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Blog Date - 29 November 2016
Sharon was wondering the other day if it would be possible to blog on the go. You know - when we're out on one of our little trips rather than coming home and typing it all up retrospectively it would be good if we could type it all up while it's still fresh in our minds.
Well of course it is technically possible. But how, how would we do this, what's the best way of going about this? It's not as simple as you might think, even in this day and age.
Let us start with the most obvious method, our mobile phones. We both have cheap basic smartphones where it is actually possible to type, but oh my word it is one miserable experience. The screens are too small, the keypad is even smaller and typing anything more than a short text message is a cacophony of mis-spellings, back tracking and fudged fingers.
Cheap and cheerful but a nightmare for typing.
It is not beyond the realm of possibility that we could get better larger smartphones. I'm still not convinced. I have a 7 inch tablet that's great for watching YouTube videos, catching up on FaceAche and putting up replies on this website. I wouldn't fancy the challenge of typing up a 300-1000 word essay about the inner workings of a CBF125 headlamp though, it would take an age.
Tablets, as I've just stated above, don't feel like the answer too. I have access to a 10 inch tablet and while typing on that is better than typing on my 7 incher it is still not as fast and intuitive as a good old keyboard. Maybe I'm old school, maybe I'm a stick in the mud. Maybe...just maybe I need to persevere and learn to use my thumbs as well as I can already use my fingers.
Laptop? I use a laptop at work and I can type on that very quickly. I find the tracking pads that replace the mouse to be fiddly but I can use them effectively enough for the purposes of blogging and editing. There are 2 problems with them though.
Firstly - charging. The mobile phones and tablet can all be charged off a 5 volt USB adapter which runs from the motorcycle battery. My laptop uses 19 volts, my old cheap and slow netbook uses something like 15 volts. Even if I bothered to find a 12 volt laptop or netbook they use a lot of power relative to a tablet or smartphone. I fear an overnight charge might leave me with a flat bike battery.
Secondly is size/weight/value. Most laptops are big in comparison to a tablet. When we're both loaded to the gunnels with camping gear and warm clothing there's not much space left for electrical items. Even the smaller netbooks are larger than my 7 inch tablet. Value plays it's part. My tablet cost me about 80 quid, netbooks cost a little more and laptops are a fortune. I don't want expensive equipment that can be stolen, broken or rain soaked.
I am presently testing a possibility as I write. I have bluetoothed my tablet to a proper keyboard. This allows me to use my comparatively cheap, light, small and charge-upabble tablet with a cheap but usable keyboard. It's still far from ideal as the keyboard is a little bulky and I need to learn how to set the tablet to UK keyboard layout not the blasted yankee layout. It's like using a Mac...
I'm doing OK at the moment sat here in my house on a proper chair with a desk. I suspect doing this while squatting in a tent that's cold and wet will be a different world entirely.
This is quite easy in the comfort of my own home - but in a tent?
I open the floor to suggestions, bear this in mind though. Imagine yourself having ridden 250 miles on a ratty old 125 through the wind and the rain. It's late at night now, dark save for a torch that's going flat. The rain is coming down and the flysheet is flapping in the wind. You will be lying on a ground mat surrounded by damp bike gear and cooking utensils. Do you really want to dig out from the saddle bags your 700 quid Windows Surface Pro?
Quid...I use quid because I can't find the pound symbol on an American keyboard layout...
£ Aha! I found the setting. I wonder if it'll remember it the next time I pair up the keyboard...
Reader's Comments
Doug said :-
I used to use a Psion 5 for typing on the go many moons ago. My main machine is now a MacBook Pro, but for travel I have an old Samsung NC10. If I were to get something new, I'd be looking at a Chromebook for around £140.
29/11/2016 23:36:53 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi Doug. According to the advert I found a Samsung NC10 charger outputs 19 volts. How do you charge the NC10 from the bike's 12v supply?
I can see there are some Chromebooks that can be charged from USB. I may have a closer look at those although they use x86 chips. I'd prefer to use something with a RISC chip as they use so much less power.
30/11/2016 07:11:26 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
One of these (see link) although they're not very efficient.
