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I'm not building a PC at the moment, but this drove me nuts last time I got a laptop, and I've been wondering if anyone else has ideas along these lines.

I'd like to have a laptop that:

• Has a 100 Wh battery (100 Wh being the largest allowed on airplanes, so generally the limit on what one can get). I don't mind the weight or the cost, but recently it's been increasingly-difficult to find 100 Wh laptops. The laptops that do tend to be heavy power consumers; they're aimed not at providing a long battery life, but managing to keep a gaming laptop running for a short period of time.

• I'd very much like to have a Thinkpad-style trackpad, with three mechanical buttons. I don't care about the "nipple mouse" on Thinkpads. Synaptics makes these, but laptops with them are quite difficult to find these days.

• Is as upgradable as possible. I'd rather not pay an exorbitant amount to have a large amount of memory and NVMe on the thing.

• I don't really care about heavy weight or large size (at least within the kind of weight classes that laptops have).

• I would like to have a centered keyboard, though, if the laptop is large. I don't use a numeric keypad (I have an external USB one that I can use for the very rare times that I want to use something where it's actually useful), and many larger laptops (which often have larger batteries) de-center the keyboard and stick a numeric keypad on the side.

• I generally favor vertical screen space (i.e. for reading documents and webpages rather than watching movies). 16:10 ratio is preferable to 16:9, and I'd take more-vertical ratios if they were available.

• It'd be nice to have so much lower bezel below the monitor that I could lie down and use the thing on my chest without my hands obstructing the view of the screen.

• I'd use Linux on it. At least with major vendors, compatibility isn't really an issue these days, but it's something that I do keep in mind.

• It's not vital that I have discrete video hardware, but if I do, I'd rather go with AMD hardware rather than NVIDIA, as AMD is more Linux-friendly.

• I'd slightly-favor not getting something out of China, though that's not a must-have.

• Having a fair number of USB C ports -- which I expect to use more of moving forward -- is nice, as is rapid charging.

• I'd rather not have "gamer-style" aesthetics with LEDs and a ton of decorative plastic molding all over the thing.

• I can live with an unimpressive integrated camera, though I do use the thing occasionally.

• I don't mind doing some work on this, like spodging open a laptop to upgrade non-soldered memory and NMVe, but I don't really want to go to the degree of 3d-printing a laptop case or something like that myself.

• I'd be willing to get a thicker laptop.

• I'd slightly favor having fan vents on the side rather than bottom, so that if I put the laptop on my chest, I'm not blocking said vents. That being said, that's a hard ask these days with thin laptops and wanting to have a fair number of ports on the side.

• I'd like to have a wired Ethernet port, but I can live without it; a USB adapter would be okay.

• I'm not rabid about display brightness, but I've generally found that Thinkpads have a weak-enough backlight that it can be annoying, even at maximum power. OLED would be nice.

• I don't mind paying somewhat-more for a laptop like that, but I'd prefer to not go more than several hundred extra, not several thousand.

Some things that I've looked at that hit at least some of these:

• Thinkpad T-series. This is what I'm using now; I've used and been relatively-happy with Thinkpads in the past. I'm generally happy with the aesthetics. It ticks the "Synaptics trackpad" box. Lenovo has no option for a large battery (my T14 has a 57 Wh battery) (whereas Thinkpads used to have available externally-accessible batteries that would extend beyond the bounds of the case; some even had a smaller backup internal battery and let a user hot-swap the larger batteries). At least on the T-series laptop I have, the components are not soldered and I had no problems spodging the thing open and upgrading them. Charging speed is okay, but isn't mind-blowing. Bottom air vents. It's out of China these days. Has a decent amount of bottom bezel, but not enough that I can lie down without my hands obstructing the screen. In general, I'd rather have a heavier/thicker laptop with a longer battery life than is the case for these today.

• Framework laptop. These are one of the few laptops that permit one to increase the number of USB C ports. They also have the option to get a large laptop with a centered keyboard. They don't provide an option to have a user-replaceable trackpad, unfortunately, so no Synaptics trackpad, and they don't provide another option for mechanical trackpad buttons. These only go up to 61 Wh battery. They specifically target working out-of-box with the base Linux kernel, no third-party drivers.

