The Exigent Duality
Tech Stack Plans - 07:30 CST, 6/20/21 (Sniper)
I got a very good offer on my city house, so the rural home addition project is feeling very real now. In my excitement, I started planning out my technology stack:

  • My primary desktop computer will be an iMac 24-inch. I haven't been this excited about a discrete computer since perhaps forever: it will be the perfect little productivity box for video, photo, writing, and development work. It's also luggable, so I can take it places. Interestingly, many of Apple's services interest me too, particularly "Apple Arcade", which feels like the good aspects of mobile gaming-- sit down and just play, no-nonsense experiences-- minus the negative stuff, like ads and gated progression.

  • I'll trade in my now-multiple years old Samsung Galaxy S8+, and get whatever this year's iPhone winds up being. The phone will seamlessly integrate with the computer-- you can even receive calls from the iMac, which boggles my mind. Then right away, I'll start learning Swift, Xcode, and their AR toolkit.

  • I've been reading that Windows 11 is ten-to-fifteen percent faster than Windows 10 in games: I don't know how or why, but I will buy it when it comes out, then use my current PC as a dedicated gaming box, hooked exclusively up to my TV. Being honest with myself, I know I'll want to keep on the PC train down the road for the extra power it provides over the consoles.

  • The Series X will move into the family room, and be a Microsoft ecosystem box for the whole family to enjoy, if they want to drop in and play some Flight Simulator or Minecraft Dungeons with me or each other. The PlayStation 5 will stay hooked up in my room, for the exclusives: I'm specifically looking forward to "Horizon Forbidden West" and "Gran Turismo 7".

  • The Switch will continue to... be the Switch. Between Nintendo's membership and the almost unbelievable amount of great collections from Limited Run Games and elsewhere, the Switch is a really nice way to play old games, new games in the "Hi-Bit" style, and of course Nintendo's exclusives. I will probably flip to the "Switch Pro" whenever that comes out, and hand my current unit to my son. The "Pro" will be in my bedroom, the current unit will go in the family room.

  • The old systems, and maybe even the Atari ST if I can make room for it, will be in a "museum" corner with my Toshiba CRT television for when I entertain, or if me or my kids want to play some "Daytona" or something. I've read that RetroArch runs great on the new iMac, so I will also run HDMI-to-svideo to the Toshiba, like I'm presently doing from my PC.

  • As for this site, I think I will keep it, but re-write it as a single page application in .Net 6, when that comes out. That way I can have fun learning "Visual Studio for Mac", as Microsoft calls it. I will integrate the 'Wharf directly into the main site, and give the whole thing a facelift. I will still write about politics occasionally, but only within the context of games, like that analysis I did for the original "Horizon Zero Dawn."

Both Apple and Microsoft are apparently giving presentations this upcoming week on the new higher-end Macs and Windows 11 respectively-- should make for an interesting week.