About 2 or 3 weeks ago we took another plunge. I dove into a new laptop for all the varied projects that come our way.
All I can say is Wow, comparing the cost and performance of this latest laptop to my netbook or the big laptop I purchased 5 years ago. I’ve named this new HP DV7 laptop, MonsterLT with it’s 17″ LED screen.
The last PCs I got before this were the 2 netbooks that work well in the field. Especially when you need something that boots up fast and has long battery life. It turned out that most of my work was on other computers, so using a netbook + large screen + a full size keyboard and mouse was good enough for 90% of my work.
Lost Productivity?
The English language in America is always changing with new terms and phrases added to our vocabulary. With the advent of cellular phones and text messaging terms like, bff, lol, and ttly have meaning for millions of mostly younger citizens. So the other day a headline came across my desk from Kristina Knight that caught my eye but delivered little of what I expected.
The term, Off Grid, is generally clear with
Eric building new Loft.
Catchy title, huh? What kind of communications doesn’t require electricity of some kind? Phones, radios, flashing lights and Morse code? No. What about yelling really loud, or smoke signals? They qualify but leave you either hoarse or coughing! The answer: homing pigeons! Yup, recently we have added to the menagerie of animals we keep here with my son’s homing pigeons.
How we started
Late last summer Eric spotted a pigeon on our roof. This was an unusual sight up here in the mountains miles from any city. It seemed a little tame and had a numbered band around its leg. With a little coaxing and food Eric captured the bird.
Why consider using or purchasing a Netbook style computer for your off grid move? There are many advantages including size, weight, and battery life that make this attractive over other computing choices. There are some down sides too, but with proper planning you can have the best of both computing worlds size and power. At least I think I’ve found a good arrangement.
What got me thinking about my choice was the last 10 or 12 hours I spent with my machine the past day and a half. I upgraded my operating system from the original one I installed two years ago.
After 11 years on the mountain, we have gone through 3 uniquely different kinds of phone systems. Our current phone choice is already covered at our-real-life-internet-phone-experience. With a chuckle and a reminiscent twinkle in my eye, I’ll go way back and describe our first “phone” system.
Whenever you consider moving to a remote off grid location, the communications question pops up rather quickly. How will friends and family contact you? Will it be via bicycle messenger service, or homing pigeons, maybe by some kind of telephone?
All I can say is Wow, comparing the cost and performance of this latest laptop to my netbook or the big laptop I purchased 5 years ago. I’ve named this new HP DV7 laptop, MonsterLT with it’s 17″ LED screen.
There remains only one version of our phone system that I haven’t covered here. This one came after the amateur 
