Toys

I’ve got two new toys and I’ve been playing with them all weekend.

First, my wife bought me a Macbook for my birthday. I’m a first-time Mac user, so old-timer Mac fanboys (I know you’re out there) will roll their eyes with an indulgent smile at the following:

Holy cow is it easier to use.

It was also a good gift in that, realistically, I needed a new computer but would never have shelled out for this thing myself.

The other new toy is a working web server (my old crappy laptop now that I’ve migrated all my development work to the Macbook) and enough PHP knowledge to compare it to my stop-and-start work with Python/Django. Again:

Holy cow is it easier to use.

There’s no question PHP was built for web development and Python for general-purpose screwing around. PHP actually requires slightly more pure programming shenanigans with the syntax (all those curly braces and semi-colons… ew), but the ability to output html right to a web page is pretty awesome. I was also able to easily translate my Python scripts, to my enduring relief.

The Mac actually seems to lack the selection of easy-to-access tools that my Windows box had, but the interface is a bajillion times easier to use. This swiping stuff is effing cool. I never imagined I would miss hotkeys so little!

Another awesome advantage is that I’m completely remote. As long as I can access my little ftp server I can work on the website from anywhere on any computer. The fact that it was ever otherwise seems faintly ridiculous now. But when you are 100% DIY with no incoming knowledge and zero budget, you forego many comforts.