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Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 12:43 AM

I wish to take my laptop with me on a driving trip-Any suggestion as to how I can connect while driving? Modem etc?

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#1

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 2:06 AM

Don't surf and drive. Using a cellphone while driving is prohibited I would imagine even more so for surfing.

To solve your problem have a look at your mobile service provider(s)

You can connect via your cell and Bluetooth (or similar) or directly with a dongle (essentially a cell with a sim card) as a dial-up connection.

Happy (stationary) surfing.

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#6
In reply to #1

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 1:26 PM

I used the wrong info as my wife would be driving while I do my thing!

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#9
In reply to #6

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 2:19 PM

Google for IBurst or Broadband internet.

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#13
In reply to #6

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 11:14 PM

First of all have you got permission from your wife.... I know my wife will not like it if I use my comp while she drives. (In fact at home too she complains I spend too much time on the comp!)...Just joking

I believe there are a few things you need to consider. Your computer hard disk may not like the idea very much. You know it is made of very thin platters and maintain a small gap in between. If I were I would try not to do it. If I am compelled to do it I will make sure I back up my data on a very regular basis.

Also consider your health, if you feel dizzy after a while then you will know it is nothing to with the heart or brain (stroke). Try reading a book while being driven in a small vehicle and see what I mean. Many, not all feel dizzy after a while.

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#21
In reply to #13

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 11:47 AM

You are rigth. Why some one in his right mind would use computer in the car while driving with his wife. (I know he wants his wife to work harder) I think he should have his head examined. This question is not even worthy of reading it. Spending time for the responses is a sin. I am disgusted and signing off.

Nadeem

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#26
In reply to #21

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 7:18 AM

You and others are way off base, and, frankly, delving into area's where you have no business. If his wife is driving, what does anyone care what he does? He can read a book, do crosswords, write a novel, or tap on his laptop. As long as his wife is happy with what he does, it' no-ones business but their own.

The only thing the OP asked is if this can be done. He should have included the fact that he would not be the one driving right from the start, but he did not.

Give the guy a break, it's not an unreasonable question, or practice. As long as he has his seatbelt on, he can do whatever the hell he wants, while his wife drives.

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#27
In reply to #26

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 12:57 PM

I was watching this thread from outside with interest.. my comments within brackets.

You and others are way off base (yes you are free to express your opinion, so are the others), and, frankly (hollow word-mostly used when people are not frank), delving into area's where you have no business(unfortunately OP made it other peoples business by disclosing about wife by making it public!- otherwise he could have mentioned someone else not wife).

If his wife is driving, what does anyone care what he does? He can read a book, do crosswords, write a novel, or tap on his laptop (agreed 100% as long as he does not interfere in his wife's driving).

As long as his wife is happy (yes as long as she is happy.. or ...does it really matter whether she is happy or not if his wife's emotions are not our business as you say!!!) with what he does, it' no-ones business but their own.

The only thing the OP asked is if this can be done. He should have included the fact that he would not be the one driving right from the start, but he did not (DID NOT!).

Give the guy a break, it's not an unreasonable question, or practice ( I saw once a junior engineer being hounded by so called seniors for a much more reasonably worded question on material used in tea bags) . As long as he has his seat-belt on, he can do whatever the hell (or heaven!!- please calm down sir) he wants, while his wife drives.

Actually I see this thread is developing into one really hot and a lot of fun!

May be CR4 administrator will be kind enough to perform the same magic vanishing trick they did to two threads on tea bag issue & dynamite issue!

Hi Bricktop I am typing all above remarks just for fun and do mean no offence to you at all, you are a great guy I admire on CR4. Take it easy.

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#30
In reply to #27

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 2:24 PM

Please go back and read the original post.

Never mind, here it is.

I wish to take my laptop with me on a driving trip-Any suggestion as to how I can connect while driving?

You are the one who is off base!

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#31
In reply to #30

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 11:33 PM

Hi lynlynch,

Is your response in reply to my post(#27) or post (#26)?

