Handy Polymath

Things are gonna start happening to me now.

I’ve fed new batteries to my 16 year old TI-82 calculator and have headed back to school. Alas, the very nature of the Science Upgrade means that even an ancient graphing calculator would be cheating, so I’m spending another ten bucks for a basic scientific calculator that won’t do the algebra for me.

In the dark nadir of my Cube Farm days, I used to picture going back to school as a charmed and relaxing lifestyle. When you think going back to school requires having extra money, it adds accessories to the daydream. My kit would be as sparkling and new as my grand endeavor. Instead my kit is as quirky, unstable and re-purposed as the Dirty Dozen.

Like Lee Marvin with the condemned, I’ve taken bent spoons and made them into whip-smart shivs.

My laptop is relatively new, though that’s almost luck of the draw as I’d driven several computers into the ground. We just knew this was probably going to go to school, and so chose against another tower. It currently travels in a 13 year old computer bag.

I need a slipcover for the laptop, since I snagged a free sturdy canvas portfolio bag I’ll probably use for school, but I may end up making a neoprene envelope for it myself if I can find the raw materials cheap. This is the mobile HQ.

The thumbdrive is the advance force, with a Portable Apps platform and vast amounts of space. This 30G USB drive was a nice Amazon.com score, and makes Handy Polymath possible.

Next is the Soviet iPod: a 5 year old iRiver H320 .mp3 player running Rockbox firmware. This thing is only 20G, but with the open source firmware plays nearly everything (including video), has a new battery with three times the staying power, and records sound very well with a button mic. With a radio-adapter plugged into my car stereo (and permission of instructors), I have an alternate way to review lectures while driving.

Kevin Kelly thinks that in the future software will be so good that folks will be able to run artificial intelligences on the hardware we made in the 90′s. I think he’s totally right, so why wait?

Last is the PDA, which is 7 years old, but bless it, has Adobe Reader, WiFi and Google Mobile apps. And yes, MahJongg Solitaire, because all work and no play make anyone a dull boy. It’s even got a little spectrographic analysis app, because people made a few nifty things for Windows Mobile 5 back in the day. One day, I may see if it will upgrade to WM 6, but it’s in a happy place so I’m not pushing it this year. Along with the ability to review any online class docs from a pocket sized hand-held, this gives me even more access to the software component of the team.

Google owns you, but (so far) it means well.

I’ve uploaded my course schedules into a Google calendar, and anything with a due date is now a task. Online classes have their trade-offs, which is that you only have to be on time in your seat for tests and lab, but without someone droning every few days about deadlines, you must have your shit together solo.

Between weekly packets, practice problems, homework, quizzes, discussion boards and textbooks with company-based web components (not to mention navigating the online quirks of two different schools), I’ve been front-loading time this week just collating info.

*sketches diagram differentiating ass from elbow*

Bookmarks (both Firefox and good old binder clips), Google calendar and Google tasks will save me, I think. Being able to check it on the PDA, the thumbdrive, or the laptop means that anywhere I have ten minutes I can check in and complete something.

Aggregate Futzing. It’s a beautiful thing.