I remember my first computer, a little, square, black, magazine sized block called the Timex Sinclair 1000.  It was 1982, it sold for $99, it had 2 kb memory (that's right, kilobytes), a quite respectable 3.25 Mhz operating speed, and, this is my favorite part, a resolution of 22 x 32 text characters.  It was made by Timex - you know, the watch company ("Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!), and Sinclair - okay, I have no idea what else they made, aside from this.  Sporting a flat membrane keyboard, the entire thing was fairly solid with no moving parts. At the time I thought it was the bee's knees. Last year when I was sifting through some storage boxes, I found my cell phone from 1997.  Like my buddy the Timex-Sinclair, it also was a black brick with a black and white display.  It had a nifty button top walkie-talkie plastic telescoping antenna for better reception.  I always suspected it was a technological placebo to make me think I had better reception, because I couldn't quite understand how a completely plastic antenna was picking up anything.  Crumpled up next to my 1997 sidekick was a piece of leather origami which sprang into the shape of the phone as I prodded it.  Windowed cutouts allowed the screen and keys to poke through.  It was perforated with a stylish hole pattern like you would find on the leather wrapped steering wheel of a sports car - you know, to let it breathe.  Aside from keeping my plastic brick snug and cozy, it's 0.2 mm of thickness served no other appreciable function.  Besides, you could fight off a bear with that phone without denting it.

So, this leads me to last week, when I found myself shopping for two tech accessories:  a case for my iPhone, and a case for my snazzy new Macbook Air.  The iPhone is the model with the metal sides that form the antenna, and the shiny glass back and front.  As anyone knows who grew up holding rabbit ear antennas on TVs to improve the reception, you become part of the equation when you touch the antenna.  To avoid you messing up your own cell phone signal, you need a case.  Plus, a phone made of glass is somewhat subject to breakage.  The MacBook Air, on the other hand, is not made of glass, but instead has a beautiful brushed aluminum unibody shell.  Its problem is scratches and dents, and it too needs some loving.

I was thinking about my phone, which, with its 8 GB of flash memory can store the contents of 4 million Timex-Sinclair 1000s, and my 1997 cellphone.  30 years of progress has evolved devices from indestructible bricks with cases for looks to elegant glass and aluminum works of art with cases required to function.  There's definitely a side commentary on the trade-offs of art versus form and function.

As I scrolled through endless webpages of iPhone and Mac cases I saw it all: rhinestone encrusted cases, chrome cases, matte black cases with giant alien heads screen printed on them, Hello Kitty cases, glow in the dark cases, and the complete Michael Kors collection of cases on the Apple store.  On the other end of the spectrum were rubber encasements suitable for industrial use.  Is there no midpoint between bedazzled and basic?

Finally, after all my searching, I came up with something which simultaneously went against and with all of my artistic instincts: clear.  My MacBook Air has a nice, thin, clear snap-on case (Moshi iGlaze) which lets me see all of the beautiful brushed aluminum, as does my iPhone.  I think the analogy is picking out a frame for your artwork: sometimes it's tempting to pick out a frame to make the art prettier - but maybe letting the art speak on its own is the way to go.

Not too long ago I wrote a post about my trusty, 6 year old Macbook Pro, and the many technical surgeries to fix its ailing parts.  Six years is ancient as far as laptops go, and it's a testament to just how good that line of computers is that I've had it this long.  I use my laptop heavily - not just for rambling blog posts, but also for photo editing and as part of my art process.  One of the things I loved about my Macbook Pro was its brushed metal body.  It felt indestructible.  It also felt like a set of gym weights sitting on my lap.  As I thought about next computers, the appeal of portability started to weigh as heavily (perhaps even more so) than tech specs. I would love to have an iPad.  I keep making up mental excuses for why I would need one.  But, in reality, the programs I use just don't exist as iPad apps.  There's photo apps, sure, but you can't yet run the full version of Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or Aperture on a iPad.  If only there was something as thin as an iPad, but capable of running all my favorite programs.  Enter my new toy: the Macbook Air.

Remember the ads for these when they launched in 2008?  A hand reaches down and opens up a manilla envelope, then pulls out an impossibly thin laptop. And that was 2008.  Imagine what the 2012 model looks like.  Well, no need to imagine...here's a picture!

Last week Kiersten was talking about how she's gotten so used to lifting up Emma, who's now around 15 pounds, that when she reaches down to scoop up our cat, Iggly, she overcompensates and launches him into space.  I've had a similar experience adjusting from picking up my old Macbook Pro to picking up the Air.  It looks like I'm hamming it up like an actor from a 70's sitcom, juggling the computer and briefly spazzing out for no apparent reason other than to give the studio audience a laugh.  Fortunately, the studio audience is busy prying the cat off the ceiling from the recent space launch attempt.

Aside from the lightness, one of the other big differences is that the Air has no hard disk drive; instead, it has a solid state drive.  That means instead of a drive that spins and whirrs, it's all flash memory.  The computer is utterly silent when on, and instantly accesses programs and files.  There is a downside, though - my fancy SSD is only 128 gb.  It's actually a downgrade in size from my Macbook Pro (which was 180 gb).  So, this had made me completely rethink how and what I store on my computer.

For being such a technology geek (hey, I am an engineer, after all), I've been slow to embrace the Cloud (files which are stored and accessed over the Internet, via services like Apples iCloud, for instance).  There's something about not having your files in your possession that makes me a little uneasy.  But it's everywhere now.  If you buy a Kindle Fire tablet, it has very little storage.  All those movies and songs are accessed via Amazon's cloud and streamed on demand.  I realized that much of my storage space was being eaten up by things like my iTunes library (which I've imported every CD I've ever owned into).  It turns out, for about $2 per month, you can move your entire music library to the iTunes cloud, stream it on demand, and re-download it anytime you want.  This has freed up a ton of space.

Anyhow, just some tech ramblings as I slowly give up some tried and true technologies and migrate into somewhat unfamiliar territory.  And, of course, continue to admire just how cool the new Air is (here's a few more pics)!