We recently returned from a combo business/pleasure trip to Maui. We spent it with my brother Jim, who had just returned home from Iraq, and his family.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again: although the business side was productive and worthwhile, the vacation side of the trip was so-so. I'm not a vacation guy, at least not for more than a couple days.
Maybe I'm just a party-pooper, but I find it hard to just sit around, and since my son, niece, and nephew are still pretty little and wanted to spend all day in the pool or the ocean, that's where I'd end up. Even the warm, beautiful Pacific Ocean looks the same to me after a day or so.
Not only that, but I had a weird little injury happen on our second day there. I was in charge of staking out lounge chairs by the pool that morning--if you don't reserve them by nine a.m. you'll be out of luck for the rest of the day.
I was sitting cross-legged on a lounge for about an hour working on the laptop, and when I wanted to get up I found my left foot and ankle were asleep. No big deal, they'll wake up soon...
...but that was a week and a half ago, and they're still asleep! I regained a little mobility, but they're still not 100%. I will have to make a trip to the doc here. Soon.
Anyway, since I knew I'd be tired of trying to vacation pretty quick, I brought along my OQO-2 palmtop PC with the manuscript for book #21 on it. I brought the OQO-2 because I was going for maximum portability on this trip. The OQO-2 is a slick little Windows XP tablet PC with a 1 GHz processor, 30GB HDD, built-in Wi-Fi and Sprint Mobile Broadband, and 1GB RAM, but it only has a 5" screen.
It worked great in the cockpit of the Cessna P210 as a moving map and electronic flight bag, and for short trips or just doing e-mail it's great, but it's not really meant for typing a novel manuscript on it. I brought along its dock and a USB keyboard for working out on the lanai, but there was a gremlin in the keyboard which caused the cursor to randomly jump around, so I couldn't use it. Besides, that 5" display is awfully hard to read beyond arm's length.
Without a keyboard, the only way to input text is with the OQO's thumb keyboard, which is OK for a page or two max. I typed a few pages on the book and minutes and notes of my business meetings, and that was about it.
I should have brought my second laptop, a Fujitsu P1610D with 1.25GHz processor, 40 GB HDD, 1GB RAM, and a 9" outdoor-readable display. The P1610 is a convertible tablet PC with a small keyboard, or it can be used as a slate tablet PC by rotating the screen over the keyboard. It can access the Sprint Mobile Broadband network via a USB transceiver. I can take handwritten notes on it and control it with the touch-screen using any soft object, even my finger.
The P1610D is about the maximum size I'd want to use in an airplane cockpit--although it fits nicely between the horns of the control wheel, I have to peek over it to read some instruments, which is irksome especially when it's busy.
I'm not interested in a larger laptop. I like multi-function gadgets, and a larger laptop is unusable in an airplane cockpit. I also don't like big bulky stuff. Even a 12" laptop is too big on an airline seat tray table, especially when the jerk in the seat in front of me reclines all the way back.
So from now on I'll stick with the P1610D. Probably. Until I get another plane and start pining for a smaller moving map display.
Now if I can just figure out what the deal with my left foot is!
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2008
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We recently returned from a combo business/pleasure trip to Maui. We spent it with my brother Jim, who had just returned home from Iraq, and his family.
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