06_info-tech.md 2.9 KB
IT
IT can often be found at a library, but in the time of a pandemic it depends on the availability of electricity which can be scarce. Solar power, car alternators, exposed outdoor outlets, trusted service venues, and similar may be able to provide electricity at a small cost. A smart phone can be considered consumer IT, despite the ability to create in some capacity… it can be thought of as able to capture and produce rough content, which can succeed in some contexts— the author need be creative. A laptop is the typical option for mobile computing, and requires ample eletricity. A middle ground is a netbook or single board computer with a small screen and ability to tether to a mobile phone— for example a Raspberry Pi 3 + iPhone SE ‘16 which gives roughly the power of an AWS t2.micto instance in addition to the mobile device. In theory one could cross-compile and side-load software onto an Android device from the RasPi, but doing so on iOS is unsupported at best. A side-loading option could be constructed. In the course of writing this document, I got a lick all day and then had to move the car by 4pm. It was about 3pm and the system would no longer boot. I went and got dinner, and came back to a new camping spot and found the copy of fsck that I’d downloaded prior when this happened before (no doubt, the day I got the solar cell… causing weeks of down time, at that time, to try solving the issue and get fsck. InfoSec -more in layer 2? Required to do anything of consequence. Encrypted disk. OS Updates. Secured Wifi. VPNs. 2FA token and backup security. Storage locker operations. Email is of consequence, as is working with client secrets—loss of secrets is a liability. LLC?The IT may be janky and require accomodation for use, and appear threatening to observers. Short cables may be required, there may be limited time windows or battery power available (see Electricity). If you have a history of building fun ideas in IT, then they are the first to go unfunded and be hijacked by others, The Tiny DataCenter / CarPuter is a good option for professionals, at a price point lower than most laptops over time, taking into account electricity. Since it uses ARM processors the power usage is much lower, at very little cost to most use cases on the Pi4 platform. Typing rate can make a huge difference. Screen size as well.. imagine pixel count and surface area as related but a large screen may be low resolution and less useful than a high res small screen. The M1 chip itself may use 15W, making the CarPuter a much lower power alternative. Range of applications is to be determined, but impressive so-far. Whyisn’t iPhone or Android enough? Because there is no self-maintainable storage solution. Those are consumer devices, and do not allow interfacting with custom hardware or developing programs on the device themselves beyond scripting existing apps