Mobile? Who Are We Kidding? | Hacker News Reader

Mobile? Who Are We Kidding?

andersonjr.com

22 pointswiljr30 comments

Where I work everyone gets a desktop in the office and a laptop to keep at home. I can literally throw on a jacket and go to work - no bags, not even anything in my pockets.

It's glorious. I've done the whole "schlepping the laptop everywhere" thing before. It sucks, the author is right. It's not just the weight, it's the unplugging, plugging in, oh-no-the-monitor-didnt-quite-detect-right bullshit dance.

Where is the fulfillment of the cloud dream? I can leave the office, come home, open my work laptop, and pick up right where I left off. This is the promise of the cloud, but very few people seem to be able to enjoy it.

> very few people seem to be able to enjoy it.

Can't imagine why. Oh wait, that's right, people generally work on stuff they feel is sensitive, and they're not apt to go hosting that stuff on some service with insecurity designed in to the foundation.

Hm, now that we have wireless charging actually marketed as a product (for mobiles and tablets anyway, I assume a "full" laptop might still be tricky? Maybe not if the goal is simply to not use the battery while docket (rather than charging it)?) -- we should be able to do usb1.1+ speeds via some kind of NFC interface -- and hdmi is possible to wirelessly -- so how long before we get docking basins/plates rather than docking stations? Two years?

IMO docking stations are the "faster horse". We could've used better docks a few years ago, but now the idea seems silly for most use cases. Why carry around a big ol' laptop when your data is available everywhere, is largely device-agnostic, on-demand? You don't need to carry around an email or spreadsheet or word processing machine - everything is an email, spreadsheet, word processing machine. You don't need to carry a device that contains your work, because your work accessible from anywhere.

If you're particularly security-conscious, great, throw everything up in a VPN (as everyone already does now) and issue company hardware if you must. At the end of the day having multiple bits of hardware for different contexts not only makes working easier, it also prevents you from having a bunch of hardware floating around on buses, trains, and airplanes containing your sensitive data. Not only that, you're dramatically reducing your odds of data loss.

There are real road-warrior types who will need actual "full" laptops, but the vast majority of people hauling big laptops to and from work everyday really just need a machine for work, and a machine for home, and nothing in between.

I partially agree with most of your point -- at the same thime I like the idea of using some trusted hardware as the "heart" of my computing experience. I might store various encrypted data in the cloud, but my decryption keys and password need to stay on a device that is "mine". Maybe a laptop, maybe a smartphone. They both need some external input/output for some workloads - a 24"+ screen (or two) - a proper keyboard - maybe a proper mouse. And both needs charging.

While it is certainly is possible (easy even) to tap the i/o points (screens less so than a keyboard) -- rationaly or irrationaly -- I think dockingstations in some form wil serve a function for some time.

But yes, this is more of a "true roadwarrior" problem than a general problem. A business can probably afford to keep two pcs per employee - I can't. And I do occationally work on trains or airplanes.

ssh + tmux attach/detach does the trick for a surprising amount of developer jobs.

If carrying bags of stuff is not really a problem, then as things get smaller, we carry more of them.

What do I carry? Laptop, paper notebook, my lovely noise cancellng headphones, a charger, an external battery for my phone, a usb charger, some bits of paper. Some times I add a tablet or kindle to the mix. Other times a raspberry pi or other embedded device.

I obviously prioritise having enough tools with me to work anywhere I like with maximum comfort.

Its all a matter of priorities.

In most corporations you can't use your home computer to connect to your work VPN or other resources, this is mainly a security issue. Your work IT department has no control over the security of your home systems.

My home computer is my work computer, and vice versa. I work from home several days per week, but I'm out consulting for the rest, so my laptop is usually always with me. I've thought about taking just an iPad but I like having the ability to catch up on some iOS programming during quiet periods.

The biggest reduction in what I travel around with has been to leave old PSUs at places I visit regularly to save me carrying them with me.

I ran a 30 day experiment only using my 8" tablet when I was not at work or home. I eventually added a small 9" bluetooth keyboard and 90 days later I feel really anchored down if I carry anything in addition to my tablet.

I use a terminal emulator to log into my VPS where I do most of my work. I have had to simplify my work flow but I do not miss the bulk one bit.

As technology changes, I want to be part of the first adapters, I don't see myself being able to take advantage of the cutting edge when I am unable to let go of current and fading solutions.

Of course this is not going to be the best approach for everyone, I find it exciting.

I have no idea what this guy is talking about, I'm more moble with better power and access to my data now than when I was in college and never more than 100 feet from a unix terminal.

I have two carry modes: with laptop and without.

In both modes I have a 8" tablet (my note taking device), my phone, and a dot grid notebook for the times when I feel like sketching on paper. Two pens, a pencil, two or three chargers (iPhone, miniusb, laptop).

