I am a software engineer.
I live in the UK and currently work for DeviantArt.
This blog lets me vent some of the tech junk that is always on my mind. If it does nothing else
I consider it a courtesey to my wife.
You should note the date on anything you read here. There are things written here in the past that I leave for historical purposes rather than because they remain accurate or even consistent with my current opinions.
In case it's not obvious, this is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.
My main machine these days is still my trusty four-year-old MacBook Pro. I've used it with the battery removed for a while to reduce heat and fan noise when in desktop use. Turns out to be a terrible idea.
It may not be a surprise to you but after spending hours last week trying to work out why my machine was so much slower than my colleages, I stumbled across the fact that MacBook Pros throttle their CPU to 1GHz when the battery is removed. This seems extraordinary. Turns out the 90W power supply isn't deemed enough to run at full speed so with the batty unavailable to provide burst power, you get crippled CPU performance.
I originally removed the battery as it appeared to aid cooling when my machine was in desktop mode. Now it is hard to tell if it actually was a thermal benefit or whether the cooler temperatures were only because of the crippled performance.
Either way here's a tip: don't work without a battery on an apple notebook unless severly reduced performance is enough for you.