Thanks for everyone’s input today about what Mac laptop to get. Here’s what I ended up getting:

MacBook Pro 15.4″
2.16 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Disk, 128 MB graphics card

After people pointed out some good reasons to go for the Pro, the decision was then about the higher-end version or not. The benefits of the more expensive version would have been a faster processor (2.33 vs 2.16) and a 256 MB graphics card. The faster processor didn’t seem worth the extra price. The extra graphics RAM was more tempting, I don’t know, maybe I should have gone with that instead. As someone pointed out, the upcoming CS3 release from Adobe is going to have more intense graphics requirements, which was one reason to go for the Pro vs. non-Pro. Maybe once I get CS3 I’ll have wished I went with the 256 MB graphics RAM. But I figure I’m gonna drop 3 GB of RAM in there, so I should be able to run whatever the hell I want without problems.

So one more question for people out there: where should I buy a single 2 GB stick of RAM for a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo?

Someone pointed out macsales.com, and I was checking out the different options. There are three different options I could go with. I’m not a RAM expert, so I have no idea what the benefits and drawbacks for any of these choices are. Here are the choices:

1. $260 – Other World Computing Brand
2. $340 – Micron
3. $450 – Samsung

Crucial’s got a 2 GB stick for $355.

They all look exactly the same to me. The only difference I can spot is that the Micron option says it’s “128 x 8” versus the other two are “256 x 64”. I have no clue what this means. Is there any reason to not go with the cheapest option?

I’m going to be using the 1 GB stick of RAM that comes from Apple and just adding the new 2 GB stick I buy. Is there any brand that would play better with the 1 GB stick from Apple?

I’m about to pop my Mac cherry. It’s time for an upgrade from my old Toshiba Portege m200 tablet that I’ve had for about 3 years. I’m trying to decide whether to go with the Pro or non-Pro version of the MacBook, weighing the pros and cons of each. This is yet another case of a long-time Windows user switching to a Mac. The last Apple computer I had was an Apple II E. For a variety of reasons I’m switching, but the Paralells virtualization software is a driving force that got me to actually make the decision.

Size
I like a small laptop. I have a 24 inch widescreen monitor on my desk, which I use most of the time if I’m working at home. Over the past few years I’ve come to really appreciate the small form factor of my current laptop. It’s a 12-inch display and it’s light (just over 4 pounds). That 12-inch display packs a 1400 x 1050 resolution, so that’s sweet for a laptop that small. Part of the reason I really value the small size is that for the past 2 and a half years I’ve been commuting an hour each way via train to work every day. I often work on the train, so being able to easily carry around my laptop and pull it out without breaking a sweat has been important to me. That said, I’m not going to be commuting any longer, so maybe the small lightweight aspect isn’t as important to me anymore.

In terms of MacBooks, I’m deciding between the 13-inch MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is out, I’m not even considering something that big.

Should I get the best?
As a tech junkie it’s always hard for me to not buy the hottest thing available. In the computer world you always pay a premium for the newest, fastest machine. But you know you’ve got the most badass thing you can get. My roommate works for Google and gets a free MacBook Pro for work. I have the opportunity of getting a better one 🙂

I have an itch to get the fastest machine I can get with the most RAM I can get. So now I’ve got to control my desire and hold off on buying a $3,200 laptop (most expensive MacBook Pro config I could get) until I consider whether it’s actually worth it.

As I see it I have 3 options:

1. $1,756 – 13-inch black MacBook @ 2 Ghz
   2.0 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB drive
   The best non-Pro MacBook available. 2 GB RAM through Apple is only slightly more expensive than doing it through an external vendor, so it’s worth the convenience.
2. $2,393 – 15-inch MacBook Pro @ 2.16 Ghz
   2.16 Ghz, 3 GB RAM, 120 GB drive
   Includes $355 RAM upgrade from Crucial (one two-gig stick).
3. $2,893 – 15-inch MacBook Pro @ 2.33 Ghz
   2.33 Ghz, 3 GB RAM, 120 GB drive
   The fastest processor with the most RAM I can get. Includes $355 RAM upgrade from Crucial (one two-gig stick).

