What I use in 2012, Part 1: Hardware

I like to see how people work; especially for those whose work is mostly on the computer. So in the spirit of Paul Thurrott‘s What I Use for Home and Office Technology, and Lifehacker‘s How I Work series, I present the following list of what technology I use at home.

Note: I don’t endorse anything here beyond the implicit “this is what I actually use at home.”

Computers

Hester: Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (Notebook)

Hester is my primary machine, and is named after the main character in my Guineawick Tales stories. It’s got a 2.6GHz Intel Core i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM. It boots from a zippy 80GB SSD, and has second 500GB hard drive for storage. It has a 14″ 1600×900 screen and a 9-cell extended battery; I like my machines light and easy to travel with.

I love and use the TrackPoint almost exclusively, only using a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 when I want a mouse, since Hester has Bluetooth built-in and that means no USB dongle.

Hester currently runs Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot”, and has never seen a copy of Windows outside of a virtual machine. But more on the software in Part 2.

Cortana: ASUS EeePC 1000HA (Netbook)

Cortana is my secondary “swings in to save the day” machine, named after the Halo character. It’s got a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 2GB of RAM. It came with a 160GB hard disk, which I replaced with a 32GB SSD. The model didn’t offer Bluetooth when I bought it, but that didn’t stop me from installing the radio from another laptop anyway.

Cortana has a 10″ 1024×600 screen, which, along with the poor Adobe Flash support, is really its only weakness. When the original battery died, I replaced it with a monster 12-cell that gives me a whopping 14 hours battery life (only 8 with WiFi on).

Cortana spent its longest time running Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat”, but has also run Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal”, Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate, as well as Windows 8. Last I checked it’s running Windows 7 Ultimate (I flatten this machine so much it’s hard to keep track).

I’ve won three NaNoWriMos on Cortana. It’s saved my butt at work on numerous occasions. This little machine has proved its worth so many times I’m probably going to bronze it when it finally dies.

Serenity: Dell Vostro 200 Slim (Desktop)

Serenity was my primary machine for four years until I bought Hester, and is named for the Firefly ship. It has a 3.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4GB RAM. It boots from its original 80GB hard drive, but has an additional 1TB drive for storage.

It powers two 22″ 1920×1080 Dell S2209W monitors with a GeForce 8400 GS video card, and I used a Logitech Trackman Marble Trackball along with a Logitech Classic Keyboard 200.

Serenity started its life running Windows XP Pro, but then moved on to a long life with Ubuntu, starting with 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” and surviving 8 in-place upgrades to 11.10 without a hitch. It is only after Hester became my primary machine that I put Windows 7 Ultimate on Serenity, namely as a joint machine for Anne and I. Unfortunately, I find my lifestyle doesn’t require a desktop these days (and the desk to support it), and so Serenity has migrated into the closet indefinitely.

Horatio: MSI Wind Nettop 100 (Server)

Horatio is my personal file/backup/utility server, named after Horatio Hornblower. It’s got a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM. It has two low-power hard drives, for a total of 2.5TB of storage. As a nettop with green hard-drives, it uses only a miniscule 35W of power.

The primary purpose of Horatio is to be a backup server. All of my other machines backup daily to Horatio. I also store my entire media collection here, so that I can stream it to whatever machine I’m currently on.

Horatio runs Ubuntu 12.04.

Franklin: ASUS EB1007-B0410 EeeBox Mini (Server)

Franklin is my remote backup server, named after Benjamin Franklin. It’s got a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU (gotta love those Atoms!) with 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive.

The primary purpose of Franklin is to store backups of my backups, off-site from my home. As all of my machines backup to Horatio on a regular basis, so does Horatio backup to Franklin. Because of the lack of storage space (I wanted a tiny, silent machine)  I only backup my personal data and music to Franklin. Movies and other video content only live on Horatio for the time being.

Franklin runs Ubuntu 12.04.

Phone

Right now I carry an HTC Trophy running Windows Phone 7.5, which is named Jacobi after a character in my upcoming Guineawick Tales novel, Hester and the Kookaburra King. I’ve got an extended battery so I can go two days with heavy use and not charge.

