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Rolling Your Own Laptop?
rneches asks: "I've been looking around for a Linux friendly laptop, and I've found a
couple of reasonable systems. However, there really aren't any laptops out there that really meet the needs of a Linux user.
In particular, most laptops are, more or less, desktop replacements.
As such, they are loaded with scads of nifty features, beefy
processors, and so forth. This is great, I suppose, if you are
running Windows or MacOS and want a desktop replacement. If you're a
Linux user, and spend most of your time in emacs windows (er, frames), most of that fancy stuff is more of a liability than an asset. In other words, I'm talking about coders, admins and other Linux hackers more than I'm talking about the 'average user'." In short, rneches is looking to find a way to build his own laptop, and if the platform doesn't exist to be able to do this, he's looking for help in creating one. Interested?
Which brings me to my point - Is it possible to roll your own laptop? I've looked at pc104 systems that might do the job for a base, and flash disks that would be great for storage and battery life, but the video, screen and enclosure are all somewhat of a mystery to me. I've taken apart Dells and (shudder) Sonys, and the video hardware is completely non-standard and funky. Each major brand of LCD has a different connector, and require a special (as in, not your average VGA compatible card) hardware to drive them. I'm not sure where I'd get a decent PS/2 keyboard that would be appropriate for a laptop. And as for the case itself - well, I'd probably need take out some life insurance, and then get in touch with those folks from the /. story a few months back about making storm trooper costumes from vacuum molded PVC.
I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project. The pc104 standard seems like a pretty good standard to use in the same way desktop system use AT and ATX. Most of the pc104 boards are intended for ultra low power embedded systems, but there's no reason I can see that beefier chips couldn't be used. You'd have to give up the spiffy ZIF sockets, but laptops aren't really that upgradable anyway. Chances are, there's already a pc104 board that will do just about anything you want at very low power consumption. You could cram two or three pc104 boards into a really thin laptop (side by side, not stacked).
If someone started making pc104 video cards that could drive a host of different LCD screens, that would help a lot too. And, of course, someone would have to make some decent cases.
Is there anyone out there who's tried this? Any successes, I hope?
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?"
"From a laptop, I want five things:
- A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
- Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
- Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
- Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
- Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
Which brings me to my point - Is it possible to roll your own laptop? I've looked at pc104 systems that might do the job for a base, and flash disks that would be great for storage and battery life, but the video, screen and enclosure are all somewhat of a mystery to me. I've taken apart Dells and (shudder) Sonys, and the video hardware is completely non-standard and funky. Each major brand of LCD has a different connector, and require a special (as in, not your average VGA compatible card) hardware to drive them. I'm not sure where I'd get a decent PS/2 keyboard that would be appropriate for a laptop. And as for the case itself - well, I'd probably need take out some life insurance, and then get in touch with those folks from the /. story a few months back about making storm trooper costumes from vacuum molded PVC.
I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project. The pc104 standard seems like a pretty good standard to use in the same way desktop system use AT and ATX. Most of the pc104 boards are intended for ultra low power embedded systems, but there's no reason I can see that beefier chips couldn't be used. You'd have to give up the spiffy ZIF sockets, but laptops aren't really that upgradable anyway. Chances are, there's already a pc104 board that will do just about anything you want at very low power consumption. You could cram two or three pc104 boards into a really thin laptop (side by side, not stacked).
If someone started making pc104 video cards that could drive a host of different LCD screens, that would help a lot too. And, of course, someone would have to make some decent cases.
Is there anyone out there who's tried this? Any successes, I hope?
If I actually did go out and build my own laptop, do you think there would be enough general interest to get a community together? Maybe even start a little company to sell pc104 compatible laptop shells and the various adapters, trackpads, keyboards and other doodads that people would need?"
This is dumb. You'll end up paying three times as much to develop this thing. Just go buy an ultraportable, like the Thinkpad X22... no drives built in, weighs barely anything... runs anything you want, and hell, you can even get it with linux pre-installed.
Wouldn't it be easier to get Linux to work on a laptop instead of building a laptop from scratch.
-"The early bird catches the worm, but the late bird sleeps the most"
What about tux screen ? http://tuxscreen.net/
Even though it's a telephone type system, you might be able to get enough information from it to build what you need. It has a ARM based processor running Linux. You might get some ideas from that.
In what way? I have run Linux (various distros) on a variety of laptops ranging from an old toshiba T3400 to various Tecra's and Thinkpads without too many problems.
Anyhow, building your own laptop would be quite a challenge. You don't have a choice of nice, standard-sized mobos that fit nice standard enclosures. Laptop parts (mobos, cases, screens) are made to fit by the manufacturer, there ain't much you can change except for the HDD.
And you don't want PCMCIA (PC-CARD), well bang goes most of your hardware customisation options right there!
Look,
You are asking for a lot of trouble and I doubt you will be satisfied with your hackies result.
I am a typical "power-user" and have cycled through many laptops and machines but it seems I am settling on my laptop just for mail, and do all my development on a box. Just the raw power makes a huge difference.
I used to love my Linux laptop about 2 years ago, I felt so sophisticated. Tell you the truth I am running w2k on it now (A Sony Vaio), just wasn't worth the trouble. Then my box runs Linux (RH) and I do most of my java development on it, I am very happy with it.
Bottom line is this: Laptops and boxes are very different in how sensitive they are to "fucking around". It is pretty simple to assemble a box from scratch, even fun and economical but with Laptops I wouldn't fuck with quality, you need high end material and high end assembly, otherwise you are going to have a clunky thing that doesn't hold up... and then the linux choice to boot is imho a mistake, but that is another story.
Get real,
marcf
The real mnf999 always posts as anonymous coward
Maybe considering that you want really really good battery life, you should consider stipping yet more out of the specification.
I was wondering if, as an emacs user, you could cope with a real text-only display - just like a text mode console. Surely the lack of video RAM, bandwidth etc should save some power?
Tales from behind the Lagom Curtain
With a bigger screen and better video. Maybe take a look at an iPaq, grab an expansion chassis and a couple of NIC's (Whichever you want), and have a blast. You can even install Linux on it, if that's what really floats your boat.
