8505b7e9e0
flux.vision, tobias.raayoni-last.com and randogoth.com. They were one site until October 2026, serving four audiences from a single dated list, which is the only format that can hold unrelated things at once. flux.vision is recovered from the Wayback Machine, where it had sat since being deleted in 2021: 90 articles, closed and maintained rather than updated. tobias.raayoni-last.com is the professional record, 97 articles back to 1999. randogoth.com is the technical work, 41 articles across six areas, served as an ANSI bulletin board. History starts here deliberately. The development history, the 266-row inventory that records why each article went where it did, the Wayback pipelines, the pruned articles, the source archives and the full-size images are kept beside the repo rather than in it, so a clone is the web presence and not the argument that produced it. REFACTOR.md is gitignored for the same reason. See README.md for where that material lives, and keep it: the sort is not reproducible from these three directories alone. Each site documents itself in its own README, including the traps that cost time and look like nothing when you get them wrong.
125 lines
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125 lines
6.3 KiB
Markdown
Executable file
Title: back beyond green rolling hills...
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Category: MACHINES
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Date: 2013-06-30 22:07
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Slug: back-beyond-green-rolling-hills
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Tags: geeksauce, english
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Thumb: /library/newPC.jpg
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...of "[bliss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_(image))"
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My beloved MacBook Pro 4,1 (early 2008) started to become a bit flaky in
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the last weeks and the transitions from PAL to HD and full HD video
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material in my work left me more and more frustrated with render times,
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so i began to think about a replacement for my slightly aged digital
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companion.<!-- PELICAN_END_SUMMARY -->
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The new MacBook pro models i've had my hands on a few times seemed to be
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perfect machines. Super slim, amazingly powerful, and with stunning
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retina display option. But it wasn't just the price that gave me
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headaches. If i really have to spend more than 2K on a laptop i want it
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to last as long as my old one (min. 5 years). Would it? As far as i
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remember i had to replace hard drives twice in the last years, also two
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new batteries, upgrade RAM, and so on. The usual stuff. Looking at the
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tech specs and service manuals of the new MacBook Pro models i really
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started to worry... [soldered RAM? a glued battery? sealed
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chassis?](http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/13/teardown_of_retina_display_macbook_pro_finds_soldered_ram_propreitary_ssd)
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From my experience a battery [doesn't really survive longer than two to
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three
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years](http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/blog/post/main-factors-that-affect-a-laptop-battery-life.aspx)
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in heavy duty use and mobility and if I really need to spend that much
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cash on a new machine it should be maintainable.
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I have to admit, i am a bit of an Apple fanboy, not hardcore evangelist,
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but i always liked Apple's mix of cutting edge technology, software
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innovations, service, and their consideration of digital media
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professionals. With the release of OS X in 2001 i switched to a Mac
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after 10 years of PC and Windows 95/98/2000/XP frustration, endless days
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of re-installating a broken or trashed OS, driver incompatibilities,
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hardware failures, and so on. I was amazed by the revolutionary step
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from the almost dead MacOS 9 system to a full scale UNIX system with a
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new approach of a graphical user interface. I switched and never wanted
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to go back. PC technology developed so quickly, following Apples
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inventions and computers got better and better, but Microsoft seemed to
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be stuck in a dead end, even with their releases of Vista and Windows 7.
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From a media professional point of view Linux is not really an option so
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I always stayed a happy Mac user. Apple created version after version of
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better and better systems and my computer seemed to be faster with every
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new release.
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Now in the need of new hardware and also a bit frustrated by Apple's new
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approach on sealed and soldered hardware (clearly as consumer products
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and not pro gear) i was forced to really pay attention to the market and
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also dare to look beyond the Apple basket. I plunged into the quest for
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PC notebooks in the same range of speed, memory and features as the
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MacBook Pros, read through countless hardware reviews, and looked at
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models in different stores. Eventually I found myself looking at three
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different Notebooks by
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[Dell](http://www.dell.com/de/unternehmen/p/precision-laptops)and
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[Lenovo](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/)that looked
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amazing from a technical point of view and fairly nice from a design
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point of view (yes i admit i care about that). But \*sigh\* ...
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Windows....seriously?
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During my work in the last months I stumbled over Microsoft's new
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Windows 8 that colleagues had running on their computers, and i was
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really surprised! A well designed new operating system without drop
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shadows, semi transparent window borders, weirdly placed and hidden
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system settings, annoyingly long loading times, what happened???
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Compared to the new look and feel of Windows 8 even MacOS seemed a bit
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dated...
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Eventually I dared...
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I switched back! Back to the PC world, back to Windows!
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The computer that convinced me the most was the [Lenovo ThinkPad
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W530](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/)
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workstation model. A multicore i7 CPU, up to 32 gigs of RAM (!!!),
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Nvidia Optimus switchable GPUs, up to three Hard Drives, a [spillwater
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proof drainage system](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7cvi00OZDM), one
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button to remove the battery, one screw to get to the main hard drive,
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one lever to release the optical UltraBay drive and replace it with
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another hard drive while the system is running, Full HD Screen with
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hardware color calibrator, all combined with the great Thinkpad typical
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80s sci-fi matt black japanese lunchbox design. Price: under 2K.
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Definetly upgradable and maintainable in the next years. An amazing
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piece of professional hardware.
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So far i really love it. Especially in combination with Windows 8. I can
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totally not relate to the online shitstorms of hardcore Windows users
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complaining about the missing Start button, confusing gesture control
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and "Metro" design annoyances. It took me five minutes to read through a
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help file to figure out the gestures and keyboard short cuts to feel at
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home in the system and about 1 hour playing around to figure out the
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overall concept and look and feel.
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Do I miss MacOS X? Hmm...not really. A bit. But just a little. Nah...
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Having been on Mac for the last 10 years, here are some things I
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noticed, being (back) on a Windows system:
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- From Finder to Explorer: Cut and paste of files actually works!
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Opening ZIP files without third party software too! And so much more....
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how was I actually able to work with Finder?
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- I miss the very simple layout of the MacOS settings. Windows has
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improved A LOT in making the settings more intuitive (especially with
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the new "Spotlight" style search system) but it still feels a bit weird
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to get around the sections.
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- Transition from Alt/Command to Ctrl/Win/Alt button layout: it was
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really hard to not accidentally hit Alt or Win just from the habit of
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thumb-shooting the Command key. Now after a week, i am almost used to
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it, just the Photoshop shortcuts will probably take another few weeks to
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fully master.
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- Right click? Oh what a pleasure! More than one mouse button! Nuff
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said...
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- Multitouch gestures on the trackpad: totally works the same way as on
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a Mac
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- to be continued in the next weeks...especially how the switch will
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affect my media arts / VJ life...
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