Rugged Laptop/Tablet Suggestions, 2010 Version? 249
robbievienna writes "I'm currently living in the Arabian desert. Typically, unless a building has been sealed against the elements, sand and dust get everywhere. I purchased a keyboard cover for one of my laptops, and noticed that there was more accumulation on the underside than the topside. I've had sand crunk up the guts of one laptop and one tablet (Nokia N810). My coworkers who are native to the region tend to trade out their technology every six to twelve months, but I don't want to migrate data and adjust to new hardware that frequently. I was wondering what suggestions people have for working in this type of environment — both for laptops and for tablets. For reference, I work in a pseudo-secured zone where computers (phones, etc.) are not permitted to have cameras. A DVD drive would be nice, but is unnecessary. The more USB ports, the better. The last time the question was posted on Slashdot was five years ago, so I'm presuming that there are new industry leaders."
Use a disposable laptop (Score:4, Interesting)
Try getting a cheap netbook, and just replace it when it dies.
but I don't want to migrate data and adjust to new hardware that frequently
Keep spares in sealed plastic bags so that you won't have to change hardware. For data, put everything (including O/S) on a rugged external hard drive. A single USB/firewire hard drive should be easier to protect than an entire computer.
Apple (Score:5, Interesting)
FWIW, I just spent a few weeks in the Moroccan Sahara and most of the natives who had laptops, had a Macbook
get canned air and warranty (Score:5, Interesting)
I get them "spill proof" keyboards as those are sealed and keep things from getting deep in the keyboard. Just turn it upside down and shake it. Plus you can wash them if you really want them clean.
I find that there isn't much more you can do. The sand/dust causes extra wear and tear and the equipment will have to be replaced more often. I buy the "full coverage" warranty for equipment that will primarily be used on construction sites and it pays for itself when you constantly have to replace burnt out PSUs, video cards and CPUs that overheat and die due to clogged fans..
Re:dust filter bags (Score:5, Interesting)
Put the laptop in a place where dust won't be such a problem (like in a bar fridge) and run cables for mouse, keyboard, and external video. bar fridges are ~$100, and not only will it keep your laptop cool, but your Dew as well.
Or just say you're "sandboxing" your code.
Oddball Suggestion... (Score:4, Interesting)
Stretch a ladies nylon stocking over the whole thing... This will take some experimenting to figure out the exact best method (maybe one over the base, one over the screen...), but has the advantages of:
-being extremely cheap
-easily removed/replaced
-thin/flexible/transparent enough to cover the keyboard, and even the screen with
-should filter out the worst offender category of sand/dust without seriously impeding air flow
-will also cut down on glare and reflectivity
For $1 a try, I figure it is worth mentioning...
My Dell XPS survived a year in Kuwait & Afghan (Score:4, Interesting)
Blow it out frequently with a can of air & it should do pretty good.
Software + hardware based suggestion (Score:3, Interesting)
Software suggestion: Embrace cloud computing for all your data needs (assuming you have a good internet connection.) This will remove the problem of having to change hardware and replicate settings all the time.
Hardware suggestion: Cheap netbooks that can be resold to unsuspecting people in the desert :)
Re:get a small netbook... (Score:2, Interesting)
He may care about waterproof if he intends to be in contact with it... I destroyed a Thinkpad by using it on my lap in the tropics during the dry season... it didn't get wet from weather but from my legs sweating in the heat of day and heat from laptop. It seeped in and corroded the hell out of the machine.
At that temp the operator dies anyway (Score:3, Interesting)
Heat Sunks wont be very effective in a desert nvironment where the ambient air temp is hitting 50 C. Even an atom would need a fan in the desert
Sorry, I've spent time in the Sahara desert, and it doesn't usually get that hot there - if it did the people retreat to someplace cooler. At 50 C (122 F) all the people will be dead, so there won't be anyone to worry about heatsinks or fans.
There are heat pump devices, such as Peltier effect devices which with a large heatsink can keep things pretty cool even in the (fictional) temperature you mentioned. I have a project at work that's using Pelter devices to keep an electronic device similar in size and power dissipation to an external hard drive down around 80 F in a 130 F environment.
Re:The clean and cold fridge. (Score:3, Interesting)
Then you have a different problem: even with low humidity, you'll get condensation. This starts to be a problem at about 55 degrees, in my experience.
Maybe keeping it at about 60 degrees would work okay, tho -- if the fridge will go that high.
Re:Dell Outlet (Score:2, Interesting)
Amusing to see this discussion on Slashdot when colleagues and I were testing a Dell XFR laptop just last week, suggested to us as a cheaper alternative than the Panasonic Thoughbook's.
Well, I give it to you: http://twitter.com/sraveau/status/10663156737 (If you're considering buying a rugged laptop, DO NOT BUY ONE FROM DELL: seriously, theirs are a JOKE!)
I rarely ever tweet, but this I felt like I had to tell everybody. They market it as something special ops people would use ( http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semiconductor/news/downloads/RuggedizedDellXFRwithSSD_LG.jpg ) but the pointing stick cap comes off way too easily, it takes a blink of an eye to eject the SSD and there's nothing you can do against that even though you bought the laptop with a security cable lock... sorry, I meant: it takes a blink of an eye to eject the SSD *if* the two pieces of duct tapes put together that Dell wants you to pull in order to get the drive out haven't torn off yet (took us 3 times), after that you will need pliers!
