Working remotely

You might know that I updated the Creeper's Lab network to Minecraft 1.19 right around the start of the month. What you probably don't know, however, is that I wasn't even home at the time! So, how did that go?

A few years ago, I described my hardware setup. From that selection, I do the vast majority of my work on my desktop computer. Rebuilt back in 2019, it still offers a very solid performance and allows me to run multiple programs at once. When I do Minecraft updates, I'll frequently run one or two servers and two clients of the game, plus my dev tools, plus the usual suspects like email, browser and so on. Having the raw power to handle all this together definitely helps.

I knew I was going to be away for a few days, so I prepared myself by packing the best alternative. I brought my laptop along, plus two Surface Go tablets as I've since acquired a second one, used. The laptop is rather old now, getting close to seven years of use, so it's not as fast as it could be. That's where the tablets come in: I use them as extra screens, with keyboard and mouse being shared among them. Since they're their own computers, though, I run some non-critical programs on them: notes, Discord, browser for references, etc. This frees up the laptop to run the game server and client, giving it a chance at keeping up with the testing I throw at it!

Laptop and two tablets

While this doesn't beat my home setup, it definitely does what I need it to. I've also spent a few actual work days using this very setup, and it went better than I expected. Here's to mobility!

#tools #hardware

– Doctacosa