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posted this in: Hardware, Servers, Technology, Travel
647 Words

So, it’s been about a week since I’ve been back from Taiwan, and I’ve finally had a moment to catch my breath with work and all the things that happened while I was away from the office, life and such.

To basically sum everything up – Project Cloud Citizen works. It meets my needs with my work and media requirements. Between the Nintendo Switch, mobile and iPad itself, my gaming needs are met too. There’s a few caveats however…

Caveats for why Cloud Citizen is a ‘success’

I’m no longer a hardcore gamer

This is probably the biggest caveat I can think of. Gone are the needs of 100% minimal input lag gaming; I’m not cruising around in some competitive FPS, and most of my gaming needs can be very casually met. I was satisfied mostly gaming on the Nintendo Switch, and the occasional odd iPad game.

I’m not as media creative focused anymore

I still tinker around every now and then in Photoshop and with some graphics; I don’t think this’d be possible with full blown video editing suites. Rudimentary graphic design is still very much possible, as long as you’re willing to compromise with colour reproduction and image quality while editing your work. The finished product will very much still be to spec, but due to the nature of streaming, you might not see your work with perfect clarity.

Cloud Citizen works for me

Photos

I was able to upload and retrieve just about every photo I took within a few seconds, on-demand during the trip. Taiwan has cheap, unlimited 4G for tourists (Alice and I picked up a 10-day SIM) with extremely consistent coverage everywhere in Taipei and Hualien. Whilst this is mostly a success due to the availability of mobile internet; the usability is a success from my phone/iPad with Cloud Citizen.

Remote Work

Whilst I was overseas, my team deployed a new project that had been in the works for about half a year. Thanks to Cloud Citizen, I was able to remote into my server, and via a remote setup on my iPad with a mouse — I was able to contribute meaningfully to the processes.

I could indeed use my iPad as my main computing device, as long as it’s backed up by the power of a full fledged desktop environment back at HQ

If it’s a success, does that mean…?

That I’ll be using my iPad as my main device? After this whole experience, I feel that yes, I could indeed use my iPad as my main computing device, as long as it’s backed up by the power of a full fledged desktop environment back at HQ. It has made me reassess my needs (and wants) for mobile computing; and I come to the conclusion that I need something a little more robust.

My work, and often whatever I’m doing digitally, tends to be code based. And my workflows currently involve a lot of Docker container usage for my work. The #1 issue that I have with the iPad is that I have no way for testing my PHP code locally. Sure, this could be overcome by remoting into a PC and doing everything from there, and whilst it’s not terrible, it’s also not ideal (for example, if I’m overseas I might not have access to the internet, or be on a very data-restricted plan).

This, in essence, makes my choice for me going forward into 2019… I’m going to need to return to using my laptop. It’s no slouch, and it’s comfortably going to run all the Docker stuff I need; combined with some other applications – I think I should be quite comfortable with development on the go with it.

It’s unfortunate that yes, while I consider Cloud Citizen a success; it’s only a partial success with the particular ecosystem I brought with me to Taiwan.

648 Words

So, over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be travelling overseas to Taiwan. It’s a vacation, my first in nearly a decade; and since my last vacation, a lot of technology has changed that perhaps makes this journey a little more comforting to a reclusive geek like myself. The airline I’m flying with, provides a USB socket in its international economy seats, with 5V DC and 500mA charge, meaning I can power a device somewhat comfortably to enjoy a variety of media, and entertainment. So without further ado, I’m going to go into something of a diatribe about preparing for the trip to soothe my inner geek.

The constraints

There’s a number of limitations on this vacation, predominantly governed by my travel arrangements (flights, trains, etc.) so listing them out:

  • Portability; I’m using a Crumpler 8L backpack; the “Low Level Aviator”
  • Power; My gadgets need to last a while, and/or be charged with in-transit USB (5V DC, 500mA – about the same as a USB 1.1 port)
  • Mediaand Storage for photos and videos from my phone
  • Entertainment; I don’t expect to have much time, but in the down time and flights I might watch a show, or three…
  • Gaming; of course 🙂

The goal of this post is to put down my thoughts so that I can build up an EDC kit for my trip.

