Development on the Road

General Web Dev
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This seems like a good time of the year to ask this question. What do all of you do about on the road development? What tools or processes do you use when you’re developing somewhere that isn’t your normal office/workstaton/computer. Do you work on code, edit sites or graphics or copy, interact with clients, etc from other locations? Your kitchen? Your car (when a passenger, of course)? Public transit? Your family’s homes, on holiday? Cafes? Parks?

Do you simply use the same laptop and software everywhere, or do you have a development-lite sort of setup on a smaller laptop? Does anyone use a tablet for web design or development on the road?

Does anyone who does this freelance prefer to work outside of the office/home? Coffee-shop hoppers and the like? I’d be curious to hear about your routines, as well.

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Yes. I should get me a more powerful computer for video editing, but atm I do all with my laptop

I work from home, one of the biggest advantages of freelance work for me.

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Sorry, what I meant to ask was whether people prefer to work outside of the home rather than at home. So you like working at home then?

I know some freelancers that I’ve talked to indicated that they preferred co-working spaces or cafes or the like rather than to work at home.

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I could understand why full time work-from-homers would dislike it over time. I work from home ~ once a week, sometimes twice a week, and while it is nice to not have to drive in, it is nice to actually talk face-to-face with other developers and develop rapport there.

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Yes. But primarily because it saves me a lot of traveling time.

If I had such a place nearby, I might go there from time to time. But there isn’t, so I’m quite happy to work from home. I still have a lot of contact with colleagues/fellow developers on skype and other modern comunication means.

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When I go on holiday or go abroad I take my mac airbook which is hardly any heavier than an ipad but has loads of power and a fantastic normal size keyboard. I always take a wireless mouse as I can’t use a touch pad although the macs touch pad is good.

The benefit of the mac laptop is that it has the apple SDK loaded so I can run the apple simulator and test ios devices easily.

I have all my software ready on the mac (editors, photoshop, fireworks and so on) so that I can just continue working as normal. Before I go away I upload any current work to dropbox and anything I am likely to need so that I can work efficiently.

I’m not a keen laptop user a I find the screens a little too small for me but its certainly good enough to continue working while on the move or away from home when something urgent comes up.

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I freelance, and I take my laptop (loaded with everything I need) everywhere I go. I tend to be much more productive in coffee shops or even the local library because the constant activity and ‘buzz’ around me seems to help me shut out annoying little distractions, and the energy in the atmosphere gives me more energy.

The only work I save for home (and my more secure WiFi connection) is anything involving uploading or downloading files related to client projects. Often at home it is too easy to be distracted into doing other stuff instead of my work.

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Well I don’t code as a day job, but I do drag my laptop around with me whether I’m in Saudi or on holiday in some other part of the world. It’s sitting on my knees in front of the telly right now as it happens.

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