My mobile computing setup

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 00:12:34 GMT

I've been putting together a nice little mobile computing setup lately, so thought I'd share it! It hasn't been too useful during the pandemic, but hopefully that'll change when things are back to normal. Whenever that is.

The idea, generally, was that I wanted something I could take with me in a small bag like this one:

Bringing something like this with me is much less unwieldy than a full-size backpack.

The main part of my setup is the GPD Micro PC. It's a little handheld computer reminiscent of UMPCs from over a decade ago. I was always fond of tiny PCs, and they're now affordable enough that I bought this thing on a whim a while back.

To go alongside that, I found a thin foldable bluetooth keyboard and a mouse thin enough to not take up much space as well. This is convenient if I have a desk to set up on, but less convenient if I'm on the go. The Micro PC's keyboard is mainly meant for thumb-typing, meaning it's okay for small things but not the best if I'm working on something for an extended period of time. (It was wonderful when I was flashing my router's firmware and needed a direct connection, as my router's somewhat out of the way.)

It's possible that I'll eventually replace this with something that has a more typical keyboard like the GPD Pocket 2, but for now this is what I've got.

In addition to the keyboard/mouse, I've got a super portable USB-C dock in there. It's really meant for the Nintendo Switch, but works with other USB-C devices with DisplayPort more generally.

At home I dock this to a more stationary USB-C dock, or if I don't want to be tethered to my desk I'll use the NexDock 2:

This is more cumbersome than it could be, because the Micro PC seems to have a bug that prevents USB-C DisplayPort output from working with some devices, including the NexDock 2. The practical result of that is that I need to use two cables instead of just one, which makes positioning the Micro PC while using the NexDock a bit finicky.

All in all though, all these USB-C devices and peripherals have given me a taste for what future convergent Linux devices could look like; this isn't as portable as a Samsung phone running DeX for example, but it's way more functional for someone like myself who wants a full Linux desktop everywhere I go.

I'm writing this post as part of #100DaysToOffload.

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Links: June 23, 2020

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 04:45:23 GMT

The good

You can't tell people anything: On the difficulty of really conveying something to someone without hands-on experience. I've experienced this from the teacher's side recently when trying to explain Kubernetes concepts to someone who only has experience administering individual, mutable machines. I think I've also recently experienced it from the student's perspective trying to absorb some of the object capability literature. Trying to get some hands-on experience there to avoid that!

Dungeon Scrawl: Looks to be a quick'n'easy way to put together nice-looking dungeon maps for D&D campaigns. I haven't DM'd anything yet, but I plan to at some point.

A Security Kernel Based on the Lambda Calculus: A paper I read recently on a security model based on object capabilities. It's the best introduction to the field I've read so far; highly recommended if you're at all interested in access control, Scheme, etc. (Thanks cwebber for the pointer!)

The ugly

New bill to ban encryption without backdoors: The crypto wars return. Again. Invoking three of the four horsemen of the infocalypse literally by name.

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jfred

My mobile computing setup

Links: June 23, 2020

The good

The ugly