Last week, I came across a reasonable deal for an Intel X25-M 160GB. I’ve always wanted one and at ~$2.50 per GB, it was still no easy decision. It ultimately came down to getting the drive, or making an extra mortgage payment. At the end, the SSD won me over. :)

Installation

Installation in my 15” Macbook Pro took no more than 20 minutes. The only problem I had was I didn’t have a Trox screwdriver handy and I am to lazy and cheap to buy one from the Rona across the street from my place. Screws are overrated :)

Speed Demon

I decided to do a fresh install of OS X to amplify the overall experience. After the install is complete, this baby boots in less than 15 seconds from the time I press the power button to a fully functional desktop. It is fun to see the machine boot so fast, I literally rebooted the machine for no reason just to watch it in action.

I remember prior having the SSD, I had to wait for at least 5-10 seconds after arriving at the desktop before I can do anything. With the solid state drive, it is ready to work the second the desktop comes up. You literally see the dock icons for the startup items fly in all at once and not even have the chance to bounce.

Starting OpenOffice from a cold-boot takes 1 second. Subsequent starts take half a second. Chrome starts instantly, iTunes start in half a second, everything is just that much snappier.

If your computer is less than 3 years old and have enough RAM, this is the best upgrade for money can buy. Get one! You wont regret it. If I could go back 48 hours and get to decide between getting this or making an extra mortgage payment, I would choose to get the SSD.

About a week or so ago, I’ve started to notice my upper spine ache occasionally. My immediate assumption is that it is related to the posture I stay in for 8+ hours a day. I started to conduct some research on sitting posture in an attempt to find a solution to a health problem that could get much worse if uncared for.

The first thing people recommend is picking up the Hermin Miller Aeron chair. I’ve heard of and read a lot about the Aeron chairs before and have always wanted one, but, working at a startup, it is not something that can be justified. Furthermore, me being known for my frugality, would never spend over half a grand for a office chair, let alone a second-hand one. Nevertheless, I would much rather purchase an iPad instead.

While looking for alternatives, I came across an article on BusinessWeek: Your Office Chair is killing you. The article does make references to the Aeron chair for its popularity in the American workplace. However, they did talk to a doctor who raised criticisms on the Aeron’s height adjustability and criticized its design goals.

Don Chadwick, the co-designer of the Aeron, says he wasn’t hired to design the ideal product for an eight-hour-workday; he was hired to update Herman Miller’s previous best-seller. “We were given a brief and basically told to design the next-generation office chair,” he says.

That is not the gist of the article though. The article said researchers concluded that sitting is a public-health risk and notes that sitting in a shitty chair just makes it worse. Instead of sitting in an hour for 8.9 hours a day, they advice people to work while standing.

Looks like Jamis (of Capistrano fame) at 37signals is already doing it.

I can totally see myself giving it a try. Now, I need to see if there are suitable-for-standing-while-working desks/surface at Bootup.