My job frequently takes me to places without reliable internet access. What kinds of projects can be worked on with no or unreliable internet? I don't want to be forced to stop working on my side projects just because I don't have all the data I might need.
I have been using Go recently, and I do almost all my development with it offline. The docs are included and you can run a local doc server so everything you need to look up is as close as localhost:6060. It's also an ecosystem that encourages building on the standard library, unlike some other popular languages I could mention. I absolutely love the productivity and focus that this setup allows.<p>I also have a ~/research directory full of academic papers, saved copies of web pages, for anything I want to implement or play with. When I don't feel like programming, there's plenty waiting for me to read, rather than needing to get online and probably distract myself.<p>There's something very satisfying about being able to sit down and do productive work with what you have locally, and not needing to worry about losing productivity because the coffee shop wifi dropped out.<p>On the other hand, unplugging in general is good for us and I agree with the other commenters' encouragements to get out in nature or talk to people face to face. If I'm on a train or plane, I'd much rather put my laptop away and engage with what's around me.<p>Constant access to computing systems and networks is very new, and we know it is changing us, but we don't have the perspective to know how. The precautionary principle suggests we should spend as much time away from these systems as possible, especially for those of us who make our livings with them.
Get out in nature and think about your problems. Go on walks. Hike. Take up photography and stargazing.<p>Use the time to unplug. When you do return to your screen you’ll have a fresh prospective on a lot of your problems. You’ll also be happier and healthier.
UNIX systems programming can be accomplished by looking at man pages and referencing kernel / user land source code.<p>I find something cathartic writing C applications and tools. Perhaps I should seek professional help.
Check out kiwix or zeal. Allows reading entire archives of wikipedia/stackoverflow/ted talks etc etc offline. Plus search. Throw in elasticsearch and you get really powerful customizable search. You can also create your own archive of web content. Given the size of modern harddrives people have no idea how much quality content can happily live on your local machine. No internet required.
Getting more reliable internet access.<p>I want to move out of Austin. One of my research projects is how to do rural internet. Just because I am curious if it's doable.<p>I know that some folks end up in Terlingua cause they want to get away from everything... I'd just like to get away from most things and keep the comms channel.
Consider Dash [0], an offline documentation browsing tool. It takes a little while to set up, but then you have all the docsets you need offline with very fast search.<p>It also helps me control my internet addiction when I'm not off the grid, because I can have no browsers running while I code, so I'm not a tab away from HN.<p>[0] <a href="https://kapeli.com/dash" rel="nofollow">https://kapeli.com/dash</a>
Download reading materials in PDF form or other offline friendly formatting and plan to read them during those times.<p>If you are on mobile -- phone or tablet instead of a laptop -- some apps will let you take notes or whatever offline and sync up when internet is available.<p>Do brainstorming type exercises at that time. Free time to actually think has real value.
Two years ago I went on vacation after having downloaded a bunch of the US Census and ACS datasets. I spent my days by the pool drinking Bahama Mamas and poking at the data, which was in a local Postgres instance.<p>Some people like reading a book by the pool. I like looking at demographic data. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Writing a book. I’ve been tinkering with writing a choose your own adventure book that provides a glimpse into a depressed mind. I’ve actually forced myself to work on it at the local library , where internet access is slow, as a means of forcing focus.
Cartography: get the osm rendering stack on your laptop and a bit of data, then map away!<p>Programming: get the documentation first, manuals API reference, tutorials, and use a language that doesn't have much "now install this library" dependencies.
A game? Something like Terraria.<p>Or something cutting edge like a kitesurf kite. They are only about 15 years old, so plenty of room for improvement. Just takes time and many prototypes. Cloth is pretty cheap.
Stallman downloads all his links and emails once every 24 hours and then process them. Might be worth considering doing something similar with tech blogs or what you follow.<p>However what side projects you could work on really depends on what you are interested in. I would imagine that anything you could work on on a single laptop would qualify.
If you have good books you could always use those. I'm a scientist though, so often stuff I could read through is already in pdf form or in paper form, but I don't doubt one could find books on various things if need be. Moreover, especially for non-web stuff you always can have the code to look over yourself.
Programming in C, because you can do a lot with the OS, and you can just download documentation before for libraries and stuff. You could also work on web design stuff if you don't need to use external assets. Also, coding simple games like sudoku, chess, checkers, tic tac toe, etc. is fun.
I download online course videos to my mobile phone and watch them when internet is not available.
I think the major problem for working on side project is you can’t access to the API reference when you don’t have the access to the internet.
Obviously projects that do not required internet access. :-)<p>But seriously, personally, I would do some writing. Either a blog post, or compose a letter / email (to be sent when Internet is back on).<p>I would also read a physical book as I find the rather therapeutic.
Whenever my internet goes out I start tinkering on random things that almost immediately require internet searches to make progress. I also seem to forget the internet is out and continually open up search windows for all the new exciting things I'm working on.