> -----Original Message----- > From: C. Hatton Humphrey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2007 1:38 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Loaded Questions > > Hey folks - good news for me, I'm getting back into the development world! > > Took a job at a place, they don't have a free machine so they're > buying one for me. I'm hired as a "Senior Database Developer" but I'm > the only programmer on staff. > > I was asked the following question: > "I need a "wish list" for computer / software configuration"
Since the company doesn't have this stuff worked out I have to assume their either pretty small or just starting up. Personally I'd definitely go with a laptop. The big win there for me, at least, is working from home - but can be difficult if the company lacks the infrastructure (VPN access). The benefits of portability are not to be sneezed at! Although if the company is small and lacks enterprise back up a desktop can easily be ordered with RAID mirrored disks. These have saved my ass in my home business more than once. If you do go with a laptop try to get a DVD burner (preferably dual-layer) for making backups - Norton Ghost works excellently for this. An external hard-drive dedicated to back-ups is also an option. Don't bother with a laptop unless they'll also spring for a docking station and large external monitor - preferably an LCD (so that you can enable ClearType - improves productivity noticably). The rest seems up to them, but your list seems fine to me. I would probably include Visio on that list - it sounds like your position may include documentation tasks and Visio's still the best. For me, even in a development role, CorelDRAW! X3 (hands down the best drawing package available - shoo you silly FreeHand and Illustrator) is essential. You may not use it often, but it's relatively inexpensive, feature rich and offers many features not found elsewhere. If you want/need to deal with older software Virtual PC is invaluable. It's free from Microsoft but you still need licenses for the guest OSs. But once you see how live saving it is to be able to totally ruin a virtual machine with crappy, out-of-date, poorly managed software without ever marring your beautiful workstation you'll be converted. Just make sure you have enough RAM - I would recommend at least two gig to start (assuming you'll be running CF, SQL Server and all the office apps on the same machine) and probably three or four gig if you might do serious Virtual PC work (virtual PCs need a dedicated chunk of RAM all to themselves). You might want to consider Acrobat for PDF generation but CorelDraw can do this out of the box and Office 2007 can do it with a free extension from MS. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 The most significant release in over 10 years. Upgrade & see new features. http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:229372 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
