So, I’m going into the final month of probation at my current job; my project Cloud Citizen deployment has actually already started upgrading and now I’m moving from a laptop system to a desktop system to host my personal cloud services. The machine itself is a gaming-grade desktop, running Windows 10 Professional, and I’ll be enabling Docker on it to provide additional services I might need.
Specifications
- AMD Ryzen 7 1800+ CPU (3.6GHz)
- 16GB DDR4 16-18-18-36 3200MHz RAM
- 2 x 10TB HGST 7200RPM HDDs with 256MB Cache
- 1 x 250GB Samsung Pro M2 SSD
- ASUS Turbo Geforce 1070 GTX 8GB Card
It’s significantly more powerful than my laptop, with enough resources to last me a couple of years I’m hoping. It’s sitting in an old Fractal Design Core 1000 case (circa 2008) that’s really, just barely holding together, haha! I’m using the AMD Wraith Max from my recent home desktop upgrade (AMD Ryzen 7 2700+) to cool the Ryzen 7. It seems to be working extremely well!
It’s all in the Services
So, unlike the laptop implementation of my Cloud core for Cloud Citizen, I’m going to be rolling out services on JT-CXS almost entirely exclusively for myself, and provide provisional, temporary access to others as needed. I’ll be running a number of consistent apps that passed muster when I was running on the more fiddly JT-NXS system.
Services
- Plex – personal media streaming and organisation
- Ubooquity – personal eBook/Manga library resource
- Parsec – 60fps 1080p gaming streaming to my devices at home, and on-the-go
- Jump Desktop – iOS compatible desktop streaming at high FPS
Primary Roles
Cloud Citizen’s new machine – JT-CXS – still maintains it’s role of being my core computer, to enable me to work remotely from anywhere with a reasonably fast internet connection. It should let me:
- Develop software projects (Git, Visual Studio Code, Git Bash, Sublime Text, WinSCP)
- Plan the software projects and ideas I have (Zenkit, Visio)
- Work on Documents, and Publications (Office)
- Work on Media Production and Development (Adobe Creative Cloud)
All in all, with the extra grunt this machine provides – I’m really looking forward to being less restricted in all the things I can do over a cloud connection; and really, start looking towards using my iPad or ultralight notebook as my primary physical device.
An Every Day Carry (EDC) Kit
So – with my gadgets, I’m hoping to eventually reconstruct an EDC Kit that I can use to travel with. It’s all a little interconnected really – the investment in Cloud Computing means I can offset the processing power I need on-the-go; and make a lighter EDC kit for myself so that I can catch public transport, and manage myself when I’m out and about – which in turn means I’m more likely to use my car less (thus lessening my carbon footprint, and saving some dollars in the bank).
As the final component of Project Cloud Citizen – I think it’s pleasing to say that in this final week, a device has surfaced (from when I was cleaning my room and assembling a shiny new wardrobe system) that provides an answer to the gaming shortcomings I had previously by basing myself entirely on an iPad!
My EDC is very technical and work focused – and the three primary pieces of equipment in it, are the GPD-WIN, my iPad, and my journal. These are discussed below.
Introducing the GPD-WIN
For solely gaming – the GPD-WIN is the device I’ll use.
It was a perfect solution to being able to carry a device everywhere that’d let me game via the built-in Xbox Controller, and if need be, I could plug in a keyboard and mouse!
So, a couple of years ago, I bought a GPD-WIN, to try and carry around a pocket console for emulation and on-the-go coding, etc. Now at the time, I didn’t have JT-CXS to offload all the GPU processing to, so I was limited in the extreme to whatever the GPD-WIN itself could handle. Which really, was pretty much nothing beyond PS2 ROMs.
However, the device was capable of running Windows 10, and while that left next to nothing for storage, I didn’t need the storage – I could use the device as a thin-client for access to JT-CXS. It was a perfect solution to being able to carry a device everywhere that’d let me game via the built-in Xbox Controller, and if need be, I could plug in a keyboard and mouse! This meant that whilst I’m out and about and on-the-move, I had full access to my Game Libraries, and could play most modern games (and by a stretch I could use the terrible joystick-mouse mode, to play non-WASD games such as Civilization VI).
The iPad, that old workhorse
My iPad is a pretty special solution – it’s the entry-level iPad Pro 9.7-inch from 2017, and surprisingly, it’s been extremely helpful, despite a lack of 4G. When I get a chance to upgrade, I will be sure to get a device with Cellular capabilities.
