This fall will begin a new chapter not only in my personal life, but the life of my family as well. My wife and I will both begin classes in August (sheesh…only a month away!) for two very different tracks of study — Fine Arts for me, and Legal Studies for her. It’s something we both have been wanting to do for a while, and we’ve finally taken the proverbial plunge.
Time will be tight, for both of us. Trying to juggle work, family, money-making hobbies, and school is going to be a wicked good lesson in time management, if nothing else. While the physical campus is in the southwest US, we do have local libraries, numerous coffee shops, and now a Barnes and Noble to run to for some solitude from the hyper and, often, screaming kiddos. While we’re both anxietous to see how everything jives together, we’re also totally stoked.
Reader Input:
For a while now, I have been in love with the concept of complete computing mobility, taking my work and virtual office with me everywhere I go. So, I figured this would be a great time to jump on it, and in doing so will be purchasing a new laptop to cover both my school, personal, and business needs. However, I can’t seem to make up my mind as to what I want exactly. Oh, I have a good/rough idea of the specs, I’m just trying to decide on what screen size I want to go with.
When I graduated from high school a bought a 17-inch laptop, a beast of a machine that could have easily doubled as a drive-in movie theater screen. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but it was big nonetheless. Too big, in my opinion, and weighing in at about 10 pounds was a pain to carry around anywhere. And it was pretty thick, too (NOT an MB Pro, unfortunately). So I have kind of turned off of the uber-large laptops on the market. Granted, many of today’s high-end 17-inch laptops (such as the MacBook Pro) are thinner, lighter, and more easy to carry around, but do you really need that much visual real estate?
I currently have a 15-inch Mac Powerbook that I rarely use (slow performance issues…wonder why?), and I have found that size to be quite workable for a variety of things. The screen size is more than adequate for your simple word processing tasks, and it’s pretty decent for photo editing, design, etc. Plus, it’s fairly light-weight, easy to carry, and a good lap size as well.
My wife used to have an old 12-inch Mac eBook that she absolutely loved and subsequently missed when it “kicked off.” In fact, I loved it too — it was small enough to [almost] fit in your back pocket, lightweight, and above all, downright cute. It was perfect for word processing, chatting, surfing, etc. But I don’t feel that a screen that size is really conducive to such activities as graphic design and photo editing.
What I will need this computer for:
- Simple word processing
- Graphic and web design
- Photo Editing
- Business computing and accounting
- Video conferencing and online meetings
Do any of you graphic/web designers and/or photographers have any input, recommendations, or personal experiences to share that will aid me in choosing the correct uber-machine this time around?
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