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The Setup: William Gibson

william.gibson.usesthis.com

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Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#51

Post by EwanG »

cstross wrote: post #5
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.

If you're a novelist your career doesn't usually start rolling until you're in your mid-thirties. (You need life experience before you can depict characters folks want to read about.) Neophilia for its own sake usually wears off some time in the forties, even among many geeks. Moreover, if your job involves spinning text, just about any computer built in the past two decades will do the job. (I know one award-winning…

Let's face it. A TRS-80 Model 100 in many ways is probably still the ideal portable writing machine. Only displays a couple lines at a time so you can't get too distracted with formatting and such. Rugged, full keyboard, 20+ hours of battery life, and reasonably easy to read even in full daylight. While I have migrated to an iPad 2 for many things, I sometimes wonder if that really represented an improvement...

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#52

Post by gwern »

dualboot wrote: post #38
softbuilder wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps he's become jaded.

When he began his craft it was a world of typewriters. Amazing imagination and forward thinking -- but it's hard to blame him for wanting technology to mostly stay out of his way.

> When he began his craft it was a world of typewriters.

It kind of blew my mind to learn he wrote _Neuromancer_ on a typewriter.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#53

Post by qx24b »

uriel wrote: post #16
generalk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It really depends on the person and how they use that technology. People like I assume Gibson use tech as a means to an end, he hasn't bought a new app because he is comfortable with what he has and sees no need to try new things.

This is the same reason my mother had a hard time when she bought a new laptop with windows 7 on it, though surprisingly she really likes google chrome and tells everyone on a computer using internet explorer they should use chrome instead.

I guess the gist of what I am saying is that sometimes change can be to much for those who aren't the power user. I loved windows 7 on the RC and all the little improvements, the same with word and office 2007. I get excited about new OS releases and new programs and updates because I find them useful and it doesn't take me hours or weeks or months to become more productive because I live tech but others just don't have the time or desire to understand it.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#54

Post by [deleted] »

cstross wrote: post #40
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can upgrade the SSD on an Air. My understanding is they are pulled apart and soldered to the MB in order to give the Air its awesome form factor. Somebody, please correct me if I am wrong, because that is one of the primary things keeping me from an Air instead of a MacBook Pro.

You can most certainly upgrade the SSD in an Air, as my first-generation 11" Airbook with the 256Gb SSD (that I installed in it myself) can attest. It's the RAM on the mobo that's non-upgradable.

[deleted]

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#55

Post by SoftwareMaven »

m0nastic wrote: post #42
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can upgrade the SSD on an Air. My understanding is they are pulled apart and soldered to the MB in order to give the Air its awesome form factor. Somebody, please correct me if I am wrong, because that is one of the primary things keeping me from an Air instead of a MacBook Pro.

Macsales sells SSD upgrades for the Air (they're not particularly hard to do either) here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express

Thanks for this. I knew first Gen could be updated, but didn't know the latest could be. This now makes my decision hard again: performance or weight? sigh

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#56

Post by uriel »

qx24b wrote: post #53
uriel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It really depends on the person and how they use that technology. People like I assume Gibson use tech as a means to an end, he hasn't bought a new app because he is comfortable with what he has and sees no need to try new things. This is the same reason my mother had a hard time when she bought a new laptop with windows 7 on it, though surprisingly she really likes google chrome and tells everyone on a computer usin…

All technology should be a means to an end. Anything else is either art of intellectual masturbation.

I suspect most claims of how new technology makes people who 'live tech' more productive are mostly placebo effect, and in part naturally self-servingly so, after all, who wants to believe their job/industry/life is not all that important/relevant to the real world?

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#57

Post by lukifer »

rdl wrote: post #32
lukifer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the info! One thing you should know: on all the Air models except for the first-gen, the SSD chips are part of the logic board, and therefore unable to be upgraded. As a user of OWC SSDs myself, this is a damn shame.

Fortunately, your info is incorrect. The RAM is soldered on board. The SSD is a SIMM-like module, which can be upgraded by the user. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Aura_Pro_Express I'm still not sure if I'd do it for 256GB vs. 240GB or 480GB, but maybe, and the cost savings vs. Apple might make it worthwhile. Speed could be a plus too.

I didn't realize that. Very cool. :)

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#58

Post by DanBC »

cstross wrote: post #44
DanBC wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calibre (ebook management software) Please, dear lord, someone fork this and fix the god awful user interface.

What, you don't use the command line tools?

I do, but there are plenty of people who want a gui but who hate the Calibre gui. And it is an awful awful interface.

Not everyone can write a (trivial) bash script to do a batch conversion.

Re: The Setup: William Gibson

#60

Post by astrodust »

EwanG wrote: post #51
cstross wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a novelist your career doesn't usually start rolling until you're in your mid-thirties. (You need life experience before you can depict characters folks want to read about.) Neophilia for its own sake usually wears off some time in the forties, even among many geeks. Moreover, if your job involves spinning text, just about any computer built in the past two decades will do the job. (I know one award-winning…

Let's face it. A TRS-80 Model 100 in many ways is probably still the ideal portable writing machine. Only displays a couple lines at a time so you can't get too distracted with formatting and such. Rugged, full keyboard, 20+ hours of battery life, and reasonably easy to read even in full daylight. While I have migrated to an iPad 2 for many things, I sometimes wonder if that really represented an improvement...

I'd like to proof-read things more than a line at a time, though.
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