Hallo,
I work at an IT shop in Juneau, Alaska. We do a lot of network design, purchase, and implementation work, and much of that work falls on my shoulders. I typically work with products from 3Com, HotBrick, and more recently, Cisco equipment. I do a lot of configuring via serial port (for the Cisco and 3Com equipment), a lot of doings through telnet, etc.
My current computer is a Sager NP5680 which, while a perfectly satisfactory computer, weighs on the far side of ten or twelve pounds with the battery. I also can't set it on many "improvised" surfaces - a major customer operates a mountain tram, and the network access areas are a little hairy - due to the number of fans located on the BOTTOM of the machine. Due to its rather "extreme" weight, it's difficult to hold with one hand and virtually impossible to set down on anything save a hard surface. Finally, it gets one hour of battery life on "max battery," which is kind of unacceptable when you're "in the field," as it were. I bought it a year and a half ago as a gaming machine; it was never intended to be pressed into such a "professional" position, so it needs to be either supplanted or replaced.
Me, personally, I'm getting kind of tired of Windows. I don't blame the underlying OS for the problems, but problems there are, and I don't need to deal with them as a fundamental issue, at least, I don't think so.
There are some Windows-only programs that I have to run occasionally, but they're very low-resource - 3Com's Wireless Infrastructure Device manager for example, used to set up their wireless bridge and access point solutions. This is such a low-power program that I feel certain that VirtualPC (or the WINE project, which I understand is trying to squidge into OSX territory) will handle it with aplomb.
So my situation is this: I need a machine that with at least two, maybe three, hours of battery life, enough power to do the pretty basic tasks outlined above, be light enough so that I don't necessarily need both hands to hold it, produce little enough heat that it can be set on a reasonably soft surface (stacks of loose paper or bubble wrap), be solidly constructed, and (this is the one that's most important) be able to do a console connection into Cisco equipment.
The last one is the one I'm most concerned about. I use HyperTerminal and a Tripp-Lite USB-Serial adapter on my Sager and it functions admirably. What I need to know is if there's a HyperTerminal-like program for OSX (By which I mean being able to set bitrate, flow control, yadda yadda through the equivalent of a COM port), and whether or not there are USB-serial devices or drivers available for Mac. I have an old G3 iBook running 10.3.9 and I can't seem to get this Tripp-Lite unit to work. I may just be being retarded, however.
Price isn't a big deal - I'm going to get some kind of "really portable" (as opposed to my Sager, which I will hereby dub "quasi-portable"), and I'm seriously jazzed about learning OSX. My choice for this endeavor right now is a 15" PowerBook with the 128MB 9700 - so I can drive one of those 30" displays when I get the money for it (hah!), or for just pwning the hell out of the Aleph One requirements (Oldschool Marathon all the way!).
If anyone has a better suggestion, or answers to my questions, please! Edumacate me! I want to get away from Windows!
Thanks,
- Aeon
I work at an IT shop in Juneau, Alaska. We do a lot of network design, purchase, and implementation work, and much of that work falls on my shoulders. I typically work with products from 3Com, HotBrick, and more recently, Cisco equipment. I do a lot of configuring via serial port (for the Cisco and 3Com equipment), a lot of doings through telnet, etc.
My current computer is a Sager NP5680 which, while a perfectly satisfactory computer, weighs on the far side of ten or twelve pounds with the battery. I also can't set it on many "improvised" surfaces - a major customer operates a mountain tram, and the network access areas are a little hairy - due to the number of fans located on the BOTTOM of the machine. Due to its rather "extreme" weight, it's difficult to hold with one hand and virtually impossible to set down on anything save a hard surface. Finally, it gets one hour of battery life on "max battery," which is kind of unacceptable when you're "in the field," as it were. I bought it a year and a half ago as a gaming machine; it was never intended to be pressed into such a "professional" position, so it needs to be either supplanted or replaced.
Me, personally, I'm getting kind of tired of Windows. I don't blame the underlying OS for the problems, but problems there are, and I don't need to deal with them as a fundamental issue, at least, I don't think so.
There are some Windows-only programs that I have to run occasionally, but they're very low-resource - 3Com's Wireless Infrastructure Device manager for example, used to set up their wireless bridge and access point solutions. This is such a low-power program that I feel certain that VirtualPC (or the WINE project, which I understand is trying to squidge into OSX territory) will handle it with aplomb.
So my situation is this: I need a machine that with at least two, maybe three, hours of battery life, enough power to do the pretty basic tasks outlined above, be light enough so that I don't necessarily need both hands to hold it, produce little enough heat that it can be set on a reasonably soft surface (stacks of loose paper or bubble wrap), be solidly constructed, and (this is the one that's most important) be able to do a console connection into Cisco equipment.
The last one is the one I'm most concerned about. I use HyperTerminal and a Tripp-Lite USB-Serial adapter on my Sager and it functions admirably. What I need to know is if there's a HyperTerminal-like program for OSX (By which I mean being able to set bitrate, flow control, yadda yadda through the equivalent of a COM port), and whether or not there are USB-serial devices or drivers available for Mac. I have an old G3 iBook running 10.3.9 and I can't seem to get this Tripp-Lite unit to work. I may just be being retarded, however.
Price isn't a big deal - I'm going to get some kind of "really portable" (as opposed to my Sager, which I will hereby dub "quasi-portable"), and I'm seriously jazzed about learning OSX. My choice for this endeavor right now is a 15" PowerBook with the 128MB 9700 - so I can drive one of those 30" displays when I get the money for it (hah!), or for just pwning the hell out of the Aleph One requirements (Oldschool Marathon all the way!).
If anyone has a better suggestion, or answers to my questions, please! Edumacate me! I want to get away from Windows!
Thanks,
- Aeon
. Hope this helps and Mac OSX pwns windows, not to bash windows are anything as it gets the job done. Later.
I just cannot justify buying another computer. I might pick up a refurb G3 though.
--->Everybody Dance!!!{
