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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 i

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.

Fasebook 13y ago
> 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.
e12e 13y ago
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?
- potatolicious 13y ago
  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.
  - e12e 13y ago
    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.
phaer 13y ago
ssh + tmux attach/detach does the trick for a surprising amount of developer jobs.

Fasebook 13y ago

> 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.

e12e 13y ago

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?

potatolicious 13y ago
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.
- e12e 13y ago
  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.

phaer 13y ago

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