It's tiny - I can actually work with it in a standard class First Great Western seat and not have the screen bouncing and rubbing against the seat in front, even if my knees so - it's the MacBook Air.

I'll admit it - I was tempted to get the previous Air when I was looking at the next generation of main machine in the early summer, but the spec was looking a bit faded and I was slightly concerned at some facility losses. But the new model has been spruced up and buoyed by a busy couple of months showing a recovery, I've taken the plunge with the smaller screen version of the new model - a screen that's only 11" but is crisp and easy to work with. And - looking at the chap who's seated to my left as I write in the train - that's a good choice over a 13 inch.

The machine doesn't have a conventional disc drive ... it was 120 Gbytes of memory arranged as a disc, and 4 Gbytes of regular running memory. 12% of the disc memory is used by the operating System - OS X 10.6.4 - leaving a healthy over-100-Gb for my own use. Screen resolution is 1366 x 768, brightly backlit. Keyboard is not backlit but nice individual keys coming out through the integrated brushed aluminium case - and the whole thing is wafer thin. Trackerpad with sensitive area completes keyboard.

Connectivity? Wifi, Bluetooth, microphone and integrated camera and speakers. I'm a silent computer user, but the speaker sounds a bit tinny compared to the MacBook Pro. And in sockets - headphone, 2 x USB, Miniscreen connector and magnetic power connector. It's light - but if taking it on a longer trip that weight's doubled by the power supply; Battery life not fully tested, but it's dropping quicker than the Powerbook that's been astonishingly slow to discharge.


Not sure what more there is to say - it comes with a wide selection of the languages we teach:

munchkin:lf grahamellis$ perl
print $^V;
v5.10.0
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ php -v
PHP 5.3.2 (cli) (built: Sep 3 2010 12:10:58)
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ python
Python 2.6.1 (r261:67515, Dec 17 2009, 00:59:15)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> ^D
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ ruby-v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-06-12 patchlevel 174) [universal-darwin10.0]
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ wish
% puts $tcl_version
8.5
% munchkin:lf grahamellis$ javac -version
javac 1.6.0_17
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_17"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_17-b04-248)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.3-b01-101, mixed mode)
munchkin:lf grahamellis$
 
And that leaves Lua, C, and C++ for me to load (languages) and MySQL and Tomcat as associated applications; the Apache httpd web server is already there:
 
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ httpd -v
Server version: Apache/2.2.14 (Unix)
Server built: Dec 9 2009 19:21:30
munchkin:lf grahamellis$

Why the MacBook Air? Because I'm traveling lighter and lighter - more and more looking to use public transport (and that means trains and ferrys) to get to courses. Almost everyone now has their own laptop, and for language training a simple install in their own environment is far better for them than getting used to an alien environment on a machine we lend them; for sure I *am* still carrying the odd extra laptop at the moment, but that will decrease.

Fuel prices rise; congestion on the roads get worse; Premier hotel prices seem to rocket - so pubic transport becomes more attractive. And it means that I can be fairly refreshed when I arrive too - saving going out the night before, and even making use of the time on most of the trains. So the travel machine is a boon, an efficiency, that will help us maintain our travel expenses at a sensible level through 2011, and also keep up the number of days training per week.

---

Is it sensible to travel to London by train to give a course?

Fare from Chippenham - 135 pounds return to Paddington. But take a careful look at special tickets and other options. This morning, I caught the 06:25 and was in an office in Acton by 08:45. I had paid a stinging 6.50 to park at Chippenham station (I would much rather have paid that 6.50 for a ride to and from home / Melksham, but I'm sure the train company makes far more profit on the parking space than on a train fare, so why should it bother?). But then I was able to take advantage of a "Club 55" ticket to Slough, which provides a 25 pound return fare, and a 10.90 return from Slough to Acton Main Line. Contorted research - but a saving of 100 pounds that I don't sneeze at (and makes my grumble about the parking fee sound a bit churlish!).

