Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The advantages of programming on a small netbook

ianso.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 111 posts

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#81

Post by jrockway »

jacquesm wrote: post #22
SlyShy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regular drive. Which made me queasy the first time I dropped it, after being used to the touchy hard drives in previous computers.

Impressive. Beware of any errors from that drive, check the smart data to make sure that you're not suffering soft errors that are being corrected now and that will leave you with a dead drive at some point in the future. If the drive was spinning when it fell it all depends on the angle and the strength of the shock, if it was not spinning chances of not having any damage are much better.

I agree here. My netbook hard drive had errors about 3 days after I started using it, and I didn't ever drop it.

SSDs were made for netbooks. I am not sure why vendors even attempt to put hard drives in them. (Actually, I know why. Comparison charts, and money.)

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#82

Post by Sukotto »

SlyShy wrote: post #11

I program and write exclusively on my Aspire these days. Keyboard: I have small fingers, and I actually type faster on the netbook keyboard. The key distances are smaller, so I'm moving my fingers les. Screen: I use a small font (Code Envy R at 10pt) and WMII, so I can fit a lot of code on the screen at once. I can also switch between windows extremely quickly, so it is relatively painless not to have all the code I'…

Code Envy R is worth trying... you can get it here: http://damieng.com/fonts/envy-code-r

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#84

Post by Luc »

bazbamduck wrote: post #76
there wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i had a keyboard problem with a dell mini 9, but it wasn't really about it being cramped: to use important keys like "\", "|", "-", "[" and "]", one had to press the fn key plus another. http://www.flickr.com/photos/symmetricalism/3429329317/sizes... luckily there was an international version of the same keyboard being used on other mini 9s, so i was able to order it from dell and install it on mine. http://www.flick…

I recently gave up on my mini 9 because of that precise problem, not knowing about the international keyboard option. Do you happen to have the part # for the international keyboard? (I just poked around Dell's site for it unsuccessfully.)

It's in the comments on one of the other pictures in that Flickr set.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#85

Post by there »

bazbamduck wrote: post #76
there wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i had a keyboard problem with a dell mini 9, but it wasn't really about it being cramped: to use important keys like "\", "|", "-", "[" and "]", one had to press the fn key plus another. http://www.flickr.com/photos/symmetricalism/3429329317/sizes... luckily there was an international version of the same keyboard being used on other mini 9s, so i was able to order it from dell and install it on mine. http://www.flick…

I recently gave up on my mini 9 because of that precise problem, not knowing about the international keyboard option. Do you happen to have the part # for the international keyboard? (I just poked around Dell's site for it unsuccessfully.)

the part number is U061H, it's just an "international keyboard" in their system. you may have to order it directly by contacting dell (either their web sales chat thing, or calling) and just asking for the specific part number.

the back of it is the top one here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/symmetricalism/3466501746/sizes...

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#86

Post by timwiseman »

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #65
rubinelli wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fully loaded Eclipse (or one of IBM's mammoth IDEs, no idea they call them now) can take 1GB, but the bare-bones Java profile is almost snappy.

PyDev is amazing as well. Admittedly, the machine upon which I'm running it has 16 GB of RAM, though.

PyDev is truly impressive. For small tasks I prefer Spyder from http://code.google.com/p/spyderlib/ though. It's truly light weight and easy to use for small tasks.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#87

Post by seanc »

rbanffy wrote: post #68
run4yourlives wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like comparing a destroyer to the USS Nimitz and calling it a small boat.

If I told my then colleagues at Engineering school I would have a multitasking, UNIX-based, RISC machine with 64 megs of RAM and 32 gigabytes of storage and a fast, full-time, connection to the internet in my back pocket I would be locked up in a loony bin. If I told them I would use it to listen to music, I would end up burned for witchcraft. Even my humble netbook is a good couple hundred times more powerful than t…

"I would end up burned for witchcraft." Nah, Kurzweil would have come to your rescue. ;)

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#88

Post by alexyim »

hugh3 wrote: post #29
strebler wrote: post #28

"I can code in a crowded bar" Bars aren't for coding, put down the computer.

If I can drink in the office, I don't see any reason why this guy shouldn't be able to code in a bar.

Because you're being a douchebag who is taking up way more space by having your laptop out and requiring a clearance to help prevent people from stepping into the danger zone where they might accidentally spill their drinks onto said laptop.

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#89

Post by ido »

xtho wrote: post #43
hugh3 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can drink in the office, I don't see any reason why this guy shouldn't be able to code in a bar.

Well, maybe different people who live in different countries on different continents have different ideas of what a bar is. Where I live you don't go to a bar to drink although you usually drink something when you're in a bar. But then ... maybe you work at a bar? You didn't describe your office.

    Where I live you don't go to a bar to drink although you usually drink something when you're in a bar.
What do you go to a bar to do?

Re: The advantages of programming on a small netbook

#90

Post by johnl87 »

xtho wrote: post #43
hugh3 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can drink in the office, I don't see any reason why this guy shouldn't be able to code in a bar.

Well, maybe different people who live in different countries on different continents have different ideas of what a bar is. Where I live you don't go to a bar to drink although you usually drink something when you're in a bar. But then ... maybe you work at a bar? You didn't describe your office.

You go to a bar to socialize. Alcohol is a social lubricant. If you only want to drink, go to the deli, buy some beers, and drink at home.
Post reply on HN