The EDC Backpack

Aside from my wallet – “The Pilot” by Andar; and my iPhone on my person – I’ll have most of my gear in my backpack with me:

  • iPad Pro 9.7″ – it’s only 32GB, but it should hold enough of my notes and such to continue being useful!
  • Nintendo Switch – previously in Project Cloud Citizen, this would’ve been my GPD-WIN PC, more on this later;
  • Bullet Journal – my bujo, I carry this with me pretty much everywhere
  • Pen cases – will hold my pens of course, and insulin injection pens, as well as some bandaids and what have you
  • Screwdriver kit – this is a little portable kit with a combined tape measure that I will keep with me just in case
  • Glasses case – obviously, for the glasses I wear, as well as a spare pair inside
  • Battery Pack
  • Cables for iPhone/iPad/Switch

This trip is a good opportunity to really see what there is that I can and can’t do when I’m truly away from my home desktop, and must rely on Project Cloud Citizen. I’m packing quite lightly with this trip, and my day-pack is smaller than my usual laptop bag. I’m also trying to ditch the laptop in favour of the lighter-weight iPad, and gaming/entertainment is handled by both the tablet and my Nintendo Switch instead.

In my last Cloud Citizen post I mentioned that I was going to use my GPD-WIN for my gaming purposes; but I am actually thinking more along the lines of no longer using it. For a few reasons:

  • Its battery is good, but not as great as the Nintendo Switch or the iPad
  • It’s far more general purpose, and far more of a compromise in power/features – so I feel like I’ve sacrificed too much to use it
  • The iPad can truly connect with my Cloud Citizen server as a remote client now

For anything really PC related or desktop related, I can actually use my iPad now to remote into my server as needed using a piece of software called Jump Desktop, it works great with a specific bluetooth mouse and my iPad, and should satisfy any mobile needs I might have. In fact, I intend to work on this site and blog while I’m in Taiwan to try and get a feel for it.

So as it seems, I’m going to start using just my iPad and Switch, for this trip. It’s a 9 day long trip; so it’s a fairly valid testing opportunity!

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So, I’m going into the final month of probation at my current job; my project Cloud Citizen deployment has actually already started upgrading and now I’m moving from a laptop system to a desktop system to host my personal cloud services. The machine itself is a gaming-grade desktop, running Windows 10 Professional, and I’ll be enabling Docker on it to provide additional services I might need.

Specifications

  • AMD Ryzen 7 1800+ CPU (3.6GHz)
  • 16GB DDR4 16-18-18-36 3200MHz RAM
  • 2 x 10TB HGST 7200RPM HDDs with 256MB Cache
  • 1 x 250GB Samsung Pro M2 SSD
  • ASUS Turbo Geforce 1070 GTX 8GB Card

It’s significantly more powerful than my laptop, with enough resources to last me a couple of years I’m hoping. It’s sitting in an old Fractal Design Core 1000 case (circa 2008) that’s really, just barely holding together, haha! I’m using the AMD Wraith Max from my recent home desktop upgrade (AMD Ryzen 7 2700+) to cool the Ryzen 7. It seems to be working extremely well!

It’s all in the Services

So, unlike the laptop implementation of my Cloud core for Cloud Citizen, I’m going to be rolling out services on JT-CXS almost entirely exclusively for myself, and provide provisional, temporary access to others as needed. I’ll be running a number of consistent apps that passed muster when I was running on the more fiddly JT-NXS system.

Services

  • Plex – personal media streaming and organisation
  • Ubooquity – personal eBook/Manga library resource
  • Parsec – 60fps 1080p gaming streaming to my devices at home, and on-the-go
  • Jump Desktop – iOS compatible desktop streaming at high FPS

Primary Roles

Cloud Citizen’s new machine – JT-CXS – still maintains it’s role of being my core computer, to enable me to work remotely from anywhere with a reasonably fast internet connection. It should let me:

  • Develop software projects (Git, Visual Studio Code, Git Bash, Sublime Text, WinSCP)
  • Plan the software projects and ideas I have (Zenkit, Visio)
  • Work on Documents, and Publications (Office)
  • Work on Media Production and Development (Adobe Creative Cloud)

All in all, with the extra grunt this machine provides – I’m really looking forward to being less restricted in all the things I can do over a cloud connection; and really, start looking towards using my iPad or ultralight notebook as my primary physical device.

