Weeeee, I just bought a teeny laptop

[bw2]

We have the Acer as well. We use a USB card on Verizon. We connect to Verizon and use the laptop while driving, the co-pilot does the work. We just returned from a trip to Florida and there was bad weather ahead of us, so we went to the weather radar site and checked out the storms.

I have made a PC stand that holds the Acer and the stand sits in/on the cup holder that extends from the dashboard on our 2005 Ford F250.

I will take a photo and then try to post it to the web and build a link to it here on the forum. (This will be a new task to learn, so bear with me.)

[Ozz]

bw2, We will be, but I have to tell you, I will be eagerly waiting, as I will use mine in my service truck, and we all love options.

[VanMan]

Can you load software via the USB ports? Can you copy software from a CD on to a thumb drive with another computer and then use it to load the "netbook"?

[Ozzie]

Yes you can...I have an Asus Netbook with an external USB cd/dvd burner and I can do everything a full computer can do - including booting from the external drive and a USB stick.
Of course they are not heavy crunchers, but nice little units for travel.
The downfall to these units is no backup dvd (the Asus does have one), so a person needs to image the netbook to an external hard drive.
If you toast the operating system you're all done. With an image, all you do is have boot files on the USB stick, and image back and forth.
Highly recommended.

I tend to like experimenting a bit so imaging has already saved me.

[Ozz]

What Ozzie said.

[Ozzie]

Sorry to sound nerdy there...I just read it and thought it sounded a little over the top.
I already have a few USB sticks, SD cards, and external drives, so I've been playing a lot with these netbooks. We have a couple of them and those images let me have my way with them without worrying that I can't get something back if I screw it up.
I've been playing with Windows 7 and various codecs for playing movies and pretty well have things dialed in now.
If I can be of any help I'd be happy to try.

[bw2]

OK all, here is my first attempt adding photos via an online site. I chose Picasa.
The laptop mount was made from two bookends. The standard metal plain office bookends. I slid one inside the other and glued them together. I bent the back of the bookends to the angle necessary to have the screen vertical. I also cut the top off of the bookends to allow for clearance between the bookend and the dashboard. I added a bracket to support the bookend to the base of the bookend. I added a 1/4" board as the base for the laptop. On top of the board is the "glove" pad to prevent the laptop from slipping and to prevent scratching. Finally I added a velcro strap to hold the laptop onto the mount in case of a emergency stop or a large bump. The mount sits on the cup holder when pulled out from the dash. The flange of the bookend slides between the top lip of the cup holder and the part of the cup holder that slides out. I plug the pc into a inverter for power. I use my Verizon air card and log on and away we go.

I hope the photos help.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mocbw2/Laptop#

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Thanks for the slide show!! good job!!

[Ozzie]

That is such a cool idea! Oh boy...heading out to the truck...

[Ozz]

Darned nice job, another well done. And... I love that truck!

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Ozz did it. Although I love my new Dell Studio 1735 laptop which I'm planning to use as my desktop replacement, it is very heavy, so I find that I'm not taking it on the road with me like I did when I used my old Mac PowerBook G4. When Ozz wrote about his slick little Acer, I started paying attention to the notebooks Acer has and the decent prices of their products. (I also started dropping hints to Wayne about Mother's Day, my birthday, and other present-worthy holidays).

Walmart has continued to drop the prices of Acer notebooks, and the 8.5 screen Acer Aspire model with the gig of memory is now $249 (because, of course, another model is hitting the shelves as I write). I played with the 8.5 model last weekend in Idaho Falls and was about to buy one when the salesman told me the new models had been posted on the Walmart web site that day, and if I wanted a red notebook (I'm a red person)I could order one immediately.

So, Ozz, you are responsible for calling my attention to the slick little Acer notebooks which, by the way, got a "Best Buy" rating from Consumer Reports. By default, you're also responsible for my getting one of those notebooks for my birthday! Thank you SO much!

I wish I had ordered the notebook sooner, because we'll already be on the road to 7 Feathers when it arrives at my house.

Carolyn

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Ozz did it. Although I love my new Dell Studio 1735 laptop which I'm planning to use as my desktop replacement, it is very heavy, so I find that I'm not taking it on the road with me like I did when I used my old Mac PowerBook G4. When Ozz wrote about his slick little Acer, I started paying attention to the notebooks Acer has and the decent prices of their products. (I also started dropping hints to Wayne about Mother's Day, my birthday, and other present-worthy holidays).

Walmart has continued to drop the prices of Acer notebooks, and the 8.5 screen Acer Aspire model with the gig of memory is now $249 (because, of course, another model is hitting the shelves as I write). I played with the 8.5 model last weekend in Idaho Falls and was about to buy one when the salesman told me the new models had been posted on the Walmart web site that day, and if I wanted a red notebook (I'm a red person)I could order one immediately.

So, Ozz, you are responsible for calling my attention to the slick little Acer notebooks which, by the way, got a "Best Buy" rating from Consumer Reports. By default, you're also responsible for my getting one of those notebooks for my birthday! Thank you SO much!

I wish I had ordered the notebook sooner, because we'll already be on the road to 7 Feathers when it arrives at my house.

Carolyn