Leaving Windows for the Walled Garden - Grail Hunt

I think this might be more a function of location, birth order and other factors that are less than uniquely generational. My kids grew up in the more remote suburbs of south jersey. For the first two years of highschool, we were parent/taxi drivers (like Travis Bickle) and had to shuttle our kids everywhere. They got tired of being in the car with us so much and could not wait to get their licenses. All three had licenses at 17 (min age in Jersey) and cars at 18, once they graduated.

Because they had cars, they could go live with their grandparents in the summers in Cape May and make a ton of money waiting tables at the shore. The two that went to state schools (Rutgers) for undergraduate also liked coming home on the weekends to catch up with their laundry, sleep in their old beds and raid the fridge (a lot of which they loaded into their cars and restocked their apartment fridges when they got back to campus).

I have also seen situations with their friends where an older sibling drives the younger ones everywhere and the younger ones are not motivated to get a license. But, for my kids, a license and cars were nearly obsessions.

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That is SO MUCH my kids and their experience - except the feeling was mutual when shuttling them everywhereā€¦

At the risk of hijacking the thread, THIS.

When I hear about things like this all I can think is, ā€œmust be niceā€. The no-car option was utterly and completely impossible when I was that age in Greater Los Angeles. And everywhere I lived since then as well. And I know if I asked someone that age in the nearest town (rural Nevada) if they could go without a car theyā€™d look at me like Iā€™m crazy.

Again, must be nice.

Not to worry - this thread has already run its course - next big experiment depends on 6/6/2022 - will iPadOS 16 bring me the chance to go iPad only this fall!

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In your dreams! :smile_cat:

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16, 17, 18ā€¦whatever it takesā€¦

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Yeah but given the insane prices on used cars coupled with gas pricesā€¦ They are likely at least somewhat temporary but still. My son even commented that ā€œlooks like I wont be buying a car anytime soonā€.

Of course geography is a major factor as we live in the suburb of a medium sized city. OTOH my brother in law lives in fairly rural Georgia two kids donā€™t seem to be in any hurry either, not arguing different circumstances , just sayingā€¦

And that I think does contrast from when I was that age where getting a car was a nearly universal goal.

Iā€™m sure you are familiar with the idea of setting yourself up for disappointmentā€¦

In the UK you donā€™t really need a car unless you live in the countryside and even then you can get by, just about.

Growing up, all my friends and classmates were getting their licences, but I didnā€™t get mine until I was 19. Living quite rurally though, I was all over driving once I could. I think my mum started to resent me a bit for hogging the car for several years!

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I rather my money be spend on tablets & phones than a car these days.

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In the walled garden of public transportation in Japan it is an ironic twist of fate that they are dominant in the automotive sector. On the other hand you rarely see a lawn either and mowers is also a productive sector. So yes, a car in Japan is not a mean of transportation it is an extension of a living room. Kind of like Appleā€™s product line. In case anyone want to get back on topic.

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I think the idea of using an M1 iPP as a headless display for an M1 Mac Mini is super cool. Wireless so you can just pick it off the stand and lounge on the couch or whatever.

How well it works in action is the question.

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ā€¦ And Iā€™m going to have to give it a try. Itā€™s just way too tempting. The reviews are inconclusive and mostly from right out of beta a year ago and not much help. So I have a Luna Display dongle on order. And a used minimal M1 Mac Mini as well (well, I got the 16 GB RAM because games, but only 256 GB storage). I know Iā€™ll sell it and upgrade to the M2 redesign if it works out and external SSD will supplement it fine till then.

iPad mini 6 put up on Swappa and maybe thereā€™ll be an SLS offered for a great price down the lineā€¦

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Updates: The Luna Display beta was for the Windows compatibility & HDMI version. Itā€™s been around for the Mac for a couple years longer. The wildly different impressions seem to be due to how good/bad the personā€™s Wi-Fi is since it does need both devices on the same network. Connection via USB-C is an alternative. Big jump in price since most of the reviews, which cite $80. Itā€™s $120 now. But unlike SideCar and others you can use touch to a great extent in MacOS, on the iPad, along with Pencil. A regular monitor on HDMI (which I have) is needed to set up the headless stateā€¦ and for if/when things go wonky, and I would guess things will have to be set up again after major updates.

iPad mini 6 sold eight hours after listing on Swappa. Thatā€™ll cover a good chunk of the cost for this experiment.

Wait! I thought you loved your mini 6?

Then I got the M1 iPad Pro 11ā€. One had to go. Too much overlap. And my aging eyes like the larger format. A lot.

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:person_shrugging:

Canā€™t please everybody.

image

BTW, I like Procreate, too! :rofl:

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A semi-success with Luna Display + Astropad Standard.


Rebelle 5, only available on Windows and Mac, works quite well wirelessly on my iPP 11 now, with touch and Pencil w/pressure & tilt. Two-finger pinch-zoom is functional if not smooth; two-finger rotation is nonfunctional. Oddly, the wireless is much better if the Mac mini and iPP are using my iPhone 13 Pro hotspot rather than my Netgear Nighthawk set to 5GHz. :vb-headscratch:

Steam games are blurry no matter what settings Iā€™ve tried. Oh well, maybe Apple will improve SideCar in Ventura/iPadOS 16. The drawing apps on the Mac were the important things though, so Iā€™m well enough satisfied.

Edit: Stardew Valley has no problems with the graphics, such as they are, so Iā€™ll have to check each one. Stellaris was the blurry one as was SW: Knights of the Old Republic, though I didnā€™t play with the settings on the latter.

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