Blind Not Dumb (Posts about mac)https://www.feoh.org/categories/mac.atom2024-01-21T01:02:41ZChris PattiNikolaA Mac User's Survival Guide For Buying A PC Laptophttps://www.feoh.org/posts/a-mac-users-survival-guide-for-buying-a-pc-laptop.html2023-07-18T09:58:05-04:002023-07-18T09:58:05-04:00Chris Patti<p><img alt='"Scream" by xuhulk is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.' src="https://www.feoh.org/images/Scream.jpg"></p>
<h2>Why Are We Here?</h2>
<p>Mac users tend to be a rather opinionated lot. We generally love our Macs for
all kinds of reasons - the interface, the hardware, the polish - the list goes
on.</p>
<p>But life is complicated, and there are all kinds of situations that might make a
dyed in the wool Mac user choose to buy a PC laptop.</p>
<p>For myself, the motivation was simple. Apple had about a 5 year stretch where
they manufactured nothing but <em>epic turds</em> for laptops. I don't choose such a
vulgar turn of phrase lightly. As someone who has literally been a Mac fan for
decades (My first Mac was a Motorola 68XXX CPU based Quadra tower. Yes I'm old)
I was appalled at how far the quality had fallen. I won't go into it here as
that's not the point of the article, but let me just offer this one hint:
Butterfly keyboards.</p>
<p>So anyway, the pandemic was just starting to kick up and I realized that I
REALLY needed a personal laptop. So here we are.</p>
<p>This isn't going to be exhaustive, I'm just going to cover some of the more
salient points you may not have been aware of, having lived the sheltered Mac
life as I did :)</p>
<p>Also note these are my opinions. I'm not by any means an expert, I just wanted
to share what I learned in hopes it might help someone.</p>
<h2>Choosing a Vendor</h2>
<p>Which laptop maker you choose will depend largely on what's most important to
you. If ultra expandability is your think, you should probably check out
<a href="https://frame.work/">Framework</a>. If you care less about portability and want a
luggable gaming rig, I'd give
<a href="https://www.dell.com/en-us/gaming/alienware">Alienware</a> a look.</p>
<p>As for myself, I need something that would be sincerely portable, and I
absolutely require a <em>really</em> good keyboard, as well as good warranty support
because fixing it myself wasn't a thing, so I chose
<a href="https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/pc/">Lenovo</a>.</p>
<p>There are plenty of other choices, but hopefully this will at least get you
going.</p>
<h2>Screen</h2>
<p>One of the biggest nasty surprises I was in store for in my PC laptop buying
experience was the screen. Mac laptops have, near as I can tell, always shipped
with gorgeous, bright, high resolution screens.</p>
<p>This isn't always the case in the PC world, so if you're like me and picky about
screens (in my case, I'm low vision, I NEED a large bright display), you need to
be careful here.</p>
<h3>To Matte or Not To Matte</h3>
<p>Every time I mention nit count and screens, people who likely know more than I
do about this stuff remind me that having a Matte screen can make a significant
impact on the amount of perceived glare. That makes sense to me, but I have yet
to have the opportunity to test matte and non matte screens side by side so I
have no personal opinion on this. If I ever buy a PC laptop again though, I'll
be sure to look for a matte screen. With glare being such a serious problem for
me, it certainly can't hurt!</p>
<h3>It's All About The Nits</h3>
<p>The Lenovo T15 gen2 I bought is a lovely laptop in many ways, but the screen is
totally unsuitable for me. At 15" and 300 nits, the display always leaves my
eyes straining and can't handle use in outdoor daylight situations at all.</p>
<p>This is a deal breaker for me, so if it is for you, be <em>sure</em> to pay attention
to how many nits your display has and whether or not it's big enough for your
needs.</p>
<p>There are PC laptop models out there that match the 1000 nit gorgeousness of a
Mac laptop's screen, you just need to be sure the one you pick is one of those
models :)</p>
<h2>Keyboard</h2>
<p>As consumer demand has driven vendors to make laptops thinner, their keyboards
have, in my opinion, suffered. Thankfully Lenovo realized that not everyone is
willing to live with a mushy keyboard with no key travel, so their Thinkpad line
all have keyboards ranging from good to excellent. The keyboard on my T15 was
quite good with nice key travel and just enough tactile feedback to let my wrist
know it can stop pressing. I tend to unfortunately CAVEMAN SMASH mushy
keyboards, and then it hurts :)</p>
<p>Alienware laptops also generally have superlative keyboards, but as I said those
are often more luggables than truly portable, so, it's all about the trade-offs
:)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it's very hard to shop for a keyboard that fits you through the
mail. You may need to phone a friend or find a local computer store where you
can actually lay hands on that model laptop to try it out yourself.</p>
<h2>Ports</h2>
<p>Be sure you get any adapters you'll need. PCs are more likely to have
DisplayPort ports for monitor / video connections than HDMI, so you may need to
