Welcome to the first of my tools of the trade series. To begin my series I am going to talk about the hardware in which I use to create the products I publish on this site and also the array of web tools (vimeo, youtube, flickr etc.) I also utilize.
sektorkind
Macbook Pro 17″ 1. gen
This computer was being serviced last week and I almost felt naked without it. This particular computer is the one in which the majority of my work has been produced so far. The main problem with it however, is the maximum allowance of only 2GB of RAM. The computer requires a large amount of data to be swapped to the disk every time I work on one of my panoramas.
Specs
- OSX Leopard
- Core Duo 2.16 GHz
- 2 GB PC2-5300 SO-DIMM
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256 MB GDDR3
- Western Digital 320 GB 5400 RPM
- Superdrive
Hopefully this computer will be swapped with a Mac Pro in late 2009/early 2010. The swap had previously been planned for this spring, however, I will be moving from Norway to Australia in June/July. So the future is more in shades of gray than it has ever been before. As I see it now a EEE/Net computer with Ubuntu will be needed in addition to a Mac Pro.
I know this post is initially aimed at hardware, but I am going to mention the software I use in my different workflows as well. More specifically I am going to elaborate on the following workflows in the coming weeks/months.
Image workflow
- Aperture
- Photoshop CS4
- Pixelmator
Web design workflow
- Illustrator CS4
- Photoshop CS4
- Pixelmator
- Coda
- Paparazzi!
- VMware Fusion – Win XP – IE Tester
- Firefox/Safari/Opera
Video workflow
- WriteRoom/Pages
- Celtx
- iShowU HD / MPEG Streamclip / iStopMotion
- Final Cut Pro
- Motion / After Effect CS4
- Audacity
- Color
- Compressor / HandBrake
Mac Mini 1. gen
This was my first mac and it is still in use. It currently run as a fileserver/ local webserver/ qmaster server (for something I will talk about later in the week). The mac is accessed through VNC.
Specs
- OSX Leopard
- PowerPC G4 1.42/
- 1GB PC2700 SDRAM
- ATI Radeon 9200 32 MB
- 80 GB 5400 RPM (2.5″)
- Superdrive
Drobo
I’ve had this first generation Drobo more or less since it was released. It’s a comfort going to sleep every night knowing that the data on my Drobo is safe.
The safe, expandable Drobo™ storage solution protects your data against a hard drive crash, yet can expand dynamically at any time in just seconds. With nothing to configure or manage, Drobo is now the ideal solution for primary storage as well as backup.
The following configuration which gives me 1,1TB of usable space:
- 1x Western Digital 250GB
- 1x Western Digital 500GB
- 2x Samsung 500GB
My Drobo is currently on a boat somewhere between Australia and Norway since it was to heavy/expensive to transport it as luggage.
Ice Cube FW
This is an external case for a 3,5″ IDE hard drive. The one I use is a Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM disk. This is the disk I use for backup together with Time Machine.
Gdrive-mini
This is another great investment. It is a external HD that is powered with the bus power of FW400/FW800/USB2.0. Since this is a 2,5″ drive the capacity is 320GB and the disk runs at 5400RPM. The disk is used out in the field taking backups or to store a larger amount of data.
Nikon D40
Almost all of the pictures I have on my flickr account have been taken with this camera. When it was available on the market it was the cheapest DSLR around with a price tag of just AU$1000. It works very well as an entry model and is more than enough for my usage so far.
The camera is not the best choice if you are going to print pictures larger than A4 since it is only 6,1MP. I am currently using the kit lens which is AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55 mm f/3,5-5,6 G ED. With my type of photography I require the ability to get closer to what I am going to capture, so my next piece of camera equipment will probably be a Sigma 18-200mm.
iPhone 1. gen
In addition to the normal usage, this is my on-the-go notice / voice recorder. When I am out-and-about I often end up writing a short paragraph or a list of good ideas etc.
Comments
2 Responses to “Tools of the trade [1] Hardware”
Ronny-André Bendiksen:
Nice CRT 
KDN:
Yea, there is a reason for why it isn’t mentioned in the hardware list 
That CRT is from the mid 90’s or so, and it is still going strong. I would not color correct for print on it tho… It is good to have direct terminal access to the ASG if the ISP is fubar.