The ASUS 205 netbook I bought earlier this year for around £150 is excellent - weighs around 1.5 Kg, runs windows 10, has a decent keyboard, SSD rather than disc drive so fairly robust, and storage can be extended using SD cards. Incidentally I'm still amazed that you can get 128 GB on something the size of a fingernail. I still remember 5 MB platters for DEC and Data General minicomputers that were about 2 foot diameter and 6" thick. DG tried to get 10 MB on them and they kept failing......
The pic shows 5MB versions.
www.maplin.co.uk/p/12v-in-carin-air-laptop-adapter-with-usb-socket-1a-with-6-cha...
30/11/2016 10:11:27 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
ps the Asus will happily last for 5 or 6 hours on a charge.
30/11/2016 10:13:03 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I do have a netbook somewhere though it is woefully underpowered. How do you rate the performance on the Asus Ian? I'm not after gaming level ability, far from it, but my old netbook is simply painful to use.
30/11/2016 21:44:51 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Oh and those platters! I have an old 5 & 1/4 inch hard rive with a mere 500meg on it, it seems ridiculous now compared to modern kit.
30/11/2016 21:46:39 UTC
Doug said :-
Sorry to mislead, I don't charge the NC10 on the bike. I now use my iPhone 6 Plus, but previously had an iPad mini, with a Logitech keyboard case. Don't like not having a mouse though :-)
30/11/2016 22:25:31 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I've never seen a Logitech keyboard case before today. That's a clever little piece of kit, I wonder if anyone does anything similar to a table, I'm sure they do. I reckon that could work rather well. Thanks Doug.
01/12/2016 10:47:57 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
I've been very pleasantly surprised by the Asus which is easily fast enough for my purposes when travelling (mostly web browsing, running an Access database (with the MS runtime software), a bit of word processing / spreadsheet (using Libre office), looking at photos transferred from the camera etc.
Unlike some, I've found Windows 10 to be excellent - bootup time with the SSD is 20 seconds. It has an Intel Atom running at 1.33 GHz and 2GB of memory which sounds a bit light but seems fine. The wifi works well. The main problem was that there wasn't enough space on the 32 GB SSD to apply the W10 updates as there was a load of old stuff there so I had to do a clean install. I install all other software on the SD card which is also useful for backups.
I have a Motorola 8" tablet which is better for reading newspapers etc but I can't bear the on-screen keyboard (I do have a £2 bluetooth one but its connection is somewhat flaky).
01/12/2016 10:52:33 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I might pop up to PC world and have a play with thier netbooks Ian. I'm a fan of ASUS as my tablet is ASUS and it's been brilliant. My only concern is charging a netbook from the battery of the bike. I guess it'll be OK if I can rig it such that it charges while I'm riding rather than overnight.
I don't want to overload the charging on the 125 especially, see my post regarding the CBF125 No Lights - Again!
www.bikesandtravels.com/biker.aspx?ride=953...
02/12/2016 09:50:51 UTC
Tom McQ said :-
I took my Asus Tablet (TAB-S) on tour with me and charged it in the top-box while I rode. I also had one of those small battery packs which will charge virtually any USB device, just in case. For internet access on the Asus, I just created a personal wi-fi hotspot using my iPhone.
Have you tried "Swift-Key" on your Asus? Much better than the standard keyboard.
21/12/2016 10:22:22 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I'll give it a shot Tom McQ. I'm guessing I'll get that from Google Play?
21/12/2016 12:38:39 UTC
Stefan said :-
I am currently typing on an iPad Air with a logitech bluetooth keyboard / case which has a magnetic strip attaching it to my iPad - brilliant bit of kit which runs on a couple of cr2032 batteries and lasts for months.
This is the one I am using at the moment - http://www.eglobalcentral.co.uk/logitech-ultrathin-keyboard-cover-for-ipad-air-space-grey.html?gclid=CjwKEAiA7ejCBRDlp8uF6ezPnjoSJAAPED7M-b6bRnDqtFzqImyHlIUqsElWkCncGtpd1S-YBCBWQBoCw4zw_wcB
21/12/2016 22:06:49 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I'll have to look at the ipad Stefan. My only concern is the price! Before Tom McQ accuses me of being tight it's more the cost of losing it or damaging it in transit. Maybe second hand is the way to go.
21/12/2016 22:21:19 UTC
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