An Every Day Carry (EDC) Kit

So – with my gadgets, I’m hoping to eventually reconstruct an EDC Kit that I can use to travel with. It’s all a little interconnected really – the investment in Cloud Computing means I can offset the processing power I need on-the-go; and make a lighter EDC kit for myself so that I can catch public transport, and manage myself when I’m out and about – which in turn means I’m more likely to use my car less (thus lessening my carbon footprint, and saving some dollars in the bank).

As the final component of Project Cloud Citizen – I think it’s pleasing to say that in this final week, a device has surfaced (from when I was cleaning my room and assembling a shiny new wardrobe system) that provides an answer to the gaming shortcomings I had previously by basing myself entirely on an iPad!

My EDC is very technical and work focused – and the three primary pieces of equipment in it, are the GPD-WIN, my iPad, and my journal. These are discussed below.

Introducing the GPD-WIN

For solely gaming – the GPD-WIN is the device I’ll use.

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It was a perfect solution to being able to carry a device everywhere that’d let me game via the built-in Xbox Controller, and if need be, I could plug in a keyboard and mouse!

So, a couple of years ago, I bought a GPD-WIN, to try and carry around a pocket console for emulation and on-the-go coding, etc. Now at the time, I didn’t have JT-CXS to offload all the GPU processing to, so I was limited in the extreme to whatever the GPD-WIN itself could handle. Which really, was pretty much nothing beyond PS2 ROMs.

However, the device was capable of running Windows 10, and while that left next to nothing for storage, I didn’t need the storage – I could use the device as a thin-client for access to JT-CXS. It was a perfect solution to being able to carry a device everywhere that’d let me game via the built-in Xbox Controller, and if need be, I could plug in a keyboard and mouse! This meant that whilst I’m out and about and on-the-move, I had full access to my Game Libraries, and could play most modern games (and by a stretch I could use the terrible joystick-mouse mode, to play non-WASD games such as Civilization VI).

The iPad, that old workhorse

My iPad is a pretty special solution – it’s the entry-level iPad Pro 9.7-inch from 2017, and surprisingly, it’s been extremely helpful, despite a lack of 4G. When I get a chance to upgrade, I will be sure to get a device with Cellular capabilities.

The iPad will primarily be used for:

  • Coding on-the-go
  • Browser/Media Consumption
  • Design + Planning
  • Forex trading and financial management

The Bujo (Bullet Journal)

Bullet Journalling has changed my life. Seriously, it’s become a day-to-day system that helps me manage and self-reflect on a level that no digital system has ever been able to achieve. It’s a simple (or as complex as you want) system of writing a daily log in a book that helps you compartmentalise and keep track of all the crap that’s flying around in your life. I’ll probably blog a bit more about this later on, but here’s the intro ‘how-to’ video:

I use the Moleskine Soft Squared Notebook (L) to keep my Bujo in order; expensive, but I love the feel of the book in general, and its simple, unassuming, no-nonsense design. In fact, I’ve just made a note to myself to start working on buying more of these notebooks so I don’t run out in the future.


And so we come to the end of Project Cloud Citizen. Sure there are tweaks and fixes needed, but for the overall part I’m able to travel around with a newly organised EDC bag, and perform all the duties and tech work I need, without breaking a sweat, or being chained down to a desk now. It’s not complete freedom, it’s just usingi the power of the cloud to extend that ‘leash’ I have to my work, so that I can move around and enjoy what I need, whever I need.

posted this in: Hardware, Software, Technology
1,652 Words

Project Cloud Citizen has been a resounding success; it’s literally waiting now on two time-sensitive issues:

  • I pass probation at work so I might have more leeway in the machine I keep in the office to use for this project;
  • I decide to either use a laptop, or become almost entirely iPad based

I’ve got a generation 1 iPad Pro 9.7-inch, Wi-fi only, 32GB tablet. It was purposely bought a few years ago as a bare minimum use device for purely media consumption, but thanks to Project Cloud Citizen — it’s wonderful, it lets me do just about everything with it short of solid code development (Using docker etc) although that is already solved in the project through the really good RDP client that Microsoft makes for iPad users.

