"Roger Long" wrote in
:

I'm typing this on an ASUS Eee PC I bought yesterday at Best Buy.
It's about the size and weight of a thin hardback book, uses Window XP
(Probably the last XP machine available), and has solid state memory
instead of a hard disk. No drives or card slot but three USB ports
and MMC/SD card slot as well as Ethernet & video connectors. Nice
screen with some cool zooming and panning features that make it's more
than adequate size and clarity even easier to use. Built in webcam.



If you buy a Serial to USB adapter like this:

http://www.electronicproductonline.c...hp?cPath=35_67
&products_id=1803&osCsid=02348a8645bc5c88ee61b13b3 3e7c519

(It comes with a CD manual and drivers for your WinXP that turn one USB
port into a COM serial port.)

Then, you can input NMEA data and the AIS receiver to the tiny PC and run
The Cap'n or other nav software on it, totally automating chart plotting,
trip planning, autopilot steerage, etc., just like the big boys have!

For your application, the XP model is probably best. I have a friend with
the Ubuntu Linux version which is much faster and leaves lots more memory
storage because the operating system is tiny in comparison to WinXP
bloatware.

Skype runs great on it....even with the webcam for Live TV!

Nice little PC, but little support from the computing community.