The iPad will primarily be used for:
- Coding on-the-go
- Browser/Media Consumption
- Design + Planning
- Forex trading and financial management
The Bujo (Bullet Journal)
Bullet Journalling has changed my life. Seriously, it’s become a day-to-day system that helps me manage and self-reflect on a level that no digital system has ever been able to achieve. It’s a simple (or as complex as you want) system of writing a daily log in a book that helps you compartmentalise and keep track of all the crap that’s flying around in your life. I’ll probably blog a bit more about this later on, but here’s the intro ‘how-to’ video:
I use the Moleskine Soft Squared Notebook (L) to keep my Bujo in order; expensive, but I love the feel of the book in general, and its simple, unassuming, no-nonsense design. In fact, I’ve just made a note to myself to start working on buying more of these notebooks so I don’t run out in the future.
And so we come to the end of Project Cloud Citizen. Sure there are tweaks and fixes needed, but for the overall part I’m able to travel around with a newly organised EDC bag, and perform all the duties and tech work I need, without breaking a sweat, or being chained down to a desk now. It’s not complete freedom, it’s just usingi the power of the cloud to extend that ‘leash’ I have to my work, so that I can move around and enjoy what I need, whever I need.
So, in a previous post about Project Cloud Citizen, I mentioned that I was possibly going to use my iPad with an iOS specific mouse. Enter, the Citrix X1 mouse, and the Jump Desktop App!
I’ve literally had the mouse for about 10 minutes, and it’s working a treat through Jump Desktop; it feels a little weird, but seems to be tracking fine. I’m actually stunned at how usable it is!
Sadly, all the gaming sync’d issues with the Dex Pad that I reported having, also seem to be mimicked with the iPad, Citrix X1 and Jump Desktop. There’s a small bit of hope however — certain game styles do work with the setup. Things like DIablo 3, Torchlight 2, etc. Games that don’t require constant, active input from something like the WASD control setup do work very nicely.
So there’s some middle ground there, I think my expectations overall, are too high for something like iPad cloud streaming for games right now; and that’s ok. Having things work on the iPad, within a self-contained little unit, with phenomenal battery life, and usability – perfectly matches my desire to be fully mobile, while also matching my desire to not carry something around that’s as heavy as a laptop, at least for the time being.
Too many Compromises
While there’s some games that work – really, the iPad works as a decent laptop replacement when I use it to remote into my Windows systems, with minimal disruption. Sadly, it’s not going to let me remote in and play games. All my other bits of productivity, would remain unaffected, and at the end of the day, that’s pretty important.
So end of the day, the iPad, combined with the Citrix X1 mouse does make the best laptop replacement – with instant on, superior battery life; I won’t ever really be without abilities for productivity. I just can’t really expect to play amazing games with only my mouse.
It’ll still be in my Every Day Carry
With a combination of PLEX, Netflix, Jump Desktop, and the Pencil/Citrix X1/Smart Keyboard combo, my iPad becomes a suitable, extremely lightweight laptop replacement. The instant-on, and insane battery life, give it a pretty awesome advantage. The size is still reasonably large enough that I can get work and media consumption on it done, and still handle it comfortably in one hand.
As mentioned in part 1 of The Samsung Dex Pad posts – I’m looking into cloud gaming with the Dex Pad as well. It’s so far provided a pretty good solution for working via RDP solutions, with a few (so far) trivial issues. This part covers a little more in-depth overview of the issues I’m currently facing with the Dex Pad…
Mouse Capture Issues
My weapon app of choice when it comes to streaming my desktop is Parsec – it’s worked amazingly well for 1080p 60fps cloud streaming from my Notebook so far, but unfortunately, while Parsec works great, and keeps my mouse nicely within the confines of the specified 1080p resolution; I have mouse tracking issues in FPS games, unfortunately. It’s somewhat annoying and upsetting that gaming doesn’t work correctly, however some Google-fu has shown me that it’s most likely a Samsung Dex issue, and really – there’s no telling when it’ll be fixed.
To see if things were just a Parsec issue, I also ended up downloading the Moonlight Gamestream app which is based on a FOSS version of NVIDIA’s Shield streaming tech (I luckily, run a GeForce 1080Ti video card).
To test my FPS gaming purposes – I decided to pick a game of Rust, which really, is quite asking for punishment, haha!
Turn around…
In Parsec, things did not go well ™. I couldn’t turn a full 360 degrees, and had to find myself lifting my mouse off the pad to do the tiny-mouse-pad-shuffle on my giant deskmat just to turn around a little bit.
Every now and then I get a little bit nervous…
Things were worryingly bad audio wise too, with sound crackling, and some blurring of texturing every now and then, so I suspect I was having WiFi bandwidth issues. I’ll need to test a fix (probably in a Part 3) of a USB hub and usb-to-Ethernet adapter.
Turn around…
Things were even worse trying to turn in Moonlight – I completely lost Mouse Capture abilities – although my mouse buttons for left/right-click were working. Keyboard input was fine, however.
