(no subject)

[darkgeek]

Hmmm. I can see that it was wise (if not totally intentional) to cut back on posting as things got angstier over the last couple of months -- tis very melodramatic and tugs at one's heartstrings to see a friend getting brutalized by life, irregardless of the specifics of what's going down.

Eventually I'll start regularly posting as soon as I start having significant amounts of stuff neither pointless nor Leslie-centric. Most of what else I could blog about right now involves gossip or boring stuff, such as spending several hours deducing my needs vis a vis the new computer I am requiring the research advisor to buy me:

• The top-end Mac Mini
  This one tempting because of the following:
  
  
  • Sufficient horsepower;
  • Relatively low price;
  • DVD creation and duplication with the top-end Mini's DVD burner and software;
  • Attractiveness (the thing is cute); and
  • Peripherals that stack neatly with it (example) and match Mini styling cues.
  
  However, the Mini can't drive a monitor in landscape mode and a second monitor in portrait mode at the same time. It looks like I should go with something else.
  
  
• An iMac
  An iMac would get the job done nicely at a reasonable price, but it's not portable. Once you've spent years carting a laptop around, the annoyance at having to carry the weight with you everywhere looms large. This makes the possibility of a system to leave in the office permanently a real temptation. However, it is counter-balanced by the very same lack of portability come travel time, making this option a double-edged sword1.
  
  
• A Mac Pro
  Alas, given the other $700 of software and equipment needed, I don't feel justified in making the boss drop $2500 for a Mac Pro just to make me a little more satisfied. I am somewhat surprised that, to my knowledge, she hasn't gotten one for herself yet.
  
  
• A notebook running Mac OS X
  We have to be pedantic about the term notebook since Apple claims that the heat issues arise when people mistakenly treat their notebook computers as laptops. ::cough::bullshit::cough::. We also have to be pedantic about the name of the operating system since, as John Gruber has explained, OS X (with no "Mac") is what Apple has chosen to call the iPhone's operating system. The two, he reminds us, are not the same OS, not any more than Windows XP and the embedded version of Windows are the same operating system. Those caveats aside, one only need worry about the standard issues that come with revA2 builds of Apple's hardware (i.e., catching on fire, toasting a bunch of your data, various and sundry ways of seriously fucking you over...)
  
  
• A non-Apple system
  This option lets me get virtually anything I want, including a Mini-shaped PC that has two monitor ports. Basically, this boils down to a Dell laptop or an AOpen MiniPC. These would be something to consider if it weren't for the wait time involved in assembly, shipping, and paperwork to process reimbursement. There would be no Apple-ness in this case, and I'm of the opinion that more operating systems == better toy/tool.

In any case, the boss is SO going to have to max out the computer's main banks of RAM so that I can run XP and Ubuntu in virtual machines. I'm actually leaning towards the high-end Macbook: the iMac's got the real estate, but for me portability trumps screen size for any and all purposes except multimedia (movie watching, photo editing). The rest of the shopping list is pretty easy to build:

• External hard drive large enough to store the entire data set from the instrument (at least 150 GB, given that hard drives use block storage);
  
  
• External LCD monitor that Mac OS X can drive in portrait mode:
  Once you get in the habit of reading code or documents (think pdfs) in portrait mode, you'll be hooked forever. Get used to working with multiple screens, and you'll never ever go back again except during travel. This will probably the 20-inch Dell or Acer with DVI input, and even larger if there's one on sale at the time of purchase. (24 inches in portrait mode would rock! Heck, at 40 inches I wouldn't even need a second monitor in portrait mode, making the Mini an option again and a return to computer gaming awfully tempting.)
  
  
• Virtualization software: I've spent some time learning about the requirements to get running with Parallels. I'm also awfully tempted to triple boot now that someone has figured out a technique for installing all three major desktop operating systems, but that will be something to look at later since I need to get cracking on the paper rewrite and additional research.
  
  
• Retail box edition of Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2 (see above about virtualization);
  
  
• Student edition of IDL3 (we might have a site license, need to check...); and
  
  
• Student edition of Matlab3.

1 Just why is it bad to be double-edged metaphorically? In actual combat a double-edged sword can be an asset for interactions other than those that involve hacking away at limbs and necks. Cleaner entry and exit make for easier extraction after impaling someone upon your weapon since you are cutting flesh instead of ripping or bludgeoning...
2 At this point, are Intel-based Macs still revA hardware?
3 I'm not sure yet whether these would be for Mac OS X or for Windows under Parallels.