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TRAVELLING WITH A LAPTOP COMPUTER
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Laptops are made to travel. Their small size and potent features
make computing on the road a snap. Consider using this
assortment of tips which seasoned laptop owners have come to
rely on....
Airports are a frequent transit point for laptop owners. Be sure
to be prepared for a SPEEDY passage through airport security by
being aware that in most cases you MUST boot up the laptop so
that a DOS prompt, menu or other sign of visible activity is
displayed on the screen. Security officials do this for a
reason: if a laptop computer has been tampered with or hollowed
out to serve as an empty shell for explosives or weapons, the
machine will not boot up or operate. By forcing the laptop owner
to activate the machine, airport security is effectively
screening for tampered machines.
Once you know this, several important tips are quite useful.
Always carry a BOTH a fully charged battery and AC adapter with
the laptop. No power means no possibility of booting the machine
and your laptop might be forced to remain behind!
To speed the process on laptops equipped with hard drives try an
experiment. Prepare a bootable floppy disk with DOS system files
and a short AUTOEXEC.BAT program which boots the machine rapidly
since DOS usually tries to boot from a floppy first and then the
hard drive second. Now time how long it takes to boot from the
floppy as well as the hard drive. Whichever is faster is the one
you want to use to speed your trip through airport security. But
ALWAYS take the bootable floppy as well. Why? If your laptop
hard drive becomes damaged in transit - a possibility in today's
airport environments - then you have a floppy backup which will
also get you through airport security.
Cursor size and blink rate on many laptops are atrocious. Third
party software utilities are available which can alter both size
and shape of the cursor - we will discuss these in more detail
in the software section of the Laptop tutorial. However the
point to be made is that you might find one ideal cursor size
and blink rate for airplane use and a DIFFERENT cursor size and
blink rate better at the office or in the airport. Try various
combinations in various lighting. Several different cursor
configurations are quite handy when travelling under varying
lighting conditions. By the way in a pinch, The WordPerfect word
processing package has just such a utility you might want to dig
out if you own WordPerfect but have never used software cursor
control utility!
Did your portable printer malfunction and crash while you are on
the road? Or maybe you just don't want to carry your printer at
all. Here's an obvious idea: use your laptop and modem/faxboard
to fax your file to the hotel front desk fax machine and pick it
up there! If your modem lacks fax transmit capability, send the
file via modem to CompuServe and let them re-send it to your
hotel fax machine using their fax transmission capability.
Worried that the fax image might fade or curl with heat or
handling? Then xerox copy it onto standard paper which is a more
permanent material than fax paper.
Speaking of modems, the smallest and most "laptop useful" modems
are available from U.S. Robotics (call 708/982-5010.) Their
World Port modem is truly tiny, fully-featured and ruggedly
designed for travellers. Hayes has also produced the Pocket
Modem (call 404/449-8791.) Some of the most clever portable
modems do not even need battery power - they draw current from
the computer or telephone line.
Hotels and airlines always have carpeting. And carpeting is
productive of electrical static. Shuffle across the floor in
most travel facilities on a dry or cool day and you get a spark
when you touch the doorknob. This same static electricity
buildup can ruin the EPROM chip in your laptop keyboard when you
sit down to use the laptop. Be sure to first touch a bathroom
faucet with a coin. To eliminate static in your hotel room,
just take off your shoes and socks!
Carry extra charged batteries on long flights or international
flights. Seems like a simple tip, but that battery pack you
bought two years ago may finally decide it has a one hour life
somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Rechargeable batteries cannot
be recharged forever - after two to five years they begin to die.
Be sure you know how to turn off the speaker beep facility in
your laptop. Crowded airplanes indicate courtesy. Third party
software utilities exist which will provide this capability if
you own an older laptop without this software or hardware
feature. More about this in our software tutorial.
Conserve power on long flights. Turn down the screen brightness
to save power. Use the auto-resume feature if your laptop
contains the capability. Switch to slow mode or lower the
processing speed of your CPU chip. Your instruction book may
mention some or all of these features.
Some laptops have a variation of the auto resume feature that
even allows you to change batteries right in the middle of a
program. Check your manual. Might be a lifesaver on a plane
trip.