See... and you thought your sig was boring - TT
It will save you much aggrivation and probably a lot of money as well.
It has many of the features that you asked about.
PC104 is an old, but still very usable reference platform for building embedded devices.
Hit this google link
Google Search on PC104
It has a much greater use/life in Europe than it ever did here in the States.
The little modules are stackable, and they make little "backplane" like boards for you to put the modules.
Or as Egg Chin in Big Trouble in Little China said, "Its like your salad bar -- we take what we want, and leave the rest for everyone else"
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.
Well, you could start with some pc-104 components, add a pcmcia module, an LCD control module, etc. Or you could base it off of one of many SBC's available in the EBX little board format such as this one from Ampro. Then you just have to find an open-frame LCD to use, pick some drives and fabricate your own case. Easy right ;-).
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
"I know this sounds like something of an absurd project, but then again, there once was a day when building a desktop PC was an absurd project."
What day was that? 1950? First Desktop PCs were sold as kits, you realise.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
I suggest taking a look at some old (used) IBM ThinkPads. I've used them for years, and for the most part they're great. They're too expensive when they're new, but the older systems have just about everything you're asking for. Most had built-in Ethernet at least as an option. Many had CD-ROM as only an option, with the space replacable with an extra battery or hard drive. They're a decent size and well-built. The ones with butter-fly keyboards (expand when opened) are exceptionally small.
The only issue could be battery life. But like I said, with some models you can drop the extra drive and use a battery instead, or maybe IBM sells better modern batteries that would fit in the old systems.
So check out models from IBM and then search for them on auction sites and such. Good luck!
P.S. When you've found or built what you're looking for, let us know what linux distro you used, or how you built your own, since so many of us have issues getting Linux up on laptops.
Developers: We can use your help.
The TiBook G4 has almost _EXACTLY_ the features you want.
It runs Yellow Dog Linux very, very nicely.
And the wide-screen aspect ratio on its display is FANTASTIC for running side-by-side xterms....
--nbvb
I think one's effort would be better spent with improving Linux hardware support instead of going through the hassle of building a laptop from scratch.
Akin to turning the house around to install a light bulb.
Tuxtops used to do it but are now focusing on software. Their hardware buisness is being handled by QLITech Personally, when I wasnt using x, an old Compaq presario 1210 running Slackware worked well (except of course the modem. Now I am running a Sony Vaio PCG-FX240 with Red Hat 7.2, and it has no problems (except the modem, which I have no need for with broadband everywhere I use it. ). (Slack install didnt go as well as I would have liked...) A great deal of useful info can be found on the Linux on laptops page.
Have you read the Moderator Guidelines yet?
Check out Sceptre . I remember reading a few years ago that they were the original oem for dell, quantex and a few other laptop makers. Can't confirm it though. I think PC Magazine even had a story about how Quantex and Dell Inspiron were essentially the same laptop with a few small differences.
Meches can find what he is looking for in just about any laptop produced today. So what if it comes loaded with more bells and whistles than a belly dancer...whipe it off and start over.
Battery life of a week, on a system used for coding...I think that is a little far fetched. I have to agree with him on this point though. My COMPAQ (ewwww) 1200 barely has enough battery life to spend a week out of town checking email. Course...it is a Windows system.
What is the average battery life most of you see?
Not quite the question, but I bet a great many people looking for a Linux laptop really do care about things like color.
I am a developer who uses X and graphics tools. In my looking for a laptop had one priority: Screen resolution.
I purchased a Dell C800. Currently I am staring at a 1600x1200 16 million color Mozilla window. Not only that, but how many CRT's can do that resultion well. With my LCD, not only is the screen crystal clear, but I still have room to have more things on the screen at one time than I can really pay attention to. For my application testing (jsp), I do my editing in full screen Netbeans, then minimize leaving two terminal windows, and a Mozilla window (or two) open. I use the two terminals for packaging and deploying the app for view in mozilla.
I have had RedHat 7.1 and (now) 7.2 on the C800, and most things work fine. Only problems I have had is the video adapter doesn't support DGA (for direct VMWare screen access) and the internal modem (on a ethernet, 802.11b, modem combo card) did not work until RH 7.2. RH 7.2 detected the modem on the first after install boot. I have never used the wireless interface, so I'm not sure it that works.
This is a great machine for the high end Linux user, I would buy it again for use with RedHat 7.2. (I have the 1Ghz version btw.)
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
This remind me of the Simpsons episode when Homer was hired to build a car...
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
"Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well."
1 week battery life? I think you should invest in an international power adapter. And you don't want PCMCIA sockets, why not? What about expansion?
> So, basically, I want a tough little
> system with a StrongARM CPU, a flash
> disk and grayscale 1024x768 LCD.
> Insofar as I can tell, no one makes
> such a thing.
RiscStation is about to issue an ARM-Powered laptop...
And RiscOS machines support ARMLinux or RiscBSD (even though I 'd advice you to just keep using RiscOS which is far more intuitive and performant on such platforms)...
Anyway, the product is not ready yet but you may hear about it *very* soon.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Seriously look into it. Made by Hewlett Packard. The OmniBook XP (or any variation of) works perfectly with linux. Resolution, screen size, harware detection, etc.
I have successfully run both Linux Mandrake and Red Hat on it. (Even back to Red Hat 6.2!)
I use a Xircom ethernet card, and that was detected by both with no effort.....
Why build your own when you can easily buy one ready to go?
Linuxrunner
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
I own a Sony Vaio (Superslim series, PGC-Z505), and it has nearly anything you're looking for. It really lacks in battery life time. 2hrs if you VI on it. But you can buy a "6hrs" battery, that means you can VI on it for 6 hrs. And then you'll still have the 2hrs battery shipped by default... well I guess you could fill in your suitcase with batteries. Other thing that sucks is 64MB of RAM. But I don't really notice it with Linux (but default OS: WinME aghhhhh...).
I installed a Debian on it with NO problem, even if I had no CD rom, not even an external one. Builtin networking is enough - quite good, not a 3com but having in my home network with just 3coms and a kickass switch the Vaio integrated well.
