Geek: Man Down, Tech problems of comically epic proportions...
So yesterday I was getting *really* close to finishing a project, which was supposed to go live this week...then my 2003 laptop went kaput. Which telling a client reminds me of the "dog ate my homework" excuse.
So after a trip to best buy and a $30+10min painless operation I extract the harddrive, put it in a mobile enclosure and start using my tablet. Smugly, noting how cool it is to have the data portable I discover that's pretty easy to switch the "My documents" and "Shared Documents" to any drive via some simple registry tweaks. Meaning you can take your data from machine to machine, instead of synching it all the time.
Now actively being used the tablet overheats regularly, taking one of 3 different failure modes:
* the usb controller stops - taking the keyboard, mouse and the newly mobile harddrive with it. Try coding on that!
* the wireless be so flakey it's almost not worth connecting, and makes it impossible to work on streaming media or web required apps/documentaion.
* it just locks up, cursor and any code not saved encased in glass beyond reach or saving.. a bit like the original superman villians.
My last bastion: 'Xerver' the server/desktop doesn't have internet since going wireless with the neighbors, and has zero of my development software installed on it (half of which require internet activation). Thus 5000K+ worth of gear, I have to resort connecting to the web using the lowly graciously available kitchen laptop..or my treo, model of stability (forgetting everything occassionally), backed up to the aforementioned PC's, that it is.
So I'm stockpiled in the kitchen ,looking a bit like a warzone with laptop casualities surrounding me like dead fish belly up revealing their serial numbers, pillows as sandbags to make things more comfy. I scour the web looking at possible laptop replacements to find only to find that the industry has mostly gone to mass commodization cheap $700-1200 laptops that don't do anything special, or $3500 gaming platforms that barely qualify as mobile. Alsmost nowhere to be found are high res monitors, high speed in small sizes. Plus almost every site trying to find the details on laptops is obscured by marketing lingo. There are a few models at about $2500, but they in essense give me just about what I have, making it hard to justify spending the money to 'upgrade'.
And the client is still waiting for those last few fixes, which almost give the illusion of doubling in distance every step that's taken. With only a few lines left, I have to spend an hour or two getting a network card or software setup.
So after a trip to best buy and a $30+10min painless operation I extract the harddrive, put it in a mobile enclosure and start using my tablet. Smugly, noting how cool it is to have the data portable I discover that's pretty easy to switch the "My documents" and "Shared Documents" to any drive via some simple registry tweaks. Meaning you can take your data from machine to machine, instead of synching it all the time.
Now actively being used the tablet overheats regularly, taking one of 3 different failure modes:
* the usb controller stops - taking the keyboard, mouse and the newly mobile harddrive with it. Try coding on that!
* the wireless be so flakey it's almost not worth connecting, and makes it impossible to work on streaming media or web required apps/documentaion.
* it just locks up, cursor and any code not saved encased in glass beyond reach or saving.. a bit like the original superman villians.
My last bastion: 'Xerver' the server/desktop doesn't have internet since going wireless with the neighbors, and has zero of my development software installed on it (half of which require internet activation). Thus 5000K+ worth of gear, I have to resort connecting to the web using the lowly graciously available kitchen laptop..or my treo, model of stability (forgetting everything occassionally), backed up to the aforementioned PC's, that it is.
So I'm stockpiled in the kitchen ,looking a bit like a warzone with laptop casualities surrounding me like dead fish belly up revealing their serial numbers, pillows as sandbags to make things more comfy. I scour the web looking at possible laptop replacements to find only to find that the industry has mostly gone to mass commodization cheap $700-1200 laptops that don't do anything special, or $3500 gaming platforms that barely qualify as mobile. Alsmost nowhere to be found are high res monitors, high speed in small sizes. Plus almost every site trying to find the details on laptops is obscured by marketing lingo. There are a few models at about $2500, but they in essense give me just about what I have, making it hard to justify spending the money to 'upgrade'.
And the client is still waiting for those last few fixes, which almost give the illusion of doubling in distance every step that's taken. With only a few lines left, I have to spend an hour or two getting a network card or software setup.