 24 2014 04:17 AM (zG9ns)
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'Duck, if you're using a modern browser and know a little HTML/CSS, hit F12 to bring up the developer tools. You can use those to do something clever like resize the element that's too big.
Posted by: RickC at Tuesday, February 25 2014 02:02 AM (ECH2/)
Dog goes woof, cat goes meow.
Bird goes tweet, and mouse goes squeak.
Cow goes moo. Frog goes croak, and the elephant goes toot.
Ducks say "Hey, got any grapes?".
