I've wanted a small computer to take on my upcomming trip but reluctant to
get into Vista or switch to Apple. I also don't want to be carrying
anything very expensive or delicate on this trip which will involve a long
boat trip. All these considerations apply on the sailboat as well.

I've been taking a laptop on longer cruises for track planning and in case I
need to reload charts in the GPS. It doesn't stow anywhere easily though
and I'd hate to have it go adrift given its cost and all the stuff on it.

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.

Not terribly fast but just about perfect for a small cruising boat and
traveling light. A under $475 it won't be a major disaster if anything
happens to it. Worth owning even if you have a larger laptop, I think.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
I've wanted a small computer to take on my upcomming trip but reluctant to
get into Vista or switch to Apple. I also don't want to be carrying
anything very expensive or delicate on this trip which will involve a long
boat trip. All these considerations apply on the sailboat as well.

I've been taking a laptop on longer cruises for track planning and in case
I need to reload charts in the GPS. It doesn't stow anywhere easily
though and I'd hate to have it go adrift given its cost and all the stuff
on it.

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.

Not terribly fast but just about perfect for a small cruising boat and
traveling light. A under $475 it won't be a major disaster if anything
happens to it. Worth owning even if you have a larger laptop, I think.

--
Roger Long


Does it have wireless ethernet ? What is the capacity ?

Sterling

"Silver K" wrote


Does it have wireless ethernet ? What is the capacity ?


Yes, wireless built in. 16 GM of solid state memory instead of a mechanical
hard disk (strange not to hear a disk grinding when you click something). 1
GM of regular memory. The built in MMR/SD card reader allows for even more
storage.

Battery life isn't great. I used it 45 minutes this morning on a full
charge and it said it was down to 30% after but that's not real critical for
most of what I'll be using it for. It's also sometimes slow in responding
which I wouldn't expect from solid state memory but you can't expect a lot
from something this small. It's not a lot slower than my desktop machine
sometimes when it's doing heavy stuff.

BTW it's an Asus Eee PC 900.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in news:gbg6hf$d0p$1
@registered.motzarella.org:

BTW it's an Asus Eee PC 900.

--
Roger Long


As to runtime, buy a 120 watt inverter built right into the cigarette
lighter plug for it. Plugged into the house battery, it should run it down
in a week or so. You won't notice it as a load.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...Specifications
This 80W one at WalMart should run it continuously just fine.

"Larry" wrote

As to runtime, buy a 120 watt inverter built right into the cigarette
lighter plug for it. Plugged into the house battery, it should run it
down
in a week or so. You won't notice it as a load.


I have a slightly larger inverter on the boat so battery life isn't an issue
there. I have found that the ASUS battery life is pretty minimal, about 45
minutes on a full charge. That's enough for a quick email or weather check
during an air travel connection but not enough to get through a short
flight. I expect my use away from a power plug to be pretty minimal though.

I had one of those little direct plug in inverters and it burned up while
running a laptop.

--
Roger Long

wrote in :

The problem with those little cheap inverters is they have tiny, LOUD,
cheap cooling fans in them that sound like an angry fly who never
sleeps.




Nope. This inverter is built into the PLUG! It has no fan and makes zero
noise as most of these SMALL inverters do. If you can't see the LED
lighting up on it, you'd never know it was running.

They barely get warm, now with their MOSFET power transistors doing the
heavy switching.

You must be hearing one of those crap cabin fans Waste Marine sells for
$50.

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:17:22 -0400, "Roger Long"
wrote:

"Silver K" wrote


Does it have wireless ethernet ? What is the capacity ?


Yes, wireless built in. 16 GM of solid state memory instead of a
mechanical
hard disk (strange not to hear a disk grinding when you click something).
1
GM of regular memory. The built in MMR/SD card reader allows for even
more
storage.

Battery life isn't great. I used it 45 minutes this morning on a full
charge and it said it was down to 30% after but that's not real critical
for
most of what I'll be using it for. It's also sometimes slow in responding
which I wouldn't expect from solid state memory but you can't expect a lot
from something this small. It's not a lot slower than my desktop machine
sometimes when it's doing heavy stuff.

BTW it's an Asus Eee PC 900.

What's old is new again!

http://oldcomputers.net/trs100.html

I used to supply these to news reporters so they could write stories
in the field and transmit them via an acoustic coupler that fit over
the mouthpiece of a pay phone to our ATEX mainframe editorial system.

I still have one of them that I saved for posterity. I have all the
manuals and accessories. It still works perfectly.

Ran all day or longer on 4 AA batteries. The news biz continued to use
these for a LONG time after they were obsolete, because they worked so
well for this particular application, and usually survived being
dropped and otherwise abused.



I had an old HP portable... one of the first solid-state ones. Battery
lasted 20 hours, with all sorts of programs on ROM chips. It was a bit slow
and the LCD screen sucked, but it wasn't bad. I finally dropped it.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

I had an old HP portable... one of the first solid-state ones.

(The older ones had tubes....(c

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:45:49 +0000, Larry wrote:

"Capt. JG" wrote in
areasolutions:

I had an old HP portable... one of the first solid-state ones.

(The older ones had tubes....(c


For whatever reason, I sometimes save old pieces of technology. I have
a non-working Altair, a Kaypro suitcase, my first IBM PC, complete
with all original books, disks and receipts, The TRS100, a non-working
trs102, a 300 mb disk pack from a CDC washtub, an 80 mb winchester
drive that weighs about a pound per mb, etc, etc.

I've seen websites of people who are really serious about this stuff.
I have the stuff, but it's all in boxes stored away. I hardly ever
have the urge to open those boxes. I just have it.


You should consider seeing if a museum would take them as a donation... was
in the Smithsonian recently and saw a system I used to have (well, not the
same box, but). If you've never see the exhibit, you should check it out.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Anybody remember the Sinclair Z80? That was my first computer. A Basic
loop to count 1,2,3.... would go slower than you could say the number out
loud.

--
Roger Long