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Old 07-31-2019, 01:20 PM   #41
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Judging by the state of affairs with the dishes under my sink after even a short drive (and they are better secured than electronics), I would never ever have my iMac in the trailer while travelling. If I absolutely had to have it along it would be well stored in its box. My new companion is a MacBook Air and it is very happy to be in the truck with me for the ride. If sans laptop, pencils and paper also work well, albeit slower but with unlimited memory.
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Old 07-31-2019, 01:38 PM   #42
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If sans laptop, pencils and paper also work well, albeit slower but with unlimited memory.
Try as I might, I have not been able to pick up Netflix on my pencils & paper. Perhaps the connection speed is too slow.
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Old 07-31-2019, 01:46 PM   #43
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I think Escape should provide an etch-a-sketch in the welcome kit for those moments when we just cannot do without technology. No solar needed.
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Old 08-15-2019, 01:55 PM   #44
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I am relatively late to this conversation because I have been too busy picking up, bringing home, and outfitting our new Escape 19 (we traveled in our 15B for 330 nights over 8 years). After reading some of the comments, I thought I would add my four cents worth, as it may be that I am the only person on this thread who actually builds his own computers (desktops, not laptops.)

I would echo the comments of those who said that there is too much “bounce” in the trailer for a rotating hard drive to exist very long. If you think about it, the head which reads the data from a hard drive disk (spinning at 5400+ rpm) is floating only 5 – 10 NANOMETERS above the spinning disk. Now the heads are “parked” when the machine is off, but still, with such tight tolerances, you are asking a lot of that spinning hard drive to not crash given the jolts that the trailer gets when towing.

So, if you want to carry a desktop computer in your Escape, you should have the spinning hard drives replaced with Solid State Drives (SSD).

What we do is carry a notebook computer, always in the tow vehicle, on the rear passenger seat. Still not perfect, but better than leaving it in the trailer. Also, there is little on that notebook computer that is not a copy of something that is on our desktop computers (which are backed up daily).

I am sure that the MacBook systems have better displays than cheap (relatively) PC notebooks, but keep in mind that if you are doing any kind of work in Photoshop or Lightroom on a notebook computer, the color accuracy of the notebook computer screen may not (ok, is probably not) as good as the color-calibrated monitor you have at home.

One of the other commenters indicated that one way to go might be to use something like Intel’s NUC. For sheer power consumption, that would be a great way to go. I recently built a small desktop computer to run the weather station on our home that feeds our Website (TwoHikers.org). It is based on an ultra-low energy CPU, and storage is only on an SSD. The entire desktop only burns 18 watts (without the monitor). Which is good, because it is running 24/7/365.
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Old 08-15-2019, 02:04 PM   #45
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I think an iMac will hold up. And it is compact enough for what you want- go for it. But back it up just in case! Mom has had 3 iMacs and the first and second replaced only when she could not longer get a printer that would work with them due to not being able to upgrade the OS any longer. They seem pretty rugged, not that Mom throws them around but the grandkids have used them a lot.
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Old 08-15-2019, 03:30 PM   #46
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rajenkins, that is a neat little weather/camera/views you have set up @twohikers.org. enjoyed looking at the mountains in various seasons.
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Old 08-15-2019, 03:30 PM   #47
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My iMac desk top computer, although working very nicely now, will soon be unsupported by Apple if it isn't already. Do iMacs have solid state drives?

By the time I get my Escape 21, I will most likely have a MacBook Pro to go with it.

But, I have an additional unplanned for expense. A tooth I cracked in my youth has started to haunt me and a temporary crown has only reduced the discomfort not eliminated it so there will be an expensive root canal in my immediate future. Ya, I know, TMI.
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Old 08-15-2019, 03:55 PM   #48
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A tooth I cracked in my youth has started to haunt me and a temporary crown has only reduced the discomfort not eliminated it so there will be an expensive root canal in my immediate future. Ya, I know, TMI.
Baja, 7-900 bucks.

I must be the only non-Apple user. My Panasonic Toughbook goes everywhere with me, bumpy roads and all. Never had an issue.

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Old 08-15-2019, 04:45 PM   #49
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I am sure that the MacBook systems have better displays than cheap (relatively) PC notebooks, but keep in mind that if you are doing any kind of work in Photoshop or Lightroom on a notebook computer, the color accuracy of the notebook computer screen may not (ok, is probably not) as good as the color-calibrated monitor you have at home.
My MacBook Pro's Retina display is pretty good, but if one is serious about color accuracy it is possible to use a color calibration tool on a laptop, just like on a desktop display. The tool uses a sensor that lays on the screen and software that generates a color profile, which the computer then uses to give good color accuracy.

It just crossed my mind that I should be able to use the calibration tool on the LG television I moved to the trailer to use as a computer monitor (and TV). Since the color profile is stored on the laptop, it would only be used when the TV is being used as a computer monitor. Hmm, it oughta work...
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Old 08-15-2019, 04:47 PM   #50
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rajenkins View Post
I am relatively late to this conversation because I have been too busy picking up, bringing home, and outfitting our new Escape 19 (we traveled in our 15B for 330 nights over 8 years). After reading some of the comments, I thought I would add my four cents worth, as it may be that I am the only person on this thread who actually builds his own computers (desktops, not laptops.)

I would echo the comments of those who said that there is too much “bounce” in the trailer for a rotating hard drive to exist very long. If you think about it, the head which reads the data from a hard drive disk (spinning at 5400+ rpm) is floating only 5 – 10 NANOMETERS above the spinning disk. Now the heads are “parked” when the machine is off, but still, with such tight tolerances, you are asking a lot of that spinning hard drive to not crash given the jolts that the trailer gets when towing.