It is small (letter paper sized x 1inch) and light (3lbs maybe), but has a max res of 1024x768 (there are some smaller ones which only have 600x800). Didn't get the modem working.
And I find it really nice. That's also a reason I bought it, but I don't think you actually care.
But if you really want to build your own... well, if you have the money to buy the parts and the patience to put it all together I think it will be at least a very instructive activity and you'll learn a lot from it. I'd like to hear of the result.
You may want to check out CyberResearch they have alot of NEMA-12 and NEMA-4 Compliant 'portables' that may suit your needs. They have ALOT of other interesting equipment as well. I used to work for them - they are a very reputable company, and although the stuff they sell is on the pricey side, its well worth it.
Don't Tread on Me
Being a hopelessly addicted computer user, and a college student 147 miles from home, I've often brought everything -- My 15" monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the tower. It's quite a lot to bring, so when I built my new box, portability was the key.
Here's the base unit:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/bookpc2.htm
It's small, compact, and fits in the large pocket of my schoolbag nicely. It currently has a 933 Pentium III, 256 mb of memory, and a 40 mb HD. It's dual-booted with Win98 and Mandrake Linux 8.1
I also use a special keyboard:
http://www.dnrtechs.com/foldable.html
I feels a bit strange at first, but it's not all the difficult to et used to -- even for everyday use.
Finally, I have a logitech optical mouse. I don't have a LCD monitor yet, I'm hoping to find a thin 15".
"Software is a feeling, refined and expanded by each who touch it."
-Solstice
Solstice@deninet.com
.. a Psion 5mx.
It runs linux, although its not particularly complete yet. There has been major development on the 5mx recently though and hopefully it should get to a good state soon.
OK maybe not the size of thing you want but its 36Mhz ARM, 16Mb RAM, compact flash disk, backlit greyscale 640x240 screen, goes 8 hours on 2 AAs and you can carry it in your pocket (just about).
The machines are cheap second hand now since psion have gone tits up but you better be quick before they disappear. Get a big CF disk and you can have a full debian-arm distribution on it.
look here for the linux on psion files
If you want something bigger, how about the netbook? 32Mb, 206Mhz ARM etc. This runs linux too but im not sure at what level of completeness.
Its a shame psion have stopped making these machines, as technically theyre very nice.
Probably by plugging it into the USB port.
(Just a guess)
Reality has a liberal bias
I've been looking around for a friendly world order, and I've found a couple of reasonable approximations. However, there really aren't any "peace, love, and sex communes" out there that really meet the needs of a person looking to live in a blissful, peaceful world. In particular, most areas of the world are, more or less, filthy criminal cesspools. As such, they are loaded with scads of seedy prostitutes, beefy murderers, and so forth. This is great, I suppose, if you are running Windows or MacOS (sorry, had to). If you're a philosophical megalomaniac human, and spend most of your time wondering how you can come to rule the world, (er, create world peace), most of that criminal activity is more of a liability than an asset. In other words, I'm talking about religious zealots, current governments and other hackers more than I'm talking about the 'average person'. In short, hexx is looking to find a way to DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, and if the platform doesn't exist to be able to do this, he's looking for help in creating one. Interested?
but what is a laptop, after all? it's a portable computing device. You can buy really tiny computers, such as tiqit or pocket pc (many slashdot articles on these) :
tiqit
pocketPC
add a fold-up keyboard, and a 5G PCMCIA drive
5G pcmcia
And a display device, either a portable screen (there are wireless screens out there) or glasses:
micro glasses
and you've got a really small computer. There are also a couple articles I've seen on building a "laptop" into a small stainless steel or brushed aluminum brief case.
Obviously, designing a motherboard and integrating everthing into a nifty case would be nice, but that's where the cost comes in. Buying really small parts isn't cheap, but building your own thang never is. But you *can* build a really small, portable computer, pretty much tailored to your needs.
You might also consider (if you really want to go for the gusto) the new technology that lets you output circuits via a printer (which thus far has been used to create cell phones and batteries):
but I see no reason you couln't print custom PC's! In short, although it may not be cheaper, it is I think possible to build something small, light, portable, and tailored to your design. And if you do, could you send me one?
cheers,
neil
neil@dove-tail.com
I have been wanting exactly what you are talking about for at least 6 years now. I've been looking for off-the-shelf because I've felt that I didn't quite know enough about hardware to build one and really don't have the time. A few years ago when Sun was talking about Java chips that could natively handle the language and perhaps it's own OS I thought they might head this direction with some hardware... but alas.
There are certainly enough (net|sys)admins out there to support a 'community' for this effort. After all this hardware setup is perfect for us at work or on the road. (Even at work we are away from our desks at racks of computers or in foreign data centers!) My company (Steem) will gladly step up the web resources , maybe even hardware purchasing if we could begin producing something 'sell'able. I would even venture to guess that ThinkGeek would support the endevour on some level.
I'll keep an eye on this story and see what develops. Obviously the more off-the-shelf (COTS as the gov businesses call it) stuff we can find the better. I have looked at the PC104 hardware and it seems do-able but we'll need to work at getting all the other pieces together.
BTW, if you haven't read through the MIT wearable web pages or wearables central, I suggest that you should. Lots of good hardware suggestions there.
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
"From a laptop, I want five things:
* A nice, clear screen. Color is nice, but not critical. It should be big enough so that looking at it doesn't make me feel like I'm stuck in the coach section of a DC-9.
iBook: SuperCrisp 1024x768 screen. Don't want color? Just turn it off.
* Decent 2D video performance. I might just be editing text, but at least it should look good while doing it. In any event, with decent a framebuffer and hardware acceleration, I can use nice anti-aliases fonts and play around with the window settings. This might sound frivolous, but nice-looking text and windows go a long, long way to relive eyestrain, which is exceedingly important.
iBook: Check.
* Good physical utility. Too many laptops seem to be designed to sit on your desk, with the occasional trip to some other desk (transported in a deluxe, custom leather briefcase). This is OK if you are, say, the CEO, and don't do any real work in the first place. I want a laptop that is durable, light and small. I don't want to have to transport it in a special bag, or worry about fragile bits getting broken from normal use.
