Notebooks

indiamike

Has anyone taken a notebook computer with them while traveling. If they have could they give any tips or advice on what extras they needed and what they did for security to guard against theft.

Mike

picklepak

Hey Mike, here's a rather late reply to your posting...

I've been traveling with a laptop for about 4 months now. My first one, an IBM Thinkpad, bit the dust on a bumpy ride up the Kulu Valley... as it turned out, somehow it powered up from 'resume' mode during the bus trip and I lost almost everything in the following few weeks due to hard errors on the disk... how sad.

Now I have a used Sony Picturebook, very small, light, bought for cheap on eBay... the only accessories I've needed are a mini-surge protector with connections for outlets around the world, a small outlet splitter (rarely used), and an extension cord which I made myself... because there are so few outlets to be found sometimes.

I carry the Picturebook in a sleeve made of padded cotton with some sponge at the bottom, that I sewed together. Then I stuff the package into a courier bag. That way nobody knows I'm carrying a computer. Works great.

I carry an external floppy drive too, for use in Internet cafes, and also a USB reader for my camera, and for taking to do backups to CD when I find a CD burner somewhere...

-m2-

Since Kelly revived your old thread, Mike, what did you decide to do last winter and how did it work out?

I'm thinking about picking up an iBook for this winter -- I'll be mostly staying in a secure place so theft and rough and tumble travelling not too much of an obstacle. I'd be using it mainly for entertainment (MP3's, light gaming), playing with digital photos, and writing. I don't think it will be of much use for internet as I will still have to use a cyber-shop for a connection, though I would be able to pre-write e-mails and save messages which will at least save some time on the often slow connections. Not sure if a Mac will work ok in a windows world -- the shops I'm familiar with used a dial-up connection with several boxes hooked to an ethernet hub. I *think* I could just plug into the hub and share the connection (unless the ISP doesn't 'do' Mac).

Did take the Visor along again last winter, but getting a bit tired of Tetris, a poor bridge program, hearts and mine-sweeper (let alone scratching out notes in GRAFFITI), so thinking of taking the plunge as I'm planning on moving up from my 4yr old iMac to a portable pretty soon anyway.

any thoughts?

mike

indiamike

Last winter I didn't take a notebook.

My next trip though I will probably get an old refurbished computer from Tiger Direct and make do with that.

It makes more sense to buy a discounted old computer that will still function and won't kill me if I lost or broke it and an older pentium 2 can still run most programs.

Mike

-m2-

Buying used makes a lot of sense for a travelling computer -- TD has some pretty good buys too! I'd better check my homeowner's policy to see if would be covered when travelling before getting too serious.

mike


edit, for anyone curious, I checked to with my insurance agent to see if loss of computer was covered and found out, yes with the standard deductible in place. In my case, the deductible is $500 (an increase from $100 in the last couple of years, I guess a reflection on modern times). decided not to go for it anyway and will probably get pretty good at Tetris this winter. I did pick up a little camera gadget that slips on to the Visor -- really crappy pictures and difficult to aim using a coarse b+w image while looking down. It does hold a fair number of JPG's with it's 8mg ram, so will play with it this winter. Unfortunately I won't be able to post pictures from it unless I can find a cyber-shop with Palm software on board. (rrright!). m

Architect

New one or old one..... if it gets stolen you loose the pictures downloaded from the digicam or other imp stuff. Also you will be left without one for the rest of the journey.

So best is to carry it concealed; otherwise someone or the other will be temped to flick it off.

cedar

Call me dumb, but I'm gaming on being able to hook my Sony Vaio up to the internet in any room with dial tone as well as a cyber cafe.

It will be well concealed in my bag and will be used for downloading the digital pictures as well as listening to MP3s, playing a few games here and there and for writing. If it's lost or stolen or dies, it's just another thing I can live without till I return home.

Any ideas or feedback? thnx

-m2-

Unless you are staying in pretty fancy hotels, you are unlikely to run into 'a room with a dial tone' and, if you did -- without a local ISP, you'd have to call your own at home by long distance. You should have better luck hooking up at a cyber shop if you have an ethernet port to connect to their hub.

vistet

The Holy Grail of the geeks is supposed to materialise within a couple of months : Oqo http://www.oqo.com , a 10 gig computer that weighs in at around 250 grams and the size of a very fat Palm.
This plus a small foldable keyboard would take care of a lot.