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#32
In reply to #31

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 1:04 AM

I think yours

The only thing the OP asked is if this can be done. He should have included the fact that he would not be the one driving right from the start, but he did not (DID NOT!).

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#33
In reply to #32

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 1:41 AM

he DID subsequently!

If you had read through the thread you would have noted my response took into account not only original post but his other posts #6,#7,#8 too and my post.

I did ask a clarification from lynlynch and it would have been much nicer to hear from horse's mouth rather than a proxy, what lynlynch really meant!

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#34
In reply to #33

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 2:21 AM

I was being nice why do you call me a proxy?

i think as an estimated guess that he is hugging a pillow now

http://www.worldtimezone.com/datetime.html

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#35
In reply to #34

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 6:01 AM

hope lynlynch will not ask me why i call him a horse!!!

estimated guess?? hm... I see a redundancy here. I thought estimate and guess, both mean same.

Thanks for the link. It will be very helpful. My sons are in UK & Singapore. I have business dealings with USA,UK,Belgium,Saudi Arabia,Japan..2much 2 type.

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#2

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 7:44 AM

The police cars here in the USA have a lap top hook-up. Maybe you could go ask a cop and see how quickly they tell you how many violations you are looking forward to. i don't know where you are but here YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!! Trust me. The risks are far too high and we don't want to lose a CR4 member.

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#7
In reply to #2

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 1:27 PM

Sorry but I'm not that stupid as my wife is doing the driving whjile I do my thing!

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#25
In reply to #7

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 6:48 PM

Carl,

This is the second time you say - "while I do my thing" - what thing?

If you do not wanna tell us fine but don't over do it because it might hurt yourself and as someone said it we do not want to loose our CR4 member!

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#3

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 8:43 AM

It' bad enough that we have idiots who try to drive and use their cell phones at the same time, now you want to drive and work on your laptop.

DON'T BE STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS AN EVEN BETTER WAY TO KILL PEOPLE THAN TEXTING!!!!!!!!!

Please tell us this is a VERY BAD joke.

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#8
In reply to #3

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 1:29 PM

Hey, I'm not driving, my wife is doing that while I do my e mails.

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#11
In reply to #8

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 5:27 PM

If only we had known.

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#15
In reply to #8

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 12:57 AM

Hello Ask Carl,

Take what has been said with a pinch if not a whole cannister of salt. The advice makes sense whether you are driving or not. How many emails do you have to answer, that you cannot work on at home?

The US Police tend to use there computers when not moving. And then, they do not 'type' as you would do replying to an email. There is dedicated buttons that do certain tasks that are used just as you would use any button in your car.

Then as I say any typing is done when the vehicle stops. And from what I have seen only two or three words are ever typed?

Even if you were in a camper-van and had a sideboard to work on the vibrating thing would be a major headache.......literally.

It has been mentioned how difficult it is to keep your eyes focused on what ever you are typing. You can get a device that was originally used to stead film cameras when hand held. But this is a non starter....from the start. You may not realise how much vibration you accept and make automatic adjustment for by moving you hand to be able to focus on what you may be reading in your hand. Now try putting your hand on the 'dash' or your knee and you will see it is next to impossible to see what you are doing, apart from trying to follow a violently moving cursor. Maybe you have been watching to many Scifi programs?

Take care, seriously!..........................

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#4

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 11:21 AM

Your cell provider can provide you the means for mobile computing - try Quest or any other - reception will be limited to cell range, deducting for being inside the vehicle.

Easy lynlynch! Just be alert so you can dodge as he goes off-road.

OFF TOPIC PORTION FOLLOWS:

Now what we need is voice activated Windows Verbal - so we can talk to our machines. Not irritating enough having everyone on the cells.

What was that mediocre scifi flick with the detective who carried his mobile computing device around talking to it? I seem to remember it was British - the show not the device, and not only did it take care of his travel arrangements, it also had heuristic search capabilities as well as acting as his analyst.

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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 12:17 PM

Or maybe we can pool our brain power, I'll just collect the coats, and build him a "Knight Rider" type car. We just need to keep the Gremlin away from it.