The current crop of iBooks is rugged. I've dropped mine a few times (oops). Not a scratch, no problem. And unlike the PowerBook, it *feels* rugged. I am confident that it could withstand the abuse that I dish out.
* Insanely long battery life. I don't mean 'barely survive the flight from NWK to LAX'. I mean 'I'm only going to be in Tokyo for a week, so I won't need the AC adapter.'
This is the only place I can't help you, except to say that if you aren't using processor intensive tasks or the CD drive, you will get 5 hours (maybe more). Get a few extra batteries and an international adapter if you are going to Tokyo. (Don't they have the same power plugs there as here?)
Also, the adapter that comes with the newest iBooks is very compact and lightweight. Cord wraps around it easily.
* Good built-in networking. No PCMCIA stuff, dongles, or other junk. The system should have a respected 100base-T card built in, and probably an 802.11b card and high-gain antenna as well.
iBook has 100BaseT, and with an AirPort Card, you're all set. And there is no PCMCIA. (If you want that, you want a PowerBook). The antenna is very good, much better than the PowerBook. (Up to 300 feet in some cases)
See other posts for good reasons why you don't want to build a laptop, but value for dollar, an entry level iBook can't be beat.
Pick one up at your local Apple Store or on the web.
Good Luck
Reality has a liberal bias
Now, think about how often you've damaged a laptop in minor accidents. Even in a case, a short fall is likely to require a trip to the shop. The durability on these things is hardly industrial grade.
Rolling one is just asking for trouble.
The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
Get an Apple Titanium PowerBook running MACOS 10.1. Get the developer tools CD which installs all kinds of nifty stuff, gcc, cvs, project builder. And you're set to go. It's all bsd unix, you can open terminal and console windows and have full access to your system via shells.
MACOS 10.1 is the best thing to ever happen to computing and is the ultimate geek's operating system, and is also the best operating system you can ever run on a laptop.
Its networking configuration is very easily configurable and nicely abstracted behind a very nice interface. Check this:
1) At work, i am connected to the 'net via corporate LAN thru my ethernet port and static tcp/ip configuration.
2) At home, i have a dsl connection and multiple computers, all sharing the connection via a LinkSys DSL router, with DHCP enabled, and an Apple airport base station acting as a bridge to the rest of my ethernet LAN.
3) At my girlfriend's place, she just has a simple phone line and I can connect via dial-up only.
==> I work during the day as a web applications developer, and run the NetBeans java IDE on OS 10.1 which comes pre-installed with Java 1.3, while listening to mp3's with i-tunes, with 10 terminal windows opened with multiple ssh connections to various hosts, using shell scripts i wrote to manage files, quickly edit files with emacs, do complex file search and replaces in BBEdit. I also have my DVD player idling with my crouching tiger hidden dragon DVD just sitting there waiting to be watched during my lunch break.
Work day is over. I unplug the laptop's ethernet jack, unplug my desktop speakers and the power cord, drive home.
As soon as i get home, i open the laptop. This instantly wakes it up from sleep. It instantly detects that I am not using my ethernet port, but it also detects that there is an open wireless network at my home. It hops on it right away. Then automatically makes the DHCP request as I had configured to. BAM: I get home, I wake up my laptop, and it's connected to the net via its airport card.
Say I wanna go to my Girl's place rite now and check my e-mail from there. Put the laptop on 'sleep', get there, plug her phone jack into my modem port, and click the little modem icon on my status bar and select "connect". And there i am. Easy.
I recently downloaded, compiled and configured the standard samba daemon distro by passing a few flags to the configure script. OS 10.1 already comes with a couple samba clients built-in via command-line and is also handled at the URL/protocol level, but not samba SERVER. So that lets me share drives with windoz weinies, while i already had the built-in ability to share drives two-ways with AppleTalk clients and unix/linux NFS clients, via standard unix command-line as well as a couple GUI tools.
It really doesn't get any sweeter than this. Wether you are just getting your feet wet into Unix, or you only work in vi/emacs and swear by terminal and console windows, this puppy has everything you need to get your stuff done and your jollies off.
I guarantee you, there is absolutely NO cooler operating system than OS 10.1. They've still got improvements to make, and it's still unofficially considered 'betaware', but hey, I've been using it very intensively for weeks now, and it hasn't failed me. and the titanium powerbook with its wide screen and pretty colors and all its connectivity stuff is just way cool.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
I suggest you start by looking here LinuxDevices.com's SBC reference, it is a terrific resource.
/., is the trouble you have driving a standard LCD. Dead laptops with very cool and useful LCD displays probably litter the parts pile of every slashdot user(!) - geeks are really unable to give up that LCD. Outside of buying a terribly expensive driver card from someone like Earth LCD. Also you may want to have a look at this reference.
Im not sure the PC itself is your problem, simply getting a proper LCD driver and VidCard is your real issue.
As Ive seen/thought many times before, even recently mentioned here @
This is an excellent question, an excellent topic and a very worthwhile idea. Basically, how do we hobble together some cheap, general purpose computers... not too much power - not much more than a network connection... these could be terminals in the home, "tablet-pcs", a DIY "ConnectedTouchpad/IOpener/Audrey", portable MP3 players... all cry out for *EXACTLY* the hardware this question is asking for.
A modular "embedded" PC. Just like our desktops... expandable, extensible and versatile. Why dont we have a solution like this for PDAs? Without straying OT too far, it would be *EXCELLENT* to see a DIY laptop for a lot of reasons.
All else being equal (which it usually isn't) faster processor means more power consumption.
It doesn't sound like this guy plans on spending a lot of time jerking around compiling kernels (anyway, that's what scp is for, compile it on a fast box, then copy it over). There is even the very real possiblity that he works for a joint with a compile farm, and he never farts around compiling crap on his local box. Even if he does do local compiles regularly, if his app is well designed he only needs to re-compile his code and re-link anyway.
So, given the parameters emacs, networked, ultra-long battery life, yes, a fast processor is a liablity.
First the poster says that modern laptops have whiz-bang features you don't need (I am hard-pressed to think of which features these might be), then he goes on to demand a nice screen, ultra-light weight, insane (and unrealistic) battery life, good video performance for anti-aliased fonts, and built-in networking. He says he doesn't want a beefy processor but then says he's going to do coding and run Emacs...in my experience either or both require a beefy processor.
