[GTALUG] 2 weeks on cell phone and chromebook... never again!

William Park opengeometry at yahoo.ca
Sat Jul 23 09:24:24 EDT 2016


On Fri, Jul 22, 2016 at 03:51:25PM +0200, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
> These days email makes up but a fraction of my digital communications, and
> most of that is either mailing lists, or Outlook/Exchange from work because
> that's how they work .... Skype, Hangouts, SMS, and social media posts
> enable immediate response and don't need aggressive spam filters. Not every
> communications calls for the same tool.

Most of my communication is with people I don't know or met (ie. work
related).  So, it's email, and top-posting.

> As for typing, give me a break. I can enter text on a screen without taking
> my finger off the glass, (using the free Swiftkey kb) at least as fast as I

I have that too.  I still have to locate the keys, slide my finger, hold
or make sharp turn at the key, etc.  Cell phone guess it wrong half the
time, so I still have to correct the word.  Putting a little oil on the
screen helps with the glide.

> could ever do on a real keyboard (which was, honestly,  never too fast to
> start with). The innovations here are coming from mobile, not the end of an
> RS-232 cable.
> 
> The only times where I really like a full keyboard and pointer is for
> typing long documents, and creating things that require greater pointing
> precision than the tip of my finger (which, in my case, mean a Cherry Brown
> keyboard and trackball instead of mouse). But such creative work takes but
> a fraction of my total time interfacing with computing devices.

I think, we're saying the same thing.  "Right tool for right job".
As simple comparison of 
    - Android: 1920x1080 5.2" cell phone touch screen
    - Windows: 1920x1080 24" desktop monitor, full size keyboard,
      5-button Microsoft mouse
I'm more productive on Windows desktop, by orders of magnitude.  Even
more so on Linux machine at home.  So, cell phone is not the "right
tool" for me.

    (Note: 5-button mouse is nice.  You might say, you have Back and
    Forward buttons on browsers or apps.  But, you have to locate the
    buttons, move the mouse, it will "overshoot", you make correction,
    and finally click.  You can adjust "damping" factor on the mouse
    feets or mouse "acceleration" settings, but it's limited.  With
    dedicated Back/Forward buttons on the mouse, you move the mouse
    pointer to anywhere on the windows of apps, then click.)

For top-post emails that I get/send at work, cell phone is fine, because
you always add on top and never edit below.  Eg, you send 13-point
detailed description of problem, and you get one-liner response, "When
is ETA?".  Oh, it's two-liner if count "Sent from iPhone."

Very pissed, considering the money I spent on LG Nexus 5X.  
-- 
William


More information about the talk mailing list