And I'm here (seated in reception as I write), fairly fresh and ready to go. No need to travel up last night and stay in a hotel. No petrol costs, no wear and tear on the car, or on the self.

Written - 08:45. Posted - evening. Between - a busy, fun and rewarding day teaching a Perl course, and a delegate pickup from Chippenham Station!

---

Update ... this MacBook Air is FAST! on bootup and shutdown ... mainly because there's no physical disc and it's all done from memory, I suspect. And that's ideal for making quick notes even on a short journey. Speaking with a delegate on Friday, he was talking about such systems and experiences of 20000:1 (yes, twenty thousand to 1) speedups in moving applications from hard disc to memory based solutions. Perhaps the life of the hard disc is coming to an end ...

---

Update ... I've added Xcode from the Mac Developer's Connection (free downloads) and this MacBook Air now has C, C++ and Lua too!

munchkin:lf grahamellis$ g++
i686-apple-darwin10-g++-4.2.1: no input files
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ gcc
i686-apple-darwin10-gcc-4.2.1: no input files
munchkin:lf grahamellis$ lua
Lua 5.1.4 Copyright (C) 1994-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> ^D
munchkin:lf grahamellis$
(written 2010-11-17, updated 2010-12-04)

 G913 - Well House Consultants - Hardware and Devices
  [630] Hostnames spring forward - (2006-03-02)
  [1281] Latercomer to the technology - (2007-07-29)
  [1827] What a shock - (2008-10-08)
  [1993] Load Balancing - Hardware or Software? - (2009-01-15)
  [2033] Huawei D100 Wireless Router - Mobile Internet - (2009-02-10)
  [2055] Effect on server when memory runs out and swapping starts - (2009-02-26)
  [2188] Camera to record where a picture was taken - (2009-05-18)
  [2667] Web page to telephone calls / links using an iPhone - (2010-03-08)
  [3075] Change of balance, of attitude, and of work method - (2010-11-30)
  [3457] Away to train - but still around by video for Melksham meetings - (2011-09-25)
  [3596] Want to learn iPad and iPhone programming? Come along and learn with me for free. - (2012-01-28)
  [4134] Setting up your MacBook Air as a mobile broadband router - (2013-07-07)

G904 - Well House Consultants - Mac and OS X
  [1491] Apple Mac Operating System OS X - code names and version numbers - (2008-01-01)
  [2267] winmail.dat enclosure ... reading on an Apple - (2009-07-03)
  [3174] Sharing a single hotel internet connection without carrying extra hardware - (2011-02-18)

G403 - Well House Consultants - On site - venues, UK and Ireland
  [120] Good early morning - (2004-11-16)
  [378] A word of admiration for the London cabbie - (2005-07-15)
  [710] Linux training Glasgow, Python programming course Dundee - (2006-05-05)
  [910] Helping the miles pass - (2006-10-31)
  [1200] Training information - England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland - (2007-05-22)
  [1599] Fresher tutor, better course - (2008-04-03)
  [2956] On site course - travel and accommodation expenses - (2010-09-14)
  [3065] Pictures from the Birkenhead to Belfast crossing - (2010-11-23)
  [3153] Points West to Belfast - (2011-02-01)
  [3489] Python courses and Private courses - gently updating our product to keep it ahead of the game - (2011-10-20)
  [4168] Travelling to and from courses - much easier from December 2013 - (2013-09-08)

Back to Lots of things to do with and within a C++ class

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Object Orientation in an hour and other Perl Lectures

Melksham Carnival - getting ready for 2011
Databases - why data is split into separate tables, and how to join them
INSERT, DELETE, REPLACE and UPDATE - changing the content of SQL tables
Object Orientation in an hour and other Perl Lectures
MacBook Air - hardware and system review
Lots of things to do with and within a C++ class
C++ - a complete example with polymorphism, and how to split it into project files
Zyliana Kyrei Cox
Longhope Hotel
Make - automating the commands for building and installing