I moved earlier this year, and as an experiment I used Jacobi as my primary computing device for a little over a month, while everything else was packed away. Email, web browsing, gaming, music, movies and reading. The phone held up remarkably well- enough that if I wasn’t a software developer or a writer, I could live pretty happy with just my phone. (You believe me, right?)

My previous phone was an LG Optimus S running Android 2.3.3, and the phone before that was the ill-fated Palm Pre. In general I like smaller phones; I for one am against the trend of larger, flatter devices.

Portable Devices

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

This $50 MP3 player is the best I’ve ever owned, and that’s including the Cowon iAudio5 that survived my service in Africa. My Sansa Clip+ has 4GB storage built-in, and I’ve added a 16GB card so I can carry my entire music collection plus podcasts and audiobooks.

While the original factory software was pretty good, I upgraded to the Rockbox open-source firmware, which really makes this little player shine. It lives mostly in my car, mounted to the dash, but I also clip it to my pocket when I go running.

Pocketbook 360

I’ve written about my PB360. Twice in fact. I still think that, even years after its original release, it still holds its own very well against the latest crop of Nooks and Kindles.

However, I’ll admit that the hassle of carrying a second device around means I hardly use my PB360 any more. I just want to read way more often than I want to carry around an e-ink reader. I do the majority of my reading on my phone these days; it’s a lot quieter and works in the dark.

Dingoo A320

I’m a big retro-gaming fan, and while I appreciate the strides in touch-screen based gaming on phones, give me a Sega Genesis and a controller any day. My Dingoo A320, on which I’ve installed Linux, lets me carry around pretty much every retro game, on every retro system, that I could ever want to play, and do it really well. When I want to play old games, this is where I go.

Fitbit

It’s amazing how quickly this little step counter as become “attached to my hip”. (Pun way, way intended). I’ve only had a Fitbit for a few months, but I think I’ve only ever forgotten to carry it once (and believe me, it bothered me all day).

I don’t put too much stock into its numbers- mainly it serves as a physical reminder for me to take the stairs over the elevator, to get up and take breaks from my desk at work. It’s just a really geeky string tied to my finger, but it works too well for me to give it up.

Home Technology

Internet, TV

I get Comcast High Speed Internet and average ~60Mbps down, ~15 Mbps up. I pay for TV service because it lowers my Internet bill, though I’m a cord-cutter in spirit: I have no cable-box and I haven’t hooked up a TV to the cable in several years.

Xbox 360

I work at Xbox, so it’s no surprise that I have an Xbox 360 in my home. Two, if you count Anne’s. Nothing special about it, other than a 250GB upgrade, though I do have a MadCatz Street Fighter IV Fightstick that I replaced the guts with a higher quality joystick and arcade machine buttons. I use it mainly for playing Pac-Man though.

My Xbox is set up in my game room / office with an Onkyo 5.1 surround system and (for now) a Insignia 32″ 720p HDTV. My 40″ Samsung 1080p HDTV is currently serving the living room, along with the other Xbox, an LG soundbar, and an LG Blu-ray player.

We have two Logitech Harmony 610 remotes, one for the living room, one for the game room. They’re perfect, and essential for keeping everything in sync. Haven’t had to touch the original remotes for anything in years.

Everything Else

These are just the things that I think of when I think of “what I use”. Believe me, I have lots more hardware lying around, though I try to regularly sell off or toss what I don’t use any more. Everything except cables: you can never have too many extra cables.

I have a Wii that’s ostensibly set up for retro gaming, though I haven’t powered it on more than a dozen times in the past couple years. I have a digital camera that I religiously charge the batteries for trips and events, but always forget to take pictures with.

“Too Long, Didn’t Read” Summary

I am a nerd with way too many toys and I’m rarely satisfied unless I’ve broken their warranty and made them do more than the manufacturer intended. Especially if it means getting a longer battery life. I prefer Linux over Windows, except with my phone.

And remember, this is just my personal stuff- none of this includes the tech I use for my work as an engineer at Microsoft. Hmmm, that might be an interesting post…

/jon

Update (9/22/12): Be sure to check out What I use in 2012, Part 2: Software.

P.S. So what do you use at home? Leave a comment below!