“…it’s purely from a gaming perspective that I’m holding back…”

The iPad solves and makes comfortable, an idea of having a clean, sleek slate that acts as a window into my digital world (hah, a window to Windows basically) and lets me roam around pretty much anywhere with sufficient download speeds, and minimal upload speeds – while enjoying the power of hardware that is usually not within reach in those locations.

In fact, it’s purely from a gaming perspective that I’m holding back from not even needing my laptop as I can do everything either via RDP, or directly here on the iPad itself (I’m in fact, writing this blog post on the iPad right now!). So, that leads me to think about the following options:

  1. Do I research exhaustively and figure out a way to remote game with my iPad (this will most likely involve money)
  2. Do I just make do? 70% of the time I’m gaming, will be at home, with the remaining 30% being remote on travel/visits/etc.
  3. Probation ending, means I’ll be able to implement a small Mini-ITX machine at the office, thus once again, freeing my laptop as a client

Option 1

Option 1, is of course, the hard way. And what would this experiment be, without trying to figure out things the hard way? There’s a variety of ways to cope with the use of the iPad as a thin client; including jailbreaking my iPad to allow it to function with a mouse, through to actually buying an iOS compatible (with specific apps) mouse. While it’s not awesome that I have to spend money for a solution, it is acceptable, as I’m paying for something that’s a bit outside the box (for most Aussie PC users), so to speak. A quick bit of Google-fu tells me that I’ll need something called the Citrix X1 Mouse, and the Jump Desktop application totalling something like, $120.00 in expenditure.

The Risks

I won’t actually be able to see how the X1 mouse feels, so the risk is that it is completely terrible for gaming, although the Jump Desktop videos briefly demonstrates some gaming with the X1 mouse (on games I’ve never seen before). So, that’s pretty much the biggest risk, I’ll be spending money on a mouse I don’t want to use, and once I have it, I might lose it because it’s wireless.

The Negatives

It’s an iPad. The main comparison I’ll be doing is against my laptop as a client.

The screen isn’t going to be very big, the keyboard isn’t as nice as a full-size mechanical keyboard, and there aren’t as many keys/options/shortcuts I can hammer around. It’s not as powerful as my laptop, in a pinch.

Local storage does become an issue as well – the laptop has 500GB built-in, whereas my iPad comes with 32GB built-in. The workaround is thankfully available in the form of lightning-connector USB memory sticks; however this still remains a negative as I’d have to carry around a whole bunch of them to meet my storage needs.

Finally also, I’m dependent on the existence of Wi-fi or a 4G tethered connection. There’s no real workaround for this aside from making sure I get a Cellular data-capable iPad when I upgrade in the future.

The Benefits

In terms of mobility, ease of use, the iPad is king. Even with carrying an extra mouse it’s still king. My laptop provides awesome functionality, and even more power; but as a thin client it does almost exactly the same stuff as the iPad. The iPad lets me use the pencil, keyboard and mouse to do all sorts of stuff, whilst all being completely silent, and functional, even as a spare camera in a hurry.

I can flip it open, or turn it on and it’ll wake instantly and I can get straight to using stuff. If I ever wanted to draw or plan a diagram, there’s an app for that (at this stage in the iOS evolution, I think that phrase is pretty much biblical now) – my Apple Pencil is hands down the best stylus I have ever used; if I need to do something more meaty than email, web and media, I can remote into my Cloud system and do it. I’ve got significant bandwidth on my 4G phone with tethering, so I’m not concerned about data limits right now.

My iPad is in a gorgeous real leather case that cost me a very pretty penny, it’s a joy to handle, carry around and appreciate. It’s smaller and quieter than my laptop too. It still has a headphone jack for my headsets, and it has a fairly comfortable keyboard/screen protector for it (an authentic Apple Smart Keyboard – admittedly in its 9.7-inch flavour which is no longer available).

The iPad is silent in operation. I can’t stress how amazing this is for me, either. My current laptop, while it’s a slim, sleek powerhouse – sounds like a jet engine ready for takeoff when anything starts to write to the SSD in it.