Every now and then I get a little bit terrified…
And then my first PvP moment came. Almost instantly my attacked realized I couldn’t turn around, and to add to insult, he started taunting me over voice chat in-game. And here’s the other problem, I had no mic support. This is more a combination of the Dex and Parsec/Moonlight’s support for the devices.
Some fiddling required!
There’s a lot of work that’s needed in Samsung Dex (Pad). For example, not every sort of keyboard shortcut is pulled across to the Dex, sure the common ones are (ctrl + c, ctrl + v); but input gets entangled when I typed too fast for the Dex (I type about 130wpm) and why is shift + spacebar a shortcut for what language I’m using on my keyboard?? A quick Google search shows I’m not alone in being annoyed at this, and I’ve ended up having to download a separate app to just tweak and deal with Dex’s shortcomings.
It’s annoying, and the product is a work in progress I suppose – from a developer’s standpoint, I doubt there’s any reasonable way for the Samsung engineers to spend time working out the configurations that every user ever will need out of the Dex. But you’d think Korea’s largest company would have some resources for internationalization and basic research. It just wasn’t enough.
Here’s two apps that saved my Dex experience, and to top it off, I had to pay moneyfor one of them, which made me even more upset.
- Dex MAX – this app lets me repackage the APKs of other Apps as needed to fit full screen
- Desktop Hub (Dex Hub) – I had to pay $3.99 to unlock the ‘Pro’ version of this app, which helped me reconfigure a bunch of Dex built-in keyboard shortcuts, volume/screen usability tweaks and more
On top of all the shenanigans above, I’ve now also needed to enable developer mode which really, is a hugely unnecessary (albeit probably inevitable in terms of the lifetime of my ownership of the Note 8 and an Android phone) step. While I have no doubt that at some point in the future I would have enabled this mode and stuck my hand up the Note 8’s proverbial skirt, it annoys me that I have to do this for a first party accessory, just to get some applications to behave properly, and enable greater usability in app window management!
So, what does work?
Remote desktop works – be it through either Parsec (preferred) or via Microsoft’s RDP App inside Dex MAX for fullscreen compatibility. So there is that at least; it means I can do my work, designs, and projects as needed.
Natively, there’s Microsoft Office which all works completely fine on the Dex, it’s optimised for Dex in fact and I didn’t have any problems using it – being a near identical experience to the real desktop applications. Mad props to Microsoft for putting so much effort into their Office suite!
Plex also kind of works. I have to use the browser based version to watch my media, and it’s got some odd re-sizing issues (full screen mode goes black after about 10 seconds). Netflix actually works very well once developer mode and ‘True Window’ mode from Desktop Hub is enabled. The subtitles even seem clearer than the native apps on iOS and Playstation!
In the end…
Will I be using the Dex Pad? Yes. To keep it short and sweet, the Dex Pad lets me do a lot, with a thin client, without the extra hassle of a laptop. The ‘extra computing power’ of a laptop is moot for the situation I want to use it in (explicitly, as a thin client to do computing from my bedroom should I need it). I can enjoy most of my media, and all the productivity I might need with it.
Samsung is going to have to go more than halfway across the bridge to entice devs to start making products that work with it. Once the ball gets rolling though, look out Apple and Microsoft!
Gaming does work, but not entirely well. But there are some games which do, and gamepad gaming still works a treat so I’m not completely without. Admittedly, this is being used as a Cloud Gaming terminal, which I must stress the Dex was not intended for. In fact, even if it were intended for gaming as it mentions in passing, cloud based gaming would’ve been the last thing on their minds.
Again though, it’s an adventure and hassle in configuration that shows an incomplete experience with incredible potential. The Dex is the closest desktop replacement I’ve gotten for a non-PC/laptop device. And I so eagerly want to love it and use it that I’m even doing so now, and will be going ahead with using it for a lot of my evening computing.
But I cannot stress how impossible it would be, without already owning a beast of a PC, strenuous setup with the Cloud Citizen project, and a lot of compromises on my behalf to accept how things work. I am using the Dex far beyond the scope of Enterprise applications (essentially office productivity suite level applications). Studio applications work to some extent, I can see orthographic based 3D-applications working well here; using Unreal Engine Editor, Unity 3D, ZBrush, and Google Sketchup gave me quite a few headaches with mouse movement syncing working only partially.
I cannot recommend this product to anyone else. But I respect what Samsung’s trying to achieve here, and I personally will remain interested (and a user) in the Dex product lineup as we continue on into the future. There’s a lot of promise here, and Samsung could well have a golden ticket to a much much larger install base instantly, with the possibilities the Dex provides.
It just needs that extra support from the app developers, and more of Samsung’s own resources thrown at it too. It’s a great platform, but Samsung is going to have to go more than halfway across the bridge to entice devs to start making products that work with it. Once the ball gets rolling though, look out Apple and Microsoft!
