He does bring out a point about something I have never understood: why does the PC industry love putting stickers on laptops? It is a really annoying and ugly practice.
The Last PC Laptop
81–90 of 156 posts
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Several people have told me they do the same. It might not be thousands, but there are programmers out there working like this. It works for programmers because the iPad isn't your workstation, it's just your connection to a remote workstation. I'm not sure this is applicable to e.g. graphic design.
you know, working on a terminal (thin client) is nothing particularly new. and when you attach a keyboard and a mouse/touchpad to assemble a kind-of-laptop-but-not-laptop terminal it's by strict measures no longer 'working on a tablet', so what's the point of it exactly? carrying around a keyboard to say you don't use a netbook, it's a tablet? trying to prove something?
He explains the reasons pretty well in the original blog post http://yieldthought.com/post/12239282034/swapped-my-macbook-...
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#83I wanted to buy a new windows laptop that was light, strong, and looked good. I really, really did. Then, because of work reasons, I ended up getting a MacBook Air instead. Now, I've been dead-set against switching to a Mac for a long time, because I am incredibly invested with Windows, more so than almost anyone I know. I didn't want to have to relearn everything, plus rewrite all the scripts I have on my Windows ma…
I need to know your secret then.
About three years ago, I purchased my first Mac. It was an early 2009 iMac. Before then, I had only owned a Windows machine, and like you, I was also incredibly invested in Windows.
But when I got my Mac, I just found doing simple things a challenge, and the various interfaces not powerful enough. To this day, I still struggle using Finder, mostly because there's no (native) way of browsing folders and files separately like in Windows.
But that's just one example, and I really don't have time to list the many other ways I found the switch difficult.
So again, I'm curious to know your secret. I don't know, maybe I was even more invested in Windows than yourself.
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Train rides are kind of boring. Why wouldn't I get out my laptop on a train? I did, recently, to add depth-of-field compensation to a blurry image detector I'm writing for my own amusement. I don't think that would be nearly as fun on a stupidly-big phone.
> Train rides are kind of boring. Why wouldn't I get out my laptop on a train? To allow yourself a momentary disconnect. To watch the world out of the window, or the people around you. To take an interest in the weather and season. To give your mind a chance to digest what you mean to do or what you have done. I cherish my time travelling from one place to another, even if that is just a walk to the shops, a trip on…
> To watch the world out of the window,
It's the same tunnel it was yesterday. And the day before. And last week. And last year. Come to think of it, the tunnel hasn't changed much since it's inauguration in 1984. And the soundwalls lining the surface parts of the railway line aren't that captivating either.
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Several people have told me they do the same. It might not be thousands, but there are programmers out there working like this. It works for programmers because the iPad isn't your workstation, it's just your connection to a remote workstation. I'm not sure this is applicable to e.g. graphic design.
you know, working on a terminal (thin client) is nothing particularly new. and when you attach a keyboard and a mouse/touchpad to assemble a kind-of-laptop-but-not-laptop terminal it's by strict measures no longer 'working on a tablet', so what's the point of it exactly? carrying around a keyboard to say you don't use a netbook, it's a tablet? trying to prove something?
I hate to disagree with you because I abhor the idea of using a tablet for my work. However, it's still a machine that gets longer battery life than a laptop, is smaller (so theoretically more portable), lacks a lot of the power of a laptop, etc. It isn't the same as using a laptop. It's both more and less convenient.
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#86I wanted to buy a new windows laptop that was light, strong, and looked good. I really, really did. Then, because of work reasons, I ended up getting a MacBook Air instead. Now, I've been dead-set against switching to a Mac for a long time, because I am incredibly invested with Windows, more so than almost anyone I know. I didn't want to have to relearn everything, plus rewrite all the scripts I have on my Windows ma…
I don't know if you would feel the same way after you code on XCode. I feel like in a cage when I have to touch code on that thing...
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm actually inclined to think there isn't . The things I want from a computer and what finds success in the market don't necessarily line up that well. I built the laptop I'm typing this on out of parts from three different Thinkpads because I wanted a 64-bit machine with a trackpoint and a high-quality 4:3 screen and nobody made one. About one in four of the programmer/IT types I talked to about it agreed that was…
How do you actually go about building your dream laptop? The parts needed just doesn't seem to mix-and-match like what we used to in desktop PCs.
