Crafting a space in a local community

I have a problem. It's not technical, mental or physical - but temporal. My daughter was born eight weeks ago, Alia Verity Mae Cheverton and I'm exceptionally proud of her. Although I'm just as proud of going to work every day to provide for her, it sometimes makes me sad that I have to go so far, or, go out for so long to do that providing. Travelling for 3-4 hours a day is fine when you don't have a laughing bundle of joy to go home to who changes and advances pretty much every time you see them.

So - what can I do? I'm only any good at one thing, and that's building great websites, most of the work is in London but I am lucky enough to live in, if not the smallest, then the most vibrant web community in the UK - Brighton.

The new year sees me taking significant steps to properly introduce myself to the Brighton scene, I've just joined the SCDF (South Coast Design Forum http://www.scdf.org.uk/) and I'll be going to their monthly meet ups in Brighton. I'm also finally going to drag myself to visit Brighton Farm (http://www.brightonfarm.com/) who have a weekly meet up.

I'm hoping to diversify my work sources so that I have greater opportunity to work at home, or closer to home and also to make sure the different ways I earn my money are more resilient to economic change.

Next up - updating my portfolio, a task thats never, ever complete for a designer :)

What does a traveling web designer really need?

My recent purchase of the ultra portable iPad has made me have a real good think about the tools I need to do my job. Mobile technology continues to come along in leaps and bounds and it's getting to the point where I don't think I need the bulk and power I continually drag around with me.

Let me step back a little and explain where I am now. Daily web designer and developer who works at home in Brighton, in clients offices in London / Brighton and on the twice daily hour long train journey. I currently use a 17" macbook pro (2.4 ghz dual core, 192x1200, 4gb ram with 500gb HD), purchased almost 3 years ago (my first Mac).

My current machine is more than powerful enough for me, it rarely leaves me waiting for anything and I'm sure a good clean out would probably make things even faster. When I'm at home I plug it into a top end 24" Dell monitor and use a Bluetooth KB and a Magic Trackpad, essentially it's pure desktop mode at home.

So given that my MBP is on it's last legs' should I be thinking about getting an MacBook Air? I have to admit taking my inspiration from Andy Clarke : http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/about/from_air_to_eternity/

I don't need to do any heavy lifting with the processor, probably the hardest thing I do is HD video editing, but that's just things in iMovie, not Final Cut. I've got Steam for Mac but other than the occasional boot up of Counter Strike I never touch it.

The most important element is that a fully specced MBA with a. 256GB drive and a 27 inch cinema display is the same cost as a fully specced 17"MBP.

I think I'll get getting those to go with my iPad in the next few months - looking forward to having an easier tide with my back!

Bloody Macs (OK I might buy one)

in

(previously posted to Boag world, thought I'd drop it up here as well)

Right despite the frankly incredible price of a mac book pro - I have been using a new imac for the past week on a contract up in London and I have been presuaded that it might be a good idea for me to use one considering y line of work...

now before I drop £2K on a new machine there's a few questions I have that I need to confirm before I make the drop in the next few months.

Files: I have a home server that sits on my network with all of my music, video, documents etc. I use my current Vista laptop's sysnc function so that certain network folders are always available offline, when I get back and log on the network everything syncs together seemlessly. Can I still do this easily on the Mac and just have it as a fire & forget process that just happens every time I hit my own network?

3G - I have a 3G Tmobile modem - any issues with these sort of things?

Phone - My Sony Ericsson mobile syncs to the laptop over bluetooth automatically every time I lift the lid. It syncs contacts, to-do and callendar entries from one to the other with no issues at all - can I do this without having to think about it too much on a Mac?

Email - I'm on Office 2007 at the moment with Outlook 2007 as my Mail client, it handles all of my contacts, emails, calendar functions, and, importantly, my Hotmail account (handles it as a folder just like my POP accounts). How does the Mac handle that sort of thing - well?

Transferring emails in my current Outlook?

Keyboards - can you remap them so the right buttons are in the right place rather than this crazy American way?

Now there are a few reasons why I am thinking of shifting so maybe you could give me some advice on these.

1: I am fed up tinkering with software - really I'm too old and busy to be wondering why the bluetooth has suddenly stopped working and I need to restart, or why network folders of images have suddenly stopped showing thumbnails so I have to open each one individually.

2: Speed - I accidentally opened 14 10MP images in fireworks last night, it took over 2 minutes for the laptop to recover (2Ghz, dual core). What would a Mac do?

3: Weight - the current machine is nicknamed 'The Beast' for a good reason, it's not bad at all but I could probably build a house out of them.

4. sleep - wake time. Vista does a real good job to be honest of me just shutting the lid and then openng it 10 hours later, I find myself doing it 10 times a day with trains etc. so occasionally I have problems, does the Mac stand up to this sort of abuse?

Thanks for all your help guys - I know there are answers tot hese things elsewhere - but you lot are all web peoples so your pretty much sitting in the same boat as me :)