Originally Posted by
Ozonation
Hmmm... odd... I've studied engineering for 11 years and have been a faculty member for 12 years. I've never heard of an "engineering laptop" as described either by my colleagues or any of the IT support staff. Maybe it's a field-specific term.
I'm a proponent of syncing between separate machines. But if you have no choice but to bring the laptop back and forth occasionally, I would invest a very good but lightweight case. Tom Bihn - a specialty bag maker out of Seattle (
www.tombihn.com) - has a light but durable laptop case that would help if the laptop has to go in a backpack or a pannier.
I must agree about the syncing of data, especially because it is in multiple locations at one time which promotes redundancy, which is great for preventing data loss.
I also think that any company worth it's salt would provide an employee with a machine for home, one for the office and one for the worksite (all three subject to data monitoring), rather than having data traveling by unsecured laptop on a bicycle.
The whole situation described by the OP (and the subsequent nomenclature discussion) seems obtuse.