Apple or PC?

[Philotomy Jurament]

My only complaint about Gmail, so far, is that you can't specify a frequency for pulling in mail from your other POP email accounts. Apparently, Google checks your other accounts somewhere between every 5 min and every 60 minutes, based on how much email you've been receiving (i.e., if you get a frequent emails on that account, it checks more frequently). That's fine for my personal accounts, but if I'm pulling in business email I don't want to wait.

At the moment, I've sidestepped the issue by sending email "pings" from a server (an email every 15 mins), and I set up a Gmail filter to intercept those and auto-trash them. That does seem to keep Gmail checking my business email account frequently, so far.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Yeah, I tried using gpg on all email for a while... meh.

Encrypted (and signed) email will never catch on until there's a well-supported standard and setting up certificates and keychains is super-easy. I'm not holding my breath.

For the most part, people seem content to send their email like "postcards" rather than like "letters in a sealed envelope."

[Is_907]

Ah yeah, the curse of POP3...
my work mail is all Exchange 2k7 and Outlook. Right now I get it on a BlackBerry, too... but soon I'll be getting it on an iPhone 4S.

I don't bother doing work email on my Galaxy Nexus. Personal phone for personal stuff.

[thedungeondelver]

Later this autumn I'm going to buy a mini-USB to HDMI converter as well as a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I'm going to connect my dual-core, 1gb RAM/36 GB (32 sd + 4 internal) storage equipped phone, with it's 3d video chipset, stereo sound, wireless internet and so forth to the monitor, and pair the mouse & keyboard to it and see how it works as a thin workstation.

Should be an interesting experiment.

(For the record it's an HTC 3d 4G phone running Android).

[Flight Commander Solitude]

Apparently, Google checks your other accounts somewhere between every 5 min and every 60 minutes, based on how much email you've been receiving.

In my experience there's also a delay based on originating domain. For example, my github.com notifications would be in my gmail account as soon as I typed `git push`.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Later this autumn I'm going to buy a mini-USB to HDMI converter as well as a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I'm going to connect my dual-core, 1gb RAM/36 GB (32 sd + 4 internal) storage equipped phone, with it's 3d video chipset, stereo sound, wireless internet and so forth to the monitor, and pair the mouse & keyboard to it and see how it works as a thin workstation.

Should be an interesting experiment.

(For the record it's an HTC 3d 4G phone running Android).

I've got a bluetooth keyboard and mouse; I should try pairing them to the Nexus 7, just for kicks. My guess on an HDMI out to a monitor is that stuff like photos or videos (i.e., stuff with high native resolution) will look good, but anything designed with the native resolution of the phone in mind won't display as nicely. But I'm just guessing.

[ThirstyStirge]

Apple or PC?

Clay tablet. *runs and hides in ziggurat*

I used to use Mac -- no problems. Over the past 12 years, PC -- again, no real headaches. A hammer with a blue plastic grip and a hammer with a wooden grip both work fine in the hands of a professional.

[Is_907]

Later this autumn I'm going to buy a mini-USB to HDMI converter as well as a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I'm going to connect my dual-core, 1gb RAM/36 GB (32 sd + 4 internal) storage equipped phone, with it's 3d video chipset, stereo sound, wireless internet and so forth to the monitor, and pair the mouse & keyboard to it and see how it works as a thin workstation.

Should be an interesting experiment.

(For the record it's an HTC 3d 4G phone running Android).

Aside: Motorola has a nifty dock / screen / keyboard system for the Droid Bionic. But... when you plug it in, the phone switches to an install of Ubuntu rather than Android, with files shared on specific partitions so you have all your stuff.

I suspect the issue Philotomy pointed out will be the dealbreaker-- native resolutions. Android apps scale nicely... but I'm not sure how they'd do on such a large screen.

[thedungeondelver]

Later this autumn I'm going to buy a mini-USB to HDMI converter as well as a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I'm going to connect my dual-core, 1gb RAM/36 GB (32 sd + 4 internal) storage equipped phone, with it's 3d video chipset, stereo sound, wireless internet and so forth to the monitor, and pair the mouse & keyboard to it and see how it works as a thin workstation.

Should be an interesting experiment.

(For the record it's an HTC 3d 4G phone running Android).

I've got a bluetooth keyboard and mouse; I should try pairing them to the Nexus 7, just for kicks. My guess on an HDMI out to a monitor is that stuff like photos or videos (i.e., stuff with high native resolution) will look good, but anything designed with the native resolution of the phone in mind won't display as nicely. But I'm just guessing.

We'll see. Running DOSBox should be a pip!

[Philotomy Jurament]

Out of curiosity, why the heck does everyone use Ubuntu?*

I run Arch Linux on my laptop.

*Oh, nevermind, I see you explained it a bit. Still, try Arch.

Since I switched back to Linux as my main OS, I've tried three distros: Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch. Out of those, I like Arch the best. I like the "ground up" installation (include what you need, and no more), the rolling release model (no periodic re-installs to update to a new version), pacman and the way packages are put together (bash script commands, tar.gz files), the use of systemd, the wiki/docs, et cetera. The wiki is really impressive, with lots of good information that doesn't talk down to you. Whenever I had a question or ran into something I needed help with, I found the answer in the wiki; I never had to use the forums/community. That's pretty good documentation.

With all that said, I'm uncertain whether I'd recommend Arch to a Linux newbie. My gut instinct would be to recommend Ubuntu, unless the newbie in question wanted a lot of control over his system and wanted to learn some of the under the hood details of a Linux distro.

For me, though, Arch is my new distro of choice.

[JCBoney]

Yes, for a newb, I would also recommend Ubuntu or maybe Linux Mint.

[Kramer]

Macs in the Kramer household exclusively. Like a few others lurking around these parts, I have been working in graphic design since 1986; having cut my professional chops with non-repro blue pencils and rubber cement.

13 years at Microsoft did not drive my appreciation of Macintosh equipment out of my head. One feature of Macs is that I can Windows natively from the same machine if I have to (a few freelance clients require it). And, having gone through some dozen or so Mac computers over the years, I have only ever had one have any kind of hardware failure on me (hard drive went bad on my wife's MacBook). And, knock on wood, I have never had any kind of viruses run through the household network.

Currently, I am running all my work through either my 27" iMac or my MacBook Pro (just finished cleaning up my home office today, in fact).



My home office features the aforementioned iMac and MacBook Pro, as well as a 21" iMac and a freshly retired 17" eMac (circa 2000, and still runs great!)

That said...there really is not enough difference to me either way; Windows vs. Mac. There is more software laregly available for Windows than for Mac. And Macs of course run quite a bit more money. And, they are not generally as upgradable as Windows machines are. However, "I'll give up my Mac when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

[rredmond]

Yeah but is that weapons wall Apple or PC Jim?

[Kramer]

Yeah but is that weapons wall Apple or PC Jim?

That's not my weapon wall...silly boy.

My weapon wall is hanging in the entryway...



...and the dining room...



...if I could just get my wife to get her cotton candy machine out of the castle, the effect would be allot more impressive...

[rredmond]

Ron looks around and shuts his unworthy mouth.