My Ideal Mac Setup: Feb 2012

This will hopefully become a period post of sorts as I rethink what I would want for my ideal Apple/Mac setup.

I’m extremely happy with what I have, but from time to time I like to think about what might work better for where I am right now. Of course, everything is subject to change.

One thing I have been thinking a lot about is the durability of portable computers. I’ll hopefully have a rant at some point in the future about the current state of portable computers from across the PC spectrum, but needless to say, the hinge is the weakest link of any laptop.

What’s one way to get around that weakness? I’m glad you asked the question! Why not just get rid of it? It is so simple, I shocked myself a little bit when it finally hit me.

So, here is how I would ditch the hinge issue of portable computers.

  1. Get a desktop.
  2. Use an iPad.

Crazy? Yes. Effective? Maybe.

Reminder: this is just what I’m thinking right now.

So, I ditch the portable computer … what computer would I then use?

As my main development computer I would be pressed to find a better machine than a Mac mini.

Now, I am crazy, but I would hope that the next revision of the mini would do two things:

  1. Quad-core for the whole lineup.
  2. Discreet graphics for the whole lineup.

Right now you are forced to choose between discreet graphics or a quad-core, which is not cool. Oh well, it isn’t going to happen anyway.

Couple a Mac mini with a Thunderbolt Display and I would be one happy person. I’ve really soured on multiple-monitor setups recently and I would much prefer the expansive 27″ display that Apple has to offer over two smaller 24″ monitors running at 1920×1080. That’s just me.

Now, if Apple releases a super-hi-resolution display soon … that would be even cooler. I’m thinking that the Intel integrated GPU in two of the current mini configurations would not be up to the challenge of driving anything that large.

Oh well, one can hope for that and SSDs across the board. Come on Apple, I have storage at home, I want the speed in my little desktop.

One of these setups for work and one for my home office. After that, I would need something besides my iPhone to take with me when I travel. Like I said, I’m ditching the hinge so that leaves me with only one choice: iPad.

Ideally, I’d get an iPad 3 with a Retina Display and whatever other bells-and-whistles Apple decides to try and stuff into there. It would be my mobile computer, allowing me to write, keep up with Twitter, email, and RSS, and handle emergencies when I am on the road.

That’s it though. Work would stay at work and in my office. That is what this setup would force me to do. No development when I am away, that would need to stay at work. There is the real benefit to ditching the portable … along with the durability.

If, however, I was going to get a new portable, it would have to be an 11″ MacBook Air. Those things are just too portable and too pretty to ignore.

So that’s it and here is the final tally for February 2012:

  • Mac mini w/Thunderbolt Display (work)
  • Mac mini w/Thunderbolt Display (home office)
  • iPad 3 (travel)

Crazy? Yes, but part of my really likes it.

The Vendor Prefix Problem

It seems that a lot of people are talking about vendor prefixes recently, and that is no coincidence. With Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft all talking about implementing at least a subset of Webkit’s vendor prefixes, one has to wonder how we got to this point.

Truth be told, I don’t really care how we got here, but what I do care about is that we don’t go down this same, old, forgotten road again.

Yes, it sucks that your new browser doesn’t render the same as it does in Webkit because the developer didn’t implement your prefix. I understand where you are coming from.

What do don’t need to do is break things all over again. Giving into the current “one browser” isn’t going to make things better. That is only going to get us back here again with the same issues.

Take some of the blame for this Microsoft, Opera, and Mozilla. You decided that mobile wasn’t as important, you decided to just let things go and Webkit, especially Mobile Webkit has eaten your lunch.

Webkit browsers need to shoulder some as well (there is plenty to go around). Experimental features are just that, experimental. Touting those features is a dangerous thing to do, especially if you are in the position to really push for a single browser. Google, Apple, I’m looking at you.

Hey standards groups, take some of the blame as well. Technology moves quickly and has a tendency to leave standards behind when they don’t move … at all sometimes. That’s the position the web has been in and when Webkit started to really pull the top off of things, and then became popular, people jumped onto the bandwagon because the vendor prefixes provided relief and … fun.

Developers, we need to take some blame as well. We’ve been lazy and will always be. If we see an easy way to make something pretty, we’ll do it. This is what got us Flash for so long. We need to quit shooting ourselves, our users, and other developers in the foot by implementing half-baked ideas because they look cool.

Look cool and works well are two different things.

Finally, let’s not throw away all of the work that has been done by going the “easy route”. We have work to do, but Flash wasn’t killed in a day.

The way to fix this problem isn’t to give up, but to move quicker, innovate faster, and provide the “new hotness” for everyone.

Next-Gen Wish List

IGN has posted Your Most Wanted Next-Gen Feature and it is a compiled list of what they see as the community wanting the most in the next batch of consoles which should be coming out in the next few years. I’ll break it down here and post my thoughts.

Focus on Entertainment

I’m torn here. I really don’t care that much about the entertainment options in my gaming console, I really don’t. I think that the console is going to be pushed back even more as TVs continue to gain the needed entertainment features and more and more consumptions is moved to other computing devices. This might be the place I want the manufacturers to spend the LEAST amount of time from this list.

Carry Everything Forward

A nice thought if it can be done. We have seen this featured touted, not used, and then finally dropped on almost every console available. The funny thing is that looking back at the start of the industry it was even worse.

Physical cartridges pretty much killed any chance at backward compatibility.

