Wednesday, January 11, 2023

An Unintended but Welcome Consequence of Purchasing the ATOPNUC Mini PC

The OS auditions continue apace. I'm reasonably happy with Lubuntu, but burned FydeOS to a USB and may give it something of a try. It's a ChromiumOS variant that raises my security/surveillance hackles a bit because it's a Chinese product aimed at a Chinese audience, though. And I'm still looking at other stuff.

But the big -- OK, actually quite small -- news is that the ATOPNUC Mini PC solves an annoying problem that I didn't expect it to have any impact at all upon.

My work involves a number of specific text files / templates that are updated daily (in the case of RRND) or at least frequently (in the case of media lists for Garrison Center op-ed submissions). And since my preferred text editor doesn't work with e.g. Google Drive, I store those files locally.

Which means that any time I switch computers, I have to do one of three things:

  • Email the files to myself so that I can download the latest versions to the computer I'm switching to;
  • Upload the files to Google Drive or whatever and download them to the computer I'm switching to; or
  • Copy the files to a USB drive and plug it into the computer I'm switching to.
None of which are major tasks, but I do find them annoying.

BUT!

The ATOPNUC has a micro SD card read slot.

And so does my Chromebook, the main other computer I use (e.g. when I travel, or just want to work outside instead of at my desk.

Once I decided the changeover from the Raspberry Pi 4B would be permanent, I had two micro SD cards, each with an OS for that machine on it.

One of those cards, I wiped, burned a clean install of Raspbian OS onto, and stuck in the 4B so that when and if I ever go back to it for anything I'm ready to rumble.

The other one, I formatted, stuck in the ATOPNUC's card slot, and now store those files on.

When I switch computers, all I have to do is pop the card out of one machine and into the other and I'm doing my thing.

Which I suppose I could have done with a USB drive this whole time, but I hate having an ugly USB drive hanging out of my computer, and also if I'm traveling I can lose the USB drive in my luggage or whatever, while the SD card just sits snug as a bug in a rug inside the computer.

So that's a nice little daily work win IMHO.

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