Thin Clients are great… until you have to commute.

August 30th, 2005 · Posted in Uncategorized ·

Scoble is talking about Thin vs Fat clients again. I have to agree with him on this one, I commute 3 hours or so each day and having things rely on being connected is like a kick in the groin with spiked boots to me. I want to open several dozen websites and read them on the way home. Firefox is ok with this as long as I don’t shut down my PC, but explorer wins out by far when it comes to offline viewing. To the firefox developers: don’t empty the cache when I disconnect, OK?

At work we rely on a web-based support case system, which is great when the net is working, but when the connection drops out (or someone drives a tractor through a cable), suddenly I can’t work.

I can see the attraction in thin clients, but using tha laptop when I commute means that I have to go for the offline RSS aggregator, which I leave running overnight, then grab when I leave so I can read everything on the way to work.

RodeoClown: Loves the idea, but has to commute.

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9 Comments to “

Thin Clients are great… until you have to commute.

Craig Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 2:52 pm

Go wireless young man…

_3 hours or so each day_

Ouch, been there done that. Where do you live?

RodeoClown Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 3:05 pm

Blue Mountains. Work in Nth Sydney.

Wireless is no good unfortunately. Plus it costs more than I have to spend now.

Craig Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 3:58 pm

I used to live in Camden, work in the CBD.

This year I moved into Annandale - SO MUCH BETTER!

What church do you attend?

RodeoClown Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 4:11 pm

I go to Springwood Baptist, used to go to Lawson and Springwood Anglicans.

Craig Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 4:47 pm

Honestly, do yourself and your family a favour and move in closer to your work. It aint worth sacrificing 3 hours out of your day…

RodeoClown Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 8:50 pm

We already have moved closer :)
I used to live in Bullaburra, which took 2 hours each way.

We want to stay in the mountains for other reasons though, and I work one day a week from home, and am hopefully going to up that to two days a week in the not-too-distant future.

It’s not perfect, but it means I can do my stuff that I want to on the train, and then I’m not doing my own thing the whole time I’m at home. It’s working (for now) and if it gets more stressful I will think about the distance thing again.

It’s definitely something I’m thinking about though.

Craig Said:
August 30th, 2005 at 10:14 pm

Yeah, do so. I’m thinking about my own experience. I went from 1.5 - 2 hours door to door, to 20 minutes. I’m eating better, sleeping better, more energy for everything.

If one of your reasons for staying in the mountains is cheap housing, I would suggest you buy an investment property there and just rent closer to the city.

Also, living close to the city rocks… ;-)

RodeoClown Said:
August 31st, 2005 at 7:13 am

Buying is completely out of our reach at the moment.
There are other reasons than cost though, but thanks for the comments. It is something I’m thinking about.

spanna-annelise Said:
September 7th, 2005 at 4:11 pm

don’t leave me ian!
you’re already 20 minutes too far away…