So, this afternoon, I picked up the Samsung Dex Pad. Some of you will recall my earlier blog post bemoaning whether or not I can survive on just a tablet, and whilst I actually have a Citrix M1 Mouse for the iPad on its way, I also decided to pick up the Dex Pad, as a potential thin client replacement for my bedroom.
This little doohickey is the next revision of the Dex Station which was released with the Samsung Galaxy/Note 8 series. This version, released with the Galaxy 9 series – requires any 8 series devices to have Android Oreo as a base release for the OS for backwards compatibility.
It supports up to 2K resolution, has a built in cooling fan, and uses a platform based docking form factor, instead of a puck-shaped vertical factor. It makes a lot of sense actually, as it lets the phone be used as a trackpad or keyboard as required, should no extra input devices be available. It’s a very clever idea, one that I’m sure would be welcome to a lot of semi-mobile workstation users.
I’m actually writing this post at around about midnight, and it’s quite late, having just received the device to take a look at, the initial overall impression of the device, having spent about 10 minutes with it.
First off, this is what the browser looks like, running on a 1080p screen:
It’s perfectly usable, and I have no issues writing posts (in fact, this very post is being written via the Dex) for my blog, or doing basically productivity work. Where the big test comes in, will be on remote streaming for desktop, and gaming.
Dex MAX – an invaluable tool
So, to my horror, a lot of the apps on Dex don’t support full screen resolution – including Microsoft RDP. To fix this, I actually had to download this 3rd party companion application, Dex MAX – it’s a life saver. I probably would have returned the Dex Pad if this app did not exist.
It tries to force the apps to run full screen, and if it doesn’t work – you can enter expert mode and modify the manifests in the APKs to force a full screen mode! If that doesn’t work, then the devs will need to add native full screen support in a new version of the app.
Remote Desktop (Microsoft RDP Client)
As one of the primary reasons for an enterprise environment etc, I know a lot of organisations out there use Citrix, VMWare, etc. but you’d think that getting basic Dex support with Microsoft would be a key step. Especially considering how prolific the operating system is…
However, no, it doesn’t work without being modded by Dex MAX. Here’s a screenshot of it working in Dex MAX:
Now, it works perfectly fine as an RDP client, meaning about 90% of what I do is sorted. Productivity wise, I can scrape by as well as needed!
So all in all, it’s a pretty stable experience. It’s not the ultimate replacement, but for everything non-entertainment wise or just general browsing, it’s fine. It’s usable, and I probably will use it.
In part 2 – I’ll update my findings on gaming, which works (with many many caveats).
Project Cloud Citizen has been a resounding success; it’s literally waiting now on two time-sensitive issues:
- I pass probation at work so I might have more leeway in the machine I keep in the office to use for this project;
- I decide to either use a laptop, or become almost entirely iPad based
I’ve got a generation 1 iPad Pro 9.7-inch, Wi-fi only, 32GB tablet. It was purposely bought a few years ago as a bare minimum use device for purely media consumption, but thanks to Project Cloud Citizen — it’s wonderful, it lets me do just about everything with it short of solid code development (Using docker etc) although that is already solved in the project through the really good RDP client that Microsoft makes for iPad users.
“…it’s purely from a gaming perspective that I’m holding back…”
The iPad solves and makes comfortable, an idea of having a clean, sleek slate that acts as a window into my digital world (hah, a window to Windows basically) and lets me roam around pretty much anywhere with sufficient download speeds, and minimal upload speeds – while enjoying the power of hardware that is usually not within reach in those locations.
In fact, it’s purely from a gaming perspective that I’m holding back from not even needing my laptop as I can do everything either via RDP, or directly here on the iPad itself (I’m in fact, writing this blog post on the iPad right now!). So, that leads me to think about the following options:
- Do I research exhaustively and figure out a way to remote game with my iPad (this will most likely involve money)
- Do I just make do? 70% of the time I’m gaming, will be at home, with the remaining 30% being remote on travel/visits/etc.
- Probation ending, means I’ll be able to implement a small Mini-ITX machine at the office, thus once again, freeing my laptop as a client
Option 1
Option 1, is of course, the hard way. And what would this experiment be, without trying to figure out things the hard way? There’s a variety of ways to cope with the use of the iPad as a thin client; including jailbreaking my iPad to allow it to function with a mouse, through to actually buying an iOS compatible (with specific apps) mouse. While it’s not awesome that I have to spend money for a solution, it is acceptable, as I’m paying for something that’s a bit outside the box (for most Aussie PC users), so to speak. A quick bit of Google-fu tells me that I’ll need something called the Citrix X1 Mouse, and the Jump Desktop application totalling something like, $120.00 in expenditure.
