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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • Humans (and most other animals) see better side-to-side than up-down. Your eyes are spaced horizontally, giving us a wider horizontal field of vision. People generally prefer putting things side-to-side in work environments, maybe also reflecting how much easier it is to move and work within a horizontal plane than a vertical one. So the upper threshold for monitor width would be longer than the upper threshold for monitor height.

    That being said, I know reading is best done in narrower columns, to reduce the amount of left-right movement your eyes need to do which can cause you to lose your place when skimming lines. Three columns of text on a 16:9 monitor is way more readable than one column of text that spans the entire monitor.

    And then why do we make an exception for phones which are predominantly used in portrait mode? I guess maybe just for easier 1-handed use? Maybe also to give us more peripheral vision of potential hazards and other things happening in the background when using them, since they’re mobile devices.






  • I’m not sure I understand the question. If the premise is that you become physically incapable of doing any action that introduces greater risk than some alternative, which isn’t even a guarantee of “immortality” as described, then it’s basically a life not lived at all. The safest option would always be to go nowhere, do nothing, speak to no one.

    Imagine living life as if everything was covered in California Prop 65 labels saying “This action can expose you to risks which are known to future you to cause premature demise or other bodily harm.” It sounds awful, I’d never take that bet.





  • Stovetop@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.worldVivaldi, now with added VPN
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    6 days ago

    Definitely not a good thing. I use Proton VPN, but only because I paid for a license before I realized the CEO is a scumbag. A lot of people are moving away from Proton’s platform, so a browser choosing to bundle it in is just privacy-violating bloatware for everyone except for a subset of users who are also still using Proton, and also for some reason don’t just have the standalone app installed.




  • VR has the extra element of needing a suitable living space to play in, though. Other games I can do at my desk or in my tiny, cramped living room, but I have nowhere I can easily set up for VR that would allow for significant range of motion.

    I own a VR headset, but I only really use it for games that allow you to be stationary and just use the headset as an immersive monitor with a standard controller. As one would expect, it doesn’t get much use, because not many VR games are made to play that way!



  • I hate to come across as an Apple shill, but specifically for tablets, I may reconsider them and look for an affordable used iPad somewhere. From my own experience, theirs is the only OS that is designed tablet-first and they accordingly have a larger ecosystem of apps that are tailored to that experience. I don’t think you can find a more accessible tablet UX in the general consumer space.

    Windows and Android tablets are fine, but you’re going to have a lot of compromises. In particular with Windows, you’re either going to get the x86 OS with short battery life, or the neutered ARM version that barely anything is compatible with but gives you a few hours more per charge. Android at least is more mobile-oriented and is built for ARM by default, but it makes no real distinction between phone apps and tablet apps, so most of what you’ll get is phone interfaces blown up/stretched into tablet ones. Both of these OSes are also privacy nightmares, so pick your poison there.

    There are some Linux tablets out there, too, but they’ve got the same core problem as Windows, where for tablet-first experiences you’re looking at pretty small/specialized ecosystems unless you’re up for building something yourself. Starlabs makes a tablet that you can put just about any major distro of Linux on, but it’s also x86, and it ain’t cheap. There is probably cheaper out there, but you’re essentially getting what you pay for.