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I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

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Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#211

Post by gwern »

dpapathanasiou wrote: post #65
raganwald wrote: post #9

One fateful day, VMWare and OS/X conspired to trash my shared filesystem, losing several days of uncommitted code in the process. Several days of uncommitted code? We need to have a heart to heart talk about your process.

Insightful, and so close to a haiku as well... Here's an attempt: Mac lost my data Many days of work gone Cloud to the rescue

If I may offer David Dixon's classic?

       Three things are certain:
       Death, taxes, and lost data.
       Guess which has occurred.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#212

Post by adyus »

moreorless wrote: post #210
dpapathanasiou wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insightful, and so close to a haiku as well... Here's an attempt: Mac lost my data Many days of work gone Cloud to the rescue

The cloud went down Cannot get to my work Twiddling thumbs feeling dumb

Variation:

The cloud went down

Cannot get to my work

Throwing birds at pigs

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#213

Post by ceol »

dextorious wrote: post #142
exDM69 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A tiling window manager can definitely be a huge productivity booster. Perhaps even more than adding an extra display, which is often said to be the cheapest way to improve productivity. A tiling WM costs nothing. I've even started working comfortably using just one display now that I've changed to using a tiling WM. With a floating wm, I needed at least two large displays to work comfortably. Lots of that screen are…

""Perhaps even more than adding an extra display, which is often said to be the cheapest way to improve productivity."" And which can also be a way to decrease productivity, with distractions etc. I am more productive on a smaller screen laptop than I am on a 2 screen set or even one larger (21, 27") screen. Mainly because it helps to focus on the task at hand. We also didn't have 2 large monitors to each workstation…

Personally, I get more work done at the office where I have two screens. When I'm at home on my laptop, I notice a difference in productivity. It's not a huge difference, but it's noticeable enough for me to want to buy a nice 27" the next paycheck.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#214

Post by rhizome »

eropple wrote: post #161
sliverstorm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about if he is using Git? It is normal to work out of your local repository and only sync with the master occassionally, no? At least on projects that can tolerate such methods.

I push to a personal remote at least twice a day. Not doing so is asking for trouble.

I highly recommend upping this closer to twice an hour.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#215

Post by ricardobeat »

orthecreedence wrote: post #165
jrockway wrote: post #147

$800 gets you a pretty nice laptop. I don't see the advantage of this approach at all.

$800 gets you a LOT more than an iPad. I can see the advantage of working in the cloud, but working off of an iPad to smells of "hey! hey everyone!! look at me! look what I'm doing!" Not to mention there is now a monthly fee to program. That's not economical.

I don't recall the article being "Programming on the cheap". You can get a used 12-core station for that money. Or a bike.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#216

Post by sbov »

awolf wrote: post #77

There are a lot of comments here from people acting as if not having two 24" monitors and a full mechanical keyboard would drastically diminish their productivity. This year I spent 4 months out of the country with only my 15" laptop while still working 8 hour days. I was surprised to find no change at all in how long it took to get shit done. I think we tend to kid ourselves about how much of a difference expensive…

I think a lot depends upon what you're doing.

Most of my coding is done in an ssh terminal using screen/vim. For this task I find myself most productive in a laptop. If you can get used to a laptop's touchpad you can be very productive because I find the time to switch between touchpad/keyboard is much less than the time to switch between a standard mouse/keyboard. The small movement of the touchpad isn't a big deal because the viewing space is small enough.

When using a full blown IDE I find myself most productive on a large, high resolution monitor, mainly because of all the surrounding stuff IDEs add - small displays just can't display enough code for me. However, touchpads are no longer efficient because it takes too many swipes to move across the screen, so I have to use a standard mouse+keyboard, losing some efficiency.

Usually, I find myself wearing two hats - monitoring production systems while coding. Multiple monitors are invaluable here, allowing you to delegate monitoring to 1 or 2 screens fulltime, while you use the other for coding. This way you don't have to mess with alt tabs, you can just take a quick glance when you want to.

One thing I've found invaluable with a multiple monitor setup (I'm currently at 4, laptop not included) is being able to move from monitor to monitor quickly. I use global hotkeys for this - ctrl-1 moves my mouse to the first monitor, ctrl-2 moves my mouse to the second, and so on. Without this I found myself spending far too much time moving my mouse around the screen to truly find them useful.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#217

Post by mitjak »

namank wrote: post #119

What you have done here is an HCI study. On yourself. You could formalize this with related models and write a paper on it if you wanted.

The problem is, IMO, that it is a very narrow use case with a very specific user base that is willing to be very very flexible with this particular user interface (apps timing out when backgrounded, swiping instead of switching via Command+Tab, the low viewing angle etc). It is an interesting preview of what a 'cloud terminal' future could look like but I can't help wondering if the vast majority of viewers on HN are cringing at the thought of just how many backwards steps in UI evolution they would have to take from the familiar desktop and laptop PCs.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#218

Post by pseudonym »

orthecreedence wrote: post #165
jrockway wrote: post #147

$800 gets you a pretty nice laptop. I don't see the advantage of this approach at all.

$800 gets you a LOT more than an iPad. I can see the advantage of working in the cloud, but working off of an iPad to smells of "hey! hey everyone!! look at me! look what I'm doing!" Not to mention there is now a monthly fee to program. That's not economical.

Just to toss this out here, but $20/mo for a linode, is not a huge investment, and it's something that I have even without doing everything "in the cloud". It's handy for those quick file transfers, a small portfolio site, and since you have root access, you can quickly set up or take down any odd services without the hassle of finding a distinct hosting service (Mumble, Mercurial, Subversion, or what have you).

But that's just my two cents.

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#219

Post by ricardobeat »

TamDenholm wrote: post #16

Anyone tried to do this as a web developer? I know theres an app or two geared towards being a web dev environment, the one good one i found (its called Gusto on the app store) i didnt get to test properly because it didnt support SFTP yet (due to apple requiring some permission from the gov or something, not technical limitation).

I tried to, but a few things make it impossible:

- Most editors suck in one way or another

- You have to work on a terminal if you want version control, builds or setup local servers

- Mobile Safari is not fast enough. You spend a lot of time reloading pages

- No inspector for the DOM, javascript, debugging, profiling

- Zero ability to handle graphics

Re: I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode

#220

Post by ricardobeat »

moconnor wrote: post #49
mscrivo wrote: post #45

If this guys thinks having a single 10" screen with no ability to switch between tasks easily and quickly is the wave of the future for developers, I don't want any part of that future. You can pry my dual 24" monitors + high performance desktop from cold dead body.

I don't think it's the future for developers, I think it's the future for pretty much everybody else though. I plug the iPad into large monitors sometimes. When an iPad with double the resolution comes out, this won't seem nearly so silly.

The iPad 2 can output FullHD resolution, the app just needs to support it.
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