Commuting with a laptop

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I think I'll just try it out
with one of the backpacks I have and see how everything goes before
investing more cash.

To all those who proposed technical solutions, I totally agree. In
fact, that is what I do now. I leave the laptop and home and use
rdesktop to work with it from the office. Unfortunately, I'm starting
to need it for more than just email and the occasional Word document
and the connection to home is a bit slow, even though it is broadband.
Believe me, I love the convenience of it, but it may not work out.
Maybe I can convince my company to buy me another computer. 🙂

Quoted message said:

I'm curious to get people's thoughts on how to commute while carrying a
laptop. A bit of info about my particular situation:

- I only need to carry the laptop, no extra clothes or other stuff.
- I will be riding in the rain (Seattle area)
- I will be riding on different bikes, including my race bike (so I
probably don't want to hang too much off of it)
- My commute take over 2 hours in cases where I include a workout on
the way to the office.

So, a couple questions. Is riding with a backpack for 2 hours too
much? Are there any bike mounted bag options that will fit a laptop
and fit on a racing bike?

Thanks!

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all of the advice everyone.

How big is your laptop?

The screen size that is?

It's a 15" Compaq...

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm curious to get people's thoughts on how to commute while carrying a
laptop. A bit of info about my particular situation:

- I only need to carry the laptop, no extra clothes or other stuff.
- I will be riding in the rain (Seattle area)
- I will be riding on different bikes, including my race bike (so I
probably don't want to hang too much off of it)
- My commute take over 2 hours in cases where I include a workout on
the way to the office.

So, a couple questions. Is riding with a backpack for 2 hours too
much? Are there any bike mounted bag options that will fit a laptop
and fit on a racing bike?

Thanks!

http://www.boblbee.com/jsp/public/general/homepage.jsp

Hardshell with the usual laptop features. The comp goes against your back in
its own pocket. Does ok in light to medium rains but I still bag stuff I
don't want wet. It rides against your back so it does give you the sweaty
back. Rides comfortably but I'm only going 15 mi and not always with my
laptop.

Quoted message said:

I commute to the university here in
Seattle everyday for the past year with my laptop, a Thinkpad X31

How do you like that x31?

I mean..... how do you like the size of it at 12."
display

Ever wish you went smaller such as 10" display?

Quoted message said:

The disadvantage of using a messenger bag is that you have to carry it
on your back instead of on the bike, but the advantage is that there is no
road shock to worry about, so you can choose from a wider variety of
laptops, such as the 4-lb Dell 700 with built-in DVD drive. But because
you do have to carry it on you, 15" laptops are still a bad idea unless you
want to give your upper body a workout as well as your lower body.

I have the Timbuktui bag as well

I wouldn't say it necessarily rides on your back.

It actually rides lower and off to the side a bit.

Actually that's the beauty of a messenger bag.... they
can be adjusted to ride many diff ways

Agree?

Collin said:

Quoted message said:

Email address works as is.

Better yet, try using a VPN and shared storage to store your files. Not
an option if, say, your company will only allow you one computer and
you're not willing to spend money on another.

Best: get Windows XP Pro with terminal services at work. Establish VPN
connection first, and then use terminal services client to connect to
your machine at work. You will get the user interface of your work
computer displayed on your ts client. For my setup with a broadband
connection at home there is very little (usually none at all)
discernable difference between using the computer at work and using it
via ts. It is _better_ than having a laptop at home for a lot of
things, because there is less to pull over the VPN and there is no
issue at all of synchronizing work because the work is executed on your
work machine. There's no hassle of packing and unpacking your laptop
twice a day.

A ts client is "thin" and can therefore run well on a PC that would
otherwise be obsolete, so cost should not be a big factor. It may not
work well on a dialup, though; it would probably depend on what you
were doing. It also depends on having an infrastructure at work that
will support a vpn.

I have never commuted with a PC on a bicycle but I have on a
motorcycle, in addition to public transportation. Having experienced
terminal services, I would never go back to lugging a laptop back and
forth to work everyday unless I had no other choice.

Disclaimer: I am not a big fan of Windows, but this setup works very
well, and is one of the few good reasons I've found for running XP Pro
(not necessary for the ts client, though).

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Better yet, try using a VPN and shared storage to store your files. Not
an option if, say, your company will only allow you one computer and
you're not willing to spend money on another.

I second this. commuting with a laptop is a disaster waiting to happen.
If you really want something waterproof, find an Ortlieb commuter
briefcase. They are totally waterproof.

Rob