With the dollar to sterling exchange rate reaching the 2:1 point I decided it was time to take the plunge on a new laptop. My last Mac was a PowerBook G4 and it still serves Sarah and I well - but it's really awful for running Windows virtual machines. The regular MacBook is a nice machine, but I prefer a higher screen resolution and Sarah has had some bad things to say about the build quality. So the only option is the MBP. Apple were rumoured to be releasing an update based on their 45nm Penryn CPU in January, but it was pushed back to a few weeks ago. When they did update the line they also added a multi-touch trackpad like that found on the MacBook Air.
I bought the base MBP with a view to upgrading the RAM myself. I was going to go with the regular matte screen but I got the glossy one instead. In some conditions there are definitely reflections, but I was used to this on my Dell XPS M1710. Photographs and video are gorgeous. I haven't tried any games yet so I'm not sure how the 256MB graphics card will run them.
Battery life is much better than my Dell machine. This is good because unlike the Dell, I can actually use this machine on the move. Apparently the Penryn chip uses a lot less power than the one used in previous versions. The Leopard operating system has some nice additions such as Spaces and Time Machine. These definitely run better on an Intel Mac.
Perhaps the biggest test has been running Windows 2008 in a VMware Fusion virtual machine. The configuration is virtually the same as that on Windows or Linux, but they have added some 3D rendering capabilities which are not present in the workstation product. Obviously the user interface is very Mac-friendly and fits in well. Performance has been more than acceptable on the 5400 RPM internal drive. My next test will be running Visual Studio 2008 under Unity. Whilst it sounds neat to be able to use Windows applications interchangeably with Mac ones, I'm wondering if there will be major startup delays and the like.
Today was the Python tutorial day. Given that I haven't spent a lot of time reading or writing Python code I thought it would be a good idea to attend some of these tutorials. Since they kicked off at 9am it was a bit of a challenge making it on time. My Southwest flight from Philly last night arrived late, and then I had a big trip around to the other side of Chicago. If you need to attend a conference near O'Hare, try to fly into that airport. All I wanted to do was to lie in bed for a few more hours :)
When I made my tutorial selections I was hoping to attend a Python for Java Developers session. This would have been useful given my experience with C# but it seems that I was in the minority and it was cancelled. I switched to the Django session but I think I may have been better attending the session on performance optimisation.
Registration wasn't too busy today since the main conference crew won't arrive till Friday. I got a PyCon bag and some flyers but the T-Shirts weren't ready. Apparently they'll be available tomorrow, I'd hate to miss out on one!
Python 101 Tutorial (Steve Holden)
It turns out that Steve was another British ex-pat living here in the US. It gets weirder in that he lectured at Manchester University for a number of years. Given Steve's position in the community I expected a sharp introduction to Python. It didn't disappoint and I picked up a fair bit. The 'slice' mechanism looks really useful, I wonder if it can be implemented with any of the new C# features?
Getting Started with Django (Jacob Kaplan-Moss)
I was expecting this session to be a little more exciting. Jacob has some fine ideas about how Python frameworks should be built but his presentation style is not as striking as DHH. Since this was an introductory session I can't complain too much but I really want to hear some more about Django deployment and debugging over the next few days.
Internet Programming with Python (Wesley Chun)
At this point I was pretty exhausted. This tutorial seemed to be geared toward newbies to network programming, rather than a best practice session on leveraging Python for internet programming.
Microsoft and many other technology companies manage their certification programmes through Prometric. I was registering for an exam today and noticed that they ask you to 'commit registration' as opposed to just registering.
Little things like this really annoy me, I'm sure that some developer thought this was cool.
Last year I had the opportunity to attend the first RailsConf and had a great time. This year it's back with a much bigger venue and support from O'Reilly. Alas the timing is not so good as I'll be helping the folks at Savoy prepare for HMS Pinafore, but I'll be able to tune into many podcasts and whatnot. If you are thinking of attending and can't make up your mind I would thoroughly recommend attending RailsConf 2007. It'll give you a great opportunity to network with a great bunch of people who are highly skilled, yet open to newbies.
The second half of the year is open for conferences and the like so maybe OSCON would be fun. Microsoft are running their PDC, but I'm not sure I'd get as much from that as I have done previously. I'll have to have a think about it...
Expat Coder
Microsoft and many other technology companies manage their certification programmes through Prometric. I was registering for an exam today and noticed that they ask you to 'commit registration' as opposed to just registering.