This is how I work too. I have my laptop sitting closed underneath my desk on a filing cabinet, and running two Dell u2410 monitors side by side (horizontally). The left is calibrated so is basically open to LR/PS permanently, and the right I usually use for displaying Firefox, Office documents (excel, word , powerpoint etc), and Outlook.
I have a Wacom tablet, and a WIRED low profile keyboard and mouse that remain permanently on my desk, as well as 2TB of external mirrored (running RAID 1) HDDs that I save all of my completed work to. Ie. 2 x 1TBs. (I have another copy of these at my Father-in-Laws house for my "offsite backup" too. I also have an additional 500gb external drive that I save my personal and family images/documents on. I have another third, small HDD (320gb) that is teeny tiny and doesn't require power, and that is what I travel with, and use to download my SD cards too and everthing that hasn't been edited yet lives on that HDD. Once I have completed editing a shoot, I move it over to the mirrored one. So, this is what I have permanently packed in my "travel" backpack - mousepad, wired mouse, a hdmi cable, a vga cable (for displaying slideshows on LCDs if I need to), an extra laptop charger, 1 x mini usb cable, 1 x standard usb cable, 1 x iphone/ipod charger, 1 x AA recycled battery charger, and 1 x extra K-7 battery charger. By keeping additional pieces of these things, it means that when I travel, or need to take my laptop with me, I simply unplug everything from it grab my "travel bag" and my little mini HDD (the 320gb one), and off I go. I got SO sick of unplugging everything and threading bloody cables out from behind my monitors etc that I set up this little travel bag, and I've never looked back! The bag I have is this one here: http://www.crumpler.com/AU/Camera-Bags/Camera-Backpacks/Sinking-Barge-Deluxe .html?SKU=SI06A&LanguageCode=EN It's freaking enormous, and I have almost taken out many a fellow passenger as I have walked through the aisles of an aeroplane, but I can fit my little "travel" bag of goodies in the top half of the bag, as well as my laptop, and a magazine and even a change of clothes if I need to, and then on the bottom half, I usually bring my two favourite lenses, one camera body, one flash gun and all of my SD cards/spare batteries. That way, if my luggage goes missing, I have everything I need to get me "outta trouble" ie. Enough to complete a shoot. That thing weighs a tonne, and it is always my mission to carry it on my back looking like I am not struggling under it's 18kg weight (when fully loaded), as the carry on limit is usually 7.5kg. I've never been pulled up yet though! Lol. Anyways, back on topic - Paul, I toyed with having multiple computers, but I travel too much and found when I had them that I would lose emails, not knowing which computer it came in on etc, and I love to be able to pick up my laptop, take it with me and know that all of my work is there, and that everything is current without having to synchronise computers/calendars etc. I do use Google Calendar now for this purpose too, and have been considering starting some "Cloud" type off-site storage but the cost is ridiculous for the volume I would need to store, so I will continue this way for now. Tan. :) -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Stenquist Sent: Tuesday, 21 December 2010 3:30 AM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: Laptops As Desktops On Dec 20, 2010, at 12:20 PM, steve harley wrote: > On 2010-12-20 04:54 , paul stenquist wrote: >> That's certainly a viable solution, and a number of photographers and art directors that I know work much the same way. I prefer having my laptop unencumbered, because I use it away from my desk quite often. > > there's a middle ground -- in my case as soon as i reach my home office a 2nd display and a wired keyboard are attached; i set up the same in those cases i regularly visit another workplace; on more stable days i also plug in a Firewire drive dock (for secondary backups -- critical backup are wireless via Time Machine), and sometimes a USB scanner, but it's a cinch to disconnect these items and walk out with the laptop -- i have a backpack ready, and a 2nd power supply if i think i'll need it > Sounds like a good solution. But I frequently move from the desk to another location two or three times a day, so separate computers work well for me. Plus, I e-mail all work to myself and download it to the other computer, when I switch off, so that gives me an extra backup as well. Paul > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
