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Ask Slashdot: Suggestions For Taking a Business Out Into the Forest?
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a huge fan of primitive survival reality TV. I am also self-employed in web troubleshooting and hosting services. I have to be available 24/7, but a lot of my work is just being online for a few minutes at a time. I often think about taking my business 'outdoors', camping, 3-7 days or so at a time — but staying online. Has anyone had experience with this? How did you do it, in terms of internet connectivity and portable power? Satellite internet or long distance Wi-Fi antennaes and a very tall pole? I've looked at some portable power stations with solar attachments, but the idea of hand-cranking to recharge if it's overcast isn't fun, after all, the point is to relax. But I'm willing to manually recharge if it's realistic (would prefer pedaling though!) I happen to have a Toughbook CF-52 (I just thought it was cool) but I may need to replace that with a more eco-friendly laptop as well. Thanks!
These guys did it:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/0...
They're in Boston now, I talked to them about it for a while and they're two very awesome people. There are many other articles out there about their time living in the woods while developing their projects.
I spent 3 winters living on a motorcycle, camping in the deserts of CA, NV, AZ, and UT, and working from there. A USB LTE aircard with Verizon (they really do have the widest coverage) and a small external antenna did the trick, even in some VERY remote places (Find Escalante, UT on a map and follow the Hole in the Rock Rd 30 miles south to the turn-off for Peek-a-Boo Gulch. Yup, I worked from there for a few days). I had an iPhone app that showed where I could find service and which G it would be (aptly named "Coverage").
Can't help you with charging because I had an inverter plugged into the bike. I suppose you could accomplish the same with a very small generator if you plan on getting somewhere and then staying stationary. It's hard to beat the energy density of fossil fuels.
Depending on what part of the country you're in you can get out to some pretty remote places deep in National Forests and on BLM land with a vehicle. They also usually allow "dispersed camping" just about anywhere you please for a few weeks at a time. It's not the same as heading out on foot with nothing but a backpack but I would do that on the weekends, launching from wherever I happened to end up with the bike on a Friday.
Regardless of what you figure out for charging, a smaller laptop with less moving parts will be much less power-hungry. I used a Macbook Air.