Karen Politte
EF5
Well - I know the staple of the storm chaser for on-the-road is the laptop - but has anybody ever thought about a desktop for their vehicle? I believe Tim Samaras has one in his vehicle......
Obviously there's going to be pros and cons whatever method you use - but I'm intrigued about utilizing a desktop in the truck. This is something that Gene's thought about for a while........the logistics (and cash) tend to outweigh just going out and doing it.
Our laptop is fairly old (by today's standards whereby if it's 1.5 years old or more - it's OLD), but it has always served well with a few kicks up the butt. Last year in Iowa we had a problem with it - I think it must have been a connection thing because it literally shut down dead on us as we had a tornado on the ground (READ:No GPS).
The important thing if we were to go the desktop route would be making sure that it was easily upgraded - as this is not something we want to go out of date within a year or two. Easily upgraded and maintained - and crash-free, of course. It must have capability for basic chaser-necessities, i.e. GPS x 2 (1 for navigation, 1 for our mesonet configuration), the Sprint Aircard, a wireless mouse and keyboard, and a host of other stuff that Gene has that I don't understand.
A mount for the desktop in-back could probably be made for $200 or so - buying a specially designed one for the purpose would run into the $$$$'s.
Any suggestions, comments, pitfalls?? What do you even look for when buying a desktop these days? I know nothing.
KR
Obviously there's going to be pros and cons whatever method you use - but I'm intrigued about utilizing a desktop in the truck. This is something that Gene's thought about for a while........the logistics (and cash) tend to outweigh just going out and doing it.
Our laptop is fairly old (by today's standards whereby if it's 1.5 years old or more - it's OLD), but it has always served well with a few kicks up the butt. Last year in Iowa we had a problem with it - I think it must have been a connection thing because it literally shut down dead on us as we had a tornado on the ground (READ:No GPS).
The important thing if we were to go the desktop route would be making sure that it was easily upgraded - as this is not something we want to go out of date within a year or two. Easily upgraded and maintained - and crash-free, of course. It must have capability for basic chaser-necessities, i.e. GPS x 2 (1 for navigation, 1 for our mesonet configuration), the Sprint Aircard, a wireless mouse and keyboard, and a host of other stuff that Gene has that I don't understand.
A mount for the desktop in-back could probably be made for $200 or so - buying a specially designed one for the purpose would run into the $$$$'s.
Any suggestions, comments, pitfalls?? What do you even look for when buying a desktop these days? I know nothing.
KR