Back in 2019, I covered the hardware I work with most of the time. My lineup has remained the same since, with the addition of a second tablet as the first one developed a problem with its touch screen. The weak point of the ensemble by now is the laptop, since it's getting closer to being 8 years old, so I started casually looking at my options. I wanted something maybe a bit smaller, ideally (but probably not) with a numpad, multiple ports and upgradeable hardware. I like the ThinkPad line, so this seemed like a good starting point.
Then I got an idea and went in the complete opposite direction with a locked down device with only two USB ports and no possible upgrades.
Oh, and it's a Macbook.
This is definitely something different for me, as I usually run Windows on all my devices and I'm comfortable in that environment. What I tend to work on is either web-related technologies, or Java-based software, which can run on about any platform, so being on a Macbook isn't really a limitation.
Still, this explanation is missing a detail: why a Mac?
The answer is fairly simple: I need a MacOS-based device if I want to develop anything for MacOS, iOS or iPadOS. As a starting point, I'd like to get a version of the Creeper's Lab Companion available on Apple's App Store in the coming weeks. This will be followed by something else I've been working on, aiming to cast a net as wide as possible.
If I need a Windows device on the move, my Surface Go is surprisingly capable as long as I don't push it too much. This will be my alternative as the older ThinkPad goes into semi-retirement.
I took a day trip yesterday which involved about four hours total of train travel. Not one to let a good time block like this go to waste, I decided to work some more on an upcoming project of mine. A catch is that I often need to look up extra information online, while I would be cut-off from most everything there. While, yes, there is on-board wifi, it's best not to rely on that. Having a limited mobile plan, I didn't want to use my phone as a hotspot. So, offline it was!
I made sure I had all the files I would need pre-downloaded before starting, then configured my tablet with my usual development tools. The smaller device (plus attached keyboard) is light enough to carry around all day, yet has the ability to do everything I need it to.
Since I wouldn't have a live connection, I decided to focus my work on making the system more reliable. This specific project needs to read data from external sources once in a while, but what happens if these sources are temporarily offline? This was a perfect opportunity to test it for real! I found several weird behaviors and outright bugs that I was able to correct, so that by the time this goes live, unusual scenarios like bad connections will already be handled properly.
One small problem: I ran out of battery before going home! I'm not sure what happened, since it's supposed to last longer than this, but maybe I didn't configure something right. That will be something to review... or bring the charger along!
You might know that I updated the Creeper's Lab network to Minecraft 1.19 right around the start of the month. What you probably don't know, however, is that I wasn't even home at the time! So, how did that go?
A few years ago, I described my hardware setup. From that selection, I do the vast majority of my work on my desktop computer. Rebuilt back in 2019, it still offers a very solid performance and allows me to run multiple programs at once. When I do Minecraft updates, I'll frequently run one or two servers and two clients of the game, plus my dev tools, plus the usual suspects like email, browser and so on. Having the raw power to handle all this together definitely helps.
I knew I was going to be away for a few days, so I prepared myself by packing the best alternative. I brought my laptop along, plus two Surface Go tablets as I've since acquired a second one, used. The laptop is rather old now, getting close to seven years of use, so it's not as fast as it could be. That's where the tablets come in: I use them as extra screens, with keyboard and mouse being shared among them. Since they're their own computers, though, I run some non-critical programs on them: notes, Discord, browser for references, etc. This frees up the laptop to run the game server and client, giving it a chance at keeping up with the testing I throw at it!
While this doesn't beat my home setup, it definitely does what I need it to. I've also spent a few actual work days using this very setup, and it went better than I expected. Here's to mobility!
