this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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A fan of buying new things, eh? I'm on the "keep it until it catches fire" side myself. Why buy new USBC headphones when my 20yo 1/4th>3.5mm Sennheiser HD555s work just fine for both my PC and my receiver connected to the turntable? The only reason is "because companies have decided to phase it out so I have to buy new headphones."
Well, jokes on them, needed a new laptop anyway and Framework has hot-swappable ports including a 3.5mm in addition to being highly fixable, so guess who got the sale over the "nooo you must have MY ports and buy a new one for a busted hinge" companies.
If it means I only need one charger/interface cable for my phone, tablet, laptop, keyboard, mouse, external drive, yes, I'm a fan. I already switched to wireless headphones when my cat chewed through my second or third pair of Etymotics (honestly forget by now). He forbids me from wearing anything with wires. Other than that, give me USB-C or give me death.
If I have to buy a new thing (assuming same quality) I'd go with USBC for sure, I just don't like buying new things unless I have to.
But, then again, I'm about to pop in Rodan on VHS and watch it on an LCD tv from 2007, and then maybe play some SMB2 on the NES, so I have a huge tolerance for older stuff.
I don't go as far as VHS, I would just digitize it an and put it on my Jellyfin server. I did that with my DVDs and Bluray so I'm good if my Bluray drive dies. Likewise with emulators for older consoles.
But I'm not replacing something just because the port is dumb.
I'll probably buy a Framework laptop next once my Thinkpad dies, because carrying a dongle is dumb when I could swap a port.
Honestly digitizing VHS isn't the easiest, I just torrented copies for non-vcr use lol. I still enjoy the VCR though, something about just popping the movie in instead of navigating through directories on an external drive just hits different.
Also just tbf, you'd still have to carry the expansion cartridge to swap them, but they're easy to carry in a laptop bag, and it's still a much more elegant solution to use than floppy dongles everywhere like I'm running firefox on a plate of spaghetti. I still think it's the absolute best solution to our current port problem, even with still carrying the cartridges (which feels like a GBC and hits the nostalgia too, so honestly I like having to carry them lol).
Yeah, that's acceptable too IMO. Stick the VHS in a box somewhere and if the police ever come knocking (very unlikely), bring it out and say you digitized them.
And yeah, I get the point, and my kids absolutely get excited when we use the player. But I honestly hate it, because then I need to go find the movie first, and then there's the risk that it skips (DVD and Bluray) or has artifacting (VHS). I'd much rather just select it from a list and hit play.
That said, I always buy physical media when I can. I buy exclusively physical Switch games, Bluray/DVD movies, etc, because then I know I can lend it to someone, resell (almost never do), or re-rip if my NAS dies. I don't like dealing with physical media though, and I wish there was a way to install the Switch games onto the Switch so I didn't need to keep swapping cards. I'll probably eventually torrent copies of games I own and emulate them.
I much prefer digital, but I'm not okay giving up the rights I get w/ physical media. If I could get DRM-free everything with guarantees that I could always access them in the future (and not "licenses" or whatever), I'd have no use for physical media.
Oh they'll never come knocking. At best I'd get a letter from my ISP saying "please stop," after a few of those they may cut off my service, but I have a VPN so they can't see a damn thing!
I'm with you mainly, I buy physical and pirate digital, but I prefer physical most often if I'm home and have the means. Digital for on the go (except books and comics, still have to have physical for those. Digital doesn't cut it.)
When I can I like to mix them, for gaming I have my GBC, but the only physical carts I have are Pokemon Yellow, and an ElCheapoSD flash cartridge with every GB and GBC game ever released loaded onto a microSD so I can emulate it on the old hardware. I want to try some of the new GBC games they came out with in the last few years though, but I can't currently justify it at like $55/cart.
Agreed. However, I really like using an e-ink e-reader for books, it's way more portable and just as (if not more) readable.
I don't read many comics, but perhaps the new color e-ink ereaders are a decent option? I know Kobo just released some (e.g. Libra Colour), and there are a few other options as well. It doesn't have as good of saturation as a comic book and likely never will, but it's way more portable. So maybe consider one of those for travel.
Honestly, I couldn't handle that. The screen is just too crappy. I do have a Steam Deck which can emulate pretty much anything (including Switch apparently), so that's the route I'm planning to take when nostagia hits. I have an old GBA, but I honestly don't like using it any more.
Maybe for books, but for comics I could never switch. Like with the GBC for me the physicality is part of it, I don't even like collected editions as much I prefer single issue floppies.
If I ever got a modern gaming device hands down it would be steam deck (well I guess sometimes I do play OpenMW on my laptop, but that doesn't count.) Love me GBC, love me worm light, don't need anything else for now lol.
It's so weird you people find it acceptable/endearing to be terrorized by your pets.
I mean even Apple hasn't released a laptop without a 3.5mm headphone jack, going back to the Macintosh Portable in 1989†. Even the 2017 MacBook 12 inch that only had a single USB-C port still had a headphone jack.
Oh wow you need a dongle? Why don't laptops include 1/4th jacks, there were perfectly fine, industry keeps changing things
†edit: looks like the PowerBook Duo subnotebook series between 1992-1997 also lacked headphone jacks
It's coming, if phones are any indication. And yeah I need an adapter, it doesn't dangle like a dongle, it's a big hole with a small pole on the other end which is much better, afaik there has never been a computer ever that had a 1/4" instrument cable port but most audio equipment does, since I have both it makes sense to have it, whereas "they took away the 3.5 so now I have to go 1/4">3.5mm>USBC because they also don't make a 1/4th>USBC anywhere on earth" does not make sense unless you're trying to sell me something.
Shocker that specialized equipment requires a specialized cable, I know, but my point is 3.5mm is absolutely not specialized hardware, it is still one of the most common connectors on earth, and as such it should still be supported.