Save still more power when travelling by investigating software
ram disks or virtual disks which, unlike a spinning hard drive
or floppy, use far less power on long airline flights. DOS
itself comes with a reasonable although rudimentary ram drive
called VDISK which all laptop owners should check out. You can
also obtain third party shareware, commercial and public domain
ram disk software. Of course be sure to save your work to a
floppy or hard disk before you turn the machine off since a ram
disk operates purely in memory and MUST have power to maintain
your data.
If you travel out of the country, be sure to register your
foreign made laptop with U.S. Customs when you depart - so that
upon return you are not forced to pay duty on a machine you
bought in the U.S. but which customs officials will suspect was
purchased overseas. This can be a sticky subject. Contact a
local customs office for instructions on registering your
machine prior to departure.
Travellers should also consider etching your name, address,
telephone and social security number onto the machine in several
places. Although this may decrease the resale value of the
laptop, it also increases chances of recovery in case of theft.
Don't make the mistake of etching ONLY your social security
number onto your laptop. Federal privacy laws prevent release of
your social security records even to some law enforcement
agencies and in that respect having only your social security
number on valuable items is probably next to worthless as a
security item.
Hotels are getting better about providing modular plug in
telephone jacks for laptop users who need to hook up a modem.
But it seems the telephone jack on the wall is always ten feet
from the nearest table where you laptop sits. Solution? Always
bring a modem extension cord with in-line connector. Makes
laptop modem work a joy! Another tip: use the hotel's toll free
800 number to call ahead and doublecheck that your room is wired
with modular plug-in telephone jacks. Takes a moment and costs
you nothing! Speaking of plugs, investigate the new breed of
miniature surge supressing AC adapters if you travel to foreign
countries whose voltage can be less reliable than that in the
U.S.
You can obtain special anchor plates or straps which attach to
the bottom or side of a laptop with permanent glue. A flexible
steel cable and lock lets you secure your laptop to a hotel
radiator or piece of furniture and defeats all but the most
determined thief.
For those who absolutely need telephone links when travelling,
consider purchasing an acoustic modem coupler which works with
all telephones when you cannot plug your modem into the wall.
Acoustic couplers work by attaching directly to the mouthpiece
and earpiece of any standard phone and transfer data directly by
sound transmission. By the way, in overseas areas you will soon
find that you need a maddening array of special adapters to hook
your modem to the telephone line directly. An acoustic modem
coupler is the only truly "universal" adapter which will connect
to all telephones throughout the world.
Another modem tip when using hotel telephone lines: arrange with
the front desk or operator to ALWAYS put your call DIRECTLY
through without intervention. Many hotel system route your call
through a switchboard which prevents your modem from getting a
dial tone!
Diehard laptop users who communicate with the head office via
modem should also investigate remote computing software which we
will discuss later. Remote computing software allows you in your
hotel in New York to call San Francisco by modem and then
connect directly with your desktop computer or office LAN
network. Once connected, you can run your word processor, obtain
files, check figures on the office spreadsheet and more. In
essence your laptop functions as a remote keyboard for a
computer which is thousands of miles away. Shareware, public
domain and commercial software packages of this type are
available. But if you do this, here is one important tip many
travellers learn the hard way: ALWAYS leave a note for the
maintenance person or janitor which tells them not to turn off
what appears to be your idle office desktop computer. Oh, and
while you are gone, turn off the desktop monitor but leave on
the pc if you plan to compute remotely. This saves power and
prevents screen burnout!
Need to test if two files are slightly different as you check
newer document files against older ones? Or maybe just backup
all NEWER revisions of your files to a floppy or transmit them
by modem to the head office? Use the DOS XCOPY command to track
down differences between two files such as word processing
documents. DOS also previously had an older File Compare command
called FC which accomplishes the same thing. Sidekick version 2
has a reconcile feature and Lap-Link can transfer files between
to computers and check dates and times to make sure you are
obtaining the newest version of a file or to ensure that both
computers indeed have the latest file.