It's essentially a 14" 4:3 Thinkpad T61 motherboard in a 15" 4:3 T60 chassis. They don't quite mix and match perfectly and I had to file down a couple places on the frame to make it fit. This is a fairly popular modification among enthusiasts of the classic Thinkpad line, as it's generally thought to be the best possible 4:3 Thinkpad. The keyboard came from an unknown machine (ebay) and was on a W500 for a while; I chose the part number generally regarded as slightly better than the others. The wifi card, hard drive, AC adapter and battery came from a W500. The wifi card required a BIOS hacked to remove the hardware whitelist.
The current specs are:
Display: 15" IPS panel, 1600x1200, matte
CPU: Intel T7700, upgradeable to T9500
GPU: Nvidia QuadroFX 570M, 128MB
Memory: 8GB DDR2 dual-channel @ 667 MHz
Disk: 320GB 5400RPM, hacked BIOS supports SATAII
Optical: DVD multi-burner
Display: QXGA (2048x1536) panel, when I can find one for less than $400
CPU: If something Penryn shows up cheap or free, I'll put it in
Disk: An SSD, obviously, perhaps with a hard drive in the optical bay
Battery: I'm betting there are some modern cells with higher capacity I can put in the old shell
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#88I wanted to buy a new windows laptop that was light, strong, and looked good. I really, really did. Then, because of work reasons, I ended up getting a MacBook Air instead. Now, I've been dead-set against switching to a Mac for a long time, because I am incredibly invested with Windows, more so than almost anyone I know. I didn't want to have to relearn everything, plus rewrite all the scripts I have on my Windows ma…
I need to know your secret then. About three years ago, I purchased my first Mac. It was an early 2009 iMac. Before then, I had only owned a Windows machine, and like you, I was also incredibly invested in Windows. But when I got my Mac, I just found doing simple things a challenge, and the various interfaces not powerful enough. To this day, I still struggle using Finder, mostly because there's no (native) way of br…
Like I said, I haven't done as much work yet (I bought the Air right before a vacation, so most of my use has been casual). Still, I've got one thing going for me: I'm very quick at picking up new keyboard shortcuts and habits. I'm a vim user, and every few weeks I switch around some shortcut to make things easier for myself - and it usually only takes a day to adjust. I don't know if this is abnormal or not, but a lot of people really complain very loudly every time shortcuts are changed on them, so maybe I'm the odd one out here.
Also, I work hard at fixing big incoviences. For example, I can't stand the way maximize works on the Mac... but it doesn't matter, since I have a program that makes it work like in Windows. The trick is to give the new behaviour a fair shot before "fixing" it, since sometimes the new behaviour is better - for example, using command+tab (alt-tab in windows) only work between different applications, and having a separate shortcut for switching Windows in the same application - that's much better than in Windows, but at first I really hated it.
My biggest gripe with OSX right now, by the way, is the Finder. On Windows I used Total Commander, which is very easily one of the top ten colossal wins for me on Windows. on OSX, I don't have anything comparable, which is a big problem. But I'm working on that one too :)
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#89I wanted to buy a new windows laptop that was light, strong, and looked good. I really, really did. Then, because of work reasons, I ended up getting a MacBook Air instead. Now, I've been dead-set against switching to a Mac for a long time, because I am incredibly invested with Windows, more so than almost anyone I know. I didn't want to have to relearn everything, plus rewrite all the scripts I have on my Windows ma…
I don't know if you would feel the same way after you code on XCode. I feel like in a cage when I have to touch code on that thing...
I plan to try working only from vim if I possibly can. Don't (yet) know how possible it will be.
Re: The Last PC Laptop
#90He does bring out a point about something I have never understood: why does the PC industry love putting stickers on laptops? It is a really annoying and ugly practice.
IIRC it involves money. And the Wintel manufacturers have a lot of history in distinguishing on price, so they'll gladly gunk things up with stickers in exchange for some bucks off of the components.