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#29
In reply to #5

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 1:32 PM

Hello not so smart,

Or maybe we can pool our brain power. -------

So if we pool out brain power I have three spare electrons......well, they can't be 'neurons', as I have had them for some time!

Take care.

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#10

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 2:50 PM

Hey Ask Carl, no one thinks you're stupid. If you are going to be getting involved with this bunch, well you need a pretty thick skin. You could learn a lot from these guys, and have some fun. So don't leave, join in on the fun.

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#12

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 10:47 PM

while driving? sounds unhealthy to me

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#14

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/15/2009 11:22 PM

Accute 'Work -centeredness' at the expence of heavy emotinal bank balance,

quoting Dr Stefan Cauvey's Seven Habbits

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#16

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 1:23 AM

You can either get a card like they offer from Verizon or ATT that plugs into a PC Card slot, or you can used Internet Sharing on your Phone, then connect the computer through Bluetooth or a USB cable. I have found that the bluetooth method using ATT seems as fast as my friends Verizon PC Card. By the way, as someone else has mentioned, the police cars all use computers, so I think that they can handle it. Some laptops have shock absorbing software that warns and/or stops reads when the shock is too great like IBM.

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#17
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Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 2:50 AM

Very handy when you crash into the car in front of you, at least your data is save.

Yes lots of my japanese managers used a card that plugged into the phone to connect to the internet.

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#18

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 4:31 AM

Hi Carl,

I recently took a trip and used my verizon card for internet access and also purchased an inexpensive 400w power inverter. I also watched a movie. My wife drove, it was a perfect setup.

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#19

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 7:46 AM

Though the wife is driving. I will like to have a statistcs of number of accidents caused by an irritated driver (which will be the case)

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#20

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 11:37 AM

As for damaging your laptop, any recent notebook has shock protection, good for highway travel. I use Microsoft Streets & Trips to turn my laptop into a GPS travel director. I belted the laptop into my passenger seat and attached the included GPS receiver to the passenger side window. The program gives me verbal turn-by-turn directions, similar to a Tom-Tom or Magellan unit. I set my destination BEFORE the vehicle moves, so I don't have to do anything with the laptop until I get where I'm going. I've done this with 3 different laptops over 4 years and never had a problem with them.

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#22

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 12:30 PM

I have a Verizon PC5740 aircard that plugs into my computer. I also have the power invertor that plugs into the DC power supply of the car and it gets converted to the 110 V for the laptop. It's a fantastic setup. Of course you never use it while driving but I've found it very useful on long trips where I still had work stuff to do. Using it gets me one step closer to an "out of office" work environment. The monthly charge for the internet access is $60 incl/tax unlimited kbytes.

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#23

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 2:34 PM

Dear Ask Carl!

Use of Mobile/Cell Phone is prohibitted almost world-wide & you are bringing a new

craze.

I suppose that car Tv will be used as Monitor ?????

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#24

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/16/2009 3:54 PM

see if the Grim Reaper or the Angel of Death can provide a proxy server. They will both be there with you and will need something to do while they wait.

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#28

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/17/2009 1:00 PM

Use a 24 inch power cord plug it in the exhaust pipe where it exhausts to the outside of the car. This should help you get to the end of your with out any trouble. I hope when you have a wreck itwill injure you and no one else. I do hope this is a joke and you are not serious. If you are some one should take your drivers license away from you.

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#36
In reply to #28

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 6:13 AM

Did you people notice that he said he is not the one driving. He is just an ocupant kinda like the people sitting on an airplane using there laptops. I like doing the same thing and as long as I am a passenger I really don't see the harm and can't believe that it would be illegal.

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#37
In reply to #36

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 9:07 PM

Depends on which sites you are visiting

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#38
In reply to #36

Re: Laptop usage while driving

02/18/2009 9:51 PM

Excellent positive feedback ckarston !!!

Using my Verizon setup, I've had dropped data transmissions picked up miles down the road and reconnect with no loss in integrity.

It's a great feeling accomplishing a task while cruising to your destination.

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