That's it though. I no longer cary magazines or books or multiple notebooks or paper slides.

The weight of my backpack is half what it used, and that's with a 17" laptop. When I am not carrying my laptop my backpack is so light that i feel uneasy, a veritable Jerry Seinfeld "too light moment" like I forgot or lost something.

Furthermore, even though I often carry my entire 2tb of personal/work files on my person I never worry about loosing my computer or the drives getting damaged because my carbonite/backblaze system is constantly backing up everything with redundancy of github + server for my working files.

Google Goggles has a high-contrast mode for taking pictures of documents. Works great for sketches on paper and for taking pictures of whiteboards. I could never get those digitizing notebooks to work for me.

Very much on board with this post's perspective.

I've been very appreciative of the setup we have at my office, with our development machines being remotely accessible via RDP (through a company VPN). RDP isn't perfect, and it's not something I'd like to do full time, but definitely is good enough in a jam.

This amounts to me only needing my Kindle and phone for my commute.

I see these from some co-workers as well, but honestly, I carry my car keys, my wallet and a cell phone (a stupid dumbphone even). I leave my work at work, and at home I have my machine for whatever.

I see +90% of the people on my commute (I drive but then cycle for 5 miles) carrying huge backpacks or messenger bags and for the life of me, I don't understand why they do it.

I have college textbooks that aren't available as ebooks yet that I need to carry around for school .

If you have something to "e-read" them on, and you're comfortable reading on that thing -- why not just scan the books yourself? Pretty quick on a multi-copier/scanner/printer-thing (the industrial size ones -- like you might find at your library or a copy shop (if you can find one).

Because it might be illegal. The legality of it unclear at best, I would rather not take a chance.

I don't have this problem when going to or from work, but I did have it when traveling. I have pared down my travel kit to my iPhone and iPad and an Apple keyboard, and more often than not, it's enough. I have all the entertainment I'll need during downtime between games and Netflix/Hulu/iTunes. I can type up quick stuff in any number of text editors for the iPad (I use Pages, mostly). And Prompt is an amazing terminal client that lets me connect to my server or home machine if need be. If worse comes to worse, I can use a VNC client and get to my home machine in all it's glory pretty comfortably. I'd say that combination is pretty mobile.

My employer has a policy that I can't use my personal machine for work :( so I have to wrangle with two and the moving of them about.

I use an LG gPad and a Perixx folding keyboard. Together they are about as small and light as a paper notebook. I wish Drive applications worked better offline, but I can tether if needed.

I only need to schlep the laptop if I need to code at the customer site.

Tablets really are all that 90% of your users need. If they actually got good tablets, they could step out of their cubicles and communicate with other humans.

My previous job I had a desktop PC which I could RDP into from my personal laptop when out of the office.

The current job gave me a laptop (a MacBook Air so limited plugs) but I'm not allowed to leave it plugged in at the office for [physical] security reasons.

So if I want to work from home I have to carry it with me (along with my personal laptop). Can't use personal laptop for home stuff nor vice-versa.

Personally, I love carrying my 17inch Macbook Pro around with me at all times. You gotta love your machine.

and when it snows, it's big enough to sled downhill on

I carry books and magazines, just in case I end up at acoffeeshop. Why not an iPad or Kindle? Because a book or magazine focuses me on one discrete thing.

I don't agree.

The only things I carry are an iPad, a credit card a sweater and the keys to my home. If it's not cold I leave the sweater, if someone's at home I leave the keys, if I'm not going to work I leave the iPad... sometimes I leave my home w/ just my card.

I think it's just a matter of what you're used to...

Because some idiot in Hollywood declared Fanny Packs to be "out of style", now people are forced to step it up to something larger, so then people say, well I may as well fill up this big bag with junk if I'm being forced to carry it.

Solution: Let's kill that douchenozzle who declared fanny packs were bad, and go back to fanny packs. I certainly did. I never STOPPED fannypacking... because I'm not a spineless douchebag like the rest of you are who are too afraid to wear a fannypack.

Difficult to fit a laptop in a fanny pack, or even a 10-inch tablet. I suppose you might be able to fit a phone (which fits easily in a pocket anyway) or a 7-inch tablet.

This post is possibly one of the best cautionary tales I've ever heard for "choose your battles wisely". I'm not even kidding- in its own way, it's up there with Napoleon in Russia and the Microsoft Kin. If one is prepared to stand astride the world in open defiance of universal opposition, fanny packs may not be worthiest of causes upon which to blow that particular wad.

The question is: does he or she make fanny packs a cause for themselves outside of threads like this? If not, then they're actually showing a pretty healthy attitude.

I bought one last week in Thailand to go to the beach. And I still copped a lot of crap from the mates I was with. Enjoy carrying your plastic bag guys, and no, I will not put your phone in my most convenient of packs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com