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Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#161
post #63
post #23

Asus Eee PC 1000HD * 1.6Ghz Atom * 1 GiB ram * 10" 1024x600 display * OpenBSD (recent snapshot) * StumpWM is the window manager * emacs is the editor I use it as terminal to login to my ps3 running Debian sid for cell processor development. I use profont to let me fit a lot of code on the small screen.

I've heard some people say that only being able to see a small amount of code at a time forces good programming practices, compared to what you'd be able to do with a large monitor. Do you think that having such a small screen helps in this way?

Well it certainly doesn't force anything. I could probably adopt some bad practices if I really tried.

The screen really isn't that small. I disable scroll-bars, tool bars and menu bars in emacs. Using 11pt profont I get two vertical buffers of 81 cols by 102 rows. That's quadruple the size of a vt100 terminal. How much more could you need? haha

If I had to use gnome this display size would be unusable but stumpwm makes it very usable.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#162

Sheesh. Okay, here we go: Hackerspace Kit ASUS 1000HA 2gb RAM upgrade BT4 / Windows Dual Boot Arduino Diecimella Freelance / Personal Kit MacBook Pro 2,2 2gb RAM ATI Radeon x1600 Boot Camp / VMWare Fusion XP Dual Boot Gaming Kit Custom Built i7 Rig i7 920 6gb RAM Nvidia GTX 260 Dual 19" WS Monitors from Dell Dell Docking Station Work Kit Dell D830 Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz 3.5gb RAM Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M Win XP Dual 19" 4:3…

Try harder.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#163
My main machine for the last 6 months has been a EeePC 1000HE netbook. I keep an Athlon 64 3200+ in the basement thaat has extra storage and a larger monitor for design work, but it rarely gets used anymore. My at work machine is a Pentium D with 2 23" screens in landscape.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#165
ZaReason UltraLap SR (c. 2008)

  2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
  4GB RAM
  250GB hard disk
  iwl4965 802.11n wifi
  Intel 965 graphics (yay open drivers!)
  13" 1280x800 screen
  best laptop keyboard there is (clicky! like a Model M! *heaven*)

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to find successful eBay auctions to gauge value but they're highly variable since it's not commonly sold kit and I've upgraded it to 8GB of memory, more hard drives, and what not. For an 8 core 2.8GHz Mac Pro with 8GB memory, I've seen everything from £1500ish to £2200 (which is more than it cost new!! - I suspect it's because the older 8 core Xeons are faster than the current 4 core ones that replaced them).…

£3,000: one year of car insurance OR an 8 core Mac Pro, 30" ACD, and an iPad. Hmmm…

One year of car insurance? Christ. I thought £700 was bad enough (and I'm almost 30).

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#167
15' Macbook Pro with 27' Dell monitor for work. Would love to stick 4 additional gigs of RAM and SSD into macbook :)

Previous Mac Mini with Time Capsule, Creative EMU USB soundcard and 37' samsung full hd display for home and media content.

PS3 for gaming, Kindle for reading.

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

£3,000: one year of car insurance OR an 8 core Mac Pro, 30" ACD, and an iPad. Hmmm…

One year of car insurance? Christ. I thought £700 was bad enough (and I'm almost 30).

The joys of being a new driver. :)

(and in fact, it's only £3k if I pay it in a lump sum, it's nearer to £3.5k if I want to pay monthly!)

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#169

Sheesh. Okay, here we go: Hackerspace Kit ASUS 1000HA 2gb RAM upgrade BT4 / Windows Dual Boot Arduino Diecimella Freelance / Personal Kit MacBook Pro 2,2 2gb RAM ATI Radeon x1600 Boot Camp / VMWare Fusion XP Dual Boot Gaming Kit Custom Built i7 Rig i7 920 6gb RAM Nvidia GTX 260 Dual 19" WS Monitors from Dell Dell Docking Station Work Kit Dell D830 Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz 3.5gb RAM Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M Win XP Dual 19" 4:3…

Try harder.

Not sure I understand what you're saying. It sounds snarky, but that doesn't fit the HN modus operandi, so I'm hoping I missed something. :)

Re: Ask HN: What's your computer setup?

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that's bullshit. Tried using a netbook to do some web development, and the small screen, keyboard and lethargic hardware made it very frustrating. Horrible compared to using a big monitor and powerful desktop.

I bought an Asus Eee several years ago for writing away from home, but discovered too late that the keyboard is much too small for me to type comfortably.

I got a Dell Mini 10v and turned it into a hackintosh for Rails development...unfortunately it's useless apart from browsing the web and reading PDFs. The small keyboard can be worked around by plugging in a proper Apple keyboard....but that's not very portable :-(
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