• Tuxedo Computers's InfinityBook. These guys make a 14-inch-display laptop with a 99 Wh battery, which is an uncommon combination. No three mechanical trackpad buttons, no AMD video. They don't extort one on hardware upgrades, though they do have a relatively-high base price. Good Linux support, as they ship with various Linux distros.

Any laptop can have the battery situation mitigated by hauling around a USB-C powerstation, which is what I do today and I suspect why laptop manufacturers are willing to scrimp on internal battery. Maybe I could set up something to disable charging unless the internal battery is low if a power station is connected...not sure if it's possible to detect that, whether there are power stations that also communicate with the host. But I'd rather have a larger internal battery.

To solve the "hands obstructing screen when using laptop when lying down" issue, I did try picking up a head-mounted display, a used Royole Moon. This was not satisfactory; it took a lot of twitchy setup for each use, I found that it tended to fog up, it placed what I found to be uncomfortable pressure on one's nose, and I found that if the screen wasn't exactly right, parts of the display would appear to be out-of-focus. It also completely cuts one off from the world, which is fine for some of my use, though not a solution all the time. I don't think that head-mounted displays are really a replacement for traditional monitors yet.

• Don't use a laptop at all, and just use a luggable PC, maybe in a backpack or suitcase, microATX or mini-ITX with some kind of power station. External portable monitor. This opens up an enormous number of options; I can use any USB trackpad (or even other input device) and keyboard. My battery problems go away, because I can choose the size and charging speed of the powerstation backing it, could have hundreds of watt-hours. I don't need to worry about blocking the vents. Graphics options -- lots of portable OLED monitors -- and upgrading the thing are good. The option is available to put the display on a stand in front of the keyboard if I'm using it with it sitting on my chest when lying down, which probably isn't going to be an option with a laptop. However, there are also a number of downsides; it means that the components probably aren't as focused on low power usage or dealing well with hibernation unless I want to do the investigation work that laptop vendors already will have. Less-portable and has more setup time; one probably wants to put at least a USB hub, portable monitor, keyboard, trackpad/trackball, and maybe WiFi receiver on the table/desk when being used. No "lid switch" to auto-suspend, though I expect that I can rig something up to do that or just reconfigure the power button, if all else fails. Powerstations don't normally have a way to report remaining battery charge (though some UPSes do over USB, it's not treated as a "battery"), which is unfortunate, as one doesn't get things like a "time remaining" estimate onscreen.

Anyone else been in a similar situation and wanted something along those lines, has had ideas or done research?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13027695

In the late 1970s, H&K partnered with Hensoldt to create the ZP/AP (Ziel/Aiming; Projektor/Projector) and then ZPP/APP (Ziel/Aiming; Punkt/Point; Projektor/Projector). This was essentially a calibrated flashlight with an aiming point and pressure switch. It projected a beam of light that was specifically 2m wide at 50m distance, with a black spot in the center which would measure 30cm at 50m. This could be focused and zeroed o the black spot was a functional aiming point, allowing both target identification and engagement...

A very similar concept was used in the by the British Special Air Service most famously during the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege. Instead of the ZPP their MP5s where fitted with Maglite D-cell flashlights on top however.

Ian's video on the ZPP: [8:47]

https://youtu.be/mYcLNA7QmXg?si=

The F-35A has been fully certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear bomb. Confirmation comes after we reported late last year that Dutch-operated F-35As had received “initial certification for the deterrence mission” — a reference to their ability to carry the same weapons.

F-35As being able to deliver nuclear strikes will add major credibility to NATO’s nuclear deterrence posture in Europe. The aircraft’s unique ability to pierce enemy air defense networks and defend itself on the way to its target will be a standing capability Russia has never had to deal with.

Does anyone actually use the "move view" keys? These are, by default, the shift-movement keys; they recenter the view persistently on a location offset from one's character. I occasionally hit them by accident.

I just can't imagine much of a use for them. Maybe being in a firefight at long range and wanting to see what's coming temporarily, but it seems like an incredibly niche use, and they tie up a bunch of keybindings by default.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/7336903

Speaking yesterday, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia’s Rostec state defense conglomerate, said that production of the A-50 would be restarted, according to a report from the state-run TASS news agency.

Speaking yesterday, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia’s Rostec state defense conglomerate, said that production of the A-50 would be restarted, according to a report from the state-run TASS news agency.