As the owner of a MacBook Pro, I can tell you this: all of those people have very hot laps.

I had that problem with an older pre-aluminum MBP.

I just bought one of the newer models with an SSD and the temperature rarely gets beyond warm. Great for laps.

Agree. Mine is also a newer model (but without the SSD :( ) and I've not managed to get the bottom of it hot yet. Warm yes, but not hot, and I've had it working pretty hard at times.

They are united in their creative diversity.

I've always thought it highly ironic, "think different" being associated with such rigid conformity.

Or we just think they make good computers ;)

Hell, if the majority has good taste, I'm with the majority.

Interesting. First up to +3, then to -1; perhaps the night owls themselves struck... :)

I love how when they're not trumpeting how Macs are "only %1 of the market!" windows fans are claiming that Mac users are unthinking drones who are slaves to rigid conformity.

Of course, never both in the same post, though.

These gardening cushions are great to use as laptop desks.

http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-9421-Kneeling-Cushion-Colors/d...

Ha, I've been using CoolBook on my 15" MacBook Pro for a few weeks and it's been awesome. You can undervolt and underclock to keep the temp down. http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html

unless you have this! http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049/smcfancontrol

It cools your laptop down to an assigned temperature by adjusting the exhaust of your fan. It works pretty fast too.

You might be thinking of a different Fan Control app. The one you linked is just an RPM control, it doesn't try to target a specific temperature.

Here's the one I use, it's closer to your description:

http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/

The photos remind me of the stat I read recently that the majority of incoming college freshmen are bringing Macs (one source: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/07/big-macs-on-campus/)

I've been thinking about needing a late-night, hacker space in Brooklyn for a couple years now -- any HNers in Brooklyn interested in setting something up?

EDIT: If there is interest, we can organize off HN at http://www.meetup.com/Nightowls/21183/

Would love to start a Seattle one if anyone else is interested. One good place I've found that is loung-ey and has great food is the Night Kitchen downtown, but it only has space for about half a dozen people. But they have board games, sofas, and decor in the back room.

I'd be down occasionally.

http://www.seattletechcalendar.com/ shows that Monday is perhaps the best time to hold it. It's at least a little out of date though, Seattle Wireless Hacknight moved a year ago.

Me too, how does one get a thing like this started?

Hey, I would come to this.

I'm in.

Are these meet-ups more social for actually getting work done?

if anything, they're less social and way more about getting shit done. we've actually had people come who were surprised to find that so many people were quietly doing their own thing. for me, it's a focused work session without distraction...

Could we please get a New York meetup that's not on Tuesday night? :/ LWOB, NY Tech Meetup, and NY Tech Mixer all meet primarily on Tuesdays.

This is documented as a Hacker Space Design Pattern. http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/The_Tuesday_Pattern

Problem

Every weekday sucks. You will not find any day when every hacker can attend a meeting. Someone always has an appointment.

Implementation

Meet on Tuesday. Since all days are equally bad, just pick the Tuesday. End of discussion.

we may open a thursday night edition... but overall, tuesday works well. there's always something going on in new york so it's all about determining your own personal priorities. if you want to get shit done, come to nightowls. if you want to see new tech start-ups presented and have the opp to meet 800+ interested in nyc tech, go to meetup..

There are some weeks in which I'd like to do both. I'm far more likely to go to something on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday night than Tuesday, because there's a lot competing for my attention on Tuesdays.

fair enough. however, we can't please everyone! tuesday night is what worked well from the start... we're looking into more nights though...

That's pretty funny, everything in Seattle seems to happen on Wednesdays.

Also San Francisco Night Owls: http://sfnightowls.com/ and LA Night Owls: http://lanightowls.com/ though these don't seem to have been active since May 26(?)

If there were one near me I'd try it.

Browsing through the SFNightOwls Twitter followers... (http://twitter.com/sfnightowls) there are also London, Stockholm, Krakow, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, and Boston: http://www.meetup.com/BOS-Nightowls/

Would love to see someone get the SF one started up again.

Or even DC... if anyone is interested.

I would be interested in this.

if you want one in dc, you can make it happen! anyone can start a meet-up in any city here: http://www.meetup.com/nightowls/

I would be interested as well, recently moved to the area. Do you know of any good hacker spaces?

Anyone interested in starting something similar to this in Ottawa, Canada?

What is it like? Is it like a hacker/creative study hall where everyone is motivated by peer pressure (in a good way) and good vibes?

good vibes for sure! also a spirit of getting things done... you should come by and say hi! (my name's amber!)

Anyone know what happened to the SF branch?

I'd love to have something similar here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. If anyone else is interested drop me an email.

I would love to get one of these groups started up in San Diego, maybe at The HIVE.

do it! http://meetup.com/nightowls is the group meetup to make it happen!

A quick question about meetup.com: Are meetups automatically generated based on my IP and location?

I suspect this is the case. I just clicked on that Meetup - Nightowls link and there was a meetup for the town in which I work my day job. It'd be a pretty crazy coincidence for that to already exist and to be at the top of the list; this isn't exactly an area brimming with the culture typically associated with meetups.

That's why I was asking: Checking it out from home and my office showed two different meetups in my region. Either a coincidence or a clever technical trick to get people to participate.

And to think that they used to say "Think different".