The Risks
I won’t actually be able to see how the X1 mouse feels, so the risk is that it is completely terrible for gaming, although the Jump Desktop videos briefly demonstrates some gaming with the X1 mouse (on games I’ve never seen before). So, that’s pretty much the biggest risk, I’ll be spending money on a mouse I don’t want to use, and once I have it, I might lose it because it’s wireless.
The Negatives
It’s an iPad. The main comparison I’ll be doing is against my laptop as a client.
The screen isn’t going to be very big, the keyboard isn’t as nice as a full-size mechanical keyboard, and there aren’t as many keys/options/shortcuts I can hammer around. It’s not as powerful as my laptop, in a pinch.
Local storage does become an issue as well – the laptop has 500GB built-in, whereas my iPad comes with 32GB built-in. The workaround is thankfully available in the form of lightning-connector USB memory sticks; however this still remains a negative as I’d have to carry around a whole bunch of them to meet my storage needs.
Finally also, I’m dependent on the existence of Wi-fi or a 4G tethered connection. There’s no real workaround for this aside from making sure I get a Cellular data-capable iPad when I upgrade in the future.
The Benefits
In terms of mobility, ease of use, the iPad is king. Even with carrying an extra mouse it’s still king. My laptop provides awesome functionality, and even more power; but as a thin client it does almost exactly the same stuff as the iPad. The iPad lets me use the pencil, keyboard and mouse to do all sorts of stuff, whilst all being completely silent, and functional, even as a spare camera in a hurry.
I can flip it open, or turn it on and it’ll wake instantly and I can get straight to using stuff. If I ever wanted to draw or plan a diagram, there’s an app for that (at this stage in the iOS evolution, I think that phrase is pretty much biblical now) – my Apple Pencil is hands down the best stylus I have ever used; if I need to do something more meaty than email, web and media, I can remote into my Cloud system and do it. I’ve got significant bandwidth on my 4G phone with tethering, so I’m not concerned about data limits right now.
My iPad is in a gorgeous real leather case that cost me a very pretty penny, it’s a joy to handle, carry around and appreciate. It’s smaller and quieter than my laptop too. It still has a headphone jack for my headsets, and it has a fairly comfortable keyboard/screen protector for it (an authentic Apple Smart Keyboard – admittedly in its 9.7-inch flavour which is no longer available).
The iPad is silent in operation. I can’t stress how amazing this is for me, either. My current laptop, while it’s a slim, sleek powerhouse – sounds like a jet engine ready for takeoff when anything starts to write to the SSD in it.
Option 2
The problem with Option 2 isn’t such a big one. More and more of my time in entertaining myself on my gear is passive entertainment (music, movies, TV, etc.) as opposed to interactive entertainment (games). However, it does defeat the purpose of Project Cloud Citizen. Ideally, the intent was to do everything via a thin client (in this case an iPad Pro) in the cloud.
In fact, it’s already the option I’m currently using per se.
The Risks
None really, I don’t have an extra mouse to lose, and I can still do everything I was going to do as a remote cloud user short of gaming.
The Negatives
I can’t game. I can’t show friends games, and I can’t enjoy the full power of mobile computing through the cloud on this device using just a touch interface. The touch interface is a nightmare to use on Windows RDP; buttons are still fiddly, and doing full productivity in something like Visual Studio Code, then alt-tabbing to do something in Photoshop just won’t work. While possible, it requires re-learning everything and there’s a lack of precision that a mouse pointer offers.
It affects workflow and productivity on top of the lack of gaming abilities. To me, this single handedly makes Option 2 unviable.
The Benefits
No extra equipment needed, as I can already do this now.
Option 3
Finally there’s the ‘long play’ option. This involves a few serious steps however. Once probation is over I have the room and space to deploy a mini-ITX PC at my desk. There’s some risks and negatives involved that would make me consider Option 3 as a ‘next evolution’ kind of step to the whole project.
The Risks
This is absolutely the most expensive solution to the project. It involves buying essentially a whole new PC. Hardware compatibility, configuration, etc. All the usual caveat emptor situations apply with building a new PC.
Moving to a full blown PC also means there’s issues with configuration for headless gaming.
The Negatives
Again, the price. The hardware configuration. A lot of the drawbacks of the other options no longer exist as the power of a full desktop experience comes into play.
My laptop acting as a client might work well, pending fan sounds, portability (it’s not that portable) and battery power too. My laptop itself is already quite powerful, but it weighs more than an iPad.
It has a horrible thermal solution that makes it sound like a vacuum cleaner, and packing away the laptop heats up the bag as well immediately after use; not to mention the actual temperature of the laptop when in use.
