3 ms·

If you are a developer, why the hell would you make your daily life more complicated? Who cares if you save some money, this is your job! There are really two p

by film42 13y ago

If you are a developer, why the hell would you make your daily life more complicated? Who cares if you save some money, this is your job! There are really two problems here. 1. Your life is now even more dependent on an internet connection. - Someone needs to reset the wireless at the office. Down time. - Cellular data get's bogged down at peak hours. Down time. - Server Provider experiences down time. Down time. - You're married to vim forever (not a bad thing, but there are no options). - Latency, Latency, Latency. 2. You're restricted to your hardware, which is restrictive. - Nobody has the right adapters to connect to the projector. - Goodbye secondary monitor. - Mobility is easier with a standard laptop. I believe if you're a developer who loves to be mobile, then your best solution is to buy something like a MacBook Air or 13" Retina and a 3G card. Again, the argument shouldn't be "that costs too much," because this industry has a starting salary of $60k/yr. I think spending $2k every 2 years is appropriate and hardly a sacrifice considering that device is what makes you the developer you are.

damon_c 13y ago
I use a MacBook Air paired with an LTE iPad. The combo gives me great speed and roughly whole workday battery life. If the MacBook dies after 5 or so hours, the iPad will still be at 90% charge and is fine for ssh/vim. This rarely happens though... As a fulltime contractor with no office and lots of fun places to sit, I love it. But yes, it's $2k + $50/month for the LTE.
dvhh 13y ago
Mobility probably also include weight and battery life. A macbook air/ultrabook probably have a ~5h of battery when streching it, a tablet could last a whole day ( and probably 2 ) without a sweat. And they both have the same weight. There is a lot of work that can be done/ tested on android depending on your work ( botbrew provide gcc plus other scripting environment for example). Making you less dependent on the internet connection. There is other options to code source editing on tablet ( droidedit being one good option ). On the adapter issue, even on macbook pro/air people usually forget to bring adapter, and most projector in the wild still use the good old VGA adapter. And while I agree with some points, I think this was mostly an experiment ( successful for him to some degree ) , like the guy who tried to work only with his iPad before. And like other experiments, results are open to discussion.
- film42 13y ago
  I think some of your stats are a little excessive, nonetheless, and to some extent, I agree. Still though, It really left a bad feeling when the author went on about how much money he was saving. My undertone (could have been more clear) was that, that is ridiculous.
  - bergie 13y ago
    The money saving part is obviously of little consequence, it was there mainly because people had asked about it several times, and also because I'm constantly amazed how cheap modern technology has become
- bergie 13y ago
  Portability and battery life were certainly the main points, not hardware costs :-) I'm explaining the reasons and the pros and cons better in the original post: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android/ http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android/
bergie 13y ago
Someone needs to reset the wireless at the office. Down time. There is 3G for that, and usually here in Europe the networks hold up quite well. Not being able to do everything while on train or plane is the bigger real issue. Server Provider experiences down time. Down time That would be somewhat of an issue, though hasnt happened to me yet. And at least I can always fall back to Terminal IDE in that case. You're married to vim forever That isn't the worst thing that could happen. Could be Emacs ;-) But seriously, I find value in settling on one editor you know and that works well. Nobody has the right adapters to connect to the projector. Just like when I had a MacBook. So, again I'm carrying a VGA dongle with me if I assume I have to present something. * Goodbye secondary monitor.* Never used or wanted one in my career stretching back to mid-90s... Mobility is easier with a standard laptop. Laptops are certainly more autonomous unless you go with a ChromeBook. But the tablet wins in portability and battery life

by film42 13y ago

damon_c 13y ago

I use a MacBook Air paired with an LTE iPad. The combo gives me great speed and roughly whole workday battery life. If the MacBook dies after 5 or so hours, the iPad will still be at 90% charge and is fine for ssh/vim. This rarely happens though... As a fulltime contractor with no office and lots of fun places to sit, I love it. But yes, it's $2k + $50/month for the LTE.

dvhh 13y ago

Mobility probably also include weight and battery life. A macbook air/ultrabook probably have a ~5h of battery when streching it, a tablet could last a whole day ( and probably 2 ) without a sweat. And they both have the same weight. There is a lot of work that can be done/ tested on android depending on your work ( botbrew provide gcc plus other scripting environment for example). Making you less dependent on the internet connection. There is other options to code source editing on tablet ( droidedit being one good option ). On the adapter issue, even on macbook pro/air people usually forget to bring adapter, and most projector in the wild still use the good old VGA adapter. And while I agree with some points, I think this was mostly an experiment ( successful for him to some degree ) , like the guy who tried to work only with his iPad before. And like other experiments, results are open to discussion.

film42 13y ago
I think some of your stats are a little excessive, nonetheless, and to some extent, I agree. Still though, It really left a bad feeling when the author went on about how much money he was saving. My undertone (could have been more clear) was that, that is ridiculous.
- bergie 13y ago
  The money saving part is obviously of little consequence, it was there mainly because people had asked about it several times, and also because I'm constantly amazed how cheap modern technology has become
bergie 13y ago
Portability and battery life were certainly the main points, not hardware costs :-) I'm explaining the reasons and the pros and cons better in the original post: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android/ http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android/

bergie 13y ago

Someone needs to reset the wireless at the office. Down time. There is 3G for that, and usually here in Europe the networks hold up quite well. Not being able to do everything while on train or plane is the bigger real issue. Server Provider experiences down time. Down time That would be somewhat of an issue, though hasnt happened to me yet. And at least I can always fall back to Terminal IDE in that case. You're married to vim forever That isn't the worst thing that could happen. Could be Emacs ;-) But seriously, I find value in settling on one editor you know and that works well. Nobody has the right adapters to connect to the projector. Just like when I had a MacBook. So, again I'm carrying a VGA dongle with me if I assume I have to present something. * Goodbye secondary monitor.* Never used or wanted one in my career stretching back to mid-90s... Mobility is easier with a standard laptop. Laptops are certainly more autonomous unless you go with a ChromeBook. But the tablet wins in portability and battery life