The inherent contradictions should be clear to all. The reality is, if you want all these features, you're going to be stuck with a whiz-bang computer. The latest screen, networking, and battery technologies always come with the most beefy processor available in the day, because those people who can afford those technologies are the ones who need and can afford the beefy processor. Sorry, but you're just NOT going to find ultralites with beautiful 15" TFT screens and 8-hour (?) battery life that runs a Celeron. And as others have suggested, you have NO chance of making a machine of your specifications - laptops represent the cutting edge of consumer PCs in almost every respect except where heat is a mitigating factor.
And forget about taking a computer to Tokyo and not charging it for a week, unless you plan to leave it in hibernate mode.
Going to a restaraunt with you is a staggering exercise in pain & humiliation, isn't it? I can just tell: you must be the sort of person that looks over the menu at a fine dining establishment and then makes the staff do backflips to come up with some esoteric custom dish for you, because the many, many fine offerings they provide are never quite right. Give me a break... :)
I wouldn't pick at you, because you've clearly thought about this a lot, but somehow you haven't noticed that your requirements are, aside from just plain silly, mutually exclusive & thus impossible. You want a week long battery -- yeah right! -- and you want ultra light weight (thus, um, no battery??) and built in high speed wireless networking? How much power do you think that's going to draw? I'll admit, I'm not sure myself & maybe it's less than I'm thinking, but you are going to have to make some compromises between these wildly varying demands. If you want long life, it means a big battery. If you want lightweight, it means a small battery. You pick.
And in the, assuredly long time you're going to spend ruminating over that dilemma, there will be thousands of others that take one of the many fine off the shelf offerings, meet 90% of what you seem to really want here, and they'll be able to get on with their lives without a second thought. Might I suggest relaxing & trying to do the same?
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Cost isn't outrageous, certainly not compared to building your own. $1299 + sam ram from elsewhere gets you going. (DVD or CD/RW will kick the cost up, wireless adds $100, but as of today it is 128 bit encryption.) Think about it as $2/day to have a computer.
Just buy an ibook and run one of the PPC Linux distros on it.
Here's a somewhat ridiculous suggestion, but it just might work. You know where you're going to be in advance, and you're going to be there a week: buy a refurbished name brand PII for $100-$200, get a refurbed monitor for another $50. (Prices in $US.) Have them shipped to your destination. Bring a CD-ROM of your favorite Linux/BSD/whatever distribution with you and either do a run-from-CD or just a quick install.
After a week is up, either ship the PC to your next location, or donate it to a local charity and write it off.
Obviously, you have the additional time overhead of getting your system up and running when you get to your destination, but my thought was that it would get amortized over a longer trip.
Another disadvantage would be that you couldn't work on the plane, but I figure that if you're not in business or first class, it's too tight a squeeze anyway. I can barely type on a Palm foldable keyboard on those food trays.
Linux runs on the new iBooks.. I personally have a PowerBook Pismo (firewire model, model before the G4 Titanium).
:)
:)
Linux runs GREAT on it. Infact, I would never recommend a non-apple laptop to anyone who isn't afraid of running Linux/Unix
To me there were 3 important factors:
1. Screen size, 14.1" 1024x768 minimum
2. Keyboard, laptop keyboards are typically terrible. The powerbook keyboards are amazing, I would rank them 2nd best keyboard of all time.. right under the IBM model:M
3. Battery life - each battery can do upto 4 hours, in theory. You can fit 2 batterys in a Powerbook.
They actually say my model of powerbook is still a little better then the new iBooks.. the new iBooks may come with newer/better software, a new look, and sporting all of the features of the Pismo.. but the bus on the motherboard is slower, reducing overall performance.. also the Pismo is upgradable to 1 gig of ram and has an upgradable processor card. Oh, and since they are now a little older.. expect to find them cheaper
When I took my laptop to the UK, I had no problem at all running it off 240V/50Hz, I just had to buy a 3 prong UK->tele-funken cable (not a problem, they're fairly univeral).
Japan shouldn't be a problem either, since the connector is used on a variety of game consoles and other devices.
Alternatively, you can buy connector adapters (without step-down/up transformers) that are designed to convert one mains voltage connector to another, for devices that auto-sense.
Ability to use AC power in a different country is obviously something that the laptop manufacturers thought about, so I wouldn't say extremely long battery life is a real need just for international travel:).
Sort of retro in its own way.
So something like this would be viable if you do not mind re-inventing the luggable ;-)
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
--Mid
For long battery life, you might do a Google search for the NEC LaVie. NEC claims 11 hours battery life, which is the longest battery life I've seen in a Laptop.
Kinda low on the performance side, but the battery life more than makes up for it!
I just don't know where to get one in the USA!! It seems they are only sold in Japan, and importing them is EXPENSIVE!
The thinkpads are a great option in old laptops to install linux on. There also a lot of other good older laptops to install linux on. I tried with it my old Olivetti and had no problem whatsoever doing the install. Everything worked the first time, except for X. It only filled up 3/4 of my screen. No incompatiblity with the graphics hardware or anything, just couldn't get things set exactly right in the config and no-one out there had much experience in setting up X on one of these things. This was probably due to the fact that Olivetti got out of the business right after they made my model. Still, if you're X-guru, you can probably make it work, and the command line worked just fine. I had an Echos P-100 with 40 megs of memory wtih an LCD screen. Aside from the display only using 3/4 of the screen, X worked great. I could run a Gnome desktop very nicely. I figure you could pick one of these up for around $100 or two these days, slap in a network card, and you've got a great, cheap command line terminal. I'd probably try to upgrade the HD because at 1.3 Gigs it's pretty small. They come with a CD-ROM and a floppy that you can swap in and out.
Leave those two things out and all the evil splendor they imply: no CD/DVD, no deep color bits, no sound, no floppy, no CCD camera. Use all the extra space for another battery. You could get some battery life out of mono-no backlit LCD screen.
