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The Setup: William Gibson

william.gibson.usesthis.com

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Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#11

Post by generalk »

dshep wrote: post #7

Wow these are getting pretty boring...

Would it have been less boring if Gibson waxed for pages about weighing the new Lenovo laptops vs. the MacBook, or the merits of one word processor over another?

I think it's fairly fascinating to discover that the author of one of the most notable cyberpunk novels doesn't really care about technology. (In fact, that's kind of the feeling you get from Neuromancer. There's loads of amazing technology but nobody's really fawning over it. It's just there, and it's just used.)

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#12

Post by 0x12 »

Technology is a means to an end. Once you can reach the end with the tech that you have there is no need to upgrade any further.

Upgrading is an investment in both time and funds, both can be spent better if you are already able to do what you want to do.

Most of us could get through the day just fine on a 486/33 if we had to. In fact, we'd probably write better software if we did.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#13

Post by ableal »

> It’s the WiFi, no cellular to worry about

A palpable hit. Gibson was talking about the tablet, but I suspect there may be quite a few (Wi-Fi enabled) phones out there without data plans.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#14

Post by dy »

cstross wrote: post #10
dy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to have you do a usesthis as well - the more obscure stuff is especially fascinating as it usually carries a much better story than just "I'm using the newest Macbook Pro and I got 8GB of RAM."

Well, I am a gadgetoholic-in-recovery. Let's skip lightly past the colo server running Debian that I keep the blog on. I'm mostly a Mac shop. On my desk right now is an older 23" Apple Cinema display, being driven by an October 2010 13" Macbook Air (4Gb/250Gb SSD, OS: 10.7.2). Next to me is an iPad 2/64Gb and a 3 mifi, with a ZaggMate cover/keyboard. And there's an iPhone 4 that ain't going to be upgraded until it's…

Awesome cstross - thanks for taking time to answer the question - I like the idea behind the MacBook Air with the 480 GB upgrade and may have to look into that myself. I just got an iPhone 4S and it surprises me how close it feels to being eligible to be my only computing device - in a few years I can imagine sitting down next to my computer and just having the Apple Wireless Thunderbolt display connect to it and have my entire computer ready to go (I'd go through the trouble of plugging in a cable if necessary :)

This line really caught my eye: "(because when I write myself into a corner and need to refactor the deep structure of a book, Scrivener makes life a lot easier)" I've heard of Scrivener being used by writers for this purpose, but do you think it would work well for programmers? I'm struggling right now like I've written myself into a corner and notes/diagrams aren't really helping as much as I'd like.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#15

Post by rdl »

cstross wrote: post #10
dy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love to have you do a usesthis as well - the more obscure stuff is especially fascinating as it usually carries a much better story than just "I'm using the newest Macbook Pro and I got 8GB of RAM."

Well, I am a gadgetoholic-in-recovery. Let's skip lightly past the colo server running Debian that I keep the blog on. I'm mostly a Mac shop. On my desk right now is an older 23" Apple Cinema display, being driven by an October 2010 13" Macbook Air (4Gb/250Gb SSD, OS: 10.7.2). Next to me is an iPad 2/64Gb and a 3 mifi, with a ZaggMate cover/keyboard. And there's an iPhone 4 that ain't going to be upgraded until it's…

Wow. This is much more what I'd expect from a scifi writer, or really anyone who uses a computer all day professionally.

Have you considered Microsoft Office 2011 for office documents? I agree about the ribbon, but it is better than the free alternatives.

Why not upgrade to the 27" or a dell u3011 now, and mba11 later?

Also, backups?

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#16

Post by uriel »

generalk wrote: post #11
dshep wrote: post #7

Wow these are getting pretty boring...

Would it have been less boring if Gibson waxed for pages about weighing the new Lenovo laptops vs. the MacBook, or the merits of one word processor over another? I think it's fairly fascinating to discover that the author of one of the most notable cyberpunk novels doesn't really care about technology. (In fact, that's kind of the feeling you get from Neuromancer. There's loads of amazing technology but nobody's real…

Also, most modern software/hardware is not particularly exciting from a usefulness point of view. It is mostly the same stuff that has been around for ages in a slightly smaller package with a new coat of paint.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#18

Post by Semiapies »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #8
dshep wrote: post #7

Wow these are getting pretty boring...

Maybe next time they should interview a lumberjack.

I can't think of any famous lumberjacks for them to interview, but Hell, I'd read it. Even if it was on the order of "this axe, this chainsaw, and this old phone I can use while wearing workgloves", I'd learn a little.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#19

Post by freyday »

lylejohnson wrote: post #2

"I haven’t bought an app for about a year. Neither hardware nor software excite me very much, after whatever brief (and usually painful) novelty has worn off." It's probably because I'm so immersed in tech stuff at work, but it's hard for me to understand how such an imaginative science fiction author can be so... indifferent about the technology he uses.

I would think that, as a Science Fiction writer, separating yourself from current technology as a whole would allow you to be more creative in how you perceive the world(s) you are creating.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#20

Post by bitwize »

lylejohnson wrote: post #2

"I haven’t bought an app for about a year. Neither hardware nor software excite me very much, after whatever brief (and usually painful) novelty has worn off." It's probably because I'm so immersed in tech stuff at work, but it's hard for me to understand how such an imaginative science fiction author can be so... indifferent about the technology he uses.

I'm of the belief that William Gibson pretty much hates computers which is why he wrote so much about them. He doesn't write SF, he writes anti-SF. An SF author posits scientifically plausibe scenarios and shows his/her work. Gibson's novels about cyberspace and that relied extensively on handwaving, magical thinking, and "unseen, unknown threat" to develop their narratives.

This isn't negative. Gibson probably knows more about computers than you. Hint: Rather than look at technical details, he has always thought about computers from the most critical perspective: at the points where they interact with people.

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