Title: About the offline laptop project | |
Author: Solène | |
Date: 10 November 2020 | |
Tags: life disconnected | |
Description: | |
Third article of the offline laptop serie. | |
## Sometimes, network access is required | |
Having a totally disconnected system isn't really practical for a few | |
reasons. Sometimes, I really need to connect the offline laptop to the | |
network. I do produce some content on the computer, so I need to do | |
**backups**. The easiest way for me to have reliable backup is to host | |
them on a remote server holding the data, this requires network | |
connection for the time of the backup. Of course, backups could be | |
done on external disks or usb memory sticks (I don't need to backup | |
much), but I never liked this backup solution; don't get me wrong, I | |
don't say it's ineffective, but it doesn't suit my needs. | |
Besides the backup, I may need to sync files like my music files. I | |
may have bought new music that I want to get on the offline laptop, so | |
network access is required. | |
I also require internet access to install new packages or upgrade the | |
system, this isn't a regular need but I occasionnaly require a new | |
program I forgot to install. This could be solved by downloaded the | |
whole packages repository but this would require too many disk space | |
for packages I would never use. This would also waste a lot of network | |
transfer. | |
Finally, when I work on my blog, I need to publish the files, I use | |
rsync to sync the destination directory from my local computer and | |
this requires access to the Internet through ssh. | |
## A nice place at the right time | |
The moments I enjoy using this computer the most is by taking the | |
laptop on a table with nothing around me. I can then focus about what | |
I am doing. I find comfortable setups being source of distraction, so | |
a stool and a table are very nice in my opinion. | |
In addition to have a clean place to use it, I like to dedicate some | |
time for the use of this computer. I can write texts or some code in a | |
given time frame. | |
On a computer with 24/7 power and internet access I always feel | |
everything is at reach, then I tend to slack with it. | |
Having a rather limited battery life changes the way I experience the | |
computer use. It has a finite time, I have N minutes until the | |
computer has to be charged or shutdown. This produces for me the same | |
effect than when starting watching a movie, sometimes I pick up a | |
movie that fits the time I can spend on it. | |
Knowing I have some time until the computer stops, I know I must keep | |
focused because time is passing. |