Wow. Thanks for the Reaper tip.
Very impressive effort there, and for $60... Nuts!
The Setup: Zed Shaw
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are working on software that will run on customers' machines tomorrow, it makes sense to do at least a good chunk of development on very average hardware. These days, most client development is web stuff, so you don't often have the excuse of compile times. But if you're working on software that's supposed to run well on high-spec machines and servers, or targeting machines a few years in the future, then you'…
Maybe I'm being a closed-minded idiot, but "i write compilers for a living" isn't something a lot of programmers can claim. I guess I'm working on the assumption that most programmers are building enterprise apps. I don't know why I think that.
I'm working on backend systems for a small startup, and I am writing software that on my work laptop (MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo at 2.4 Ghz, with 4 GB of ram) takes about 30 seconds to compile. Tests take another minute or so to run. That is 1 minute and 30 seconds too long because my attention is now elsewhere ...
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shouldn't it be worth it to decrease friction in something you are spending 8-10 hours a day on? Personally I can't stand when I run into the physical/computational limitations of a system I'm on. I also can't stand it when someone on my team complains about this. A nice computer, a good amount of RAM, good input devices, a good chair and a desk are paltry compared to what you should be paying a great engineer or des…
Like I said in another comment, in my opinion, a 2006 (intro of a intel's c2d) computer with 8gigs of ram + an SSD was pretty much the last time your average programmer saw any appreciable gains on the desktop. Things _have_ moved forward since then, especially if your are multi-thread/core sensitive. For everyone else, even at 8-10hours a day, I'm not sure it'd be considered a great investment for such incremental i…
Unfortunately in some (most ?) big enterprise we are still stuck with Windows XP (so 3.5gigs of RAM) and shitty hard drive that are further killed by the antivirus :(
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#34Not long about I accidentally ruined the keyboard on my oldish white macbook, I debated spending cash I really didn't need to spend on a nice new macbook air. But after giving it some good thought I decided to just go ahead and replace the topcase myself. While deciding this I realized it's rather a shame that in our hacker culture there's still somewhat of a fetishism for having a sleek new laptop, and that it would…
Don't replace it if it works for you, but due to Moore's Law computer hardware doesn't age that well. Older guitars that are well taken care of sound as good if not better than shiny new ones, but after a certain age your computer begins wasting your time. Most programming time is spent sitting and thinking, but when I act I want the computer to respond as quickly as possible, whether compiling or running tests or op…
Macs are actually remarkably serviceable, thanks to their limited product range, and iFixit.
My only computer is a tweaked 5 years old MacBook Pro, underclocked to 1 GHz for stability reasons. I've replaced the optical drive with a big hard disk, and the primary hard disk with an SDD. Stock 2GB of RAM.
Except for CPU-bound tasks (mostly HD videos, and the ocasional ./configure && make && sudo make install), it flies.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#35old hardware might work for him, but not for me. I dont want to wait for my pc, and if i can noticably improve speed with a SSD, a better CPU or more RAM i do so. Whats wrong with wanting fast hardware? I spend 8-12 hours each day in front of these things, so if i can upgrade stuff to make my job easier i do so.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#36Not long about I accidentally ruined the keyboard on my oldish white macbook, I debated spending cash I really didn't need to spend on a nice new macbook air. But after giving it some good thought I decided to just go ahead and replace the topcase myself. While deciding this I realized it's rather a shame that in our hacker culture there's still somewhat of a fetishism for having a sleek new laptop, and that it would…
My workstation started life as an HP I bought at Best Buy in 1998. I've just upgraded it piecemeal over the years, and while none of the original hardware remains, I've never replaced it outright. My two development boxes, also under my desk, are whiteboxes cobbled together from previous iterations of my workstation - the hardware gets handed down, and once it hits four generations old, it gets shelved in the garage.…
That sort of thing makes a great deal of sense with a "desktop" computer. Laptops are not designed to work like that, and in most cases are not robust enough in any event.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#37This is a good contrast to this recent front-page HN story: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3075145 "If you're a developer, you need to spend money on a great computer, an awesome monitor, a fantastic chair and a good bed" Personally, I think Zed's approach is far more responsible/sane. If you "need to spend money on a great computer", you are either doing something very different than me, or very wrong.
It's certainly possible to develop with less than top quality tools, but when a developer costs $100k-$200k/yr (loaded cost), spending $10-20k on tools vs. $0-2k is pretty reasonable, if it either provides a bump in performance (and I believe it does), or just makes the developer happier.
If you go on-site with clients, it's pretty sketchy to have a taped together Gateway 2000 vs. a MacBook Pro/Air, too.
I'd be concerned if I took my car to a mechanic who was using chinese crap tools, or went to a doctor with duct tape holding every piece of equipment together.
Probably one of the better things to spend money on is having entire spare hardware lying around in case someone's laptop is stolen or fails.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#38I thought it was a bit odd that he wrote 7 paragraphs about music equipment and software, but didn't mention which GNU/Linux distribution(s) he uses on his "junky" laptops.
I think the yarn about music was his jokey way to play with people's expectations of his life's pie chart.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't replace it if it works for you, but due to Moore's Law computer hardware doesn't age that well. Older guitars that are well taken care of sound as good if not better than shiny new ones, but after a certain age your computer begins wasting your time. Most programming time is spent sitting and thinking, but when I act I want the computer to respond as quickly as possible, whether compiling or running tests or op…
Macs are actually remarkably serviceable, thanks to their limited product range, and iFixit. My only computer is a tweaked 5 years old MacBook Pro, underclocked to 1 GHz for stability reasons. I've replaced the optical drive with a big hard disk, and the primary hard disk with an SDD. Stock 2GB of RAM. Except for CPU-bound tasks (mostly HD videos, and the ocasional ./configure && make && sudo make install), it flies.
The earliest MBP's probably need that heat paste thing redone, but 2008 and later Core Duo 2 MBP generally last as long as you don't flex the logic board (don't carry it by one corner), and keep it reasonably cool. One of hte older generation MBP had clips for logicboard that were ver fragile.
For linux, the US$7-800 core i5 toshibas and HP laptops at Costco work pretty well, except for wifi on the Realtek chip set. 8M RAM vs. 2M on a 5-year old laptop is a big diff.
Re: The Setup: Zed Shaw
#40I thought it was a bit odd that he wrote 7 paragraphs about music equipment and software, but didn't mention which GNU/Linux distribution(s) he uses on his "junky" laptops.
I'm not a programmer, but I suspect the detail on the music gear might be because the sound you get depends on the instruments and effects chain.
The code you get out of your coding session, or the LaTeX source for your book, does not really depend on which method you chose to install and update GNU/Linux.
Am I being naive here?