Mobile Warrior
It's tough to be a mobile warrior these days. I'm thinking about a new addition to my geekbag/manpurse that I carry on my train commute. I thought my bag was set, I haven't made any changes in a while.
The problem is that I've been hanging out on IRC chat recently using my phone during my 2 hours on the train every day. This is great most of the time, but when I have my laptop out I'm unable to juggle everything. If only I hadn't jumped on a massive Dell rebate for a preconfigured laptop and instead chosen one with BlueTooth, I could just be using my laptop to connect to the Net.
So I'm thinking of adding a small roll of duct tape to my geekbag to tape my phone to the seat in front of me. This way I can monitor IRC on my phone that's stuck to the seat while simultaneously working on my laptop. Also, the person in the seat next to me usually ends up watching my phone anyway, so they'd have a better view. My only worry is that I'll get off the train and leave my phone behind.
But carrying duct tape around might be reverting back to my mechanical & aerospace engineering days in college when I used way too much duct tape around the apartment to macgyver things.
Hmm, I've got to think this over a bit, do I want to carry around more weight?
Here's a transcript of my typical morning (text-adventure style!):
You are standing in an open area west of a white train station. There is a turnstile here.
>insert ticket
>enter train
>enter seat
>open laptop
Your Nokia 6620 is glowing with a faint blue glow.
>ignore phone
>run eclipse
>import jarfile
Your mind wanders and thinks something interesting might be happening on IRC.
>ignore phone
>inventory
You are carrying:
a black backpack
Non-descript, unstylish clothing
The bag contains:
a Dell 600m laptop
a Sumtek laptop sleeve
a black ballpoint pen
a 15G iPod
a 256MB USB flash drive
a Nokia 6620 phone
a blue lab notebook, for jotting down ideas and inspiration
>concentrate coding
The Computer whirs and hums for a moment before replying "no classdef found".
>debug error
A homeless man is staring at you.
>avert eyes
The homeless man moves to a different seat.
A seedy looking gentleman carrying a large bag enters the train.
>kill thief
You are not carrying a weapon.
The Thief is eyeing your gadgets.
>bite lip
Ouch! You scream! You are The Incredible Hulk(Tm) now!
The Thief runs off.
>say yoho
Everything spins around and suddenly You are elsewhere...
You are on a sandy beach on a tropical isle.
Obvious exits: East
You can also see: Small ship's keel and mast - Sand - Lagoon
>say yoho
Everything spins around and suddenly You are elsewhere...
You are in a cubicle farm with uninteresting projects awaiting your attention.
Obvious exits: None
Posted on Wed, 2 Mar 2005 13:57 by Seni Sangrujee (2308 day(s) old)
