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Powering the Adventurous Geek?
Xochi77 asks: "As a Geek and a Backpacker, my laptop travels where ever I go, but now that I'm planning a trip through remote regions of South America and Africa, I'm starting to wonder where I'm going to get my power from. How has the Slashdot community dealt with powering high-tech gear in third world countries? I'm especially interested in alternative power sources, like solar cells and wind-up generators etc, but they will have to fit in my backpack!"
I am also a geek, and I enjoy various types of outdoor adventure travel (Backpacking, biking, etc.) Sometimes you have to unplug. Enjoy the beauty of your surroundings, and the excersize that you are getting. leave the laptop at home and catch up on your coding and slashdot when you get back. If you want it to store stuff like digital photos and film, stock up on extra CF cards and miniDV tapes. They are smaller than a laptop and the power you would want, and it gives you more time for your trip.
dude, i think you're missing the point of backpacking.
unplug for awhile. it won't kill you, i promise. You do realize of course that there are several thousand years of recorded human history that predate the invention of the laptop, right? And that means--perish the thought!--they were recorded without the use of the laptop! That's right, that antiquated device used by our forebears for hundreds of years, THE PENCIL!
They are not mutual exclusive, for one. You can do both at the same time. Just because he wants to be able to switch on his laptop and record his experiences, for example, does not mean that he can't 'see' and 'absorb' his experiences as well. In fact it may help.
On the other hand, doing a 'whirlwind tour' of South America seeing all these supposed 'ancient ruins' is a lot worse than what he's trying to do. It's stupid to compress your 'cultural experience' into a couple days, you will get much less out of it than if you actually tried to live there for awhile instead of just 'visiting'. And that's exactly what he's doing by going backpacking through the rainforest. He will no doubt get up close and personal with what the 'experience' is actually like, instead of just a snapshot of what it sometimes is like.
I mean, look at it this way: He wants to bring a part of his own culture that he enjoys, because it would be nice, but is not letting it get in the way of his 'cultural experience'. If he wanted to check his email, he would spend his trip in Rio de Janeiro, or better yet, not go to South America in the first place. Instead, he is going backpacking, and looking for a way to include his laptop in the equation if possible.
So why does this bother you so much? Sitting at his campsite at night writing up a few entries on his laptop and reviewing where he's already been, and uploading some digital pictures, shouldn't do anything but add to his experience. Unless a laptop somehow emanates "cannot appreciate the trip" radiation or something.
Random and weird software I've written.
Dude, you are SOL.
A hand-crank generator would require so much effort to put out enough juice to charge your battery that you'll have little time for hiking, and by the time you're done parts of you will resemble Arnold Schwarzenneger depnding on your handedness.
The pedal crank generator might do it, but it'll be upwards of 50 pounds, and way bigger than your backpack. Since you'll be hiking, I'm not so sure wearing out your legs charging batteries is a good idea.
Fuel-powered generators are out. You can't carry that much fuel, and the generator is quite bulky and heavy.
That leaves solar power.
Either to charge your batteries or run your Linux-based laptop [snicker], I figure it'd take two panels of decent quality convertors, each measuring 4' x 6'. So much for the backpack.
So, buy 10 batteries, charge them all up, and plan your trip to be near civilization every 9 batteries, or hire a porter to lug your $9000 solar panels around.
Or better yet, leave the laptop at home and worry about having a good time.
Mike
Ok, I'll be good. Gimme back my karma.
-- Karma whore? You betcha. --
i've travelled with my girlfriend (peace corps) through africa a couple of times, and i should comment that flashing a lot of material wealth -- a bank of solar cells and a laptop -- wouldn't be the smartest thing to do in the bush... when you're not in the bush, of course, you'll have some electricity.
try to make do with less in the third world. be a considerate visitor, too.
two cents.
Well, I travel in remote regions in argentina, chile bolivia and uruguay. The fact is that unless you go too far away of the road, you have power lines and places to plug your laptop. avery gas estation have it. And you can borrow an hour or two of electricity from any house, too. Even in Bolivia, the poorest of the region. You can always go to a region without power lines, but there not so many and not so large.
I'm from Argentina: Tango, Asado, Mate, Gaucho, Maradona, YPF