gtuhl: startup IT and software development

We recently pulled the trigger on monitor upgrades for all developers at the office and I was faced with a tough decision to make.

Until this point, I was using just my 17″ (1920 x 1200) laptop and nothing else. I really like the Macbook Pro keyboard and additionally, though I realize I am in a minority on this, I love the condensed format of laptop keyboards. I also love trackpads.

My reason for this is I do not have to move my hands for anything. Once you get used to the layout of a laptop keyboard I actually think you can move faster and you don’t have to move your hands at all to hit any key or any shortcut. Now if you are an accountant or similar or working with numbers all of the time then sure, a number pad probably makes sense, but otherwise it is wasted space. I can bang out numbers at almost full typing speed (~110 wpm) using the bar along the top and I don’t have to move my right hand over to a number pad.

Similarly, I love the trackpad because I don’t have to move at all to reach for a mouse. I’ve gotten to where I can use my thumbs for almost everything trackpad-wise.

So I had this new monitor and I didn’t want to dual screen (I use spaces which doesn’t play very nice with multiple screens). This meant either don’t use the monitor (which wasn’t an option after I gave it is test run) or buy a mouse and keyboard.

I ended up forking over some cash for the following:

Wireless Keyboard

Wireless Mighty Mouse

Yeah they are expensive but even though I rag on Apple stability sometimes I still love their stuff and these have turned out to be an excellent keyboard and mouse. Now my impressions of both.

The Keyboard

This took me a bit to get used to because the keys, unlike the MBP, don’t run flush into one another. There is a strip of aluminum between them and at first I was striking that aluminum a lot when typing at full speed. I like it now that I have adjusted to switching between those keyboards though. I bought this one not for the bluetooth but because the layout is identical in almost every way to the MBP keyboard layout. The keys feel very good and though I wasn’t looking for bluetooth it does work very well. This keyboard just looks cool too - no wires, super tiny, and it feels well made.

The Mighty Mouse

This is probably the best mouse I have ever used. It again looks very cool, all flush and smooth but that isn’t the important part. It gives you right, middle, and left clicking though you wouldn’t know that by just looking at it. You can also program the side buttons to do something when squeezed. The trackball lets you scroll vertically and horizontally with ease (this was a big reason why I got this mouse - I love the trackpad scrolling in all directions on the MBP and would have missed that functionality big time). It again has no wires, the bluetooth works perfectly and at surprisingly long range. I have used it to control while watching movies on the laptop (Netflix’s video player is actually pretty nice). Finally, this mouse is very precise and it also feels very well made. This thing is awesome. The 2 devices are very small so I can keep the mouse really close to the keyboard and don’t have to reach too much for it.

So the new mouse and keyboard work pretty well but I still believe my ideal setup would be essentially a MBP with no screen and the base of it wired up to send keyboard/mouse signals to another machine. Or if I could detach the screen temporarily when using the larger monitor. If anyone knows if either of these is possible please let me know

When apple first released the iPod I was both unimpressed and uninterested. They seemed far too expensive for the feature set and to be honest I had largely lost interest in music as high school wrapped up and college got started.

This past holiday season the price and my interest had finally changed enough to justify a purchase. I picked up one of the Black 30gb 5th generation iPods and after a couple months of use absolutely love it. The interface and aesthetic of the device combined with the intuitive and effective presentation of iTunes motivated me to clean up, organize, and find album art for the 20gb of so of mp3s I have collected over the years and listened to with various iterations of winamp. I’ve even purchased DRM-filled albums, games, and audio books on iTunes and despite my usual hatred of DRM and monopolistic corporations i’ve completely embraced the interaction of the iPod with iTunes and don’t at all mind that I am allowing a single vendor to control the way I organize and listen to music. That speaks volumes for the quality of these products.

That said, ownership of such a spacious and effective device has led me to become an avid listener of podcasts. The point of this post is largely to share the list of podcasts I currently enjoy an exceptional amount. Here it is in no particular order:

• Chicago GSB Postcast Series
• Comic Strip Live: Standup Comedy
• QDNow (this is a network of 3 - 5 minute podcast series covering various topics)
• ESPN: PTI (I never catch this when it runs on TV and the format is perfect for a podcast)
• HBR IdeaCast
• Manager Tools

Since I have never listened to podcasts on a regular basis, I can pull down years of content such that I won’t ever be able to work through all of it. These sure beat listening to the garbage radio stations covering Atlanta. I loved the 99x morning show when Fred Toucher was a part of the cast but it disbanded and went down the crapper when he left.