A digital and peripatetic existence
Being currently "between jobs", I'm in an interesting situation when it comes to computing, as every day I use a range of different platforms in different locations, and none of them are really mine. At home I have a choice of Mac or PC and usually end up flitting between the two depending on what room I'd rather be in; elsewhere, I can often snatch a few minutes on a Windows machine or sometimes my own xterm and/or browser window on a Linux box.
The experience is very different to that of having one's own main computer, set up with applications and preferences, and which automatically starts up widgets to keep one connected and informed. My USB key and webpages are pretty useful for documents (and at home all my files are on the network), but I do sometimes find that I'm stuck with a NeoOffice save file from the Mac which I can't edit on an alien Windows machine. Most of my document editing still happens at home, but it is good to see that I could now do some of these tasks online if I wanted to. For almost everything else, I am now very dependent on Google, which is convenient (single login) but which disturbs my engineering brain (single point of failure). I can get email, newsgroups and even RSS feeds - the only thing I still need is my bookmarks file, which admittedly can be accessed in other ways, but for which a nice web interface would be handy. Also, if I'm not on a home machine, I'm not connected to others via IM and so for those of my friends who have almost entirely abandoned email, I might as well be on the moon when I am away from home for a while.
I do in fact have a smallish laptop, which I could tote around for use in networked spaces; however, I've found that I simply don't bother. If my outings were more defined (home-cafe-home, for example) perhaps I would, but I usually end up having several meetings or errands to run on a single trip, and can't face carrying the darn thing around. A PDA would probably fit into this new lifestyle more easily, but for me it would need to be a Psion-style thing with keyboard, proper browser and wifi, and which seemlessly coped with GPRS otherwise - which means I'd also need a proper contract cellphone to afford the data charges... It would automatically back itself up, too. Although 5 years ago we were sure that by now this type of thing would be available, it isn't really, which is sad. Five years ago I would at least have been kitted out with the range of latest gadgets required to approximate to this ideal, and would have spent the time to get them all working the way I like. I must be getting old though, as even if I could justify blowing the cash on the devices and services, I wouldn't want to spend the time setting them up these days. If I was in work, I wouldn't have the time (and in any case most of my requirements would be handled by a corporate IT system); as it is, I have the time but don't quite see this state as a lasting one worth investing the effort in.
I'm quite enjoying my freelance lifestyle at the moment though. If only I could find a way of getting paid to do something similar, I would!
The experience is very different to that of having one's own main computer, set up with applications and preferences, and which automatically starts up widgets to keep one connected and informed. My USB key and webpages are pretty useful for documents (and at home all my files are on the network), but I do sometimes find that I'm stuck with a NeoOffice save file from the Mac which I can't edit on an alien Windows machine. Most of my document editing still happens at home, but it is good to see that I could now do some of these tasks online if I wanted to. For almost everything else, I am now very dependent on Google, which is convenient (single login) but which disturbs my engineering brain (single point of failure). I can get email, newsgroups and even RSS feeds - the only thing I still need is my bookmarks file, which admittedly can be accessed in other ways, but for which a nice web interface would be handy. Also, if I'm not on a home machine, I'm not connected to others via IM and so for those of my friends who have almost entirely abandoned email, I might as well be on the moon when I am away from home for a while.
I do in fact have a smallish laptop, which I could tote around for use in networked spaces; however, I've found that I simply don't bother. If my outings were more defined (home-cafe-home, for example) perhaps I would, but I usually end up having several meetings or errands to run on a single trip, and can't face carrying the darn thing around. A PDA would probably fit into this new lifestyle more easily, but for me it would need to be a Psion-style thing with keyboard, proper browser and wifi, and which seemlessly coped with GPRS otherwise - which means I'd also need a proper contract cellphone to afford the data charges... It would automatically back itself up, too. Although 5 years ago we were sure that by now this type of thing would be available, it isn't really, which is sad. Five years ago I would at least have been kitted out with the range of latest gadgets required to approximate to this ideal, and would have spent the time to get them all working the way I like. I must be getting old though, as even if I could justify blowing the cash on the devices and services, I wouldn't want to spend the time setting them up these days. If I was in work, I wouldn't have the time (and in any case most of my requirements would be handled by a corporate IT system); as it is, I have the time but don't quite see this state as a lasting one worth investing the effort in.
I'm quite enjoying my freelance lifestyle at the moment though. If only I could find a way of getting paid to do something similar, I would!