It seems what you want is a highly portable, highly light weight, super efficient dumb terminal or VNC terminal. Well my friend, let's be slightly realistic here, if you are going to have a CAT-5 plugged into the sucker, get an internation power adapter kit. Now I hear, "What about on the plane, on the train, in a boat, in a house, with a mouse." If you are going for extreme portability (as you've implied) and for all of these features I MUST recommend that you try to convert an Internet Appliance into a portable. Personally I run an IOpener with Jailbait linux. I can always VNC into a more powerful machine, or just --display=zTTTz:0.0 to any application on any linux server anywhere on earth (since we have the ethernet installed). It takes DC power so you could easily build a custom rechargable battery out of it or sucker one of those EE majors into doing it for you. If you need a week worth of power, my friend, you need to accept the fact that you will be lugging a lead-acid car battery with you wherever you go UNLESS you get serious about this and buy about 50 of those Air-powered batteries (expensive and un-rechargable, but some last upto a month). I would also recommend converting a WebSurfer Pro. The manufacturer of those can give them to you with integrated Ethernet. Couple that with the fact that it has an integrated power supply that does NOT have a bulky cooling fan, it has an insanly small board, and you can get yourself down to just an inch or two tall and about the size of a piece of paper. Go out and purchase an LCD online. There are many websites that have LCD's that accept RCA video inputs. Pricy, but that's what you are asking for. Finally these things have wireless keyboard/mouse combos so you could hook it up to a TV and use it from a comfy hotel couch if you are in Tokyo, or get really creative and attached a folding keyboard like the ones Palm Pilots use to it directly. Of course you would need some sort of custom case since you wouldn't want to use the mammoth sized one that it comes with and would thus need a buddy that is good with cutting/sanding plastic (just need a circular saw). This also has an integrated M-Systems flash disk so you can cut your power consumption enough that you could maybe get this to all run off a battery (depending on the LCD's power consumption). And you would want to get rid of the lame DC-AC-DC conversion with the power supply (that EE friend again). This second path will give you exactly what you want, but it will take a lot of work and favors from friends. I'd just get an i-opener, come up with a smaller keyboard, usb nic, make a compact mount (instead of it's big mount, and poof! done.
First, consider that LCDs are expensive and nonstandard, as already mentioned. TVs on the other hand, are cheap, mass-produced and rugged, even when portable. So...use a TV for the display. Of course, the bigger the TV, the more expensive it'll be...but then you can use it to watch TV too.
Then you want rugged and portable? Get a biscuit form factor PC. They're small, but they're still standard PCs (which can therefore run Linux), including all the usual connections. You can get them with TV outputs (for VGA drivers), and built in ethernet and serial connections. Check out some of them at this site.
Most don't come with a hard drive, and you'll have to "roll your own" there, too. You have a choice: buy a biscuit with an IDE connector, or buy one with another standard connection, such as Compact flash or PCMCIA. If you go with the IDE, a portable 500MB IDE isn't that expensive. I saw one for $40 (US dollars) recently.
Then of course, you have to worry about batteries/power supply. That's not as big of a problem as you might think - there are LOTS of battery manufacturers. You want long lasting? You'll have to pay for longer lasting. On the upside, the compact system shouldn't take as much power as a standard laptop would.
How rugged is the result? Well, you'd be creating the casing for everything, so that's pretty much up to you.
So, I figure these costs:
$400 CPU (with ethernet, etc...)
$400 portable Flat Screen TV (VGA video displayed)
$50 Hard Drive
$800 Batteries/Power supply (enough to last a week - a SERIOUS load, and still probably an underestimate of the price)
$80 Casing
Of course, for an extra $500, you could upgrade to having real SVGA video, but you don't need hardware acceleration of video for most applications with which this technology is normally used, so...you can't get it.
I suppose if $1730 is three times as much as you would have paid, then this is a bad deal...but since the Thinkpad X22 retails for around $3000, I think I'm talking about a better deal than a prebuilt machines. Plus this thing is actually upgradable.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I've been down this thought path. Before I get into it (In the end you realize its not worth it) - let me make two suggestions:
1) Toshiba Libretto - these puppies range from p75|133's with 32mb ram to something more decent (300ish?) - the lowest two models are the tiniest damn things you ever did see. Only quip you might have with these is small keyboard, and only 640x480 resolution.
2) Sony Picturebook (PCG-C1[X,XS,etc.]) - this ranges from pmmx 266+64|128mb ram to crusoe 667(?)+64|192mb ram. Their screens are BEAUTIFUL (1024x480 though), the video performance is good.
In case you can't tell - I have owned the lowest two models of both of these lines. I still own the picturebook, and use it daily at work. Its portability and performance are only matched by its successors. The libretto I passed on to my brother when I got the vaio, and he brought it backpacking around europe with him so he could offload and resize his pictures then upload them to a website.
--- that said ---
The only real solution for building your own laptop - unless you're going all out 100% your own hardware (insane lengthy expensive) is to go PC104/PC104Plus/Proprietary embedded systems. The advantage is you may make it so you can actually upgrade - but it sounds to me like you're looking for a keeper, and it doesn't need to be powerful. The other problems you will run into is video performance isn't a neccessity in the embedded area - so forget amazing performance. Additionally, you will have a field day connecting to an LCD and once you do you'll find you can't find an OEM LCD as nice as the ones you see in big-name laptops. It's a wonderful thought, but I suggest going with the libretto for max portability (very small dock thing gives parallel+serial for those null modems), or vaio for something with some screen real estate while holding the portability.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Actually, the Pismo has one advantage that even the PBG4 doesn't: you can install two batteries. Sure it's going to weigh a little more than the CD-ROM, but that's at least 8 hours of battery life with proper energy saving settings, which likely can't be beat by anything larger than a PDA. (But the batteries aren't cheap. The third-party PBG3 batteries at Fry's are $200 each.)
Plus, OS X can run MacOS 9 software, and with Virtual PC, Windows software too. (A WINE-like emulator would be better than Virtual PC, though.)
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
To get insanely long battery life you'd need a very low-drain laptop coupled with something like an Electrofuel 120 or 160 (a think that looks like a mousepad that fits under your laptop, but which is actually a 12+ or 16+ hour battery).