By the way, here is an example of how to use the DOS XCOPY
command to copy all files from ALL subdirectories on a laptop
hard drive named C: onto a backup floppy in the A: drive which
have been updated on or later than March 15, 1992. Very handy
when you are on the road and want to copy or prepare for modem
transmission all of your updated files for the head
office. At the DOS prompt type:
XCOPY C:\*.* A:/S/D:03/15/92
Consider travel insurance for replacement of your laptop in case
of theft. Contact Safeware at 800/848-3469.
Business travellers often have to present VERY important
presentations with their laptops. Essential job proposals,
contracts, crucial price schedules. If it is important to your
business, always make a backup copy on floppy disk. Seems
simple, but many business users discover that their hard drive
equipped laptop has crashed due to airport handling in transit.
A floppy can save the day and in a pinch you can rent a computer
or borrow one from your client. If data matters, put it on a
floppy.
Make sure you ALWAYS carry a null modem cable and file transfer
software with your laptop when travelling. You can probably
patch into another desktop computer to transfer files in
emergency, but without the null modem cable and software you are
stuck. Practice transferring files between several computers
before you travel so you have the process comfortably memorized.
For the truly worried traveller, also carry a pair of gender
changer plugs which allow hookup of male to male and female to
female cable connections. Also a 25 to 9 pin plug adapter.
Laptop computer die in transit? Carry a set of jewelers
screwdrivers and floppy disk cleaning kit. If a few simple
things such as this won't fix it, then grab the yellow pages and
look under computer rentals. By the way, many hotels maintain
rental laptops for business travellers. But the secret is that
the rate is far cheaper by renting from a local vendor than the
hotel. Make a few phone calls and get a laptop delivered to your
hotel suite in case of emergency. The smartest travellers call
ahead to their destination and reserve a backup laptop in case
of problems at a local vendor. If the laptop is not checked out
a small retainer fee is kept by the vendor. This can be done by
a charge card and a long distance phone call. Same goes for
renting LCD projection panels for business meetings.
Consider obtaining a CompuServe account for modem use if you
travel frequently. You can obtain online support for laptop
computer problems directly from the manufacturer, download
special software utility files, transmit important files to the
home office, send faxes when all you have is a modem which lacks
fax transmit capabilities (CompuServe converts your modem
transmission and sends it on via their fax equipment.) Lots of
good ideas and special laptop discussion forums for business
travelers. You can even book hotel and airline reservations
directly by modem using CompuServe, too. Laptops, travel and
CompuServe go together handsomely.
Did your ribbon die in your portable printer? Just not black
enough? Stick some fax paper in the printer. It is heat
sensitive and will frequently pick up an image without a printer
ribbon. Amazing but true. This works with dot matrix printers.
Do not try it with laser printers.
Check ahead for special regulations. Example: in Germany modems
are regulated under certain security laws - presumably spies
could use them to transmit data. You must have a "modem permit"
in that country or your equipment can be confiscated. In other
countries and some developing nations such as Africa and India
confiscation of computer equipment is common - even if all of
your registration and travel documents are in order! In those
cases you might be better off leaving your computer at home and
bringing a tape recorder or notepad. Just because you own a
computer does not mean you can use it in an unrestricted
fashion while you travel!
Tempted to use one of those inexpensive overseas power
convertors to adapt your AC plug in convertor to European
current? DON'T DO IT without first checking with the
manufacturer. Those inexpensive current convertors work fine
when changing high voltage overseas current to lower voltage US
current for things like shavers because they reduce the voltage.
The problem is that most of the world uses 50 cycle AC current
versus the normal 60 cycle AC current in the U.S. Computers CANNOT
run from these inexpensive convertors and damage may occur.
Find out what device the manufacturer supplies or recommends for
travel outside of your country of residence.
Tutorial finished. Be sure to order your FOUR BONUS DISKS which
expand this software package with vital tools, updates and
additional tutorial material for laptop users! Send $20.00 to
Seattle Scientific Photography, Department LAP, PO Box 1506,
Mercer Island, WA 98040. Bonus disks shipped promptly! Some
portions of this software package use sections from the larger
PC-Learn tutorial system which you will also receive with your
order. Modifications, custom program versions, site and LAN
licenses of this package for business or corporate use are
possible, contact the author. This software is shareware - an
honor system which means TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. Press escape key to
return to menu.