Latticed8775's recent activity
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Comment on E-ink tablets for note-taking in ~tech
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Comment on The blight of bright white LEDs in ~life
Latticed8775 LinkThere's a few points in my opinion that are contributing to this. First of all, in Europe we have this thing called UGR rating which is basically a standard for how strong perceived the glare of a...There's a few points in my opinion that are contributing to this. First of all, in Europe we have this thing called UGR rating which is basically a standard for how strong perceived the glare of a luminaire is: the higher the number the higher the glare. Now while the way it is defined is kind of a matter of debate, the fact is that in the US, this is just not a thing. In Europe, no matter the application, street lighting, architectural, industrial, office lighting, there's hardly a sector where this isn't mandated and where it isn't also strongly enforced. So from a regulatory point of view, the US is the wild west in terms of glare control meaning manufacturers are actually quite free to blast as much light out of a narrow opening under viewing critical angles as they want. Not ideal.
Second is of course the thing with color temperature. A lot of people would die for the idea that in order to properly illuminate something, you absolutely have to have cold white light. Now while it is true that warmer color temperatures need more lumens to reach an equally strong perceived illumination than cold white light, it is just that, a matter of how many lumens you have per illumination task, not what color temperature.
The thing that most people are struggling with these days is the abuse of their circadian rhythm. In the industry, its quite a big topic (at least in Europe) - search for human centric lighting - because science backs this quite strongly that it really matters which color temperature you are exposed to at which time of the day. The reference here being the behaviour of the sun again of course, color temperature in nature shifts during the day from warm to cold to warm again. Exposing yourself to cold white light at night time for example basically messes up your circadian rhythm, telling your body to keep you awake when all other cues are pointing towards bedtime. Some are more sensitive to this than others but it is a big thing.
There is a point to be made for the warmth and gentle glow of a light bulb but with energy efficiencies being an order of magnitude and more better for LEDs, there's just no going back anymore. Lighting needs are a serious contributor in the overall energy bill of the planet and savings there have a huge impact. Interesting fact here: It's mostly the use phase of a luminaire that matters for energy. This means if your luminaire is running for a lifetime of let's say 30 years, single digits in the efficiency percentage have very large impacts in terms of equivalent CO2 emissions. BUT: It really matters where the energy comes from that you are using to feed your luminaire. If you are in Poland and most of your energy comes from burning coal, the use phase is the most important thing to focus on. It doesn't matter how poisonous the extraction of the LED rare earth metals was for the environment. If on the other hand, your energy is mostly from renewables, such as Sweden for example, then it really matters what the raw material foot print is as during the use phase the CO2 impact is more or less irrelevant. The Fagerhult group, being one of the largest manufacturers in Europe, have great info material about this and great products to accompany their findings such as this one: https://www.fagerhult.com/Products/kvisten/
I do agree with the sentiment that some people here have mentioned that for the layperson, choosing the right kind of light has become infinitely harder. The most obvious choice for the consumer seems to be harsh chemical white light in amounts that exceed the need for most tasks with horrendous flicker. Picking up a light bulb in contrast to that is a child's game. Good thing we still have candles :) Of course not for general illumination but if you are still craving that gentle natural light at times, those are my preferred option.
I have the remarkable2 since half a year and I absolutely love it. It is probably one of my coolest pieces of tech that I own and I can't imagine not having it anymore. I use it for several things such as journaling, week planning (pretty cool etsy templates available) and goal setting - especially this always felt like such a drag to have to turn on the computer for that and writing on paper has a privacy aspect that feels too insecure for me, having just an "open" notebook. I also absolutely love reading on it as it is so soft to the eyes and gets you away from the screen. Also the fact that it feels much less of a commitment to have ebooks instead of physical books and that I can just slap twenty new ones on it any time and read whatever I feel like is amazing.
I also have workbooks on it for language learning - great if you can just fill them right away! Plus handwriting exercises although it does take a bit of getting used to in terms of writing. And much more stuff, you get the idea.
In terms of likeliness to actual paper, there is a miniscule lag between putting down the stylus and seeing the line on the tablet that sometimes throws me off mid-writing. Hard to explain but feels like every now and then my brain just can't cope with the delay. Other than that, feels really organic I would say.
A few other aspects: Build quality is top notch. I despise their software/ internet dependency and have come up with my own ways. First of all, this device is really nicely hackable. Check github for remarkable2 and you find tons of cool hacks. I can't even blame them for making it the way they did because I guess that is just what consumers want these days, connected at all times, synced to everything, etc. I am really grateful though they respect the open source license of their software (linux based) and let you SSH into it. That is remarkable!!! Also I am a privacy freak and for me having this thing connected to the internet was my worst nightmare. That's exactly what i am trying to get away from when using it. There is a really cool project which is this one:
http://www.davisr.me/projects/rcu/
I use this utility for all my data transfers. Just locally, no network connection, that's how I like it. Upload is super simple and takes seconds, custom folder structures, custom splashcreens, etc.
The drawback for being able to use this is that I have to stay quite a few firmware updates behind the latest version which does suck a bit as some cool and new useful features get added over time but for me, the compromise is worth making.
(Edit: Seems like there was a major update, now compatible up to 3.8! Awesome!)
Lastly, because the tablet only offers a 4 digit pin as protection (what a joke lol), I encrypt all my sensitive PDFs preupload with a strong PW that I have to type on the tablet before opening a file... Again small usability compromise I am willing to make for the piece of mind that if the device ever gets lost, no one will get to my private data.
One last comment: the battery life is ridiculous. Lasts literally forever. It would be cool to have a very gentle backlight... That is about the only thing I do miss when reading in dimmer conditions. Otherwise, its near perfect for me.
Hope this helps!
PS: Do not get ripped off by buying their specific stylus and cover. Jesus, what a money grab. I tested many different pens and found the amazon kindle scribe premium pen to be the best since I love the general feel and the included backside eraser. Just such a cool feel to flip the pen and erase that way. Works out of the box. Also bought a custom cover on etsy for way less money than theirs... Just some ideas!