One of my resolutions this year was to blog more about what I’m doing on the computer hardware side of things at home. I live with 5 of my friends and we’re pretty blessed to have people in and out of this place non-stop. I decided last year to create an enterainment setup that would invite with excitement and cater with class. This is a work in progress. A project. I don’t think this will ever be done, but I like where we are going. We’ll start with the specs:
// Samsung 46” LCD TV
// Motorola DOXIS 3.0 Cable Modem
// Apple Airport Extreme
// Xbox 360 Elite
// Nintendo Wii
// Mac Mini Server (Mid-2010)
// Apple TV (2nd GEN)
// Drobo (2nd GEN w/ 4x1TB)
// Lacie Starck Desktop (1TB)

This project became ‘in progress’ at the beginning of season 2 of The MANsion, September 2010. Six months later and I’ve learned a lot and found myself asking even more questions. There is one game changing piece to all this that makes this setup soar. That piece is my iPad (32GB WiFi) equipped with Apple’s Remote App (for Apple TV) and a 3rd party app, iTeleport (for VNC GUI management of Mac Mini Server). The interesting question that has arisen for me now is what my next hardware move will look like for my own personal use?

As of now, I’m sporting a MacBook (Black from 2008) on a Griffen elevator stand with an Apple Wired Keyboard and Magic Mouse. Since I got my iPad my MacBook has become more of a desktop for me. It’s a great machine, even at 3 years old. I put in a 500GB @ 7200rpm Segate Momentus Drive and bumpped the memory to 3GB. All of this is great, however, my software is catching up with my MacBook’s physical limitations.

I have two digital projects that will be on going for the rest of this year and well into next year. The first is my Computer Science degree. As I progress in my degree I find myself more and more at my desk, hashing out code and commands (something I tried staying away from last year). I don’t need a lot of storage space because I now have a cumulative 7TB of storage sitting on my network at home so my gut instinct was “get a 13-inch MacBook Air”. I could have the command line at my finger tips of a Mac while getting the portability of iPad. Sounds good until the second project comes into play. The Dangerous Story. All the editing for the dangerous videos has been done over the past 2 years on my MacBook. This year, we’re talking about going 1080p (the past 2 years were edited in 720p). I’m going to need more raw CPU/GPU power and screen real-estate than ever before. I already began spec’ing out a 27” iMac just for this… The only problem is that a 27” iMac is the polar opposite of a 13” MacBook Air.

So there you have it. A peak in at the three digital projects that I’m working on at home. Stay tuned.