With the continual move to “Cloud Computing” in many facets of IT, there is a mindset change that is needed in order to understand how things now work. No longer is your vital service housed in a small closet in the basement, but now it is in a number of huge data centers across the country or globe and being run by an outside vendor so there are going to be unplanned outages along with other issues (ISP having issues? No work done today!) that are outside of the control of your internal IT department.

Sadly, it seems like when a person hears “try again later, there really isn’t anything I can do” they often here “I hate you and I’m not going to do anything”.

That needs to change.

Using a single machine requires me to carry the MacBook Pro between home and work every day. Not a huge problem, but if I am going to walk as often as I would like to, it could get more than a little annoying to continually haul a backpack with all of the trimmings up Center Street Hill. If I can eliminate the laptop, I can probably carry a smaller bag.

I also need to spend upwards of 10 to 15 minutes on each end getting the machine setup properly so that I can work. Once again, not a huge deal, but an annoyance. The constant plugging and unplugging on cables is a hassle I wish I did not have.

To try and work around this I spent the evening setting up a new user on my wife’s 2009 MacBook. The idea is to try using this machine as my dev machine while at home an keep the MacBook Pro at work during the main part of the week. The issue will be how well it works for recording our weekly episodes of This One Podcast (shameless self promotion there).

The good part is that web development doesn’t require a ton of computing power outside or compiling dependencies. So far, the MacBook hasn’t burst into flame, so I take that as a good sign.

I updated right away and also purchased the $1.99 Instacast Pro (as an in-app purchase) as well. I use it too often not to throw my support behind the developers.

Head on over to the App Store today and pick it up.

• #46: I Like My Coffee Like My Evil Sith Lords
• #47: Death Star University
• #67: Darth Vader’s Office is Really Weird
• #68: Jedi Weekend
• #88: Skywalker’s Eleven
• #89: Also Known as Endor

There are two podcast episodes for each movie and some truly excellent commentary on all of the films. My favorite two are definitely #67 and #68 where they cover The Empire Strikes Back (easily the best Star Wars film and just an excellent film in its own right), but you really should listen to all six of them, in order, to get the whole effect.

Along with the new site is some new branding as well. Overall, I think everything looks really great … but why not a responsive site?