What cool gadgets did you get for Christmas or buy yourself for Boxing Day?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=94348

by dawie • 19 years ago

4 12 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Santa brought me a Samsung 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor (226BW). I guess I was good last year.

brk2• 19 years ago

I bought myself a 60" plasma TV and a Eee.

First impressions on the Eee: http://blog.karas.net/Das_Blog/bid/3324/Nokia-N810-Not-yet-A...

raju3• 19 years ago

Hey brk, thanks for the review on the Eee. I have been wondering myself if Eee is worth the money, and your post helped. But the reason I am replying to your comment on Hacker News is because you said you use a Mac as your primary machine. Is that the Mac Book in the picture? If yes, how does this work for us developers? I am in the market for a Mac and am wondering if the extra $1000 is worth it on the Pros? Any words of wisdom here...

mechanical_fish• 19 years ago

Not that you asked me, but I have a Macbook with an external monitor. I have yet to regret saving the $1K by avoiding the Pro. Web programming is not processor intensive.

I intend to take that $1K and put it toward an iMac -- that'll give me two Macs and three screens, and the iMac will provide the larger hard drive and improved video performance that I don't have with the Macbook. Plus, when the Macbook is away for its warranty repairs, I get to keep working!

brk2• 19 years ago

Yes, that's an Intel-based MacBook in the picture.

I like it a lot (before this I was using the 17" MBP, which I loved, but the portability factor wasn't so great). Most of my time is spent dealing with linux-based servers, so the BSD underpinnings of OS X really make things like handling SSH keys, console apps, perl debugging while flying, etc. really smooth.

I do miss the larger screen of the MBP and the extra horsepower (I do a fair bit of digital photography, and the MB can't run Aperture), so I'll probably switch back to a 15" MBP soon.

In the ~2years I've been using Mac laptops I've never once longed for Windows in any way. But before this I was using linux as my primary desktop, and before that Solaris, so I've never really been addicted to Windows, although I did have Windows machines in my possession since, well, since Windows was invented (mostly for work or other non-personal use).

The MB (or MBP) with a big external monitor and nice BT mouse and keyboard is really (IMO) a very pleasant overall experience. I encourage you to convert :)

sanj• 19 years ago

A ribcap!

http://www.ribcap.com

pg• 19 years ago

http://www.hixenbaugh.net/gallery/detail.cfm?itemnum=1672

DarrenStuart• 19 years ago

well the only gadget type things I got was an electric tooth brush from my Mum and a cool mico helechopter from the wife(had great fun dive bombing the cat with it).

innernode• 19 years ago

Raju: Hey! I've been developing on my 17" MacBook Pro for exactly a year now and I've got no complaints other than that sometimes I get eye fatigue if I work for extended periods of time on the 17" monitor, but then I just hook it up to my external monitor. Productivity wise I adore the Mac and the OS X Leopard. Previously I had been working on PC's using Windows XP and didn't really have all that much faith in Apple and their products, but once I tried the MB Pro and OS X I was immedeately hooked! And when I could run Windows on Parallels inside OS X for those apps that required this all my problems were solved and I can honestly say that my work experience has improved a lot. Hope this helps - and btw. I'm not a Apple "fanatic" :) Chris

raju3• 19 years ago

innernode: Thanks for the response. I too was thinking of the 17" Pro, though I have to admit, plunking down $3000 for a laptop hurts a bit. Not to say I would not do it, but it just so happened that a friend of mine picked up the 13" Mac Book a few weeks ago, and although he does not spend a lot of time at home moonlighting, he says he loves it, and it would work for development purposes. Needless to say I was a little apprehensive, and figured this would be a good time to post the question.

I fully intend to use an external monitor anytime I am at my desk, so it was not the screen size that worried me a lot, rather it was performance, and the nagging feeling that the Mac Book was not designed keeping developers in mind.

Though again, thanks for the review. Every day I get closer to owning a Mac, and moving full time (atleast while working at home) on it. Hopefully "closer" is not too far away...

pistoriusp• 19 years ago

I didn't get anything... I'm in startup mode.

brlewis• 19 years ago

My wife bought me a new laptop battery.

In December my users got a new feature. Screencast here:

http://img.ourdoings.com/tutorial/morephotos.htm

What cool gadgets did you get for Christmas or buy yourself for Boxing Day?

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