Fork me on GitHub
#clojure-uk
<
2020-07-14
>
dharrigan05:07:52

Good Morning!

djm05:07:39

👋

seancorfield05:07:31

Am I right in assuming most of y'all use a laptop as your primary dev machine, just with an external monitor attached when you're at your desk?

seancorfield05:07:37

When it came time to replace my (desktop) machine at work last time, I asked if they wanted to get me a laptop and they said they would prefer that I not be in a position where I might be tempted to work while I was traveling.

djm05:07:34

I was switched from a desktop to a pretty beefy (and heavy!) and laptop around 6 months ago, and given some fancier monitors too

djm05:07:45

It made things much easier when lockdown came

seancorfield05:07:58

I've WFH for over a decade so the company has purchased desktop machines for devs for quite a while.

seancorfield05:07:42

We either spec them out for the company to buy and ship to us, or the company gives us a gold AmEx to buy them ourselves.

djm05:07:51

I think they moved us to laptops so that we could take them to meetings, which seems a little pointless, but nevermind

dominicm05:07:53

I used a laptop at JUXT, but I found the power a little wanting, and the battery depleted within an hour after a couple of years. I now work from home, so I prefer the power of a desktop. If I want to work from the sofa, I have a cheap laptop I can ssh from and that's very low latency over the local network.

solf06:07:32

I'm French and I worked in the UK during 2018-2019. Now however, I'm not sure if I have the legal right to work there, if I wanted to go back (clojure jobs!) After googling a bit I found a "point system". I hope work experience in the UK and Singapore will qualify as having the required english level for those +20 points, as I've never done any official english proficiency exam.

Aleksander08:07:56

until end of the year you can still move using EU rules …

Aleksander08:07:19

meaning no visa, no points, you just move

Aleksander08:07:39

but need to register for a special status that’ll let you stay afterwards

solf08:07:34

Oh thanks, that's very helpful!

mccraigmccraig06:07:50

@seancorfield i'm on a laptop with no external monitor. i could have an external monitor, but i don't like them - i find the head position unnatural and it hurts my neck

dominicm08:07:50

If your laptop is comfier than your external monitor, you're doing something very wrong.

dominicm08:07:04

Laptops are pretty bad for necks

mccraigmccraig08:07:28

ha, well i've been doing it very wrong for a long time without any injury, so i guess i'll carry on - but i've always found the laptop screen (on a desk, not my actual lap) to lead to a more relaxed neck position than a somewhat higher desktop screen

mccraigmccraig08:07:10

but then i prefer to sit on a kitchen chair rather than one of those "ergonomic" monstrosities too, so maybe i'm just atypical

dominicm12:07:21

You look forward comfortably, that's where the top of your monitor should roughly be.

mccraigmccraig06:07:38

also, what's up with working while traveling ? i get some great work done on the train

Ben Hammond08:07:47

plus it makes the journey pass so much faster

Ben Hammond08:07:06

and patchy internet coverage can work to your advantage

dharrigan06:07:07

i use a desktop

dharrigan06:07:39

more ram, more power.

dharrigan06:07:35

a desktop cpu simply outperforms an equivalent mobile cpu

djm06:07:30

My laptop has 32GB (same as the desktop it replaced). I'm not sure the battery lasted an hour even when it was brand new, though

mccraigmccraig06:07:07

this mbp has been pretty good for battery life - i still get a solid 3-4 hrs out of it and it's almost 5 years old now

mccraigmccraig06:07:28

but it runs our stack and everything else i use with no issues, so i don't yearn for the additional ram or cpu i could get on a desktop

thomas07:07:02

morning, I just got myself a desktop, but partly because I want to use the new MS FlightSimulator.

jiriknesl07:07:06

I use 16" MBP (32 GB, 8-core) + external keyboard (Keychron K2) + external display (high-DPI, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XX3FYWD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1) + external Magic Trackpad and it is awesome desktop for me

djm07:07:50

I have a keychron k4, it's quite nice, although it took me a while to figure out how to type | and \ on it (short of switching to a US layout, which is not going to happen)

jiriknesl07:07:31

K4 looks great too.

Ben Hammond08:07:42

I'm on an i7 based XPS; more powerful than any desktop box I've ever had battery life isn't fabulous, but that wasn't a major considersation 2 large screens daisy-chained over DisplayPort -> thunderbolt can be a bit temperamental though

dominicm12:07:11

You don't notice the difference until you measure things like Linux compile time which is much faster on the thread ripper than on the mobile variant of the i7

maleghast17:07:15

FWIW, re the Desktop / Laptop discussion, I want to get a Desktop machine now that I am 100% remote, but I definitely need to organise my office first...

maleghast17:07:20

Having said that, the Dell XPS 13" I use with Ubuntu for work (standard Cervest Linux Build) can run anything I throw at it for work, so perhaps I just hanker for a big box on teh desk out of nostalgia...

maleghast17:07:32

Sad news about Grant Imahara

maleghast17:07:36

Oh yeah. and I use my laptop on a stand with an external keyboard to avoid the neck situation @dominicm is referring to.