We’re mid way through a road trip out west to WA.
Not the best time – what with the chaos in the Middle East and dodgy petrol supplies.
However, this is not what this is about. We had a little, and I mean little, rental MG that sips unleaded 91 with the frugality of an elderly aunt with a cup of darjeeling, so we are managing. Yes fuel is a lot more expensive, but so far it's not the big deal it might have been
However, this is not what this post is about.
It’s about what sort of technology I took with me, as this time I did something a little different.
Normally I take an old laptop with me. This works fine for online banking, uploading photos from my camera - normally I take a little point and shoot iXus with me, it’s a little more versatile in bright light etc than my phone - email, and a little bit of writing.
Usually I take a windows device, but there’s no reason why, just habit. Any of my Linux laptop would work just as well, and as Chrome’s now available for Linux there’s none of the dread ‘unsupported browser’ errors that you don’t want to see in the middle of some online banking.
Until it died on me I used to use my 2012 vintage MacBook Air, before that a little Linux netbook.
After the Air died on me I’ve been through a couple of refurbished windows machines, which work well, but do tend to be heavier and bulkier than my old Air, which is a consideration when flying as I usually take an old iPad with me these days to read the news and a bit of recreational surfing.
Way of the world I guess.
On an end to end road trip it doesn’t matter what I take, there will always be space for a laptop and an iPad.
If you’re flying part of the way it’s a little different, especially since airlines started getting twitchy about the size and weight of cabin bags, not to mention the sheer hassle of taking a heavy bulky backpack through security.
So this time, as well as a checked bag, I took a smaller backpack, the sort of one you’d take on a day hike, say 30-35 litres, into which I stuffed an extra warm layer in case the plane was cold, an iPad, and my refurbished Surface, and other essentials that you don’t want to lose along the way, like the Surface’s charger (new ones don’t need a special charger, but my old refurbished device does), my glasses, diary, pens, paper and my kindle, as well as my phone and my wallet.
This made for a reasonably compact pack well within Qantas’s cabin bag guidelines, and everything else was in my medium size case that fitted into the back of our little rental MG.
As a solution this worked well.
The Surface did everything I asked of it - not quite true, my portable SD card reader didn’t work with it for some reason, but it let me do our online banking, and a bit of writing, and was comfortable to use as long as I had access to a table.
Public libraries are an absolute godsend in this regard.
And for everything else there was the iPad.
So, why not simply use my Chromebook?
Good question. After all I do use my Chromebook when we’re away for a night or two.
One, the Chromebook is heavier than an iPad - it’s about the same weight as the Surface, and it has only one single USB3 socket, which potentially makes uploading from my camera a bit of finger in the ear exercise.
There's also the problem that it needs reasonably decent internet to be more than a gray plastic brick. While things are definitely better with an internet connection the Surface can be used without connectivity.
The Surface had a single old style usb socket into which I could plug my SD card reader. The theory was that it would just work.
Unfortunately the theory was wrong.
If it had worked I should have been able to drag’n’drop as I would on a Windows or Linux laptop.
As it was it didn’t - I should have tested it and it’s my bad I didn’t.
And that brings us to the second reason for choosing the surface. It is fundamentally a general purpose Windows computer and I can run my preferred software ( Libre Office, Notable, Thunderbird) on it and save to one drive, which is my preferred storage solution…
