About the offline laptop project

Author: Solène

Date: 10 November 2020

Tags: life disconnected

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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.