Macbook Pro 15: $1800 + $250 for 128GB SSD
Macbook Air 13: $1300 + $100 for 4GB RAM
Both machines will have the same size SSD, RAM, and same number of pixels, but the MBP will be $650 more.
(I know there are other ways of configuring the two, like adding a $100 hi-res option to the MBP, or adding the $100 MCE OptiBay like you did. I ignored them for simplicity and to create a more apples-to-apples comparison.)
Additional internal storage – very important if you want one and only one Mac.
Double the RAM ceiling - 8 GB on the MBP versus 4 on the Air. And the MBP is user-upgradable, which feels better to me.
You also get longer battery life with the Pro, but since I'm not usually that far from an outlet, it's not a big deal. I'm also happier to have an incrementally faster and later-generation processor, since that'll hopefully grant a further 6 to 18 months usable lifespan for the machine.
http://paulstamatiou.com/ssd-raid-performance-9-months-later
I'm waiting until Lion comes out for any more hardware changes. Now that I'm using Jekyll locally (and will be just rsyncing the files) and it needs to regenerate 1000+ posts with layout etc changes, the core 2 duo is showing its age. And I have LSI disabled..
To mount a partition:
do shell script "diskutil mount PARTITION_UUID"
To unmount all partitions:
try
do shell script "diskutil unmount PARTITION_UUID"
end try
try
do shell script "diskutil unmount NEXT_PARTITION_UUID"
end try
Just compile those as self-contained apps, drop them in your dock and you're good to go. It's pretty manual stuff, I have to remember to launch the appropriate script at the beginning and end of a task that involves the HDD, but it's not much of a problem, since I don't use it that often. Meanwhile, you get a silent MBP, with a smidge better battery life, since the HDD isn't spinning needlessly.
Looking into auto-mounting the partition when a symlink is accessed, got a SuperUser question going here:
http://superuser.com/questions/228028/mount-drive-when-symbo...
Ah, see now that's what I imagined would be going on here ;)
From your SuperUser question it looks like there's a service called, appropriately enough, automountd. Neat! Is there no end to Unix's little undiscovered gems?
Some docs: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin...
A decent tutorial-style blog article: http://rajeev.name/2007/11/22/autofs-goodness-in-apples-leop...
(My new SSD shows up on Wednesday!)