I’d like to know more about what typing on the “Focus M2” (or similar re-badges) is like. PC consumer laptops usually have keys with absolutely no travel, inconsistent pressure to trigger the keys, can feel the laptop body flexing under the keyboard, etc. I saw the linked non-developer-centric review said “While typing, the keyboard yields slightly in the middle” which is a bit of a red flag.
In my opinion/experience, the only modern PC laptops that are OK are Dell XPS series and business-grade Lenovos (but I’m sure others exist). Still have a ThinkPad X60 in the cupboard as a reminder of the last laptop keyboard I actually liked typing on.
I didn’t really notice any flexing in the middle. It is not the “rock solid” feel I have with my unibody MacBook Pro, but it is not at all like many of the cheaper laptops I’ve used where you notice a difference in feel in the middle of the keyboard vs. the outside.
I didn’t have any issues typing on it for a few days (I decided to use the internal keyboard because of the clamshell-related issues I mentioned).
One thing that seriously makes me sad about “publish from Markdown” and similar is that it further degrades typesetting standards. I’ve never heard about LeanPub before. I’ve read some free samples, and their typesetting quality is horrifying—page break in the middle of a paragraph is a staple, so are orphans and widows.
Well, at least there’s a hyperlinked ToC in their PDFs, most publishing platforms fail at that.
I think one of the hardest things is that e-readers vary so widely in their support for different features, and render things so differently, that supporting any kind of advanced typesetting is a fool’s errand, so anything more advanced than the basics is kind of left out.
They do allow a little more control for print-ready PDF exports, but still not what I’d call “advanced” layout. For that, if you really wanted to publish a slick paperback or hardback copy, you’ll have to generate that layout elsewhere.
The biggest advantage of LeanPub for me is the fact that it allows continuous publishing, and doesn’t require new editions to show an updated publication date. On Amazon, once you publish an ‘edition’, you are stuck with that publishing date until you publish an entire new and separate ‘2nd edition’. It’s a holdover from the ancient days of hard copy publishing and doesn’t allow for organic development of a book like I’ve been doing for the past six years with this book.
Well, you can update the contents of the book on Amazon (and I have done that 23 times since 2015), but Amazon still shows it as “published in 2015”, which turns away a number of potential readers who see other books “published in 2018” or some other more recent year (even if my books internal content is much newer).
Using markdown and LeanPub or software like pandoc makes it easier for us self publishers to write the book. Another advantage with markdown is that I can put up the source on sites like GitHub to share, reuse parts of the book for a blog post (which is again based on markdown) or a reddit thread, create web version with tools like mdBook and so on. I don’t know LaTex but I did hunt down a few snippets from stackoverflow and elsewhere to customize the pdf output generated with pandoc.
Oh, I’m not saying they make it easier for authors to publish. They sure do. My point is that they:
make no effort to produce a good, nicely readable output from what they have (page break mid-sentence would get a human typesetter fired on the spot in any self-respecting publishing house)
often deprive authors of typesetting tools (e.g. inline image only, no wrap)
I’m not saying it should be hard for authors, only that making it easy for authors is no excuse for making PDFs with poor typesetting.
I’d like to know more about what typing on the “Focus M2” (or similar re-badges) is like. PC consumer laptops usually have keys with absolutely no travel, inconsistent pressure to trigger the keys, can feel the laptop body flexing under the keyboard, etc. I saw the linked non-developer-centric review said “While typing, the keyboard yields slightly in the middle” which is a bit of a red flag.
In my opinion/experience, the only modern PC laptops that are OK are Dell XPS series and business-grade Lenovos (but I’m sure others exist). Still have a ThinkPad X60 in the cupboard as a reminder of the last laptop keyboard I actually liked typing on.
I didn’t really notice any flexing in the middle. It is not the “rock solid” feel I have with my unibody MacBook Pro, but it is not at all like many of the cheaper laptops I’ve used where you notice a difference in feel in the middle of the keyboard vs. the outside.
I didn’t have any issues typing on it for a few days (I decided to use the internal keyboard because of the clamshell-related issues I mentioned).
Encouraging, thanks!
I wonder what Clevo this is based off of?
It’s the Clevo PC50DN2 — see this post (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-Key-15-Clevo-PC50DN2-in-review-A-lot-of-performance-in-a-slim-compact-case.492805.0.html) for a ton more details on the hardware.
Are you chatting to yourself over Google Meet?
I figured that 6% spike in Meet DAU looked suspicious…
Haha, yes :)
One thing that seriously makes me sad about “publish from Markdown” and similar is that it further degrades typesetting standards. I’ve never heard about LeanPub before. I’ve read some free samples, and their typesetting quality is horrifying—page break in the middle of a paragraph is a staple, so are orphans and widows.
Well, at least there’s a hyperlinked ToC in their PDFs, most publishing platforms fail at that.
I think one of the hardest things is that e-readers vary so widely in their support for different features, and render things so differently, that supporting any kind of advanced typesetting is a fool’s errand, so anything more advanced than the basics is kind of left out.
They do allow a little more control for print-ready PDF exports, but still not what I’d call “advanced” layout. For that, if you really wanted to publish a slick paperback or hardback copy, you’ll have to generate that layout elsewhere.
The biggest advantage of LeanPub for me is the fact that it allows continuous publishing, and doesn’t require new editions to show an updated publication date. On Amazon, once you publish an ‘edition’, you are stuck with that publishing date until you publish an entire new and separate ‘2nd edition’. It’s a holdover from the ancient days of hard copy publishing and doesn’t allow for organic development of a book like I’ve been doing for the past six years with this book.
Well, you can update the contents of the book on Amazon (and I have done that 23 times since 2015), but Amazon still shows it as “published in 2015”, which turns away a number of potential readers who see other books “published in 2018” or some other more recent year (even if my books internal content is much newer).
Using markdown and LeanPub or software like
pandocmakes it easier for us self publishers to write the book. Another advantage with markdown is that I can put up the source on sites like GitHub to share, reuse parts of the book for a blog post (which is again based on markdown) or a reddit thread, create web version with tools likemdBookand so on. I don’t know LaTex but I did hunt down a few snippets from stackoverflow and elsewhere to customize the pdf output generated withpandoc.Oh, I’m not saying they make it easier for authors to publish. They sure do. My point is that they:
I’m not saying it should be hard for authors, only that making it easy for authors is no excuse for making PDFs with poor typesetting.
I like your RPI posts.
Thanks!