go buy an adapter for your monitor.</p>
<p>You'll also likely see an actual wired network (Ethernet) port, because unlike
Apple, PC vendors recognize that in many places wifi is dodgy as heck and having
a wired network connection can be a godsend.</p>
<h2>Warranty</h2>
<p>If you're like me, when you buy Apple hardware, you ALWAYS buy Applecare to go
with it.</p>
<p>Be careful about your laptop of choice's warranty options. One thing I really
like about Lenovo in this regard is that they have good warranty service <em>and</em>
the warranty attaches to the machine, not the person, so if you want to sell
your laptop, the warranty travels right along with it.</p>
<p>I've seen several laptop vendors offer a 1 year parts and labor warranty by
default, and that's it. I generally like to be sure I can get more out of my
investment than that, but opinions vary on whether or not warranty service is a
good idea. Just bear in mind that if you don't have one and you break it, you'll
need to either fix it yourself or hope for the best at a local computer repair
shop.</p>
<h2>Closing</h2>
<p>Now that Apple has gone back to making excellent laptops, I don't see myself
buying a PC for myself in the near future, but having done it once, if I ever do
again at least I'll know what to look for. I hope this helps you make a purchase
you're happy with.</p>
<p>Whatever you choose, have fun and happy computing!</p>Move over TextMate. MacVim is the new kid in town!https://www.feoh.org/posts/move-over-textmate-macvim-is-the-new-kid-in-town.html2011-09-09T17:41:00-04:002011-09-09T17:41:00-04:00cpatti<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">For years I've been rather proud of the fact that I'm a total polyglot when it</div>
<div class="line">comes to editors. I'm comfortable on both sides of the fence, using Emacs, Vi,</div>
<div class="line">TextMate, EditPlus, or even the venerable /bin/ed whenever that makes sense.</div>
<div class="line"><br></div>
<div class="line">But for the first time in a long time, my current (awesome! :)) job at <a class="reference external" href="https://www.bluestatedigital.com">Blue
State Digital</a> has given me the opportunity to</div>
<div class="line">branch out and do quite a bit of real software development.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">I first encountered TextMate shortly after I came to OSX. It's a great editor,</div>
<div class="line">and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Alan Odegard of <a class="reference external" href="https://www.macromates.com">Macromates</a></div>
<div class="line">software. He has just about single handedly created not only an amazing</div>
<div class="line">editor, but a vibrant and loyal community around his program, and he's to be</div>
<div class="line">commended for that.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">I would have remained happy in TextMate land, but for the fact that my most</div>
<div class="line">recent job has me going back to where it all started for me - server side UNIX,</div>
<div class="line">Linux to be exact.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">So, I editing files on my Mac using Expandrive to remotely mount them, but</div>
<div class="line">quite frankly that's a pain in the neck I just don't need to deal with.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">With Vim, I can memorize one set of keystrokes for everywhere I might need to</div>
<div class="line">be.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">And with MacVim, I get a nicely streamlined, beautifully Aqua-fied interface,</div>
<div class="line">with all the creature comforts TextMate provides and more.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">What's more, there are a number of folks making the same transition, so there</div>
<div class="line">are some excellent articles and websites out there to ease the transition like</div>
<div class="line"><a class="reference external" href="https://www.jackkinsella.ie/2011/09/05/textmate-to-vim.html#masthead">this guide on making the
switch</a> or</div>
<div class="line">the excellent <a class="reference external" href="https://vimcasts.org">VimCasts</a> series of Vim tutorial screen</div>
<div class="line">casts. They cover everything from the basics to some fairly advanced tips and</div>
<div class="line">tricks on more complex Vim modes and integrations, and is written by a TextMate</div>
<div class="line">to Vim switcher.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Right now I'm writing this post on the excellent</div>
<div class="line"><a class="reference external" href="https://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3510">VimRePress</a> plugin for</div>
<div class="line">Vim that allows you to author and manage your Wordpress blog right from within</div>
<div class="line">the editor! Very sweet :)</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">So, it's a brave new world, and I'm excited by the opportunity to get</div>
<div class="line"><strong>really</strong> good at Vim so I can push my editing productivity through the roof</div>
<div class="line">:)</div>
</div>