Ask HN: Coding outdoors • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#21

Post by stevejalim » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:34 AM UTC

simi_ wrote: post #20

abrkn wrote: post #14

At least in Thailand, most beach bars have both wifi and power outlets these days. Even on small islands, they have surprisingly good satellite Internet. Even on a Macbook Air, the screen is bright enough for me to code during the day (in the shade). As a bonus, you have an unlimited supply of alpha testers for whatever you create!

Airs still have TN panels, just get the cheapest 13" Pro and enter a different world of display quality (source: I own both of them).

Can you spare a moment to educate me about the panels (what, how different, which machines)? (I've got a 2011 15in MBP - last of the models one could maintain oneself, so am keeping it alive as long as poss)

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#22

Post by colinramsay » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:34 AM UTC

I've tried this a couple of times. IMO screen technology in sunlight is the limiting factor - no-one's made a laptop screen good enough to make this work without you straining your eyes. Shame, because I write this from my office and I can see that it's a gloriously sunny day outside!

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#23

Post by JetSpiegel » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:36 AM UTC

daemonk wrote: post #19

Is the screen in google glass big enough or bright enough to work on? Ideally, it would be nice not to have to lug around the laptop and burn your thighs. Just have a bluetooth keyboard/mouse connected to a head mounted screen system.

Doesn't that negate the upsides of being outside?

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#24

Post by arh68 » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:40 AM UTC

I do like printing code out and editing it from the hammock. You can't do it all day, and it doesn't seem very fast, but it sure is nice to plan all the edits on paper (4 color pens = colordiff!) and then type it up, test it, commit it. My hammock is about 30 paces from my laser printer, so if I wanted to go much further than that I'd need a portable printer.

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#25

Post by scarlson » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:41 AM UTC

jongold wrote: post #15

A couple of years back I bought a MacBook Pro with the antiglare display for this very reason. It was great to be able to work in the garden, in theory, but then you realise MBPs have/had awful battery life, especially in the sun, and when they get hot they're literally painful to work on. Oops. Would love a simple, cheap, tiny Linux netbook with high quality keyboard & trackpad. Resigned myself to the fact that I'll…

Chrubuntu may be the solution you're looking for.

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#26

Post by TimGremalm » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:41 AM UTC

Maybe a tablet/laptop with a Pixel Qi-screen?

"The advantage of Pixel Qi displays over conventional LCDs is mainly that they can be set to operate under transflective mode and reflective mode, improving eye-comfort, power usage, and visibility under bright ambient light." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi

http://www.pixelqi.com/devices

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#27

Post by r_bartoli » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:41 AM UTC

If your connection isn't extremely stable, Mosh is a very good solution: http://mosh.mit.edu/

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#28

Post by rudenoise » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:42 AM UTC

The kindleberry pi has all the elements I think are essential:

- low power - out door readable - light weight

The problem is that it isn't in one, handy package.

Laptops are limited by displays, it sounds like transflective-LCD is ideal. Panasonic Toughbooks have them, so could be a good bet.

I'd like to build an enclosure for a Pi and a PixelQi setup (they made the screens for OLPC). https://www.adafruit.com/products/1303

I assume there just isn't a market large enough to force these into existence?

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#29

Post by bildung » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:45 AM UTC

I sometimes work in the garden. On cloudy days my Thinkpad display works just fine. If it's really sunny I use a Fujitsu Stylistic tablet pc I bought used on ebay, along with an external keyboard. The Stylistic tablets have (at least used to have) models with transflective displays (the ones with frontlights instead of backlights). Those are awesome in daylight, but look dull indoors. The resolution normally is not that great, but for ssh it should be just fine. Still kind of unwieldy, though :/

Hah, I just remembered that my alternative would have been a netbook modded with a Pixel Qi display from Maker Shed. Maker Shed does not seem to have them anymore, but perhaps you can find one of the prebuilt devices with pixel qi displays: http://www.pixelqi.com/devices

edit: I cannot recommend working in nature enough! I'm usually both super productive and in great mood while working outdoors.

Re: Ask HN: Coding outdoors

#30

Post by urlwolf » Wed, Jul 23, 2014, 10:48 AM UTC

colinramsay wrote: post #22

I've tried this a couple of times. IMO screen technology in sunlight is the limiting factor - no-one's made a laptop screen good enough to make this work without you straining your eyes. Shame, because I write this from my office and I can see that it's a gloriously sunny day outside!

I've worked from the beach for months. Granted, this was in the UK, and there wasn't much sun to worry about :)

But the best solution I could come up with was a screen cover. It attached itself to the monitor, and created a foldable 'camera obscura' for the screen. Works great to avoid reflections, and to minimize brightness needed.