Option 2

The problem with Option 2 isn’t such a big one. More and more of my time in entertaining myself on my gear is passive entertainment (music, movies, TV, etc.) as opposed to interactive entertainment (games). However, it does defeat the purpose of Project Cloud Citizen. Ideally, the intent was to do everything via a thin client (in this case an iPad Pro) in the cloud.

In fact, it’s already the option I’m currently using per se.

The Risks

None really, I don’t have an extra mouse to lose, and I can still do everything I was going to do as a remote cloud user short of gaming.

The Negatives

I can’t game. I can’t show friends games, and I can’t enjoy the full power of mobile computing through the cloud on this device using just a touch interface. The touch interface is a nightmare to use on Windows RDP; buttons are still fiddly, and doing full productivity in something like Visual Studio Code, then alt-tabbing to do something in Photoshop just won’t work. While possible, it requires re-learning everything and there’s a lack of precision that a mouse pointer offers.

It affects workflow and productivity on top of the lack of gaming abilities. To me, this single handedly makes Option 2 unviable.

The Benefits

No extra equipment needed, as I can already do this now.

Option 3

Finally there’s the ‘long play’ option. This involves a few serious steps however. Once probation is over I have the room and space to deploy a mini-ITX PC at my desk. There’s some risks and negatives involved that would make me consider Option 3 as a ‘next evolution’ kind of step to the whole project.

The Risks

This is absolutely the most expensive solution to the project. It involves buying essentially a whole new PC. Hardware compatibility, configuration, etc. All the usual caveat emptor situations apply with building a new PC.

Moving to a full blown PC also means there’s issues with configuration for headless gaming.

The Negatives

Again, the price. The hardware configuration. A lot of the drawbacks of the other options no longer exist as the power of a full desktop experience comes into play.

My laptop acting as a client might work well, pending fan sounds, portability (it’s not that portable) and battery power too. My laptop itself is already quite powerful, but it weighs more than an iPad.

It has a horrible thermal solution that makes it sound like a vacuum cleaner, and packing away the laptop heats up the bag as well immediately after use; not to mention the actual temperature of the laptop when in use.

There’s a lot that I dislike about my laptop, which is why it hardly gets the usage it deserves – it’s nowhere near the sleek experience I had with the Apple MacBook Air. And in a strong sense, it’s further justification for me to use the laptop as a hub for Project Cloud Citizen, and then migrate to a PC as the next step when the laptop starts to give out.


Parting Thoughts

All told, Option 1 seems to be the way to go, with a mix of Option 3 as a ‘next stage’. Midway through writing this post (on the iPad I might add) – I realise that a Project Roadmap might be the most interesting thing to do for the outcome of this project.

So perhaps that’s what I’ll do – while Option 1 requires forking out money, it also avoids the risks of Jailbreaking my device, but also means I have applicaiton and hardware support continued for my iPad. It means my Laptop still gets some utilisation, and a purpose to it, rather than the costs of expensive hardware not being hosted within my own home.

Once I’m more comfortable in doing everything I possibly can on the iPad while away from home, I’ll migrate to a full blown desktop PC experience.

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Remote Desktop more than covers my use of productivity on JT-NXS, my laptop system that’s based at the office. So far, I’ve been fortunate in the last 10 days or so since moving towards ‘Cloud Citizen’ status, that I’ve been at my desktop, JT-DXS and not needed to use JT-NXS as much for productivity.

The experiment so far has been a wonderful successespecially when it comes to Media Consumption – it’s been awesome being able to access a personal collection of media that some close friends and family are also able to access.

Gaming has been great, for anything that’s not on a pressured level (ie. competitive play like Overwatch, or CS:GO – even then, they’re fine, but I just feel more comfortable not leaning on the internet connection so much to remain competitive with other human players). Co-op games are a revelation with it, Parsec.tv have really outdone themselves in their compression algorithms and gaming performance over the net.

I think, if when I pass probation at my workplace, I’ll commit to buying a mini-ITX system to accommodate a spare GTX 1070 graphics card I have, and allow for a bit more storage space too (dual 4TB drives + 3TB existing storage)

I’ve got plans at least, to rearrange my equipment at home; to minimise waste, and reduce the soaring temperatures in my bedroom, too. Even in the dead of winter it’s still a warm toasty room that can get quite uncomfortably stuffy as well.

