RE: [Thinkpad] Thinkpads at sea?

Not sure if I can elaborate on the environmental issues, as far as the physical
demands, a 770z is built like a tank. I logged many miles of backwoods logging
roads using my 770 and a GPS and it's still sitting there across the room eager
to go.

That brings me to the hardware requirements, to use GPS navigation, he will only
need two items, a handheld GPS (I prefer Garmin and use a 12cx) and navigational
software that will interface with the GPS (most will) Delorme comes to mind,
Maptech probably has some navigational software http://www.maptech.com/ If his
chosen navigational software allows extraction to the hard drive (some don't)
you will naturally want a roomy drive, I have the entire Delrome StreetAtlas US
extracted to my 40g drive and it's not even noticeable, only takes a couple
hundred MB is all. Navigational sw might be different in that it may be using
raster graphics or charts as apposed to vector graphics like Delorme.

Good Luck,
Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: thinkpad-bounces@stderr.org [mailto:thinkpad-bounces@stderr.org] On Behalf
Of Andrew in Ann Arbor
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 7:21 AM
To: thinkpad@stderr.org
Subject: [Thinkpad] Thinkpads at sea?

Hello all
I just got back from a visit with my brother in law in Alaska. He asked me if I
could find him a laptop. Of course I suggested a Thinkpad.

At home he wants to record and playback music.
He's found a radio receiver that plugs into a serial port, go to
<http://www.icomamerica.com/receivers/default.asp>
and look for the PCR1000 under "PC Controlled" on the left.
The receiver software runs under Windows.

At sea (on his fishing boat) he wants to plug into his GPS and run some
charting and navigation program.
I'm not sure what kind of hardware the charting program takes so I don't
yet know how much processor I need to get. I'm expecting that storing
large graphics will take a lot of disk space.

I'm wondering how to handle the marine environment, very high humidity
surrounded by salt water.
Will a thinkpad stand up to this sort of treatment?
Should I be thinking about a sealed case with external (easily replaced)
keyboard and display?
If the charting software can run on an older computer maybe it would
make more sense to buy a cheaper computer and plan on replacing it every
year or two?

Anyone got any experience with thinkpads at sea?

Thanks

-- 
Andrew in Ann Arbor
technology is the answer, what was the question?
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