Technology and Tasmania

 We're just back from a trip to Tasmania.

As always I took along a computer, but not the lightweight computer I bought back in 2021, but instead a second hand refurbished HP pro book. Ever since the lightweight Lenovo had started complaining about disk space when we were in Tuscany, I realised its days as a travel computer were probably numbered, so I bought myself a refurbished 11" ProBook which worked perfectly, allowing me to upload images from my camera, plus online banking and all the checking of things and booking of restaurants online that is part of travel these days.

While it might seem extravagant, the cost of ownership of the Lenovo - purchase price divided by years used was around the same as my previous refurbished MacBook. The HP cost me less than the Lenovo, so I reckon if I get two years out of it I reckon I'm ahead.

That does leave me the problem of what to do with the Lenovo - I suspect I'll end up installing Linux on it - the machine has a nice keyboard and  decent battery life so I'll probably end up configuring it similarly to the distraction free machine.

I also took along the dogfood tablet.

This wasn't quite so successful - not because the dogfood tablet doesn't function well as an e-reader, but due to mission creep on my part. I started using it to read my email, check online news sites etc in the mornings with a cup of tea simply because it seemed more sociable to do that with J while she looked at her iPad than hide behind a computer.

The dogfood tablet simply wasn't up to it - not enough memory and basically too slow, which is a shame as it still makes a great e-reader.

A little bit of searching showed that the various big box retailers were selling off the last of their stock of the Lenovo Tab M8 - basically a lightweight 8" tablet that has been discontinued.

So I bought myself one as a sort of birthday present.

It's pretty good, and of a size and weight that's just as easy as the original dogfood tablet to slide into a work bag as an extra device.

Unlike the Chromebook Duet, which has some limitations as a computer replacement, the M8 is unashamedly a supplemental device.

 I've only had it for a day or so, but so far I feel positive about it, although it does seem slow to boot, but once it's up an running, its reasonably responsive ...