I have in the back of my mind a little 2-3 week solo ride around the country.
It's still a bit of a dream at this stage, but was part of the justification in buying the Tenere (if any justification was needed)
But I would like to take a small netbook 'puter along to keep in touch and let you guys steer my front wheel along the way.
I know that most netbooks come pre-installed with with either XP home or win 7 starter, but I am thinking of getting a hard-drive-less one and sticking LINUX on it, just as a mobile ride-reporter.
Why LINUX? My thinking:-
1. It can be setup with a smaller footprint, so I can sniff about for a 2nd-hand netbook with less memory, and no hard drive. I think a hard drive is a no-no for bike use. Disk-less netbooks also seem to have a longer battery life and that may be important.
2. I can roll out a totally free open-source solution for anyone else who needs a mobile ride-reporter. I don't do software piracy, and many years ago took a decision to only use bought or free software. My idea is to strip all the unnecessary gunge from Ubuntu.
What would it need as a bike appliance? I think min requirement:-
1. Camera interface and image editor.
2. Web connectivity - 3G/GPRS - nice to have wi-fi for hotspots.
3. Web browser.
4. EMail client.
5. MP3 Player (need muzak in evenings)
6. Text editor for Ride Reports etc.
6. GPS software - track save and display on map functionality.
So I have set up a test environment. I have an old laptop that has not been powered up for over six years that I hope to use as my test-bed. It is a Celeron with 1Gb of memory and a 20Gb disk.
I downloaded Ubuntu Netbook Remix over the weekend and installed it. Had a few problems as the CMOS backup battery was flat, but install 2 went through okay. Every time I boot up I have to reconfigure the CMOS - pain.
In terms of the above requirements, there are a few ticks off the list.
Browser - mozilla firefox. Fine for me.
Camera/Image - Comes with F-Spot - very basic but looks okay - has rotate/crop/sharpen/colour adjustment etc. Only seems to download the most recent pic from my camera but I think it's the way I have set it up.
EMail. Has Evolution mail - looks fine to me for a trippie.
MP3 player - Has Rythmbox - have not got it working yet.
Text editor - has OpenOffice and gedit text editor - fine for me.
I have not got the 3g or network connectivity working yet. Struggling with the USB - the laptop only has one USB 1.0 port, but I have a cardbus 2-port USB 2.0 adapter, but I have not got it working yet. Searching for drivers.
GPS I have not ventured into yet - quick googling seems to uncover plenty stuff, but must sort and filter.
Anyone else wanting to join this project would be most welcome. I used to use and teach UNIX many years ago, but my LINUX skills are almost non-existant, so bear with me.
Hey the >ls -al still seems to work !! Eish, I have not used those brain cells for many years.
It's still a bit of a dream at this stage, but was part of the justification in buying the Tenere (if any justification was needed)
But I would like to take a small netbook 'puter along to keep in touch and let you guys steer my front wheel along the way.
I know that most netbooks come pre-installed with with either XP home or win 7 starter, but I am thinking of getting a hard-drive-less one and sticking LINUX on it, just as a mobile ride-reporter.
Why LINUX? My thinking:-
1. It can be setup with a smaller footprint, so I can sniff about for a 2nd-hand netbook with less memory, and no hard drive. I think a hard drive is a no-no for bike use. Disk-less netbooks also seem to have a longer battery life and that may be important.
2. I can roll out a totally free open-source solution for anyone else who needs a mobile ride-reporter. I don't do software piracy, and many years ago took a decision to only use bought or free software. My idea is to strip all the unnecessary gunge from Ubuntu.
What would it need as a bike appliance? I think min requirement:-
1. Camera interface and image editor.
2. Web connectivity - 3G/GPRS - nice to have wi-fi for hotspots.
3. Web browser.
4. EMail client.
5. MP3 Player (need muzak in evenings)
6. Text editor for Ride Reports etc.
6. GPS software - track save and display on map functionality.
So I have set up a test environment. I have an old laptop that has not been powered up for over six years that I hope to use as my test-bed. It is a Celeron with 1Gb of memory and a 20Gb disk.
I downloaded Ubuntu Netbook Remix over the weekend and installed it. Had a few problems as the CMOS backup battery was flat, but install 2 went through okay. Every time I boot up I have to reconfigure the CMOS - pain.
In terms of the above requirements, there are a few ticks off the list.
Browser - mozilla firefox. Fine for me.
Camera/Image - Comes with F-Spot - very basic but looks okay - has rotate/crop/sharpen/colour adjustment etc. Only seems to download the most recent pic from my camera but I think it's the way I have set it up.
EMail. Has Evolution mail - looks fine to me for a trippie.
MP3 player - Has Rythmbox - have not got it working yet.
Text editor - has OpenOffice and gedit text editor - fine for me.
I have not got the 3g or network connectivity working yet. Struggling with the USB - the laptop only has one USB 1.0 port, but I have a cardbus 2-port USB 2.0 adapter, but I have not got it working yet. Searching for drivers.
GPS I have not ventured into yet - quick googling seems to uncover plenty stuff, but must sort and filter.
Anyone else wanting to join this project would be most welcome. I used to use and teach UNIX many years ago, but my LINUX skills are almost non-existant, so bear with me.
Hey the >ls -al still seems to work !! Eish, I have not used those brain cells for many years.
