Hello Cat, Congratulations on starting grad school! It is wonderful to read about your intense pleasure at starting such an adventure at a time when we hear so much about the over-production of PhDs, the shrinking funds for research, and the general malaise in higher education, yadda-yadda-yadda. May your generation find a cheerful way to rescue us all!
I don't have a specific recommendation on your laptop needs, other than to say that I converted to the Mac when I joined graduate school several decades ago, in a program where everybody was an acolyte of that religion. The purchase of a PC in one of the labs for a specific research application not available on the mac was major news in our building… but that's another story. Let me just say that the mac os has served me well through research in diverse areas of ecology, although I have used windows and linux from time to time when relevant. The nice thing about recent mac hardware is that it runs reliably for a long time, and allows one to run all major operating systems, so that is a good reason to stick with it - but other options are available. It is good to remember that the computer is ultimately a tool (or a collection of tools) towards other real-life ends, even if it tends to take over our lives and inspires religious fervor! I am writing now because you invoked a different fervor by addressing us all as Eco-lovers - and I just came across a similar query as yours, but with a more eco-concern twist, being addressed in this week's Ask Umbra column on Grist.org: http://grist.org/green-living-tips/ask-umbra-should-i-buy-a-refurbished-laptop-for-college/ So, whatever brand or cult flavor of computer you decided to go with, consider getting a refurbished model - it may do the job as well as a new one, and give you some karma for keeping the toxic electronics out of the landfills for a little while longer. Enjoy ESA 2012 - which I am bummed to be missing, especially because I have played a part in several papers and a symposium on urban biodiversity (link, if I may add a pitch: http://eco.confex.com/eco/2012/webprogram/Session7780.html), but am stuck in distant Sweden for the duration (not that this is a bad thing). I will therefore be limited to following the meeting via live-tweets and other social media rather than in person. Hope your awesome research gets lots of attention and you get to talk about fungus to your heart's content. And may graduate school be an intensely pleasurable experience for you all the way through! :-) Madhu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Madhusudan Katti http://about.me/mkatti On Jul 27, 2012, at 11:05 PM, Cat Adams wrote: > Hi Eco-lovers, > > I have the intense pleasure of starting grad school this fall, and was > wondering if this list-serv could generate any kind of consensus regarding > what a "best" personal computer might be for me. I converted to the Mac > religion a few years ago, and while I don't feel intractable in my new > computer world-view, I am pretty comfortable with it. > > I don't intend to do heavy climate modeling or the like on my personal > computer - I mostly want a computer for web browsing, running R, writing > papers, citation programs (Zotero? Endnote?), blogging (perhaps shifting to > host my own server), some video editing, and using not-too-complicated > graphics programs. Until I make new friends, I might also want to run > Netflix =P Regardless, I doubt I'll do all these things simultaneously, so > my needs aren't extravagant. In addition to adequate processing speed and > storage space, I want something that will be the least finicky with other > types of equipment, for doing presentations and networking and such. It > needs to be something sturdy that can do some globe-trotting with me; ie > not too fragile for airport security in Bolivia. A built-in webcam would be > quite handy for Skype, too. > > I plan to bring ~30 gb of files from my old lab to my new school, so I have > all the protocols I worked on and easy access to all the old data. Do you > highly recommend an external hard-drive for that? Or should I just throw it > on the new computer? Or both?! I'm thinking both, but I'm very curious > about your insight, and would be grateful for advice that can help me avoid > lost data and other tech-disasters. > > Ideally, I'd get a new computer before ESA, but if I'm still shopping come > the conference feel free to give me advice early Thursday morning when my > lab mate presents on our awesome research! > http://eco.confex.com/eco/2012/webprogram/Paper37476.html > > Or, just come talk to me about fungus :) I'm super stoked to dive into grad > school. Hope to see many of you at the conference! > > Cheers, > Cat