Anyway, 10 days in and I’ve started rolling out some productivity tools onto JT-NXS in anticipation of using the system for more work-related and project-related situations.

I’ve got:

  • Git, with Git Bash as my terminal
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Office365

For the most part, I actually already use Google Docs/Spreadsheets almost obsessively to manage my documentation, and I’ve got my own personal BookStack that I use as a personal Wiki and Knowledge Repository.

All in all, I’m slowly training myself to wean off my attachment to my desktop, and to be able to start working from anywhere on a laptop (an old Microsoft Surface Pro 1 – although I plan to use JT-NXS in 3 months time) or tablet (iPad Pro).

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So, primarily to get away from my desktop (see my previous post below) – the solution appears to be resorting to Cloud computing in some shape or form.

Gaming Entertainment

The biggest issue currently, that will dissuade me the most from becoming a citizen of the cloud is that I won’t be able to play games with my low-spec terminal (in this case, in my room, it’ll be a 2012 Mac Mini).

Luckily for me; I actually stumbled across a wonderful solution! Parsec.tv – an amazing, free, 1080p 60fps cloud gaming application. Steam In-Home Streaming has never worked well for me, but this evening I gave it a go with a brand new release Sea of Thieves!

The experiment worked spectacularly – the quality of the game is more than adequate. My Laptop (off-site) reached on average about 40fps; and the input lag was more than acceptable for adventuring, fighting the undead and firing cannons to deal with opposing pirate crews.

The image quality was great – it was slightly higher than an average 60fps 1080p Twitch stream. Here’s a couple of example screenshots:

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The strange blue ‘honeycomb’ icon in the top-left, is Parsec’s hot-spot; you can click that to disconnect/connect with the host machine; or you can recalibrate your gamepad controller – which gets input into the host machine as an XBOX Controller.

There was only one real concern – my laptop reaching 95 degrees in CPU temperature (Speedfan told me it was 88 degrees, but NZXT Cam monitoring told me it was 95). It looks like I’ll need a laptop cooling pad 🙁

Movies & Media Entertainment

The other thing I’d like to do, is somehow migrate my personal media collection, into the cloud. Something that’ll let me stream no matter where I am, should I be on holidays, or working.

Cue, Plex Media Server – a system so consistently awesome in delivering movies and shows across both a network and the internet, with built in media conversion and on-the-fly media management, I can’t really see myself needing any other system to deliver access to my collection of media to friends and family.

Whilst the quality isn’t terribly awesome (it’s slightly worse than Netflix is), it delivers a more than watchable result provided the source files themselves are of a high quality.

Here’s an example of one of my favourites, Kingsman: The Secret Service:

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As you can see, it’s a little murky, but still delivers on the visuals enough. The source file isn’t in a 1080p resolution, but it is still clear enough to watch!


So, all in all – we got through all the fun stuff; being a netizen of the Cloud is a doable thing in Australia – provided you have a 1Gbit internet connection, I suppose.

I’m aware that I’m in an extremely fortunate position to be able to do this; and will continue my experiments and foray into being more integrated into The Cloud™ in time for when the NBN reaches (if ever) my residence.

I’m going to be updating this blog again shortly with some thoughts about being both a “Cloudygamer” and a “Low Spec Gamer” to better handle and optimise my graphical usage; so please stay tuned!

Some Interesting Reading
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Since the start of the year, I’ve been working towards making the technology and capabilities of the tech I use in my every day life, a whole lot more comfortable and less cluttered.

I’ve been looking into a minimalist lifestyle after realizing whilst trying to plan on moving out – that I have way too much crap in my life to accommodate such a move.

There’s a pretty simple rule/goal I keep in mind now with each of the gadgets, tech or ideas I have:

It should, as seamlessly as possible, integrate into my everyday life and tasks. I shouldn’t have to worry about how I’m doing something, or if I can do something.

And the best way I can think of that, is to no longer be tied to a desk in order to do all the programming, design, development, gaming and media consumption.

