{"id":391,"date":"2012-06-28T14:06:40","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T22:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefoff.com\/?p=391"},"modified":"2019-12-01T14:44:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T22:44:25","slug":"forward-to-the-computing-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/?p=391","title":{"rendered":"Forward to the computing past"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got a new computer this week. I went retro and got a desktop, which was kind of a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>Every computer I&#8217;ve ever had, all the way back to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.old-computers.com\/museum\/computer.asp?c=550&amp;st=1\">Kaypro II<\/a> I bought in 1982, has been a portable. The Kaypro was the size and weight of a 1950s sewing machine, maybe one with a couple of bowling balls tied to it, but technically it <em>was<\/em> portable. A series of ever-sleeker and more powerful laptops, mostly Toshibas, followed it over the years. The most recent\u00a0 went into commission in June 2007, just before I went to New Mexico for <a href=\"http:\/\/taostoolbox.com\/\">Taos Toolbox.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Five years is a long lifetime for a laptop that functions as a writer&#8217;s primary computer.\u00a0 My work spreadsheet reveals that I&#8217;ve written 31 nonfiction books on it, in addition to tens of thousands of words of fiction, correspondence, journal entries, and blog posts. I needed a new machine&#8211;but what to get?<\/p>\n<p>For years I&#8217;d staunchly maintained that only a portable computer would do for me. I liked knowing that I could take it anywhere, and I did take my laptops on quite a few journeys. But now that I have a smaller, lighter, netbook for travel, and do email on my phone, and will soon have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/surface\/en\/us\/default.aspx\">one of these,<\/a> it&#8217;s been a few years since I moved my primary computer at all. So why not think outside the laptop box?<\/p>\n<p>I chose an HP all-in-one that actually takes up less space on my standing desk than the Toshiba laptop. I didn&#8217;t get the biggest or the flashiest screen, just a 20-incher, but trust me, it&#8217;s like Cinemascope next to the 15-inch laptop screen I&#8217;ve comfortably used for lo, these many years. Not great news, productivity-wise: movies and video look really good on it. The wireless keyboard and mouse that came with the computer are cheap and janky, but easily swapped out for something better. Otherwise, I&#8217;m happy with it.<\/p>\n<p>Did I mention the touchscreen? It&#8217;s sweet. I may never mouse again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a new computer this week. I went retro and got a desktop, which was kind of a big deal. Every computer I&#8217;ve ever had, all the way back to the Kaypro II I bought in 1982, has been a portable. The Kaypro was the size and weight of a 1950s sewing machine, maybe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,23],"tags":[50,52],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-standing-desk","tag-computers","tag-standing-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}