How I Computer in 2024 | Hacker News Reader

How I Computer in 2024

jnsgr.uk

81 pointsjnsgruk43 comments

> In my opinion, investing in a solid AV setup is a service to your colleagues, particularly where your role involves managing people. I’m currently running a Sony ILME-FX3 with the standard FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 lens, hooked up to an Elgato Cam Link 4K.

There's nothing worse than a remote coworker who spends less than £4,000 on a full frame webcam setup.

I'm glad you agree ;)

Obviously in this case my setup is... overkill! But I think you can do a lot better than the average laptop camera with a Logitech C920 or Brio, and a Yeti Snowball or similar - I started there and worked my way up to where I am now, and was lucky enough to have been donated a rather nice DSLR along the way.

Exactly... you can go a long way with a low-mid range webcam. I'm using a NexiGo which is pretty cheap, but still way better than most laptop webcams. There are lots of options in the sub-$200 mark. I am using a Bose Quiet Comfort headset (over-ear, noise cancelling) which isn't cheap, but again still way better than the in the box, or on the webcam mics. There are definitely stand alone mics that work way better than baseline.

None of that has to cost a lot... but the distant mic that nobody can hear well from, or the cam that just distorts all resemblance of color/contrast in use is just bad in practice.

> lucky enough to have been donated a rather nice DSLR along the way

That makes more sense! My first thought was that you had a side hustle on OnlyFans :-)

I'm 83% certain this is sarcasm

I’ll offer my own take - there’s nothing more guaranteed to unfairly reduce your influence as a remote employee than crappy audio and to a slightly lesser extent, crappy video. Do it for yourself.

100% agree. I can't stand to interact with some people who have desk mics with a noisy pet. Just fork over 50-100 USD for a decent headset.

> there’s nothing more guaranteed to unfairly reduce your influence as a remote employee than crappy audio and to a slightly lesser extent, crappy video

What about being neurodivergent in a way that people who find themselves in management have no clue about?

Seems like equipment investment may be one of the most fair playing field levelers if a lack of it is your only setback.

You’re right, but native MacBook Pro cam and mics are plenty enough

And if you want a big jump in video quality from there, use your iPhone’s Continuity Camera feature as the webcam.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102546

I am someone who is a photographer on the side with $X0,000 of gear. I've also even experimented with a DSLR and prime lens as my webcam of choice (with the EOS Webcam utility).

But now?

Logitech MX Brio or something like the Dell Pro Webcam. I use the Brio and a Yeti X microphone.

Crystal clear audio and video. 4K video is overkill for remote work, though the downsampling helps.

I don't believe any of the major meeting software will even share your video at 1080p (or if it does, only by tweaking multiple switches AND by your counterparties having both the bandwidth and similarly tweaked switches).

There's investment, and then there's overkill, which even as someone with GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) I see here.

There is a giant gulf between crappy video and expensive super nice camera. You can get a good webcam for couple hundred. Or you can get entry level mirrorless for $500. A lot of cameras support webcam mode for direct cable. The cameras are smaller, which makes easier to mount.

It is a waste to use nice full frame camera as a webcam. It should be out taking photos.

I do feel bad for people with genuine technical issues and bad equipment but I feel a bias against tech workers who perpetually have broken cameras and mics that don’t work.

Funny, I've trodden this kind of path before and actually reverted to a more extreme view, because I felt I was getting distracted by the rig, not the job.

My opinion now is that less is more. The best software is no software. Deviations from the defaults might not actually be worth the long term cost.

Short article: https://sgurungp.github.io/2024/06/19/pchygiene.html

The one thing I need to solve, though, is lighting for zoom calls. There's no getting around the fact that when you are a bald dude with a shiny head, in a room with one window, lighting can be...a challenge.

I have this (lighting) problem too. It seems my choices are either have my desk face a window, which is incredibly uncomfortable and causes eye strain, or have a window behind/to the side which then causes my face to be completely unlit. As a heavily bearded dude it's not the most friendly look. I've tried a cheap LED light but having that on in my field of view is very uncomfortable despite not being anywhere near bright enough to compete with the sun. Add to that my desk is already hot enough from all this computer gear, I don't really feel like working under studio lights.