There’s a lot that I dislike about my laptop, which is why it hardly gets the usage it deserves – it’s nowhere near the sleek experience I had with the Apple MacBook Air. And in a strong sense, it’s further justification for me to use the laptop as a hub for Project Cloud Citizen, and then migrate to a PC as the next step when the laptop starts to give out.
Parting Thoughts
All told, Option 1 seems to be the way to go, with a mix of Option 3 as a ‘next stage’. Midway through writing this post (on the iPad I might add) – I realise that a Project Roadmap might be the most interesting thing to do for the outcome of this project.
So perhaps that’s what I’ll do – while Option 1 requires forking out money, it also avoids the risks of Jailbreaking my device, but also means I have applicaiton and hardware support continued for my iPad. It means my Laptop still gets some utilisation, and a purpose to it, rather than the costs of expensive hardware not being hosted within my own home.
Once I’m more comfortable in doing everything I possibly can on the iPad while away from home, I’ll migrate to a full blown desktop PC experience.
Remote Desktop more than covers my use of productivity on JT-NXS, my laptop system that’s based at the office. So far, I’ve been fortunate in the last 10 days or so since moving towards ‘Cloud Citizen’ status, that I’ve been at my desktop, JT-DXS and not needed to use JT-NXS as much for productivity.
The experiment so far has been a wonderful success, especially when it comes to Media Consumption – it’s been awesome being able to access a personal collection of media that some close friends and family are also able to access.
Gaming has been great, for anything that’s not on a pressured level (ie. competitive play like Overwatch, or CS:GO – even then, they’re fine, but I just feel more comfortable not leaning on the internet connection so much to remain competitive with other human players). Co-op games are a revelation with it, Parsec.tv have really outdone themselves in their compression algorithms and gaming performance over the net.
I think, if when I pass probation at my workplace, I’ll commit to buying a mini-ITX system to accommodate a spare GTX 1070 graphics card I have, and allow for a bit more storage space too (dual 4TB drives + 3TB existing storage)
I’ve got plans at least, to rearrange my equipment at home; to minimise waste, and reduce the soaring temperatures in my bedroom, too. Even in the dead of winter it’s still a warm toasty room that can get quite uncomfortably stuffy as well.
Anyway, 10 days in and I’ve started rolling out some productivity tools onto JT-NXS in anticipation of using the system for more work-related and project-related situations.
I’ve got:
- Git, with Git Bash as my terminal
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Visual Studio Code
- Office365
For the most part, I actually already use Google Docs/Spreadsheets almost obsessively to manage my documentation, and I’ve got my own personal BookStack that I use as a personal Wiki and Knowledge Repository.
All in all, I’m slowly training myself to wean off my attachment to my desktop, and to be able to start working from anywhere on a laptop (an old Microsoft Surface Pro 1 – although I plan to use JT-NXS in 3 months time) or tablet (iPad Pro).
So, primarily to get away from my desktop (see my previous post below) – the solution appears to be resorting to Cloud computing in some shape or form.
Gaming Entertainment
The biggest issue currently, that will dissuade me the most from becoming a citizen of the cloud is that I won’t be able to play games with my low-spec terminal (in this case, in my room, it’ll be a 2012 Mac Mini).
Luckily for me; I actually stumbled across a wonderful solution! Parsec.tv – an amazing, free, 1080p 60fps cloud gaming application. Steam In-Home Streaming has never worked well for me, but this evening I gave it a go with a brand new release Sea of Thieves!
The experiment worked spectacularly – the quality of the game is more than adequate. My Laptop (off-site) reached on average about 40fps; and the input lag was more than acceptable for adventuring, fighting the undead and firing cannons to deal with opposing pirate crews.
The image quality was great – it was slightly higher than an average 60fps 1080p Twitch stream. Here’s a couple of example screenshots:
The strange blue ‘honeycomb’ icon in the top-left, is Parsec’s hot-spot; you can click that to disconnect/connect with the host machine; or you can recalibrate your gamepad controller – which gets input into the host machine as an XBOX Controller.
There was only one real concern – my laptop reaching 95 degrees in CPU temperature (Speedfan told me it was 88 degrees, but NZXT Cam monitoring told me it was 95). It looks like I’ll need a laptop cooling pad 🙁
Movies & Media Entertainment
The other thing I’d like to do, is somehow migrate my personal media collection, into the cloud. Something that’ll let me stream no matter where I am, should I be on holidays, or working.
Cue, Plex Media Server – a system so consistently awesome in delivering movies and shows across both a network and the internet, with built in media conversion and on-the-fly media management, I can’t really see myself needing any other system to deliver access to my collection of media to friends and family.
Whilst the quality isn’t terribly awesome (it’s slightly worse than Netflix is), it delivers a more than watchable result provided the source files themselves are of a high quality.
