Idea: Not Online or Offline but "Thinline"

Over the last couple of years I’ve had an offline-ready setup for core systems like email. My primary use case for this was scenarios like travel or working outdoors.

More recently, I’ve been thinking about an idea that’s not fully online and not fully offline. But ā€œthinlineā€. It’s a controlled access to necessary systems while blocking the optional and distracting. I can currently trigger going offline using a script that turns off wifi but when I’m at home I would still like access to services on my local network like my network attached storage that my music is on, or other services like my network-connected heat pump and electricity monitoring tools.

I’m experimenting with this and will report back when I have something useful to share.

Update: I wrote a script that helps me manage this ā€œthinā€ connection. Read about it here:

Midline: Midway Between Online and Offline