For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.
--
Chris

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.
--
Chris

I have a PC plugged into my plasma telly with an IR keyboard and mouse.
Great way of supervising and restricting the kids access to the web but also
a very user friendly video phone and great of family email etc.

Only drawback is the noise from the PC itself. next time I'll go for a
silent machine.

Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.

Or use Win's mousekeys facility, which converts the numeric pad to
mouse use. At first it seems awkward, but one quickly gets used to it
and t results in less tota hand movement than mousing. Most app
functions can be done with key commands, again an upfront learn
overhead, but winds up much quicker in use. For most apps today I dont
bother with a mouse it only slows things down. Just one or 2 where its
needed.

The other option is you can get old laptops cheaply now, and even a p1
is ok for light use.


NT

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Not sure about wireless, but you can certainly get them with either
glide pads or trackballs - Scan sell 'em (I was looking at the ones made
by Cherry the other day)

Try... (not made by Cherry though)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=433757

Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.

buy a pocket PC with wi-fi and hook it up to your wireless router.
that way you get a skype remote control with a 10mbit connection.

works for me ;-)

"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and wondered
about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as convenient as
the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.

The Logitech Trackman trackballs are great. I'd put that and a keyboard on a
board and attach it to the TFT...

Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.


By the time you've bought a TFT and wireless keyboard + mouse it might
work out cheaper to buy a 2nd hand laptop. Although possibly not. For
just browsing you can get away with a pretty old laptop.

Chris wrote:
Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.


By the time you've bought a TFT and wireless keyboard + mouse it might
work out cheaper to buy a 2nd hand laptop. Although possibly not. For
just browsing you can get away with a pretty old laptop.

if, by old laptop, you mean 400mhz cpu and 128mb ram then you're
deep into pocket pc territory.

.. wrote:
if, by old laptop, you mean 400mhz cpu and 128mb ram then you're
deep into pocket pc territory.

My "sofa laptop" is even worse than than that. p120 with 64mb of ram,
wireless. Fine for just browsing and webmail tho. I guess it depends
what you wanna browse tho. I basically just look at webmail and
imdb.com and occasionally ebay.

In article , .
writes
Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.

buy a pocket PC with wi-fi and hook it up to your wireless router.
that way you get a skype remote control with a 10mbit connection.

works for me ;-)

What model do you use and is there anything that you would like it to do
that it doesn't? Could be a nice toy to control a multimedia pc via remote
desktop. I think they might be a bit small to use for browsing per the o/p.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.
--
Chris

Tablet PC's are best suited to this

Chris wrote:
For years I had a borrowed laptop next to the settee.
It was a Dell Latitude - very light - only 1.2 kg.
It was really useful for casual web-browsing and looking up things when
doing the crossword - without going into the study to use the desktop
machine.

The laptop has now gone back to the friend it was borrowed from
and I'm wondering about various options.

I could buy a laptop - but I have a couple of old desktops - and
wondered about using one of them - set up in such a way as to be as
convenient as the laptop was.

How about a small 15" TFT monitor on a swinging arm that could be at the
side of the settee and swing in front when needed?

The computer case could be hidden away behind the settee.

Is there a wireless keyboard that contains a glide pad or trackball?

Any design ideas will be welcomed and appreciated.
--
Chris


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