[Note: these prices include an educational discount I get for being an employee of Stanford University, and they all include the extended AppleCare plan.]

I’m currently leaning towards option #2, but trying to determine if it’s worth $640 more than option #1. There’s a part of me that wants to jump at the 2.33 Ghz version just because, but is that really worth an extra $500? I can buy a lot of booze for $500.

Hard drive
I’ve got a 600 GB external drive, so I’m not putting a priority on the internal drive space. I’ve got 50 GB on my current Windows disk that I’m going to transfer over with Parallels Transporter. So I figure I can deal with a 120 GB disk just fine.

RAM
Each of those options has the most RAM you can stick into the machine. The 13-inch MacBook can only have a max of 2 GB. The 15-inch Pro can have a max of 3GB. Something sneaky is that you can’t order the 2.33 GHz machine with one one-gig stick of RAM (but you can for the 2.16 GHz machine). I can get a 2GB stick from Crucial for $355. This means if I get the 2.33 GHz machine, I end up with one one-gig stick that I don’t use. Versus the 2.16 GHz machine allows me to only order one-one gig stick, so I’m not paying for something I’m just going to throw away (I’ll pretend I’d try to sell it on ebay, but I know I’m too lazy). Another option would be to just get 2 GB of RAM instead of 3. I’m definitely going to get at least 2. My current Windows laptop has 1 GB and when I run Flex Builder in Eclipse, Flash 9, Photoshop, and Illustrator all at the same time it gets a little unhappy. So if I want 3 GB of RAM that pushes me toward the 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro. Is it worth it? I don’t know, I suppose I could always upgrade later.

Display considerations
I like high resolutions, even on small screens. The 1400 pixel wide resolution on my current 12-inch screen is awesome. I’m young and have good eyesight at close range, so I like the screen real estate and don’t have trouble reading the small text. The 13-inch MacBook has a resolution of 1280 x 800. The 15-inch Pro has a resolution of 1440 x 900. And obviously the Pro version’s screen is physically larger. This pushes me toward the 15-inch Pro.

I have a 24-inch monitor that requires that my laptop be able to output at least 1600 x 1050 (which my current laptop was barely able to do, with some tweaking). Both MacBooks can output to high enough resolutions for external displays. The non-Pro can output up to 1920 x 1200, which is enough for me. The MacBook Pro can output a ridiculous max resolution of 2560 x 1600, far more than I need. This one’s a tie.

I was talking to someone at 360Flex and they told me that the non-Pro MacBook can only mirror the screen when using an external display, not extend the desktop. Maybe this used to be true and got an upgrade, because looking at the specs on Apple’s site it says that both the non-Pro and the Pro can do mirroring and extended desktop. While I don’t use my external monitor and my current laptop screen at the same time very often, I do occasionally, and I certainly want that option. I’ll assume the Apple specs don’t lie to me, so this one’s a tie.

So I guess I’ve got to decide if the better display, the slightly faster processor, and the extra gig of ram are worth $640. Or maybe I’ll impulsively buy the fully pimped out 15 incher. If anyone has any thoughts that might help me decide, let me know. And if anyone knows the cheapest (but still reliable) way to get a single 2GB stick of RAM for a MacBook Pro, hook me up.

I’ve never read a programming book. I realized this when I got sent a promo copy of the Flex 2 with Actionscript 3 book from Friends of ED. [Side note: start blogging and you get sent free shit.] I was flipping through the book and I realized, wow, I’ve never read one of these before. So it got me thinking about why that is. Clearly people learn programming stuff through books, there’s got to be a market or else they wouldn’t make the books. Am I the norm or the exception?

Timeliness
First I figured this was because this was a Flex book. I’ve been following Flex for a while now, and the newest information has always been online (like any emerging technology these days). So in a sense everything contained in this book has already been written one way or another. The newest information will never be in print, that’s just the nature of the web. If I want the newest info on Apollo I’m going to read the alpha release docs on Adobe Labs, or Mike Chambers’ blog posts, or watch the apollocoders mailing list. The Apollo books are coming, but they’ll always be a big step behind what’s available online.

