I “lost” my iPad two days before Thanksgiving. I went to mentor at Stuyvesant High School and forgot it there. I knew exactly where it was (in the teacher’s closet), but wasn’t going 9 days to retrieve it. This meant I didn’t have an iPad for a little over a week. It was interesting to see what I missed it for.

2 factor
This was the big one. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to log into something without a big hassle due to not having Google Authenticator on my app. I have an alternate factor set up for some services, but not all. Luckily, many services remember you on the same computer.  It wasn’t bad at all:

• Amazon: I wanted to set up two factor on Amazon now that they offer it. Not a big deal. I just did it now that I have my iPad back.
• Github: I was going to look up something in the browser, but needed the second factor. I was able to get the info at the command line though so it was ok.

Reading on the couch

I usually use my iPad when I want internet on the couch. Especially for reading RSS feeds; which I decided to wait until I had my iPad back. This is something I only do once or twice a week anyway.

Note taking
If I had my iPad, I would have used it to take notes at the JavaSIG. Not a big deal. It is easy enough to replace this step with paper.

There are other things I use it for. Luckily none of them came up in the week.