I have to admit, I’ve never sat in a coffee shop and worked on anything with a laptop before today. It’s a pretty great thing. Fresh coffee, semi-fresh food, good access (not the cheapest), etc.

I’ve been working on a side contract and this was a convenient spot to meet with the other person working on the project, have some face time and get started on the project tasks list and timelines. It’s interesting acting as project manager for something you know portions of and have to depend on others to provide the missing expertise.

For those who don’t know, I finally went full time as a consultant and as such, need to “network” and search for contracts. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I have a main contract that pays the bills, a couple of side items, and the potential for several more part-time. At this rate, I’ll need subcontractors. I’m now wondering which way I want to go moving on. The “smart” thing would be to get as many small contracts that do not need immediate response and have that total more than my main one, so that over time, as contracts end, and new ones start, I have a consistent income and will not be devestated by losing the big one.

Enough of that. The topic was coffee shop computing. It’s great, lots of people moving around, not too noisy, feels a little like university days. It’s nice to feel young again. I think I’ll have to do this on occasion. it sure beats itting around my office at home, getting interrupted by the cats and the dog.

Other than having my desk phone and being able to talk loudly, this is to all intents and purposes as effective as working in the office (other than hands-on access to hardware). I suppose I could get skype up and running or use my ichat to have conference calls (right - I’m using a macbook). I’ve been online about two hours, WiFi going and the machine not being idle. 40% battery charge remaining, so once again, I think it’s a great option for a unix geek. command line, some useful applications, versions of everything I want in either X11 or native Cocoa/Aqua format.

Enough of abreak, time to build that spreadsheet they asked for. Maybe google docs for collaboration purposes?