Here’s an example of one of my favourites, Kingsman: The Secret Service:
As you can see, it’s a little murky, but still delivers on the visuals enough. The source file isn’t in a 1080p resolution, but it is still clear enough to watch!
So, all in all – we got through all the fun stuff; being a netizen of the Cloud is a doable thing in Australia – provided you have a 1Gbit internet connection, I suppose.
I’m aware that I’m in an extremely fortunate position to be able to do this; and will continue my experiments and foray into being more integrated into The Cloud™ in time for when the NBN reaches (if ever) my residence.
I’m going to be updating this blog again shortly with some thoughts about being both a “Cloudygamer” and a “Low Spec Gamer” to better handle and optimise my graphical usage; so please stay tuned!
Some Interesting Reading
Since the start of the year, I’ve been working towards making the technology and capabilities of the tech I use in my every day life, a whole lot more comfortable and less cluttered.
I’ve been looking into a minimalist lifestyle after realizing whilst trying to plan on moving out – that I have way too much crap in my life to accommodate such a move.
There’s a pretty simple rule/goal I keep in mind now with each of the gadgets, tech or ideas I have:
It should, as seamlessly as possible, integrate into my everyday life and tasks. I shouldn’t have to worry about how I’m doing something, or if I can do something.
And the best way I can think of that, is to no longer be tied to a desk in order to do all the programming, design, development, gaming and media consumption.
It would enable me to have a much more enriched quality of life, being able to go out, and adventure around, and when it all gets a bit much, I can just reach through the internet and hug the comfort of my favourite IDE, or enjoy something from my personal, (and carefully) curated media collection.
I’m going to need to join The Cloud™. I’ll be calling this experiment, “Project Cloud Citizen“!
Sounds alright – and I think, very doable if you were based in North America, Western Europe, Korea, Japan, Singapore or Scandinavia. Coincidentally, friends in all those regions are the ones who talked to me about this.
It’s a way more difficult thing to achieve in Australia, where traditionally, the concept of a decent upload speed for data sharing and enrichment, hasn’t existed until the arrival of Netflix, and even then, leaders of society in Australia still think it’s just next-gen TV.
Getting away from the office desk at home
As it currently stands, I’m fortunate enough to work at an office that allows me to keep a laptop present in the office, that in theory, is connected at all times.
This laptop isn’t a snooze in terms of specs:
- Gigabyte Aero 14
- Intel i7-7700HQ
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
- Kingston 16GB (1 x 16GB)
- Gigabyte P64v7 Motherboard
- 500GB SSD (TS512GMTS800)
- Windows 10 Home
Why do this?
Reason #1
I want to be untethered from the restrictions of only being able to show friends & family games, or media that would be accessible within my home office.
I’d like to be able to develop code and access a remote system that is my own without having to carry around or go through an elaborate setup process.
Nowadays, more than ever, a combination of my iPad Pro and Samsung Note 8 cover all my usage that isn’t coding, or gaming. And even then, they begin to encroach on coding, and sometimes gaming!
Reason #2
Where I use my PC at home is an oven with my current PC setup; no joke, I run an incredibly complicated setup that I think is overkill for pretty much everybody except the most hardcore of PC gamers.
It’s messy, it’s finicky, it’s expensive as all heck and it provides the best damn gaming experience I’ve had the pleasure of using.
But in the sweltering Australian summer, it’s untenable with my neighbour’s air conditioning exhaust being about a metre away from my window, and the combined heat of my PC + 3 monitors, and consoles + TV, it becomes somewhat unhealthy, if not overly sweaty.
This is cheaper than buying air-conditioning myself
Reason #3
On a personal level, I feel like the majority of the time that I don’t want to go somewhere or spend time elsewhere outside of the haven I’ve built at home, is because I feel like I don’t have the access to my files and work to tinker with as I go along.
Coding and tinkering with various web projects has become an almost safety blanket to what I do.
The first test
Over the course of a weekend, I went ahead and did some very rudimentary testing of some functions I’d be performing.
Of course; a speed test is in order:
I’m pretty content with the speeds! My main concern was the upload speed of my laptop; which as you can see, can more than handle the 1080p streaming I was intending to do with it.
I’m surprised the USB 3.0 to Ethernet dongle I was using didn’t crap out! (cheers to my mate: Matt for providing the adapter)
Note to self though, in the future I’ll need to take photos or screenshots of my screen streaming for image quality comparisons (I know streaming will always be worse in terms of visual acuity, but by how much is worth quantifying)
Gaming
Over the weekend, I used a combination of TeamViewer, Hamachi and Steam In-Home Streaming to get a few games going. The image quality felt something akin to watching a twitch stream; there was occasional ribboning of colours in fast-moving games, but aside from that, it worked flawlessly. The almost low-spec restrictions of the laptop forced me to consider playing some of the more indie games in my backlog too.