It would be nice to see the new consoles carry 100% compatibility with this generation, but it just isn’t something I’m going to cry home about. This becomes more of an issue, however, when you starting bringing digital downloads into the mix. Add in the fact that the increase in gaming networks and you get a mess of questions:

  • How long do we support old games?
  • How long do we NEED to support old games?
  • Should that digital download work with the new hardware?

That’s just the beginning. The question becomes one of resources: how much do you want to give up for more advances in hardware and software?

Digital Rentals and Streaming Games

Digital rentals would be awesome. Make ’em cheap, make ’em quick, make ’em fun. That’s about it.

Not sold on streaming games mainly because I think people really overestimate the level of broadband that the majority of the world currently has. Also, it gives LESS control to the gamer and only brings up more questions of who owns what and when a game will just go “dark” because they don’t want to support it anymore.

More Motion and Touch Tech

“There be dragons here!” Be careful what you wish for.

I’m a huge fan of Skyward Sword, but even I understand the limitations of motion and touch technology. I shudder to think about what types of games are going to come out as people just start bolting on stuff for the heck of it (and to check off another box).

If you are going to do this, go all-in and do it right. Please. The majority of the Wii titles are a huge warning to the whole industry about what can happen when you don’t care.

Wireless Everything

Oh. My. Gosh. No. Please, PLEASE include wired options. This is such a bad idea I can’t help but think that whoever recommended this has never actually worked with any kind of wireless technology … ever. Such a terrible idea.

Wireless is wonderful, but for something like a game console that is not going to be moved you really want to be able to hardwire that thing into place as much as possible. If there is one thing I wish my Wii had, it s an ethernet port.

Controllers? Sure. Headsets? Alright. After that, what you really want is a person who has a clue about what they are talking about.

Social and Community Focus

Nintendo really needs to step up here in a big, no HUGE way. Xbox Live is really the gold standard for community focus and the idea of being able to share certain things is nice, I just caution against spending too much time here and not enough on actually making a game console that … goodness … plays games.

I  believe we have enough narcissism in the world.

Modifiable Hardware

Wow, we are really going off of the deep end here. Part of what makes console gaming attractive is that you DO NOT MODIFY THE HARDWARE. You buy a console and you have the same experience as your friend. It is bad enough when console manufacturers sell a crippled piece of hardware (looking at your Microsoft) at the lowest price point to drive sales, but allowing people to then mod their hardware?

Besides, you already have PC gaming and the buggy drivers and inconsistent performance. If anything, you want one canonical piece of hardware that never changes … giving developers only a single run of hardware to aim at.

Of course, that would require more thoughtful hardware in the first place and … we can’t have that.

Playable Used Games

With digital downloads and required gaming accounts, this becomes a much stickier issues than it used to be. I, for one, would be very sad to see the used game market go away if for no other reason than it would kill the joy of playing older games after that console is EOL.

The fact that we are even at the point where this is an issue is truly sad.

Closing Thoughts

Most of what was brought up really doesn’t matter. I’m thinking that if you want this console it is already there … in the form of an awesome PC.

If this is the way that next-gen consoles go, we are in for a very bumpy ride.

Nothing mentioned really helps the gaming experience at all. If there is one thing that I would recommend, it would be: Eliminate. Loading. Screens.

Wait, I already did.

Loading Screens

One thing I have noticed since playing A Link to the Past again is the extreme absence of something I had just gotten used to: loading screens.

The entire game is, more of less, seamless. You just keep on going without too many breaks in it besides the occasional telepathic communique from someone. Otherwise, it is a lot of walking and sword-swinging. It’s refreshing.

The introduction of optical media really introduced us to loading screens as the consoles needed to load the larger textures from slow media. Larger capacity coupled with slow disk drives really killed the “flow” of games. I distinctly remember how different it was playing a Final Fantasy game on the Playstation compared to The Legend of Zelda on the N64.

Granted, I liked both games.

As the graphical capacity of the games has gotten greater, the information involved has gotten larger, and the disks have gotten bigger. Sadly, game consoles don’t carry the amount of RAM needed to load the entire game up before you begin and so you get longer and longer loading screens.

Mass Effect Elevator

A game that tried to mask loading screens was the Mass Effect series. The first time you rode in an elevator you were essentially sitting through a slightly-interactive loading screen. of course, they were still there throughout the game, but it was clever.

However, with the next batch of technological advances are we going to see the removal of loading screens (within reason)? Will the advent of viable SSDs, dropping price of RAM, and multi-core processors allow a game to both load faster and and also do more in the background. With digital downloads, will disks go away and thus allow faster access to the data again?

One can only hope. Of course, there are other hurdles involved, but it looks like there might be a time in the future when loading screens are a thing of the way past … and just the past as well.

Preponderance of Choice

While coming in early to deal with a kernel panic, I thought of all of the different distributions of Linux that I have tried over the years. I’m guessing I’m sitting around 10 or so.

That’s a pretty small number of distributions when compared to the number available.

However, I have fallen into a pattern when choosing recently and it really comes down to only two choices: CentOS or Ubuntu.

It’s funny. I have no love for Unity as a window environment, but I still recommend Ubuntu to anyone who wants to get started. It’s not just the OS itself, but the support that it receives from the community and if you are going to run into problems, more than likely someone will have a solution for Ubuntu.

Even with what I consider a sub-par OS, the support availability will trump OS shortcomings.

It’s like Windows all over again!?

When faced with a number of choices, one needs to go to secondary concerns to make a final decisions. Apple fixed part of their problems by taking things “in house” and popping up Apple Stores all over the place to help with the support issue. Many times a decision can’t be made on the merits of the product itself, but on other factors included with the product you are looking at.