Laptops In Tiny Houses

Laptops stack up. Computer hardware is outliving their software. At least for the Chromebooks I've bought, at some point, Google sends me a message declaring the end of updates for old machines. So, a luxury I bought is a new Chromebook, one that started its life with updates, and ready to go. I'm not writing this on that. The two machines are about twelve feet apart, and I think I'll use both. Even in a tiny house, a laptop doesn't take up much space.

Let me do the quick numbers. As I type, I have four laptops, one tablet, and a phone in the tiny house. The house is only 391 square feet. That's one laptop for every hundred square feet, and a couple more screens to keep them company. Silly? Yes. No. Kinda not.

It is a simple thing to say but laptops don't take up as much space as a desktop computer. I wonder about the media rooms and computer nooks built into the 1990 MacMansions which required space for the CPU, disk drives, keyboard and monitor of course, printer, modem, and storage for floppies, CDs, and DVDs. Oh yeah, and a mouse and maybe speakers. 

Store them on end, and a rack of laptops can sit beside each other like books on a shelf. Wi-fi to the printer. MicroSD cards for storage. Tiny house meet tiny computer. 

So why so many laptops in my place? Except for the one that was delivered today, all of my other electronics are aged. The phone could use a new screen, and will probably get modernized because it is about eight years old. One laptop has a broken ethernet port and a fickle trackpad. One laptop is old enough that I have to trace it back by which gigs I used it for. The one I'm typing on is functional, except when it isn't. Google won't update it, and sometimes the screen goes black, winks out, and effectively shakes itself awake. One good and new computer, and three that have issues, but issues that a pragmatist can work around.

OK. So maybe that last bounce scrambled my ancient tablet.
That’s supposed to be a less abstract image.

The new one gets 'pride of place'. It gets to sit on a table (folding), connected to a second monitor. This one is moving to my writing station, otherwise known as My Big Comfy Chair. A third is going to live in the bedroom because it can fold into a tablet for reading e-books and watching YouTube. The fourth one gets relegated to storage because there are limits. Where else would I put it, in the kitchen or bathroom?

At a glance, it may seem that there's no connection between my computers and my house, but there is one: me. My house houses me. It is essential for life. My computers connect me to the digital world whether that is my writing, my stocks, or finding out where the next dance might be.

One of the reasons tiny houses are functional is that many of our real-life functions are digital. I just got new insurance (Medicare And My Move). The first steps aren't talking to doctors. That's healthcare, not health insurance. And insurance requires me to log in to set up my account. Life revolves around digital input/output to the point that some things can't be managed in person anymore. Why not say home? At its limit for some people, a tiny house has to house one computer and one person to operate it. 

How big does a house have to be? How small is too small? I think that question is one more people are asking. Who really needs a columned porch and a double-door entry.

Coffeeshops and libraries help ease some constraints. The new computer has the largest screen and the latest software. Its key case is online meetings. They don't happen often, but the older machines can't keep up. The bedroom computer is foldable, and is effectively the library that this house doesn't have. The third computer is the smallest, and will live at the 'writing station', but it is also the most mobile so it will get to travel to libraries and coffeeshops without having to untangle from monitor cables.

(Somewhat of a random thought: mounting the old computers at opposite ends of the house to act as security cameras - real or fake)

The new machine took about an hour to set up. The hardware was ready to go in minutes. Now that Google is acting like Microsoft, getting past the bloatware and the squadrons of their version of Mr. Clippy is taking considerably longer. No. No. No. You're acting like a three-year-old who wants to help and help and help but has no idea of how disruptive persistent questioning can be.

Another piece of good news/bad news. I'm typing this in one chair on one laptop, but I'll finish it on 'the big new machine' because there's more room for a mouse when I'm formatting the text and images. That's relatively simple because the files are in the cloud, not trapped on one machine. So, after I type these last few lines, I'll close one machine, wriggle out of this comfy chair, slide over to the functional and adjustable stool, open the other computer, and start calling up files that traveled much further much faster so I can work from opposite sides of a narrow house.

Our world is changing. Tiny houses seem to fit the changes. Will we continue to build suburban mansions? When computers shrink enough to fit inside us, how much smaller will our houses be?