Meet the Beast

Oops – I forgot to move my pants and socks from this shot!

Two months ago I would have never thought of buying another massive desktop computer system ever again. I have two antiquated desktop models stuffed away in a closet.  I am only hanging on to them to someday examine the files on them to see if there is anything worth keeping – and those tasks are very low on my priority list.

I was thinking perhaps moving to a new MacBook Air, as aside from my iPhone and iPad, I have been using Windows based computers seemingly forever. Or maybe bite the bullet and go for a costly yet-to-be-released Mac  Pro. In spite of the fact it looks like a trash can with an ashtray on top, those massive Retina Displays are truly awesome.

But aside from the outrageous cost of a Mac Pro, I have one major problem: my 3D CAD and Digital Prototyping Software is Autodesk Inventor. And about the only way to run Inventor on a Mac is to install Windows!

So here’s the bottom line: Windows based desktops are dirt cheap these days. From my days at Bombardier, the Dell Precision CATIA Workstations were great compared to crappy standard issue OptiPlex computers. Aside from 3D parametric modeling, a big screen and a RAM intensive computer is great for photo and video editing – of which I hope to do much more.

So meet the beast – it’s taken over my entire dining room table! I opted not for Dell, and not for a workstation, as I wanted all the bells and whistles of a high-end home computer. I signed up as well to Microsoft Office 365 and Abobe’s Creative Suite. I need these tools, and this is (perhaps unfortunately) the future of computing.

As far as the beast, the best value that I could find was an HP Envy h8-1450 Desktop. It’s certainly not the highest end computer one can buy and it has already been replaced with a new model. Upgrading to the beta release of Windows 8.1 had eased the frustration (a bit) of running Windows much criticized release.

Too much Ink!

Topping it off, the Canon PIXMA PRO-100 Color Professional Inkjet Photo Printer has dye-based inks for amazing gradients and color with 4800 x 2400 dpi. Amazing indeed! It produces awesome 100-year archival photograph prints. I love it!

Enter the Cloud(s)

Cloud computing has been so hyped, so long that it hardly means anything to most people. But it appears the way software will be sold in the future. Adobe has already adopted the model with its Creative Cloud Suite, meaning one can only buy products like Photoshop with a monthly subscription.

I have clouds with Amazon, Adobe, Autodesk, Dropbox, Flickr, Google, Microsoft and Smugmug. I am holding off on any real commitment, as Space Monkey may be the real winner in the long run. Data just gets bigger. In the meanwhile I have my secure mini-clouds on multiple WD wireless hard drives.

More as it develops. Soon I have to move this beast to Blacksburg, VA.

Coming – the 4th of July fireworks in DC!