Mobility and Programming (also: New Assignment)

Two major things today.

First, I'm working on getting a programming thumb-drive set up. Until I have a netbook, or, better yet in terms of performance, a laptop for my programming endeavors, I need some solution for mobility. My desktop and the PS3 are both set up on the same screen, which makes developing tough while my girlfriend slogs her way through Final Fantasy XIII, Tom Clancy, or whatever else she happens to be playing. I've tried a wide range of solutions to this but none have worked out. I haven't been able to get remote desktop working reliably, my first attempt at a thumb drive failed horribly (my second attempt is currently copying over), and I can't really think of much else.

When it comes to using my girlfriend's laptop, I could certainly install my tools on it and just worry about having the code on the thumb drive. But when I'm in school or anywhere else, that doesn't work so well. I'm now trying combinations of installing the IDE I normally use (Netbeans 6.8) on the flash drive as well as the JDK necessary for coding, installing just a text editor with some programming features (like highlighting code and suggesting auto-completion), and everything in between.

So, that said, I've also got a new MATLAB assignment. It's basically along the lines of the last one, accepting user input values for an aircraft and its flight, and working out things like cruising thrust and drag coefficients. No plotting this time but a few more complicated output values. We've got two weeks at this point, but given next week being a full-time (9-5 Monday through Friday) intensive CAD week, he's agreed to probably push the deadline back. Seeing as Easter holidays start the day after the current date, that would mean we have at least an extra three weeks.

I'll be getting started on it by the end of this weekend. I'd rather not take my chances. Besides, I like this stuff.