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.

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