When I bought my PowerBook, it was at a disadvantage because all of my comparisons where not only Laptop vs. Desktop, but also OS X vs. Windows XP. With this laptop, it's really just Laptop vs. Laptop. First impression of this thing - it's HUGE! The screen is awesome and it's tough to watch TV and work on this at the same time. I was expecting better resolution (1400 x 900 max), but it's good enough. The keyboard rocks - it's actually a full size keyboard! I keep making typing mistakes because I'm used to the (smaller) PowerBook's keyboard. Even better - it's got a keypad! I really like the plastic piece where my wrists sit. On the PowerBook, this is metal - and it quickly got scratched up from my watch. The speakers are great (the PowerBooks sucked) and I dig the webcam at the top of the monitor (though it's a bit dark - maybe it's just cause it's night time). I like Hypersonic's setup - very minimal as far as packaging. All the CDs are on the hard drive as well as in a small bag, which was enclosed in a leather (or maybe it's pleather?) carrying case.
Now for the cons. It's heavy and hot - both which I expected. You gotta install Java - both OS X and Linux come with it installed. The embedded wireless card only seems to work when I'm 5 feet from my access point. I have a couple of wireless cards, so I plugged one in and now I'm able to write this from my living room. Hopefully Hypersonic will be able to fix that. I kinda like the CD drive on the PowerBook better - though it can be a real pain when you can't get a CD out. The power cord has a humongous adapter-thingy on it - makes me long for the rather small PowerBook's cord. No NetNewsWire - good thing I still have a PowerBook. There are two folders on my C-Drive (with GUID-like names) that I can't delete. That sucks - I've been here before and never found a way to delete them (save re-installing Windows). Also, the lit-up keyboard on the new PowerBooks is a nice feature that I could really use right now.
Lastly, the performance numbers for opening Photoshop and Eclipse:
- Opening Photoshop 7.0: 5 seconds
- Opening Eclipse 3.0 M2: 5 seconds
Damn, not the performance jump I was hoping for. I'll post AppFuse and Roller compilation numbers when I get everything setup. Here are numbers to compare against the 2 GHz desktop I have at work. Am I happy with my decision? You bet - it's a wicked laptop.
Simon has the inside scoop on (what was) Professional JSP 2.0. He must have some good connections to get this info. I dig that Amazon is listing it and especially that I got mentioned as an Author! Hopefully they fix this little mishap and do an et. al. or something. I'd better do a screenshot so I can have proof that my name was listed at one point.
From Julie:
your laptop is here. love you!
I'm starting to shake with anxiety! 
Today shouldn't be as bad as the day I received my PowerBook. It was January 2002 and there was an Apple conference where Steve Jobs was giving his keynote. I was worried that he would announce new PowerBooks, and I was going to return it if he did. So I had to sit there for hours with the un-opened box saying "OPEN ME". At least today, I'm stuck at work and I've got plans for most of the evening. Then an interview first thing tomorrow morning. The anxiety might be around for quite some time.
I decided to upgrade my Apache and Tomcat installations on my Red Hat 9 box this morning. In doing so, I found that no binary jk connectors existed for Apache 2.0.47 on Linux. So I built one, and updated my
Apache 2.x + Tomcat 4.1.x Article for the latest and greatest versions. Also, when building Apache with SSL, I found that there were a bunch of symlinks I had to create for RH 9. So I updated my Apache + SSL Article as well. If I had the time/motivation, I'd port these to the wiki and the community could keep them up-to-date. Maybe when I'm really bored.
FYI - there's a patch for Tomcat 4.1.27 to fix the webapp reload bug. To install, download into your $CATALINA_HOME directory and execute:
tar xzf 4.1.27-hotfix-22096.tar.gz
Next week, David Gallardo (an Author of Eclipse in Action) will be doing a presentation at the Denver Java User Group. I'll be there for the JDOM presentation in the Basic Concepts group as well. There's a short review of Eclipse in Action vs. Java Developer's Guide To Eclipse over at JavaRanch.
... after reading both books in the past week, I come to the conclusion that the two books serve very different purposes. I would like to have them both on my desk.
Today shouldn't be as bad as the day I received my PowerBook. It was January 2002 and there was an Apple conference where Steve Jobs was giving his keynote. I was worried that he would announce new PowerBooks, and I was going to return it if he did. So I had to sit there for hours with the un-opened box saying "OPEN ME". At least today, I'm stuck at work and I've got plans for most of the evening. Then an interview first thing tomorrow morning. The anxiety might be around for quite some time.
