Based on a conversation in the pub last week, here’s a list of the kinds of computer hardware that geeks often own, rent or otherwise have access to. Listed (approximately in descending order of size. I don’t have all of these. Which do you own. Have I missed any?
- External web server – often a colo box shared with friends
- Domestic file server – large server, usually headless, often under the stairs
- Domestic media server – the machine where you store all your MP3s, or your MythTV box
- Desktop workstation
- Games console
- Laptop
- Digital camera
- PDA
- Portable media player – iPod, iRiver, etc
- Mobile phone
- USB key
In my case, my file server and my desktop workstation are the same thing and I don’t (yet!) have a home media server. There seems to be a fashion amongst a lot of people I know to do away with a desktop workstation and to do all of their work on a laptop. Maybe it’s just my laptop, but I still find I’m far more productive on a desktop machine.
And perhaps there’s another device that fits between the laptop and the PDA – a small laptop like a Libretto that you can use for typing up notes when sitting on the train. Actually, fewer and fewer people I know are using PDAs. They’ve either got a laptop with them, or they use the organiser functions on their mobile phone.
I have all of the above.You missed a 19″ rack.A Storage Area Network.
For true geekiness the home media server should be a chipped X-box with a bigger hard-disk, running linux. I’ve got a friend who has done this, and the resulting end product is very effective.I used to much prefer my two screens and my desktop PC, but for the last year on the MBA I’ve been using my 4-year-old Toshiba Portege 4000 laptop that I had when I was working at FT.com. I used to curse it for being too slow (it still is!), but it’s been very handy for the course. If I was a software developer full time it wouldn’t be good enough though, but for “managerial” work it’s just the ticket, since you often have to work in many locations.
As a further note on laptops, I saw that the Apple Powerbooks have a sudden motion detector that can tell when the laptop is being dropped. It then parks the hard disk heads so that they don’t break the disk. Clever. Now they just need to give them an OS that you can actually use and they’ll be laughing!
Actually, less and less people I know are using PDAs. They’ve either got a laptop with them, or they use the organiser functions on their mobile phone.
I don’t use a PDA, but I don’t use my laptop or my mobile phone as an alternative. I have (quite an expensive) cherry-red leather Filofax, for no more reason than scribbling on and crumpling up pages is far more satisfying than hitting tiny keys and battling with glyph-based handwriting recongition systems. Buried under a mountain of spare and obsolete hardware there is a Palm m100… somewhere.
I don’t have an iPod either, although I’m tempted.
Ah yes, I’d forgotten Filofaxes (Filofaxen?) I still have one of those somewhere. And then there’s the modern equivalent – the Hipster PDA.
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