Vehicular Hardware - RV-Dreams Community Forum

WheelDweller · RV-Dreams Family Member

Vehicular Hardware

thebearII · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are beginning to use our netbook in the tow vehicle since it has WiFi and an Aircard.

We plan to load in some navigation software and get a wireless trackball type mouse for ease of use in the truck.

There's a perfect spot on the dash in front of the passenger for use while travelling. We need a floor mount so it can swivel towards the driver or passenger for use.

Right now we have a leak from the sunroof where the floor mount would go, so until the dealer fixes the leak the netbook rides on the dash.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most of the netbooks (8 to 10" notebook computers without optical drives) are supported by the major Linux distros. I ran Linux Mint 7.0 on my 9" Acer Aspire One from a USB thumb drive and it worked fine. The machine is normally running Windows XP since I have software that only runs on Windows that is the main reason I bought it, but Linux runs great.
Our netbook rides on the dashboard while we travel monitoring our engine. We once plugged in our aircard and made a campground reservation online an hour before showing up.

WheelDweller · RV-Dreams Family Member

thebearII wrote:

We are beginning to use our netbook in the tow vehicle since it has WiFi and an Aircard.

We plan to load in some navigation software and get a wireless trackball type mouse for ease of use in the truck.

There's a perfect spot on the dash in front of the passenger for use while travelling. We need a floor mount so it can swivel towards the driver or passenger for use.

Right now we have a leak from the sunroof where the floor mount would go, so until the dealer fixes the leak the netbook rides on the dash.

Oh, I'd love to be able to afford a netbook. But I guess I will, eventually- they, too, will one day be 'obsolete'. I'd really like to have something with a display and keyboard on it, something that runs on 12V or so...so the Kindle seemed kinda special. :)

Didja know that both of the best-known dashboard-GPS devices are Linux-based? Nowdays it's *everywhere*. It takes all the work out of putting an idea into the marketplace, when you start with working code you don't have to check and re-check all the time.

Are you running Linux on the Netbook? If you are, there's an application called "GPSDrive" that's pretty good for that sort of thing. I don't know if there's a Windows port. NOPE: Linux and Mac. Anywhere, here's that project: http://www.gpsdrive.de

WheelDweller · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:

Most of the netbooks (8 to 10" notebook computers without optical drives) are supported by the major Linux distros. I ran Linux Mint 7.0 on my 9" Acer Aspire One from a USB thumb drive and it worked fine. The machine is normally running Windows XP since I have software that only runs on Windows that is the main reason I bought it, but Linux runs great.
Our netbook rides on the dashboard while we travel monitoring our engine. We once plugged in our aircard and made a campground reservation online an hour before showing up.

Have you heard of Virtualbox yet? Kinda like VMWare's 'workstation' product, i'll let you keep Linux for the platform (bug free) and then host a Windows environment fort those situations were you can't completely convert: http://www.virtualbox.org

Completely free for individuals. Enjoy!

I'm working on a built-in...I know space is tight on most RV's- room has to be made for ovens, spare closets and things of questionable value :) but there are ways to get a machine built-in, to help with all of this stuff. My way uses some space, but alternatives abound for those with a little cash. Ive seen guys hack various hand-helds for the purpose. Run the whole place on an iPod, for instance. But to do that, you have to be able to _program_ an iPod. I can't.

And no- I don't mean complex projects, hiring someone to put it in- I'm just building from spare (read: "obsolete") parts and basic OS stuff- very little programming. I've done this stuff since 1978- I'm sick of the details!

I'm lining up all the articles for each step of the way, offering an alternative to anyone who's interested in following what I'm doing. If you're interested in computing from campgrounds, just let me know!

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

WheelDealer: You might find more like minded folks on the Escapees ComputerBOF-Linux Yahoo group which you can subscribe to by sending email to ComputerBOF-Linux-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

I know Virtual machines well, having dealt with them and emulators for many years. I also see many reviews of different Linux and BSD distributions where the reviewer is frustrated because they don't work properly in virtual machines, so I know that none of the VMs is doing it right or the distributions would not know they are running under a VM. Believe it or not, IBM did it right with the original VM on their 360 and later mainframes, you could run any IBM OS or alternatives like Unix under VM with no issues except some speed ones.

If you would have asked me when I was 40 years old if I was ever going to get tired of programming and messing deeply with computers I would have looked at you in shock. But now I just play a bit and don't program at all. I have a notebook computer I swap three drives out of to change operating systems. I have programmed about everything including operating systems, device drivers, games and compilers.

WheelDweller · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:

WheelDealer: You might find more like minded folks on the Escapees ComputerBOF-Linux Yahoo group which you can subscribe to by sending email to ComputerBOF-Linux-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

I know Virtual machines well, having dealt with them and emulators for many years. I also see many reviews of different Linux and BSD distributions where the reviewer is frustrated because they don't work properly in virtual machines, so I know that none of the VMs is doing it right or the distributions would not know they are running under a VM. Believe it or not, IBM did it right with the original VM on their 360 and later mainframes, you could run any IBM OS or alternatives like Unix under VM with no issues except some speed ones.

If you would have asked me when I was 40 years old if I was ever going to get tired of programming and messing deeply with computers I would have looked at you in shock. But now I just play a bit and don't program at all. I have a notebook computer I swap three drives out of to change operating systems. I have programmed about everything including operating systems, device drivers, games and compilers.

Funny you should mention IBM's 360. It was my buddies that ported it, over a long potato-chip and Mountain Dew weekend. That was back when I had a life, working in Chicago. Jeff Norton was the guy, as well as a guy named Sonny. Jeff got me a night-gig on supercomuters at a startup. Wow, those were fun days; I sure miss them.

I'll check out that group, thanks!