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Outdoor Computing with a Deck Desk

mgsloan.com

61–63 of 63 posts

Re: Outdoor Computing with a Deck Desk

#61
post #15

I moved my desk outside in the last couple of years when the British weather obliged. A few notes: - temperature. if the temperature is right for you, chances are that it's a bit too warm for your electronics. Chips get hotter, which can result in all sorts of problems (particularly with big screens and graphics-intensive apps, but modern storage as well is often at risk by poor cooling). - cables. Even if you are in…

Hey, that's rad that you gave this a try!

Temperature hasn't been a problem for me. My computer works fine in 35C.

There's a section in my post about dealing with rain. I used tarps. Power was provided via a weather proof extension cable.

Insects can be troublesome, I had a lot of wasps die in my coffee. Only two stings in the whole summer of working out side! As long as you don't swat them they are pretty benign. I think this is really a regional thing, there are not many bugs where I am in Colorado, nor in Eastern Washington.

I haven't had a problem with environmental noise, but I also often listen to music while I work.

The first few days I experimented with outdoor computing I was a bit distracted by the novelty of it. Takes a while to ease into it, but that starting overhead is well worth it imho

Re: Outdoor Computing with a Deck Desk

#62

looks at her outdoors setup: Mac laptop, Wacom tablet, sunshade made of black illustration board with magnets to attach to the ones hidden in the Mac’s lid, a few different bags big enough for all of that and not too much more, and a variety of cafes and parks nearby This setup feels so... maximalist. Whatever works I suppose but you can go work under a tree or whatever for a LOT less investment in time and equipment…

Hey, author here. Yes the treadmill deck desk is rather maximalist!

I also enjoy very portable setups, particularly for forests / mountains, but I also sometimes computer in or outside cafes. My portable setup for being out in nature is really weird looking though, so I'm slowly ramping up the weirdness levels of my posts about these topics rather than diving right in. While the location and hardware isn't exactly mundane, the deck desk idea is fairly close to our daily experience and so approachable. The next increment away from the mundane is hammock computing - https://mgsloan.com/posts/supine-computing/ . I have two more posts that are work-in-progress that are more in the unconventional and minimalist direction. So yeah, I think those might appeal to you more!

Re: Outdoor Computing with a Deck Desk

#63
post #5

Some questions if there are outdoor hackers around: What are some laptops that work well with Linux and have max screen brightness suitable for outdoor use? A web site comparison said one Dell XPS 15 model[1] could do 626 nits - what kind of outdoor conditions would this be suitable for? It seems advertising displays advertise an order of magnitude more nits[2] so I assume the laptops would at best be suitable for ov…

It's not just nits. Matte screens (think Thinkpad, boring business) tend to do better than glossy screens (Apple, anything consumerish and "pretty").

I'm still waiting for eInk... whatever happened to the display tech from OLPC?

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