I've gone down a lighting rabbit hole... Two tips that work well for me:

- Very bright, high CRI photography light pointed at the ceiling, so the light diffuses evenly everywhere. True, it heats the room a little, but at least it's not direct heat

- I face the window, but I sit against the opposite wall so the window isn't very close to my eyes. Also, if your whole room is bright, then the window no longer causes eye strain

This post started the rabbit hole for me: https://www.benkuhn.net/lux/

Good info. Thanks. I don't think I want my room to be as brightly lit as outdoors. I'm definitely more of a cave dweller type geek and not productive in bright light. But something I can switch on just for calls that isn't pointing directly at my face might work. I didn't think of having it pointed at the ceiling and behind my screens or something. Heat is unfortunately a bit of a problem, though. I have three screens and three machines running in my room. Maybe this will force me to move the NAS out of my office...

I love posts like this one. It's a great way to learn about gadgets and software that might benefit me.

You should consider adding a /uses page to your website (https://uses.tech/)

The website https://usesthis.com/ is also interesting.

Wide range of people interviewed, not just people in tech.

That is a really nice website. Thanks for sharing!

Nice idea! jnsgr.uk/uses now redirects to the blog post.

I was with you until I saw your downright brutish treatment of the Audioengine A2+ speakers.. Poor things, you even bought them stands! For what ? To aim that lovely HF at the back of your monitor ? You brute!

Ha! You’re totally right, I feel bad about this most days!

I haven’t worked out a decent answer yet - part of the complication is the desk is sit/stand so if they don’t move with it, it gets weird when I stand up.

There are some laptop desk arms that you could use to extend them out to either side. If you search on amazon you can find a bunch. I use the one that is only articulated in one direction (not the fancy ones). Works great.

Apart from audio world high monitor stands, not much you can do.. I’ve been adding to basket/removing from basket that particular monitor for months, but speaker placement is always abort, abort, abort! I’m an Audio programmer, and headphones get tiring, I like the air interface.. That said, I have just ordered a VideoMic Go II based upon your article ;)

4" coaxial drivers under the screens works well.

I suppose they could be laid on their sides…

You work for Canonical but use NixOS? Isn't that er a bit weird?

I don't think so, I use both Ubuntu and NixOS every day, and split my extra-curricular activities between the two communities.

I've got a couple of actual machines running Ubuntu, and run it a lot in VMs/LXD containers depending on what I'm doing (see: https://jnsgr.uk/2024/06/desktop-vms-lxd-multipass/).

On my personal machines I'm running NixOS because I find it interesting.

Makes sense. Thanks for sharing your setup. Sounds great.

There are a lot of Macs at RedHat.

This article is such a weird flex. Who cares about what kind of fancy mouse someone uses.

Someone might. I love seeing people's setups as there's quite often something I didn't know about that might just be the solution for small problem I've been having.

Sure, it's weird in the same way being a geek in HN is weird. Writing a "uses" page is not an uncommon occurrence (https://uses.tech). I personally enjoy hearing about what other people find useful, interesting, and/or neat.

The 57" Odyssey Neo G9 is such a BEAST, best purchase of the last few years.

I have the 49" Odyssey G9 and I think it's on the upper extreme of how big I'd want a monitor to be. Do you ever think it's too big?

Oh it IS big!

I had the 32" Samsung Space Monitor [0] and I loved it but I wanted another 4k monitor on the side. The 57" Odyssey G9 is literally two 32" side by side without notches or a bar in the middle, so I went for it [1]

Honestly the curve is maybe too much, but I haven't tried a 49" or seen it IRL so I cannot compare them. I got used to the 57" in just a few days tho, and now I'm deeply immersed into everything. FancyZones is good enough for my needs.

[0] https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/uhd-and-wqhd/3...

[1] https://www.displaywars.com/32-inch-16x9-vs-57-inch-32x9

I had a 27" 1440p panel before this, and 49" was a natural evolution as it's two 27" 1440p panels side by side.

The curvature is indeed a bit much in the beginning, and I would like to try something like the Xeneon flex next, where I get to choose the curvature.

"how I computer"

You know it would be really convenient if there was a verb for this.

How do you do calls without earphones? Always on mute during and only unmute while talking?

Thankfully not - the combination of the very directional mic and having the speakers set back behind it means I don't really have a problem with it.

needs to be doing this from within a physically secure facility, w/ machine gun nests and other defenses to ensure total data security

Amazing read.

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