On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 20:11:38 GMT, "just me"
wrote:

I need to purchase a laptop to keep on my boat while cruising and living
aboard.
I'm concerned about moisture and salt air.
Any advice and recommendations appreciated.
Thanks, Jay



In my opinion, you should worry more about water than moisture. A
laptop will soldier on through moist air with no problems, especially
when it is on. Let a drip from a port find its way to the keyboard
and it's probably all over. When the laptop is off, there is some
potential for condensation inside as the temperature cycles around the
dew point. To avoid this, store the laptop in a case when not in use,
preferably with dessicant to dry things out. I've seen people use
transparent monitor covers to keep drips away, but I'd be a bit
concerned about heat. One of my laptops has such deficient cooling
that I'm thinking about building an external cooling system for it.

I lust after a ruggedized laptop like a Panasonic Toughbook, but I
can't justify the price. You can buy 2 normal laptops with superior
performance for the same price and just keep one as a spare. Or buy
just one and get one of those extended warranties that fix it no
matter *what* happens. Or, if performance is not a problem, lots of
old Pentium and Pentiuim II Toughbooks show up on Ebay for cheap.

Whatever you get, do make sure to strap it down well. Even Toughbooks
don't particularly like to fly across the cabin. If you have critical
data on it, you should be more than usually diligent about backups.
An internal CD burner comes in handy for that.

__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

One thing that I received as a gift last year was a flexible, rollable
keyboard. It works through a USB port and everykey is encapsulated in a
rubbery plastic. You can spill any liquid on it and it keeps on working. It
allows me to set up the laptop in a way that protects the laptop keyboard
from potential spills.

Tom


"Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 20:11:38 GMT, "just me"
wrote:

I need to purchase a laptop to keep on my boat while cruising and living
aboard.
I'm concerned about moisture and salt air.
Any advice and recommendations appreciated.
Thanks, Jay



In my opinion, you should worry more about water than moisture. A
laptop will soldier on through moist air with no problems, especially
when it is on. Let a drip from a port find its way to the keyboard
and it's probably all over. When the laptop is off, there is some
potential for condensation inside as the temperature cycles around the
dew point. To avoid this, store the laptop in a case when not in use,
preferably with dessicant to dry things out. I've seen people use
transparent monitor covers to keep drips away, but I'd be a bit
concerned about heat. One of my laptops has such deficient cooling
that I'm thinking about building an external cooling system for it.

I lust after a ruggedized laptop like a Panasonic Toughbook, but I
can't justify the price. You can buy 2 normal laptops with superior
performance for the same price and just keep one as a spare. Or buy
just one and get one of those extended warranties that fix it no
matter *what* happens. Or, if performance is not a problem, lots of
old Pentium and Pentiuim II Toughbooks show up on Ebay for cheap.

Whatever you get, do make sure to strap it down well. Even Toughbooks
don't particularly like to fly across the cabin. If you have critical
data on it, you should be more than usually diligent about backups.
An internal CD burner comes in handy for that.

__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

Glen "Wiley" Wilson wrote:

when it is on. Let a drip from a port find its way to the keyboard
and it's probably all over. When the laptop is off, there is some

Depends on how lucky you are. I once was called, I was a sys admin, to
look at a laptop because "the mouse doesn't work right." I grabbed a
hardware guy and we wandered down to look a the afflicted machine.
While looking about I noticed some sort of liquid below the unit and
mentioned it to the HW guy. He picked up the unit and accidentally
tipped it slightly, about a tablespoon of coffee poured out onto the
desk. Shut it down, took it back to the office, disassembled it, he
took the keyboard home and ran it through the dishwasher. Cleaned up as
much coffee as possible from inside of the unit, reassembled, took it
back to them and powered it up. Took about 4 hours total.

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 20:54:36 GMT, "Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson"
wrote:

I lust after a ruggedized laptop like a Panasonic Toughbook, but I
can't justify the price. You can buy 2 normal laptops with superior
performance for the same price and just keep one as a spare. Or buy
just one and get one of those extended warranties that fix it no
matter *what* happens. Or, if performance is not a problem, lots of
old Pentium and Pentiuim II Toughbooks show up on Ebay for cheap.

Let software requirement drive your decision here. Corporations
"decommission" hundreds of thousands of laptops per year. You can
frequently get sleek VAIOs and sturdy Dells in the Pentium II/III
range for $300-$500, and they are bright enough to run ALL current nav
software, as far as I know.

I mean, it just has to interface with a NMEA/SeaTalk box, right?
That's not hugely difficult. If you want to run Doom 3 while sailing,
that's a different beast.

Whatever you get, do make sure to strap it down well. Even Toughbooks
don't particularly like to fly across the cabin. If you have critical
data on it, you should be more than usually diligent about backups.
An internal CD burner comes in handy for that.

Agreed. You can brace it with fiddles held with bolts and wingnuts in
holes drilled through the nav table, and secure against capsize with a
broad velcro strap.

Wetness is a function of proximity to the companionway. I have heard
of all sorts of solutions, including plastic covers with vents,
separate LCD screens and "base units", regular PC boxes buried in
lockers and wired remotely, and IR/wireless keyboards and thumb style
mouses/trackballs.

Just don't fall for "marinized" laptops...better you should buy cheap
and figure out your own solutions.

R.