[Novalug] almost clueless hardware quandary

[Beartooth]

On Sat, 15 Mar 2008, Nick Danger wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 2:38 PM, Beartooth <karhunhammas at lserv.com> wrote:
>
> What good is GPS software if it lives in the trunk, or only 
> used when you are parked?

 	My bad; I want it to live in the car (or the truck) all 
the time, whether being used or not: in the passenger seat in 
use, and the trunk when not in use.

 	Have you ever tried to drive, even in mild traffic, with 
a great honking laptop on your lap? As with a cell phone, I'd get 
well off the road before using it -- and that rules out gpsd 
right there. (I'd prefer, of course, to have a passenger watching 
it all the time, or better yet to be the passenger. But I can't 
always.)

> While not to disparage your Thinkpad choice, I have always 
> liked them myself, your requirements of "new old stock" and 
> various other points (memory and laptop) range from easy to 
> impossible. I suggest you just go to anywhere that referbs old 
> laptops and let them know what you want to do. I know there are 
> a few that have been recommended here before.

 	Yes, I son found that; in fact, after a more detailed 
comparison by a knowledgeable friend, I ended up ordering a 
Toshiba refurb.

> [...] I do suggest moving the contents of the CD to the HD if 
> you plan on using it when driving. CD speeds in laptops (with 
> spin up / down) dont usually work very well when moving real 
> time with maps.

 	Yes, definitely! I don't want to be lugging whole sets of 
CDs around, let alone changing them occasionally. In fact, the 
newer suites seem to come on DVDs, and to be designed to copy the 
whole shebang permanently onto the hard drive.

> As for Linux with GPS's, check out 
> http://tuxmobil.org/linux_gps_navigation_applications.html I 
> haven't looked that much myself yet, I plan on paying more 
> attention once my truck has reached closer to the finish state 
> of rebuilt. Then the garmin and a 'rugged' laptop will make 
> their home in the cab.

 	I'll study that page, thanks; there does seem to be a lot 
there.

 	One question will be how much of the linux stuff is 
usable to one who is neither technoid nor geographer; another 
will be whether it does *topo* maps. A road, to me, is mainly 
just a convenient way between trailheads -- and not just heads.

 	Example : a trail I've been over passes somewhere within 
easy hiking distance -- I *think* -- of the end of a road on the 
other side of the mountain. It might be a better route to drag a 
deer out -- *if* the area between is public land, and the road is 
a public road. Also *if* the road is in passable condition, with 
no three foot deep gullies, or large trees, across it.

 	So I want to find the bottom end of that road, make sure 
it's not really somebody's driveway, and try driving it. *After* 
I check that out, two of us can drop a vehicle where it'll be 
nearest the trail, go back to the head of the known trail, and 
use a shirt-pocket unit to find where to leave the trail and 
which way to go.

 	I've done all that before, with just the shirt pocket 
unit. It was an extensive pain -- which a good big laptop screen 
will make far quicker and easier. But the hike turned out 
exhausting, and we were mighty glad of the dropped vehicle.

> For brackets, check online. They sell them a lot for cop cars 
> and other utility purposes like that. I know Pelican makes some 
> but Pelican cases are real pricey.

 	Actually, out here in the mountains, there's a good 
chance of finding one even in the grocery. And I did find my 
Y-cable.

-- 
Beartooth Implacable, Curmudgeonly Codger Learning Linux
On the Internet, you can never tell who is a dog --
supposing you care -- but you can tell who has a mind.