Disclaimer: I haven't used 'em, but I saw them at Comdex and they looked cool enough to put on my Christmas wish list.
yeah but compare that keyboard to the keyboard on the psion. You can touch type on the psion, you can only clumsily stab with your thumbs on the Zaurus.
Full blown laptop? Not quite. But try this:
Get a 31xx monoPAQ. Get the compactflash sleeve and the pcmcia sleeve (the latter because it has its own battery). Get a large (5gb) PCMCIA drive (IBM microdrive), a smaller (1gb) CF flash card, a Targus foldable keyboard, a CF 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA 10/100/802.11b card, a PCMCIA Sierra Aircard 510, and a CF vga-out adapter. Find a LCD panel that you like, build a battery pack for it.
Some creative duct taping or plexiglassing and yes sir, you have a Linux-capable computing brick that has a modular power system! Go full-tilt, and you have VGA on a full LCD with a keyboard and your big microdrive. Monitor dies, and you switch back the native screen. PCMCIA battery pack goes down, switch to CF. CF draining you too fast? Switch to internal memory.
If you want to get more creative, try it with the new 38xx series. Has longer battery life and built-in SD so you don't even need a sleeve. Don't forget, for the 31xx and 36xx series ipaqs, you can expand internal memory to 128mb with some creative soldering (read: surface mount).
So let's review your criteria:
1) clear screen: the 36xx has a nice screen, and whatever external LCD you choose could be good.. up to you.
2) decent 2d video: Hrm... well, it runs Quake. You decide.
3) Physical utility: Well, build a padded titanium case for your ipaq and lcd screen. Should be sturdy. Use it as a foot stool.
4) insanely long battery life: modular battery style means you can get long battery life. 12+ hours with the monopaq alone. Since everything else has it's own battery pack (except the CF sleeve), you can mix-n-match. A little creative hackery and you can probably paste an external big battery to the ipaq.
5) networking: 10bt, 100bt, 802.11b wireless, CDPD wireless and CDMA wireless. Sounds good to me.
Sounds fun to me.
A funny story: A friend of mine once traveled to the UK with her PowerBook 140 and StyleWriter (a Canon inkjet rebranded by Apple for a while in the early 90s). The former was variable voltage, but the latter was ... NOT! When she plugged them both in with plug adapters only, the StyleWriter (or at least the adapter) quickly began to emit thick smoke.
Months later, she took the StyleWriter back to the retailer in the US. She told the guy: "I plugged it in, and it caught fire!" Very baffled and concerned, the store owner replaced it - not, of course, knowing the whole story.
So make sure you have a universal adapter before plugging in your laptop in Europe!
sulli
RTFJ.
Intel Pentium MMX or AMD K6, K6-2, K6-2/3D
Up to 450 MHz CPU with 100 MHz system bus
512 KB L2 Pipeline burst Cache memory
Two DIMM sockets supports ECC / SDRAM up to 512 MB
Dual Ultra DMA/33 EIDE and folppy interface
CRT / Flat Panel Display interface with 2 or 4 MB display memory
LVDS supports Flat Panel Display cable up to 20'
10/100 Base-T network interface using Intel 82558
Ultra Fast and Wide SCSI-3 supports 40 MB/s
Disk-On-Chip (DOC) socket supports up to 144 MB Flash disk
Four serials ports, one parallel port and two USB ports
Dynapro Touchscreen interface
Thermally controlled CPU & system fans
It runs Linux just fine (SuSE 6.3), although I never had a chance to try it from the DOC, since I got the DOCs with Phar Lap already flashed on them. We even got our touchscreen to work! (Sorry, I don't remember the manufacturer.)
It uses standard 168-pin SDRAM, and supports 100MHz FSB, and it actually has the jumper settings for a 500MHz CPU (not sure why they list 450MHz as the top speed, ours were running at 350MHz). Basically it's a highly integrated, very compact Super7. The footprint is slightly larger than a paperback novel, and the hieght is determined by the RAM. The IDE sockets are laptop style, and the PS/2, serial, parallel, and USB are headers that you have to plug a small interface card into that has the real connectors on it.
The only interface I can think of that you'd be missing is firewire, but in my experience firewire is pretty sketchy under Linux anyway, so you may not be missing much.
When I was working with these I was constantly fantasizing about stealing one and building my own portable system. The only problem I could think of was finding a small enough AT power supply, although it uses an adapter which could easily be modified for any PSU that provided the right voltages. Just make sure your 5V rail is stable, they're kind of sensative to that.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Bad idea. Not going to happen.
You want a week's battery life? not going to happen.
By the way, from the sounds of it, you aren't the 'typical linux user' by your requirements.
My advice, and no, I'm not a mac user...
Get a new mac iBook. yes. That's right.
Give OSX a shot while you are at it.. then install linux if you don't like it. IT's light, much better than average battery life, very nice display, rugged, and cheap.
You may want to consider the Compaq Armada 4000 line, particularly the 4220T.
It's like 5lbs, 266mhz Pentium MMX mobile, 12" screen (does 800x600), runs linux very well... grab one of those 2-slot-high 3com PCMCIA cards that lets you jack the ethernet straight into the card (no more dongle annoyance). The stock battery will run you in X, editing files, for about 8 hours. Add a second battery, that time goes up to 18 hours, depending on use. These numbers are with a Toshiba 4gb IDE laptop drive. If you replaced that with a less power-hungry Flash device, I'm quite sure that a double-battery setup could run for 25-30 hours on this laptop.
I used to run one of these laptops as a car MP3 player, and it could normally go 15-18 hours without being recharged on two batteries. It also recharged to full in about 3 hours.
.... um, i lost you after "0110100001101001".
The big issue I have with your specs is the monitor. I've found any lcd screen uses up my battery much quicker. Heck even turning down the brightness saves battery. So why don't you try something like the eyeglass monitors. No they're not big, but this one uses RCA connections. So make sure your video card can handle that. When you can, hook it to a tv should make life a bit easier. They have batteries for it too. The other problem I have is that a "high gain antenna" probably sucks up quite a bit of juice to knock into that insane battery life. Defintely make that switchable. So at this point instead of your laptop, you're building more of a pc. So you should be able to use standard pc parts. Then just muddle with the power parts (the real magic), and you'd probably want to use a solid state drive to save on power too.