It would enable me to have a much more enriched quality of life, being able to go out, and adventure around, and when it all gets a bit much, I can just reach through the internet and hug the comfort of my favourite IDE, or enjoy something from my personal, (and carefully) curated media collection.

I’m going to need to join The Cloud™. I’ll be calling this experiment, “Project Cloud Citizen“!

Sounds alright – and I think, very doable if you were based in North America, Western Europe, Korea, Japan, Singapore or Scandinavia. Coincidentally, friends in all those regions are the ones who talked to me about this.

It’s a way more difficult thing to achieve in Australia, where traditionally, the concept of a decent upload speed for data sharing and enrichment, hasn’t existed until the arrival of Netflix, and even then, leaders of society in Australia still think it’s just next-gen TV.

Getting away from the office desk at home

As it currently stands, I’m fortunate enough to work at an office that allows me to keep a laptop present in the office, that in theory, is connected at all times.

This laptop isn’t a snooze in terms of specs:

  • Gigabyte Aero 14
  • Intel i7-7700HQ
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
  • Kingston 16GB (1 x 16GB)
  • Gigabyte P64v7 Motherboard
  • 500GB SSD (TS512GMTS800)
  • Windows 10 Home

Why do this?

Reason #1

I want to be untethered from the restrictions of only being able to show friends & family games, or media that would be accessible within my home office.

I’d like to be able to develop code and access a remote system that is my own without having to carry around or go through an elaborate setup process.

Nowadays, more than ever, a combination of my iPad Pro and Samsung Note 8 cover all my usage that isn’t coding, or gaming. And even then, they begin to encroach on coding, and sometimes gaming!

Reason #2

Where I use my PC at home is an oven with my current PC setup; no joke, I run an incredibly complicated setup that I think is overkill for pretty much everybody except the most hardcore of PC gamers.

It’s messy, it’s finicky, it’s expensive as all heck and it provides the best damn gaming experience I’ve had the pleasure of using.

But in the sweltering Australian summer, it’s untenable with my neighbour’s air conditioning exhaust being about a metre away from my window, and the combined heat of my PC + 3 monitors, and consoles + TV, it becomes somewhat unhealthy, if not overly sweaty.

This is cheaper than buying air-conditioning myself

Reason #3

On a personal level, I feel like the majority of the time that I don’t want to go somewhere or spend time elsewhere outside of the haven I’ve built at home, is because I feel like I don’t have the access to my files and work to tinker with as I go along.

Coding and tinkering with various web projects has become an almost safety blanket to what I do.

The first test

Over the course of a weekend, I went ahead and did some very rudimentary testing of some functions I’d be performing.

Of course; a speed test is in order:

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I’m pretty content with the speeds! My main concern was the upload speed of my laptop; which as you can see, can more than handle the 1080p streaming I was intending to do with it.

I’m surprised the USB 3.0 to Ethernet dongle I was using didn’t crap out! (cheers to my mate: Matt for providing the adapter)

Note to self though, in the future I’ll need to take photos or screenshots of my screen streaming for image quality comparisons (I know streaming will always be worse in terms of visual acuity, but by how much is worth quantifying)

Gaming

Over the weekend, I used a combination of TeamViewer, Hamachi and Steam In-Home Streaming to get a few games going. The image quality felt something akin to watching a twitch stream; there was occasional ribboning of colours in fast-moving games, but aside from that, it worked flawlessly. The almost low-spec restrictions of the laptop forced me to consider playing some of the more indie games in my backlog too.

Rocket League, Hammerwatch, Torchlight all got a go – and I have to say, the only times the frames or input stuttered were more the lack of power behind the laptop and its unoptimised configurations (they were all set to high settings etc.).

Media

Plex had a couple of movies I played to both a friend and myself (Kingsman is a great movie!) simultaneously.

The quality was superb, and stress on the laptop was more than manageable!

Productivity

Admittedly, I did this through TeamViewer, which is rubbish for such situations anyway. However, it was acceptable! There was some input lag, but that’s more TeamViewer’s crappiness as opposed to any other laptop issues. This I expect, should be resolved with proper Remote Desktop access (I’ll need to change to Windows 10 Pro).


Overall, I think the first test was a success, and it’s time to start planning a serious configuration for this application!

I’ll try to keep it well documented 😛