Rocket League, Hammerwatch, Torchlight all got a go – and I have to say, the only times the frames or input stuttered were more the lack of power behind the laptop and its unoptimised configurations (they were all set to high settings etc.).
Media
Plex had a couple of movies I played to both a friend and myself (Kingsman is a great movie!) simultaneously.
The quality was superb, and stress on the laptop was more than manageable!
Productivity
Admittedly, I did this through TeamViewer, which is rubbish for such situations anyway. However, it was acceptable! There was some input lag, but that’s more TeamViewer’s crappiness as opposed to any other laptop issues. This I expect, should be resolved with proper Remote Desktop access (I’ll need to change to Windows 10 Pro).
Overall, I think the first test was a success, and it’s time to start planning a serious configuration for this application!
I’ll try to keep it well documented 😛
See and Download my Current Layout Here
Back at the start of the year, I picked up an Ergodox EZ keyboard; in an effort to save my wrists from the terrors of RSI. The keyboard, is actually quite alien compared to most standard keyboards, with something of a split QWERTY layout, it still bugs a lot of people when they see the keyboard.
Needless to say, it’s taken me quite some time, in fact, I still am adapting to using this keyboard. It doesn’t help even more that I’m using a regular shaped keyboard at work everyday, either.
I still make a lot of typo errors, and I’ll stumble every now and then based on games asking me to press certain non-alphanumeric keys (Ctrl, Shift, etc.) and I sorely miss the arrow keys being in that familiar up/down/left/right shape on a regular keyboard. Instead, it’s an almost Vi-esque left/right/up/down setup. Still, I’ve persisted, and my typing speed almost matches the original keyboard layout speeds I had.
Where I really started to fall in love with the ErgoDox EZ though, is the eventually gentle tweaking I’ve been doing over time to the default key layout that the keyboard shipped with. It’s really become my own keyboard, and it’s been a journey that I’ve found myself looking at other lovely keyboards and told myself “No, I’m going to tough it out with the ErgoDox, because it’s unique, it’s mine.”
Without further ado though, here’s the layout – it’s split over two layers, with a toggle button in the bottom right to switch between layers. I can add a couple more layers on top (0 – 3 layers), but I’m trying to keep it to a minimum.
LAYER 0
LAYER 1
And as per the link at the top of this post, you can see and download my Layout Here. It’s dubbed version 3.4 — if you search the layouts on the configuration site for “jaytwitch” it’ll interestingly bring up a few of my historical layouts too 🙂
So, it’s been quite a while! Today I’d like to make a fairly quick post about my most recent toy, and the impact it’s actually had (within 24 hours – that’s pretty impressive!) on the way I’m working and doing eLeague.gg stuff!
Behold, my newest gadget (toy) – the Gigabyte P57X-1070-603S:
It’s a pretty big 17″ Laptop, with the new GeForce 10 series graphics cards built into it (a Geforce GTX 1070 to be exact). It’s a device of many firsts for me:
- My first gaming dedicated laptop
- My first $2500+ laptop
- My first 17″ laptop
- My first attempt at rolling everything I do into a single machine, realistically
It’s the fourth point that I’m going to be rambling on about today. Prior to owning this laptop, I was always a fan of the MacBook Air – using it in excess of 8 hours a day, I was essentially surgically grafted to it. It let me move around and still keep up coding.
The way I worked revolved around a core desktop setup (5 monitors, nice keyboard, etc) and I would float around coding on my laptop during the day. But unfortunately, I noticed something:
- I would splurge on my desktop, and it was great, but…
- I spent more time on my laptop than at my desktop at home
- I couldn’t do everything on my laptop (like photoshop, gaming, etc)
- At eLeague.gg events I ended up bringing both desktop & laptop
So I figured that I would really need something that could let me roll everything into one. How fortunate it was for me then, that NVIDIA rolled out its 10 series GPU into laptops that essentially, had all the clout of modest desktop gaming PCs with minimal compromise. Hence, I’m now a primary laptop user, back in the Windows ecosystem.
The benefits are pretty amazing so far, and I haven’t even had an opportunity to attend a LAN yet:
- My laptop replaces my current primary machine at work, and is far and away the most powerful machine in the office.
- At eLeague.gg I can now focus on immediately using my laptop to begin management and deployment of the event’s technical features without having to wait for the team to roll out network and power functionality. More time for management, less time in labour means I can focus on refining the event for both our (growing number of!) attendees, and sponsorship commitments.
In the spirit of brevity, I’ll go over how things are changing in our development and workflow, especially on a code level in another post, for now – this laptop appeared at a time of drastic change in how things work for us here at eLeague.gg