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Computing Al Fresco?
ear1grey writes "With summer fast approaching in the northern hemisphere, do any readers have experience of taking their 'working from home' one stage further and 'working from the garden'? Any tips for making the screen more visible in the bright sunshine? Any problems with direct sunlight and overheating components? Are there other issues that we should be aware of before we venture, blinking, into the great outdoors?"
Get yourself one of those fancy deck tables with the umbrella that comes out of the middle. Voila - sunlight problem solved.
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
You want to do that? Keep it indoors, please!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
From experience, the following are useful.
#0 - Laptop - easily moved and re-moved
#1 - Go wireless. For both network and power. Don't put any AC current anywhere near the pool!
#2 - Think Dark places -Stay in the shade. Install/build shade if you have no alternative, especially next to the pool. Go for blocking out as much sunlight as possible.
#4 - LTSP.org - Use your laptop as a wireless thin client. It reduces local CPU power consumption, extends the life of your battery, and your server, (any desktop machine), does all the heavy lifting so you can still go fast.
#5 Cheap Sunglasses and a hat. Brim helps block out sunlight, Iris will dilate just "a leetle bit" so you can see the screen easier.
#6 Pump spray bottle of sunblock! SPF 30+
#7 Ice tea. (Or caffinated beverage of choice)
#8 Extra towels
You mean (gulp) outside? You can't do that. There's like plants and animals out there. They eat you and stuff. And the sun! What about the sun? I'm sure you've been working on your geek tan. Why would you want to ruin that? Mine's a lovely blue. The star burns you know.
I hear there's even girls out there. Dude, it's not worth it. Trust me - I've heard the stories.
Pass the cheetos will ya?
Refuse to make a statement in your sig!
Isn't that the room outside the server room, where the ceiling is sometimes blue, and sometimes black with little white lights? The HVAC doesn't work to well there either.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
In order to reduce glare, you may want to look into glare reducing filters and monitor hoods. The filters are extremely expensive but do the job well enough, and the hoods will work brilliantly if the monitor is positioned correctly.
-Meeper
All references to pasty white skin aside, please do remember your sunscreen...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
I've done some non-work stuff from a hammock outdoors using an ultralight PC with a WiFi card. Fairly pleasant but a little uncomfortable. However, given that I have three screens wrapped 'round me at work and I'd have more if I could justify the cost I think that going entirely portable for work would be counterproductive. Also, it's just started winter here ;-p
Thin Film Transistor screens, like those found on the GameBoy Color/Advance/SP thrive (if you can get around the glare) in high light conditions, as do a good number of LCD screens.
Install Ubuntu in Android
I worked from home for about 6 months a few years ago on a consulting gig. I lived on the beach so whenever it was sunny I would want to bring my laptop on the deck with the wireless and work out there, but I couldn't see the screen. The key is to construct a highly technical cardboard shutter that you can tape around the screen of your laptop - 2 sides and top. Neighbors think your staring into the screen of some peep show, but regardless of the 73 other distractions that come with working outside, at least the sun won't be one of them. Tslim
Buy and install one of these on your porch near the garden. I think it tracks light sources and compensates by rotating itself. Apparently it also has built-in AC as well.
This makes sense in theory, but I've yet to find a Linux that will run on my HP notebook and manage power properly. The fan comes on shortly after booting and the batteries run down in half the time or less than with XP, no matter what I'm doing , even sitting idle. I'm far from the only one who has been seeing this. So suggesting a Linux thin client as a power saving concept just doesn't fly, at least until Linux is able to manage power as well as windoes does on most or all of the notebook with that feature.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Unless you have a veranda or porch where you can get a little shade so you can see the screen, I recommend chosing your times wisely.
It starts getting light here (the UK) at about 3.45am, and I enjoy going out at this time. By 5.30am, of course, it's full daylight. Then at the other end of the day you get a nice light between 8.30pm and 10pm. The beauty of these times is also that it's not too hot to be sitting around, and there are also less flies/buzzy things about. Of course, not everyone has as loose a schedule as I do, and may not find these times ideal! (I do, as I sleep during the late morning and early afternoon, I like some night-time in my life!)
Go to david-drake.com. He does ALL of his writing outside, on a computer. As in, if its raining, he doesn't write that day. And he writes a lot.
/. - he's one of the major authors involved.
Don't emulate him too closely - he apparently has a jinx that wipes out machines on a regular basis.
See also http://www.baen.com/library/ for the Baen Free library, previously referenced on
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
Direct sunlight is bad for you, why would you want to sit outside in the sun when everyone knows the proper environment for programming is a batcave?
I'm not kidding. I just came back from my dermatologist, who gleefully cut away every little precancerous mole she could find, now I've got stitches in extremely uncomfortable places that won't be removed for another week. I used to work outside when I was a kid, mowing lawns and gardening, but now I regret it, since it apparently increased my likelihood of skin cancer.
The whole REASON I studied computer programming was because I hated working out in the hot sun in dirty environments full of allergy-inducing pollen, I vastly preferred air-conditioned, dark offices. So I figured that computing was the best profession, back in those days, computers were always installed in glassed-in rooms with intense air conditioning and filtered air.