Re: using laptops for music

[Matthias Grob <matigrob@terra.com.br>]

I am mostly worried about the connectors:
no matter how much metal they put in the box, the connectors are 
freely spread arround and stand out and when somebody walks by and 
touch it, you have the following options:
- (best) the connector falls out
- the connector breaks
- the socket breaks
- the socket and the PCB break
- the socket and the chip connected to it break (as experienced with 
FireWire!)

I think Laptop is great to start and make experiences, but for a 
serious touring equipment, we should figure out boxes with big 
FireWire sockets, mobile processors, no ventilators and possibly 
Flash memory instead of HD

>I have to throw in my couple of cents here, I agree totally that you 
>need to look for a commercial model. I'm still using my compaq m300 
>which would be about 6 or 7 yrs old. I have upgraded hard drives, cd 
>burners, memory and OS systems over the years but the laptop itself 
>is still chugging along. The m series was what compaq was calling 
>their business line back then, and the other main line was the 
>pesario which was the consumer line. Back then I chose the m300 
>because it had a lot more metal in the case compared to the pesario 
>and I was touring a lot back then. You still see quite a few of 
>these m300s on ebay working fine, but not nearly fast enough for 
>what we want it to do, and I must say that Travis was right on when 
>he talked about depreciation if that wants to factor into your 
>decision. My laptop would sell for maybe $150.00, while my 3 yr old 
>edp would fetch maybe $800.00 (which is more than I paid for it).

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