Hardware
I am very lucky to get to
work with so many interesting people around the industry and also lucky to get to work with a lot of really neat
technology -- both hardware and software. I do my best to keep up with the latest. In the "old" days, IBM allowed
me to use much of their latest and
greatest from the labs in return for feedback to the developers. I still have a consulting affiliation with IBM but most of my input on the latest technology
developments comes from attending conferences.
For quite a
few years I operated with a "primary system" plus a laptop. The primary system was a desktop floor standing
PC -- I used
to call it the "mainframe". LapLink made it possible to
keep the two systems synchronized, but as ThinkPad technology
advanced, I began to ask myself why
I was spending so much time synchronizing the
two systems.
The ThinkPad hard disk was much smaller than
the primary system and there were numerous limitations
with
regard to peripheral attachments. All that has changed
-- the restrictions are gone! The ThinkPad is now my "mainframe" and it goes wherever I go.
The T43{ has a 60 gigabyte hard disk and one gigabyte of RAM. There are two USB ports plus Firewire and Bluetooth. A Linksys seven port hub attached to the ThinkPad dock station and allows the attachment of printers, scanner, and an IBM keyboard.
The T43P has loads of other neat features. I love the ThinkLight™ which shines a small beam of light onto the keyboard for low-light conditions.
Microsoft Windows XP is the primary operating system, but I look forward to the day when more of my key applications are available with Linux. I do have Linux on a number of other systems.
Internet connectivity
is via Comcast. The speed and service have been quite good. More and more places have WiFi but when it is not available the Verizon EV-DO card provides wireless broadband.
Backup
I try to be very conscientious about backup and manage it
at multiple levels. On the ThinkPad itself the DVD-burner burns a few hundred megabytes of critical files every night at midnight. I have always maintained backups but in April 2001 I had
a
catastrophic failure of a hard drive on a ThinkPad T20.
The week-old backup was helpful but nevertheless I lost a weeks
worth
of information and some of it was very important. I vowed
to redouble my efforts at doing a high quality level of
backup
management. You just can't overdo this. The software I use for backups is Dantz Retrospect.
Printing
The best way to handle paper documents is to scan them into Adobe Acrobat and convert them to PDF files, but but occasionally
a printer comes in handy. Unlike the ThinkPad, where it is important
to stay up with the very latest available technology,
I don't upgrade printers very often. The workhorse for
me for years has been the IBM
Network Printer 12 which is great for printing lots of
copies of something.
One of the nicest features is the duplex unit that allows
for double sided printing and the built-in Ethernet card allows any computer in the house to print to it at any time.
The Network Printer
can rest in standby mode and only burns about the same electricity
as a 30 watt light bulb. For high speed graphics intensive color printing
I
use the IBM Infoprint Color 1354.This printer is fairly large so it is in a closet with a WiFi print adapter. The Dymo Turbo 330
label printer is the utility infielder for binder labels or coffee can
labels for the shop and the Zebra thermal printer facilitates stamps.com and ups.com. The Canon i960 is great for high quality color photo printing.
Telephones
We all spend a lot of time on the phone these days and I
guess I am no exception. The mainstay for me at the home
office
is the Panasonic
KX-TG5110 5.8 GHz Multi-Handset Cordless Phone System.
The system accommodates up to 8 cordless handset stations each of
which has individual
mailboxes with separate greeting messages. The all-digital
voice mail system with automated attendant is nice but
we
don't use all the features. It is designed more for a small
business. The telephone service provider is Vonage for VoIP. The quality and price are great.
Local Area Network
The home LAN is where everything gets tied together. Any
system can get to the Internet via the cable modem which is connected to an IBM X345 server in the basement which serves as router, DHCP server, and firewall which isolates the LAN from the Internet. The Linksys high-speed switch allows Ethernet ports around the house to be connected to the LAN and the Linksys Wireless Access Point enables ThinkPads
to operate anywhere in the house for friends, family or visitors to whom I provide a WEP key. The broadcast feature of the WAP is turned off so that people driving by the house are not able to "borrow" the WiFi connection.
At the home office
When not traveling, the ThinkPad
Dock provides quick access to desktop resources and easy
expansion using an industry-standard half-size PCI slot, Ultrabay
2000, two PC Card slots and two USB ports. The dock also connects a 24" flat panel monitor, an IBM keyboard with trackpoint, and the iPod dock.
On
the Road
The ThinkPad
T43P goes
wherever I go. Between WiFi and Verizon EV-DO it is usually possible to stay connected. For handheld connectivity the Sony Ericsson P910a does the trick -- both for voice and data. The Opera browser provides for web access. GSM service is provided by Cingular. The
last part of on the road is taking pictures. The Casio Exilim does a fine job. Some of the results are in the photo
gallery.
This page was last updated on November 30, 2005. The software environment is described here.