On the top of my own wishing list would be a iPod mp3- recorder (yeah, I know - it doesn`nt exist but I can still dream, right) with a small keyboard.
It would be nice to be able write my diary and catch the sounds of buses and temples on the same box.
I thoght I would need music when I made my lastest trip , brought a lot of CDs - never (literally) listened to them. Still surprised.

cedar

My laptop has been configured to place int'l calls without long distance charges. If I get a room with a dial tone, I'll be able to get online. If not, shouldn't I be able to connect the laptop at cyber cafes? I have a phone cord and corresponding modem, is that the ethernet hub you're referring to, M2?

-m2-

Someone with more technical expertise would be better at answering this, but to get online with a phone cord and modem you would need an Internet Service Provider, or be able to use someone else's account -- just plugging into any phone jack won't get you anywhere unless you can dial up a provider.

The cybercafes I'm familiar with are really just a few computers in the back of a shop, usually a travel agent/money changer. All of the computers share a single dial-up connection through an ethernet hub -- i.e. individual computers do not have their own connection. In order for your telephone jack to work, the cafe would have to give you his password and let you use his account directly -- I don't think this will happen. He may, however, let you plug into his hub if you have an ethernet port and cable (he may have a spare cable) -- you would then have to share the connection with as many computers as were connected to the hub. Unless he had a high speed line (very possible in Mumbai, Bangalore, etc) it would be virtually impossible to send or receive any photos as you just don't have the 'bandwidth' available.

Personally, I haven't done this yet but have made enquiries locally here in Goa as I had been thinking about bringing a 'book and may bring one next year, despite the limited functionallity for internet purposes. For someone staying for a longish period in India, it might be possible to set up an internet account with a provider like Satyam, which I think is country-wide and probably has many free dial-in points -- I haven't really looked into this very far and perhaps an Indian resident could help, or you could try Satyam direct (try Google to find)

If you want to try the ethernet route, check with whoever sold you the 'book or who you deal with for computer stuff or information to see if you have a port, or if there is a 'card' availble to give you that functionality. It's standard on all Macs but I don't know about Sony.

Picklepak, in an earlier post, mentions transfering pictures via floppies, not a direct connection. If your VAIO can burn CD's, that would be yet another method of transfer via cyber cafe computers.

Perhaps Mike or IVAN or someone with real experience using a computer while travelling in India could add some insight. The situation here in Goa may not be all that typical, and big hotels probably deal with notebook-toting tourists on a regular basis -- it's just out of my range of experience. hope I haven't just confused things for you.

cedar

Thanks M2. Since I'm taking the Sony for other reasons as well, it won't be a total waste if I'm not able to get online. The people in my company who travel internationally have been using the program installed on my 'puter and have used it with success. I was assured it would work, but I'll find out. It can burn CDs. Do you mean by your question that I could take CDs into a cyber cafe to send pictures? I was also going to take some floppies for that purpose. I hope to be able to send msgs and pictures as well. That would be way cool. If not, I'm going also to be keeping a log of my adventures and using the machine for downloading the pictures. I hope taking it won't become a mistake. I sure don't want to be spending a lot of time fussing with it and missing out on what will be one hell of an adventure. Thanks for your feedback.

Leaving a week from Thursday and can't get any more excited. I'll be spending a few days in Varansi and then heading down to Bubhaneshwar in Orrisa. Havve't heard much about Orissa around these parts. From there, I'm taking a train to Hyderabad to catch a plane to meet a friend in Mumbai from where we fly down to Bangalore and begin the second 2 weeks heading south from there to fly out of Trivandrum. Catch me if you can.
Cedar

Rossinm

Cedar- I have a sony vaio too (R505GL) and I was curious about the program you are using. Is it a professional program? I am leaving late Feb. and plan to take my trusty laptop with me. I would love any details of the program you can disclose .

cedar

I'll check and get back to you what I can gather about the program. It's installed on each laptop going overseas. I was assured this morning the program comes with the ISP provided by the company and all I need is dial tone.

cedar

Rossinm,

the program is called VPN dialer and is a product of Cisco Systems. The confuzer guy at work installed it for me. Again, all I need is a dial tone and in theory that should take me online. Guess I'll find out. It uses the company ISP, won't need another.