So, if you want to carry a desktop computer in your Escape, you should have the spinning hard drives replaced with Solid State Drives (SSD).

What we do is carry a notebook computer, always in the tow vehicle, on the rear passenger seat. Still not perfect, but better than leaving it in the trailer. Also, there is little on that notebook computer that is not a copy of something that is on our desktop computers (which are backed up daily).

I am sure that the MacBook systems have better displays than cheap (relatively) PC notebooks, but keep in mind that if you are doing any kind of work in Photoshop or Lightroom on a notebook computer, the color accuracy of the notebook computer screen may not (ok, is probably not) as good as the color-calibrated monitor you have at home.

One of the other commenters indicated that one way to go might be to use something like Intel’s NUC. For sheer power consumption, that would be a great way to go. I recently built a small desktop computer to run the weather station on our home that feeds our Website (TwoHikers.org). It is based on an ultra-low energy CPU, and storage is only on an SSD. The entire desktop only burns 18 watts (without the monitor). Which is good, because it is running 24/7/365.
My last build was an all out gamer to use with a flight simulator game. My "hard drive" is two M.2s paired in a raid zero. I think at least 8 times faster than most SSDs. I can see no reason why, especially with SSDs, you could not drag a desk top computer around in a trailer. I am a real heretic and "PC" all the way but I do have an iPhone. On the road I use a convertible.
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Old 08-15-2019, 06:56 PM   #51
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Baja, 7-900 bucks.
$900, you guessed it and that's on top of the $800 for the crown. And a few years back there was another crown and an implant for the other two molars that the indiscretions of youth destroyed. Over my lifetime I've spent almost $4k on this particular testosterone detox.
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Old 08-15-2019, 07:25 PM   #52
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I spent about 17 years working for a Japanese company (Fujitsu) as the manufacturing engineer of a factory building hard drives and laptops. Every desktop/laptop hard drive we built had a "park" position for the read/write heads when the operating system was shutting down where there was no data on the disk platters, and the heads would be mechanically restrained from moving into the data sectors of the disk platters.



The head assemblies actually have an airfoil design on the arms that hold the read/write heads to control the "flight height" of the head and prevent it from crashing into the magnetic oxide coating of the disk platter.



I have no problems with my old hard drive laptop bouncing around in a wall-mounted pocket to hold it vertically against the back wall of my 21. Kinda scuffs up the wall covering, but the computer works just fine.


A funny: We tried to build a solid state drive in a joint project with Intel in the 80s - memory chips were a different technology then. Those drives were about 12 x 18x 10 inches high and required more than 100 watts to run.
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Old 08-15-2019, 08:22 PM   #53
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A funny: We tried to build a solid state drive in a joint project with Intel in the 80s - memory chips were a different technology then. Those drives were about 12 x 18x 10 inches high and required more than 100 watts to run.
I must be older than you. I used to work with computers that had magnetic core memories - ferrite beads on a wire grid. 64k of memory was a lot. Of course, we used paper tape readers to load the boot.

Surprisingly, I don't miss them as I type this on a laptop with 4k graphics, 16g memory, 128GB SSD , and a 1TB HDD. Of course, you need that much to cruise the internet - right?
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Old 08-15-2019, 10:35 PM   #54
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I spent about 17 years working for a Japanese company (Fujitsu) as the manufacturing engineer of a factory building hard drives and laptops.
I remember when IBM sold its small hard drive business to Fujitsu. I've been to the Intel facility in Hillsboro, Oregon as well. Think it was Hillsboro; it's been a while.
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Old 08-15-2019, 11:35 PM   #55
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I remember when programmers cared about how much storage their programs used
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Old 08-16-2019, 12:15 AM   #56
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Do iMacs have solid state drives?

TMI.
They are an option, yes. I have a 3 terabyte fusion drive on mine. It has a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD. They are mounted as a single volume with a smart controller that automatically stores the most frequently used applications and data on the SSD for faster access.

The current 27" has a 2TB SSD available. Or the above mentioned 3TB fusion drive.
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Old 08-16-2019, 12:25 AM   #57
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I must be the only non-Apple user. My Panasonic Toughbook goes everywhere with me, bumpy roads and all. Never had an issue.
No, but the Apple fans must either like to mention them more (perhaps because the paid so much for them), or have more problems with them, because Apple products come up in discussion much more than others.

And yes, we have a Mac, an iPhone, and iPods... plus the Samsung PC and Motorola Android phone that I use.
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Old 08-16-2019, 12:43 AM   #58
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... or have more problems with them, because Apple products come up in discussion much more than others.
I have never had a virus on any of my iMacs. I’ll just leave it at that.
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Old 08-16-2019, 12:59 AM   #59
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No, but the Apple fans must either like to mention them more (perhaps because the paid so much for them), or have more problems with them, because Apple products come up in discussion much more than others.

I have no clue what you are saying. I do know that Mac/PC discussions are pointless.
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Old 08-16-2019, 01:32 AM   #60
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I remember when IBM sold its small hard drive business to Fujitsu. I've been to the Intel facility in Hillsboro, Oregon as well. Think it was Hillsboro; it's been a while.
Me too, pretty big complex. What I remember most is the horrible rush hour traffic from there to downtown Portland.

Yup, the Apple story has been a long and interesting one. But the last Apple that I owned was an Apple 2e.

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