Having the Best Tools Really is Nice
I'm sitting here this morning smiling quietly to myself after working a while on some problems. I realize I'm smiling because the keyboard is just such a wonderful piece of work - the Apple (small) wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, to be precise. These are simply the best input devices that I've ever used. The keyboard is low to the desktop, responsive, small, and without a cord. The trackpad is large, the gestures wonderfully thought-out. It's amazing what I can do so effortlessly on this machine.
Then there's the machine. I'll admit I'm not a fan of the glossy Apple displays. I never have been. The HP 30" is really the best I've used in a long while. I think Apple could make a nice 30" display, but they don't want to, and there's no making them do something they don't want to do.
But back to the laptops… they are, without a doubt, the best in the industry - and have been for a long while. Really, the only solid competition was the IBM ThinkPad, and IBM sold that to Levono, and the quality has become so very ordinary now. Nothing to write home about.
But great hardware gets out of your way. You stop thinking about how to do something, and focus on the doing. In some cases, it even enables you to see things that you might have not seen - large displays with more code in them really are very beneficial.
So I have to tip my hat to the folks at The Shop that see this as well, and outfit the developers this way. It's really quite amazing.