Oh, and... well, you probably won't believe me but: that laptop did not even last a week (it never gets past the BIOS progress bar), even though we tried to be gentle with the testing, for example dropping it from 30cm high instead of 1m as Dell advertises.
So, to me it looks like Dell thought they could compete in the rugged laptop market when the SSDs came out: the XFR series look just like they took a Latitude, put an SSD inside and rubber bands outside, nothing more. That's why they're half as cheap as the other rugged laptops.
In our case, we'll stick with the Panasonic's.
Re:SSD not spinny disk (Score:1, Interesting)
Amusing to see this discussion on Slashdot when colleagues and I were testing a Dell XFR laptop just last week, suggested to us as a cheaper alternative than the Panasonic Toughbook's.
Well, I give it to you: http://twitter.com/sraveau/status/10663156737 (If you're considering buying a rugged laptop, DO NOT BUY ONE FROM DELL: seriously, theirs are a JOKE!)
I rarely ever tweet, but this I felt like I had to tell everybody. They market it as something special ops people would use ( http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semiconductor/news/downloads/RuggedizedDellXFRwithSSD_LG.jpg ) but the pointing stick cap comes off way too easily, it takes a blink of an eye to eject the SSD and there's nothing you can do against that even though you bought the laptop with a security cable lock... sorry, I meant: it takes a blink of an eye to eject the SSD *if* the two pieces of duct tapes put together that Dell wants you to pull in order to get the drive out haven't torn off yet (took us 3 times), after that you will need pliers!
Oh, and... well, you probably won't believe me but: that laptop did not even last a week (it never gets past the BIOS progress bar), even though we tried to be gentle with the testing, for example dropping it from 30cm high instead of 1m as Dell advertises.
So, to me it looks like Dell thought they could compete in the rugged laptop market when the SSDs came out: the XFR series look just like they took a Latitude, put an SSD inside and rubber bands outside, nothing more. That's why they're half as cheap as the other rugged laptops.
In our case, we'll stick with the Panasonic's.
Fine sand? Try pet dust! (Score:3, Interesting)
Years ago, as a consultant, I was hired by a pet wholesaler to come up with a solution for his computers, which had a very short useful life before the dust got to 'em.
The place was loaded with fine, silty dust, which was *everywhere* and all over everything despite their obvious effort to keep things clean. Birds, lizards, and other pets can generate an *insane* amount of this, and if you can imagine a large, heated warehouse where pets were bred and sold in volume, then you get the idea. They were having trouble keeping brand new computers running much more than a few months!
After some consideration, I realized that the trick for the computer was in the air - the air, otherwise needed to cool the computer, carried the dust that just did the computers in. Most computer ventilation systems create *negative* pressure - air "sucks in" every possible crack, bringing dust with it. After getting clearance for a "non-standard solution", (they were DESPERATE!) here's what I came up with:
1) Normal desktop computers. There were three of them, connected by a LAN.
2) I removed the power supplies and reversed the fans (which normally blow outward) so that they blew inward.
3) I got a bunch of HEPA air filters, 3 large, flat boxes, duct tape, and some dryer hose.
I cut large, square holes on two sides of the box and duct-taped the hepa air filters so that they sealed over the holes. Then, I cut a hole on the small side for the dryer hose, and sealed the dryer hose to the back of the power supply on the computer. If I remember correctly, I put a cheap 6" fan in the bottom of the box to help blow air into the dryer hose, and sealed the box.
This forced clean air into the computer, creating a *positive* air pressure of clean air inside the computer. This worked to push dush and silt out of the computer, and even worked to protect otherwise sensitive parts like the CD/DVD ROM drive. After 6 months, the computers were all working at 100% and they were happy! The solution was cheap, effective, and reliable.
While I solved their problem with a bit of redneck engineering, you could probably use/modify a personal air filtration system from the likes of Sears or x-Mart.
Re:Field notebooks (Score:4, Interesting)
Another vote here for Toughbooks. Where I work, we've given Toughbooks to all the field personnel and have no regrets. Our crews work outside in difficult environments and while I've seen HDs fail, broken keyboards and a couple of smashed screens (hit by something while open), for the most part they're almost indestructible.
Last fall we had a field engineer set a CF-30 on a backhoe and walk over to his truck to look for a drawing. When he came back, the backhoe had moved and his Toughbook was apparently somewhere in a trench that had been filled in.
I went out to the site that afternoon with another tech and an access point configured with a SSID that we knew the missing CF-30 would try to connect to. We slowly drove along the trench with a directional antenna pointed at it until the AP indicated that the missing laptop had tried to connect. We had the backhoe driver gently dig out several feet of trench before we found it. Disassembled, cleaned and reassembled it, it's still in service.
Dell Latitude E6400 XFR Ruggedized (Score:2, Interesting)
I work offshore and was going through laptops quite regularly but all that changed when I picked up the XFR laptop. They are very sturdy but are much lighter than the tough book PC's which I also find kind of outdated.
They come in both touch and non-touch screen laptops with 14.1 or 12.1 inch screens. Some of the best features I have found about these laptops are the fact that they have VGA out, SSD hard drives, ability to charge your cell phone (or other USB devices) while the laptop is turned off and it comes with a 3G SIM card slot for mobile broadband built in.
Just my 2 cents.
Re:The clean and cold fridge. (Score:3, Interesting)
And QUIET! Think of it - throw a couple of servers in a fridge, paint it black, mount a couple of 16" tape reels on the freezer door and some flashing LEDs, and you'll have one heck of a retro case mod!