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Technology
Apr. 16th, 2019 05:04 pmOn top of all the madness of going to sea, cramming to get stuff done for Free Comic Book Day, juggling a handful of commissions that somehow happened, property drama, and just keeping myself fed and rested and generally clean –
I have just dropped more than a month's rent on a new laptop.
When I bought my current one (which I named Klaus) I needed something that would keep up with animation software and running/editing large video files, which in 2012 meant a dedicated graphics card and a top-of-the-line chip, so I ended up with a gaming laptop. I considered future-proofing a good investment, figuring if I bought the best model going at the time, I'd get a good head start on technology and it'd take a while to fall behind. I have never played a game on him, but Klaus has been more than up to the jobs I've asked of him, and has accompanied me around the world and on many, many trips to the SPRI archives, and sailed through it all without a ruffle.
Klaus is still a workhorse, but has developed a few tics in the last year or so, such as occasionally failing to wake up after going to sleep, or not going to sleep when closed and then BSOD-ing. And he's started to slow down a bit, in small but noticeable ways, probably because of the umpteen gigs of photos I'm too paranoid to relegate to my backup drive. None of this was too obstructive, and better than one would normally expect from a seven-year-old computer, but when I found out Microsoft was going to stop supporting Windows 7 in January I realised it was finally time to shop around for a replacement.
Imagine my surprise to discover that, seven whole years* after I last scoped out the market, a mid-range Windows work laptop has LESS power than my now-ancient gaming one. Having lived most of my life when exponential improvement in personal computing was the norm, this was shocking. On top of this they've done away with disc drives in most models, and my beloved 'end' key has been relegated to a function on the number pad. Surely we all ought to have solid state hard drives, 64GB RAM, Blu-Ray disc drives, and full programming functionality as a matter of course, now? What is this going backwards?
*that's 1,457 in computer years
Anyway, all the reviews for the model I was looking at – more or less a one-for-one replacement of the one I have now but with slightly more storage and RAM – complained of it being slow, and I was darned if I was going to pay new money and not get a faster machine. There didn't seem to be another option besides dropping an extra £500 for a SSD/HDD hybrid. Luckily a refurbished one turned up for about half that markup, so I ordered it this morning. As it's the Nice Version it has the additional perks of a better screen and backlit keyboard, which I've wanted for a while. It's in naval colours, so I'm going to name it Bowers. He was super organised, had a flawless memory, and a good head for figures, so it seems a good fit. I need a crackerjack project manager, and if I can't have one in person then I can conjure one in my computer. He should arrive Friday.
This is shaping up to be another expensive year ...
I have just dropped more than a month's rent on a new laptop.
When I bought my current one (which I named Klaus) I needed something that would keep up with animation software and running/editing large video files, which in 2012 meant a dedicated graphics card and a top-of-the-line chip, so I ended up with a gaming laptop. I considered future-proofing a good investment, figuring if I bought the best model going at the time, I'd get a good head start on technology and it'd take a while to fall behind. I have never played a game on him, but Klaus has been more than up to the jobs I've asked of him, and has accompanied me around the world and on many, many trips to the SPRI archives, and sailed through it all without a ruffle.
Klaus is still a workhorse, but has developed a few tics in the last year or so, such as occasionally failing to wake up after going to sleep, or not going to sleep when closed and then BSOD-ing. And he's started to slow down a bit, in small but noticeable ways, probably because of the umpteen gigs of photos I'm too paranoid to relegate to my backup drive. None of this was too obstructive, and better than one would normally expect from a seven-year-old computer, but when I found out Microsoft was going to stop supporting Windows 7 in January I realised it was finally time to shop around for a replacement.
Imagine my surprise to discover that, seven whole years* after I last scoped out the market, a mid-range Windows work laptop has LESS power than my now-ancient gaming one. Having lived most of my life when exponential improvement in personal computing was the norm, this was shocking. On top of this they've done away with disc drives in most models, and my beloved 'end' key has been relegated to a function on the number pad. Surely we all ought to have solid state hard drives, 64GB RAM, Blu-Ray disc drives, and full programming functionality as a matter of course, now? What is this going backwards?
*that's 1,457 in computer years
Anyway, all the reviews for the model I was looking at – more or less a one-for-one replacement of the one I have now but with slightly more storage and RAM – complained of it being slow, and I was darned if I was going to pay new money and not get a faster machine. There didn't seem to be another option besides dropping an extra £500 for a SSD/HDD hybrid. Luckily a refurbished one turned up for about half that markup, so I ordered it this morning. As it's the Nice Version it has the additional perks of a better screen and backlit keyboard, which I've wanted for a while. It's in naval colours, so I'm going to name it Bowers. He was super organised, had a flawless memory, and a good head for figures, so it seems a good fit. I need a crackerjack project manager, and if I can't have one in person then I can conjure one in my computer. He should arrive Friday.
This is shaping up to be another expensive year ...
