There is a reason I am sitting here with 3 devices. In a word – Internet. In two words – slow Internet.
Maria asked how it is that I am getting so much more done this trip and swearing so much less than when we went to Rio a year ago. In a different word – preparation.
Since I was expecting not to have the same 42MPS download speed as at home, I downloaded everything I could in advance on to my laptop and iPad. I have a couple hundred pages of PDFS files to review as part of a grant I’m writing, a book to read for a class I will be teaching in March and all of the repositories for game development loaded on my laptop.
There is a big push these days for storing everything “in the cloud”. There are whole school computer labs that use only Chromebooks where you don’t even have the option to store much in the way of data or applications on your local device. Since I am often in places ranging from central Missouri to northern North Dakota (that’s kind of redundant, isn’t it? ) to airplanes (lots of airplanes), I very often am working in places where working in the cloud is not an option, even though I am literally working in the cloud.
Literally working in the cloud
Another reason I’m more productive on this trip is that a major purpose of coming here was to test all of our products and processes in an emerging market. So far, I have downloaded and installed prototype using TestFlight, tested it and submitted some bugs. I’ve done a lot more testing but that is a blog post in itself. My point is that you can turn the disadvantage of sketchy internet into an advantage by testing the limits of your products and operations.
Also, you probably will end up making ample use of Air Drop, USB drives and cables to communicate between devices. When I needed to share a copy of Spirit Lake with Maria so she could start rewriting the story line for the new update, I copied it on to a flash drive and handed it to her because copying 800MB over this network would take at least two hours. When Air Drop could not find my MacBook, I connected my phone to the computer and copied the files. Yes, just like in the old days.
You might notice I have three devices here. The reason is that when my laptop is not responding because something is downloading or trying to load, I can be typing this blog on my iPad. When the laptop is available again, I move over to that.
When I am off line – up in the air, computer froze waiting for some signal that never came – I draft notes, emails and then post once I get back online – like now
I’m always and everywhere working away making awesome games like Fish Lake. You should check it out. Fun and educational (yes, it is possible to be both). It WILL make you smarter. Available for Mac and Windows
