<commit_before>---
title: <NAME>
summary: Web developer (Gimme Bar, Spaz)
categories:
- developer
- linux
- mac
- web
credits:
  name: <NAME>
  url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shiflett/4022501283/
---

#### Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm <NAME>, but you may also know me as [funkatron](http://funkatron.com/ "Ed's website."). I've been a web developer for about 15 years now. Primarily I work in PHP, but most of my career I've been a one-man web team, so I have dabbled in everything from DB administration to backend dev to design. In the past few years I've gotten heavily into desktop and mobile application with [JavaScript][]. Four years ago I started a successful open source microblogging project called [Spaz][], for desktop and mobile. My day job is making awesome stuff at [FictiveKin](http://fictivekin.com "The company that makes Gimme Bar"), primarily on [Gimme Bar][gimme-bar].

#### What hardware do you use?

I actually just bought a new 13-inch, Mid 2011 [Macbook Air][macbook-air]. It's probably the best laptop I've ever used: extremely light and quite fast (it has the 1.8Ghz i7 CPU). The problem is OS X 10.7: I don't think it's quite fully baked at this point, so I haven't transitioned it to being my main work machine (one of our team members had to downgrade back to OS X 10.6 because of this). A few minutes ago I kernel-panicked the machine by switching spaces. That, and the RAM is limited to 4GB, which does make a diff when you use virtual machines a lot.

My workhorse is a Mid 2010 15" [Macbook Pro][macbook-pro]:

- i7 2.66 Ghz
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB SSD
- 1680 x 1050 screen

For Gimme Bar we use a VM in [VirtualBox][] to act as our local development server. This makes the 8GB of RAM really, really useful, because that seems to be the threshold where you can run a reasonable VM and not notice performance degredation in your other apps. I've tried it at 4GB and it works, but you can notice issues. So I strongly recommend putting at least 8GB of RAM in your dev machine, especially since RAM is quite cheap. Best $100 you can spend.

The SSD has proven to be a major performance boost for the machine, especially on startup and initial login. I have a 2007 8-core [Mac Pro][mac-pro], and it is *exponentially* slower on startup. That's not just the CPU -- the disks (7200RPM SATA) are just far, far slower. If you can afford an extra $500 on your machine, I highly recommend getting an SDD. It makes things much more pleasant.

As I get old and my eyes start to crap out, I'm sorta less into high-res screens, but getting the higher-resolution screen on the 15" Macbook Pro was a really good idea. Most of my time is spent editing code, and I can reasonably open two windows of code next to each other. At the lower res (1440x900) you can't quite pull that off.

At home I have an aforementioned Mac Pro that is primarily involved in serving up video files to the HTPCs in the house, and a [Mac Mini][mac-mini] that acts as a backup server. I have a few large HDs hanging off the Mini to store backups. At some point I'd like to get a good NAS, but I struggle with spending $600+ for a pure backup box. This is probably stupid, I know.

Apple seems more and more douchebaggy as the years go on (maybe it was just easier to root for an underdog), so I am not necessarily excited about using their hardware anymore. Still, I find their combination of great build quality and an easy to use UNIX OS the recipe that makes me as productive as possible. I can't run OS X on anything else, and I can't stand postage stamp-sized trackpads anymore.

I do have a Lenovo [Thinkpad x201][thinkpad-x201] that I mess with from time to time. It has Ubuntu 11.04 on it right now. It's a very light, nice little machine that I'd probably take with me on trips if I could put OS X on it. Also the trackpad is atrocious, and the "nub" is a lot less versatile (no gestures). Alas.

My main phone is a [Palm Pre 2][pre-2]. I also have an [iPhone 4][iphone-4] that I don't use much, an [iPad 2][ipad-2], and a couple [HP TouchPads][touchpad]. I'm a big webOS fan.