But then I realized I’ve learned bunches of other stuff that wasn’t brand new. When I was first learning PHP and MySQL there were tons of great books available. But for some reason I never bought a book. Maybe I’m just too cheap (discussed below). Or maybe I’m just too lazy. My bookshelf doesn’t have any programming books (at home or at work). The only books I’ve ever partially read were for some CS classes at school, but that was more to make sure I got the info that was going to be on an exam.

The copy/paste factor and learning by doing
Whenever I’m learning anything computer-related I’m doing it as I’m learning it. That’s the only way I can learn, and I’d be surprised if you find anyone who’s all that different (when it comes to computer programming). You’re not going to learn how to program Actionscript or use Photoshop by reading a book without having one hand on the mouse the entire time. So that means you read at your computer, with the book next to you? Or you read a chapter, then go and try it out on a computer? As I was flipping through the Flex book, I saw lots of Actionscript code. There’s an entire example app that gets created in that book. Cool, but that’s pretty much useless to me without being able to run the code myself, and tweak it a bit and see the results. You’ve got to be able to copy and paste the code and run it yourself. Book publishers know this, so they include downloads or CDs with the code. But now I only need the book for the non-code pieces, which brings me to my next point.

Learning from code versus learning from written paragraphs
I’d be interested in getting other developers’ perspectives on this, but I was thinking about how I learn and whether I learn more from example code or from written text describing the code and the method of programming. If I were to rate learning through code or learning through text, each on a scale of 0-5, I’d give learning through code a 5 and learning through text a 1. If a tutorial doesn’t have code I don’t read it. I think Google code search is the best learning resource ever.

So if we look at the ratio of text to code in this book, I’d say it’s at least 50-50 text-to-code. I’d be interested in seeing the ratio of comments-to-code included in the Flex framework source files. In terms of learning Flex, the framework source is the single most valuable resource I’ve had. They commented the hell out of it, but the code is the focus. You want to learn how the ComboBox component animates the drop-down menu when it gets selected? Go and read the source of ComboBox.

On-demand learning
I don’t know what I want to learn tomorrow. I might play with some custom components I’m working on, or play with Flex mapping components, or explore how to deploy my apps as Apollo apps. Or I might not ever learn any of that stuff and I might go off on some other tangent instead. So am I going to get a book about any of that? No. Am I going to read tutorials and comprehensive guides before I start playing? No. I’m going to start a project, try to do what I want to do, and when I can’t figure it out I’m going to look up what I need to know. Which brings me to my next point.

Learning in tiny bits
Books are too long. There’s just too much information in them. I learn in tiny nuggets, and I only learn the stuff that gets me to the next step in a project. If I’m working on a project and I need to figure out how to pull in an RSS feed into a flex app then that’s exactly what I want to learn, and only that. Once I get stuck at another point then I’ll go and figure out what I need to get past that point. But I don’t want to read a book that tells me in generic terms how to use a technology. I might never use half the information in a book, so why would I waste my time learning it?

The web gives me tiny bits of info that I need. And if you’re searching for programming information on Google, you can pretty easily figure out how to search and get directly to the result you need. It’s rare that I try to look something up on Google that I can’t find the answer to (obviously it happens, at which point I post questions to mailing lists). And the number of tiny bits of information is amazing. Whether it was a question someone answered on a mailing list, or a blog post, or an example in official documentation, somewhere someone has shown you how to do almost everything you want to know. And often you can find an answer to a specific question without wading through irrelevant content. Google is like learning surgery as you’re cutting, books are like medical school.

I’m a cheapskate
And I don’t like paying for something I can get for free (wow, that statement applies to so many other things). Everything you need to learn ANY programming language is available for free online. That said, book publishers can feel free to send me free shit, I like getting stuff for free, even if I don’t really want it.

I guess it just boils down to how different people learn. I’m sure tons of people have had great experiences learning from books. I just don’t get it. I can’t figure out why I would want to buy a book and read it when I can learn everything I need to learn by going online. So I don’t know, am I the norm or the exception?