Evanston: the office, north
Evanston: the office, north
The sun sets behind the trees and buildings across the street rather than the hills behind Opua; but the wind ripples a green sea of leaves as it does the green water around THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s mooring.
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On the boat I spend much of my time, both in port and while underway, sitting on the forward end of one of the two settee berths in the main cabin, facing aft toward the companionway, my back resting on a triangular cushion against the main bulkhead. When Carol was aboard, the port settee berth and lockers were hers; the starboard was mine. Now I have it all. Removing the fireplace has made both settees equal, so I move from one to the other freely.
Here I have three favorite places for different times of day.
When I first get up in the morning, I sit in the brown chair above--the photograph makes it appear mauve but it is actually a deep chocolate brown--while checking email and twenty-seven favorite sites--I just counted them--and letting Quicken update what derisively could be called my finances.
Around 6:30 a.m. when Carol joins me on weekdays, I turn on the television to what even more derisively could be called the news, and move to the end of the beige sofa. The television is on the wall outside this view to the right.
I also sit there while listening to music because the speakers are optimized for the sofa.
I have a desk in another corner of the room, but seldom work there.
I usually write while sitting on my end of the sofa: the other end is Carol’s. But I often take my laptop back to the guest bedroom, which with two south windows is the sunniest room in the condo during the middle of the day, and work, sitting with my legs up on the sofa there. At a little after 10:00 a.m. I am doing so now.
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The computer in the picture is my new 15” MacBook Pro.
A few of you may recall my enthusiasm two years ago for the MacBook Air. That has not diminished. The Air may be the perfect size and weight--though I must confess that I am becoming partial to a 15” display--but I have increasingly come up against its limitations: small, non-user replaceable hard drive; only 2 GB of non-user upgradable RAM; limited graphics processor; and only one USB port.
My Air has only an 80 GB hard drive, and even with keeping my iTunes library and many photographs on an external hard drive, it is almost full.
The weak graphics, relatively slow GPU, and limited RAM have increasingly been sources of frustration as applications grow more complex and demanding. Aperture 3, released earlier this year, which I use to store and adjust images, works on my Air, but barely.
So the Pro.
I had been waiting for the refresh of the line, which took place while I was in New Zealand, and placed my order from there so it would be delivered when I returned to Evanston.
It is a powerful machine. Aperture 3, and everything else, runs quickly and smoothly, and for that matter at the same time. I never have to close an application to free RAM as I often had to do with the Air. I’ve moved all my stuff from external drives and still have 300 GB free. The optional high resolution display is spectacular. The laptop fits in the computer slot of my carry-on knapsack. And at 5.6 pounds I can lift it with one hand.
There are rumors of a refresh for the MacBook Air, which is long overdue. My perfect computer would be a MacBook Air Pro 15”. In other words this computer thinner and a couple of pounds lighter.
In time that will probably happen, but I doubt very soon. Apple can’t even squeeze the latest GPU and graphics into the 13” Pro.
I’ll just have to consider lifting this machine as forearm crossing training.
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Tomorrow we are driving to Michigan for a four day mini-vacation, which of course I need desperately. The pressure. The pressure.
Saturday, May 29, 2010