I also collect old computers and game consoles, but this interview is already longer than it should be.<commit_msg>Fix a typo<commit_after>---
title: <NAME>
summary: Web developer (Gimme Bar, Spaz)
categories:
- developer
- linux
- mac
- web
credits:
  name: <NAME>
  url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shiflett/4022501283/
---

#### Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm <NAME>, but you may also know me as [funkatron](http://funkatron.com/ "Ed's website."). I've been a web developer for about 15 years now. Primarily I work in PHP, but most of my career I've been a one-man web team, so I have dabbled in everything from DB administration to backend dev to design. In the past few years I've gotten heavily into desktop and mobile application with [JavaScript][]. Four years ago I started a successful open source microblogging project called [Spaz][], for desktop and mobile. My day job is making awesome stuff at [FictiveKin](http://fictivekin.com "The company that makes Gimme Bar"), primarily on [Gimme Bar][gimme-bar].

#### What hardware do you use?

I actually just bought a new 13-inch, Mid 2011 [Macbook Air][macbook-air]. It's probably the best laptop I've ever used: extremely light and quite fast (it has the 1.8Ghz i7 CPU). The problem is OS X 10.7: I don't think it's quite fully baked at this point, so I haven't transitioned it to being my main work machine (one of our team members had to downgrade back to OS X 10.6 because of this). A few minutes ago I kernel-panicked the machine by switching spaces. That, and the RAM is limited to 4GB, which does make a diff when you use virtual machines a lot.

My workhorse is a Mid 2010 15" [Macbook Pro][macbook-pro]:

- i7 2.66 Ghz
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB SSD
- 1680 x 1050 screen

For Gimme Bar we use a VM in [VirtualBox][] to act as our local development server. This makes the 8GB of RAM really, really useful, because that seems to be the threshold where you can run a reasonable VM and not notice performance degradation in your other apps. I've tried it at 4GB and it works, but you can notice issues. So I strongly recommend putting at least 8GB of RAM in your dev machine, especially since RAM is quite cheap. Best $100 you can spend.

The SSD has proven to be a major performance boost for the machine, especially on startup and initial login. I have a 2007 8-core [Mac Pro][mac-pro], and it is *exponentially* slower on startup. That's not just the CPU -- the disks (7200RPM SATA) are just far, far slower. If you can afford an extra $500 on your machine, I highly recommend getting an SDD. It makes things much more pleasant.

As I get old and my eyes start to crap out, I'm sorta less into high-res screens, but getting the higher-resolution screen on the 15" Macbook Pro was a really good idea. Most of my time is spent editing code, and I can reasonably open two windows of code next to each other. At the lower res (1440x900) you can't quite pull that off.

At home I have an aforementioned Mac Pro that is primarily involved in serving up video files to the HTPCs in the house, and a [Mac Mini][mac-mini] that acts as a backup server. I have a few large HDs hanging off the Mini to store backups. At some point I'd like to get a good NAS, but I struggle with spending $600+ for a pure backup box. This is probably stupid, I know.

Apple seems more and more douchebaggy as the years go on (maybe it was just easier to root for an underdog), so I am not necessarily excited about using their hardware anymore. Still, I find their combination of great build quality and an easy to use UNIX OS the recipe that makes me as productive as possible. I can't run OS X on anything else, and I can't stand postage stamp-sized trackpads anymore.

I do have a Lenovo [Thinkpad x201][thinkpad-x201] that I mess with from time to time. It has Ubuntu 11.04 on it right now. It's a very light, nice little machine that I'd probably take with me on trips if I could put OS X on it. Also the trackpad is atrocious, and the "nub" is a lot less versatile (no gestures). Alas.

My main phone is a [Palm Pre 2][pre-2]. I also have an [iPhone 4][iphone-4] that I don't use much, an [iPad 2][ipad-2], and a couple [HP TouchPads][touchpad]. I'm a big webOS fan.

I also collect old computers and game consoles, but this interview is already longer than it should be.
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