Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 09:58:56 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: John Sellens <jsellens@uunet.ca> Cc: dgaudet-list-freebsd-mobile@arctic.org, freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG, jdp@polstra.com, mike@smith.net.au Subject: Re: Seamless nomadic e-mail access Message-ID: <19971012095856.17191@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199710110322.XAA00363@pollux.uunet.ca>; from John Sellens on Fri, Oct 10, 1997 at 11:22:56PM -0400 References: <199710110322.XAA00363@pollux.uunet.ca>
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On Fri, Oct 10, 1997 at 11:22:56PM -0400, John Sellens wrote: >> On Wed, Oct 08, 1997 at 02:03:34AM -0700, Dean Gaudet wrote: >>>>> I can still read mail on my server or on my laptop. On the server I can >>>>> use whatever client suits me. i.e. telnet and pine. >>>> >>>> Sure, but this is not "more" accessible, this is less. >>> >>> Uh I can get to it from wherever I can get on the net, even if I don't >>> have my laptop handy. I can't do offline stuff. But you have to keep >>> your laptop handy to do any mail. >> >> I suppose this is very much a lifestyle question. IMO, the idea of a >> laptop is to have something to take around with you in order to >> connect to the net. I don't really see why I would ever need to >> access the net a different way. Of course, if you've left your laptop >> at home, you can have it connected to the net, so that's not a problem >> either: you just telnet in to your laptop. >> >> In practice, I find that the best solution for me is to have my mail >> go to my main system at home, and when I need it on my laptop, I >> download it. It's worked pretty well for over a year now. > > If you'll forgive a comment from the peanut gallery, I'll disagree > with Greg -- in my situation, my laptop is not just "something > to take around with (me) in order to connect to the net" -- it's > my working environment. And I'll toss in another vote for the > "everything on the laptop" approach. Sure, that's your way to use the machine. I want as much screen real estate as I can, and when I'm at home, I use a stationary machine with 2x1600x1200. Can't do that with a laptop. But that's not disagreeing with me, you just use it differently. My original point was that Dean was wanting to be able to access the net without his laptop and apparently without any other computer to call his own. > I happen to be doing a non-trivial commute daily, 1.5 hours each > way on the inter-city bus. I always carry my briefcase, and I > always have my laptop in my briefcase (and the weight difference > is enough that it's obvious when it is and is not there). Everything > is on my laptop (e.g. all my articles, papers and files, programs, > all my mail archives since 1986) including all my incoming and > outgoing mail. My mail gets delivered to a server, then I use > fetchmail to drag it down to my laptop, so that a broken or stolen > laptop doesn't leave my mail sitting in MX record limbo. (I don't > have a local news server set up yet, but I'm considering it.) > > This way, on the bus ride home, I can do anything (except web and ftp), > read and send mail in particular. And, of course, I have daily backups > (ftp mirroring "pulling" from the laptop to the server, making them > incrementatl). And when I am connected to the net, whether at work > (ethernet), home (ISDN), or in a hotel (28.8), my interaction is > at the same speed (editing, formatting, mailing), it's just the download > and upload time that vary. > > Works for me, but I won't claim that my situation is typical :-) Well, I run mail offline on my laptop, too, like in planes and obscure hotel rooms. When I get it connected to a net, I just run 'sendmail -q', and it gets sent. Greg
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