Re: [SAGE] Keeping yourself sharp...

["Mark C. Langston" <mark@bitshift.org>]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2004 at 01:43:07PM -0800, Wyatt Draggoo wrote:
> I just found out that I'm leaving on Sunday for 3 weeks at a remote site in
> the Pacific.  I can't bring any computing devices, including laptops or
> even my Palm Pilot, and internet access there is apparently rated at
> early-days-of-dialup speeds.
> 
> Now, three weeks isn't that much time, and I'm fairly certain that 10 years
> of Unix experience isn't going to leak out of my ears in that time, but
> what would you bring to keep yourself sharp under those circumstances?  Are
> there certain books you'd recommend?  Things you'd listen to?


I second what others have already said:  Don't worry about it, relax,
and enjoy yourself.

However, my job requires me to travel to remote tropical locations every
so often.  Though I tend to have good network access there, and can
bring whatever devices I want (as long as they're not wireless), I also
tend to take books.

If you really feel you're going to get rusty in 3 weeks, find some good
technical books you've been putting off reading, and take them.
Solaris Internals, or The Design and Operation of the 4.4BSD Kernel, or
The UNIX Philosophy, or A Few Good Men from Univac, or Knuth's books,
Stevens' books, K&R (or the companion Puzzle Book), Hacker's Delight (A
wonderful book I recently discovered, full of great algorithms), and so
forth.

But sometimes, you'll be sharper after a complete break from anything
computer-related than you would if you struggle to stay immersed.
Coming up for air every once in a while is just as valuable, if not
moreso, than swimming against the current constantly.

-- 
Mark C. Langston                                    Sr. Unix SysAdmin
mark@bitshift.org                                       mark@seti.org
Systems & Network Admin                                SETI Institute
http://bitshift.org                               http://www.seti.org