-cpd
Plenty of today's PCMCIA NICs don't have dongles, e.g. Netgear FA411 (not an endorsement, just a remark).
"Oh, I hope he doesn't give us halyatchkies," said Heinrich.
it stayed in the shop from the first week. Compaq could never fix it, I traded it for a lesser toshiba model. Now I have a TFT 8000 that has problems (bottom quarter of screen goes out after a while until you turn it off and let it cool), compaq again cant fix it. AVOID compaq crap.
Just a clarification, Newark Airport's designation is EWR, not NWK.
That's what's called for, really -- a basic laptop design, add your own processor, video on a daughter card. Either that or a standardized laptop mobo form factor, but that would perhaps be asking too much from the current market?
/Brian
You could try starting here:
usedlaptops.com.
Surprisingly useful machines, and some pretty damn sweet prices. No, I don't work for them in any way.
Or try ebay or the like. Getting something used is a sweet deal if you don't need a solid warranty (most geeks don't) or the bleeding edge of tech (doesn't sound like you do).
Good luck,
Jason
But not the one everyone else is talking about (i.e. an iBook/Powerbook). A coworker had an Apple Newton E-mate which was a cross between a laptop and a PDA.
It had a monochrome screen, no hard disk, smallish keyboard, and looked fairly rugged. Being based on the Arm chip and not having any moving parts, it probably had an OK battery life.
Surprisingly, the things weighs 4 pounds (!?) at least according to the page I mentioned above. The actual unit only had 4MB of memory, as well, which seems small, even for its time.
I suppose, for the adventurous, you could try to track down a unit and use it as a basis for a new machine. Of course, these are rare, and I suspect they still go for a pretty penny. Newton owners are a pretty fiercly loyal bunch. I doubt you could run Linux on it all that well... EMACS is out of the question with so little RAM.
Something like this, ARM based, flash memory, perhaps a screen with optional backlighting and greyscale, and of course Linux based is something closer to the mark than a full-blown laptop. Connectivity would also be an issue. I suspect the keyboard is a bit cramped, as well. But still... an interesting idea. One potential use that springs to mind is a cheap rugged machine for field use.
Check eBay for a RISC-based laptop. You didn't think that any had been made? Well, there were a few, but they're insanely difficult to find now. I've seen SPARCbooks get dumped on eBay. I even thought about buying one, just to say that I owned one.
Anyways, it sounds like an ancient 486SX/25 laptop would work fine for this. Go buy one on eBay for $50. Then you'll need to get a battery, but I guess you could hack a modern day battery to work with on of those proprietary systems. You are a hardware hacker, aren't you? Any good solution to this problem is going to require a little soldering and hacking, if not weeks of searching eBay for cheap parts.
I've got another idea for you: get a DEC Multia (166 MHz 21066A CPU) off of eBay, buy a cheap LCD flat panel, and keep them both in your suitcase. I've thought about imbedding my Multia into my girlfriend's Chevy. It'd be the first 64 bit Chevy, I bet.
I really can't recommend them. Sure, they're cheap, but you can get quicker, cheaper, nicer laptops on eBay. The screen may sound large, but as they actually vibrate an 800x600 panel to achieve the effect, it's ultimately a con. Most users, including yourself I suspect, select 800x600 and stick with it.
The "mouse" (thumb wheels) is horrible. It took me several days of practice to get the hang of even simple operations like drag and drop. And the keyboard, while it felt responsive, had that stupid Fn-key for way more than I've found for normal laptops, including often used keys such as digits and tab.
The whole battery thing is a pain in the ass, as you say. You have to stop using the laptop while the battery charges, and the battery itself is a huge expensive unit so it's not really possible to use two of them. Bizarrely, though innovatively, the battery actually contains the main CPU unit, BIOS, and RAM, which makes for easy upgrading but even so.
You mention the CD ROM / soundcard crap. I'm glad someone noticed. It's not the only example - the serial port/internal modem, floppy, and Ethernet also all share an interupt which makes it hard to use all three at once. It's probably one of the few selections of things that makes sense that way, but it still reeks of cutting corners.
All in all, I'm glad I got rid of it and got a Gateway. The latter may be twice as much, but at least with Gateway you don't get third rate cheapo non-standard hardware.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Since people have already mentioned incuding the ibooks in your evaluation, I thought I'd mention another possibility, the Series 7
;-)
http://www.psion.com/series7/
640 x 480 7.7" screen, StrongArm processor, PCMCIA, CF, IRDA, 8.5 hour battery life.
(There's a near-identical machine called the netbook that they sell more into the indstrial market that is also worth a look.
http://www.psion.co.uk/netbook/
)
It runs EPOC, which might actually do you, but there is an ongoing project to get Linux on it.
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/
I'm not sure how solid this is (except to say that it's certainly not a finished distro like you get on the ibooks) but you wanted to do some hacking, didn't you say?
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
My employer got me one of these (a LapStation 95CE, which has a similar spec to what you're describing (2000XP?) but with a smaller hard disk and a maximum of 96M of RAM. It came with RedHat 4.3 installed) Don't use the 1600x1200 mode on the screen as it uses some stupid vibrating thing to achieve the effect, and it's ugly and causes eye strain.
You're right that the damned things are rugged. I've lost count of the number of times I've dropped mine, on one occasion on the hard concrete floor of the parking garage, and it still works perfectly. The thumbwheels mouse is quite easy to use once you get the hang of it.
I wouldn't recommend it though. The screen is too small unless you use the vibrating thing, there's almost no expansion potential, and the odd shape makes it difficult to fit in a briefcase or hold under your arm.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
> Shipstones?
>
> The lager? What are you talking about?
No, not the British beer. "Shipstones" were
an uber-battery in some of Heinlein's
SF stories. The poster was saying that you're
not going to find the kind of battery life
the article was asking after outside of science
fiction (which is true).
Chris Mattern
The LCD is your main sticking point. Forget it.
Get goggles. A head-mounted display will be lighter, use less power, be easier to protect against harm, give more privacy, and be way more 'leet.