Gear and equipment forum

I'd definitely take a netbook on my next trip if I have one by then. It seems that in the last few years, nearly every place is offering free wi-fi access. And not just guesthouses either. Pubs, restaurants, etc.

I enjoy popping into internet cafes from time to time, but the chance to type out emails or do research in the comfort of my room or while enjoying a beer with friends would be a real bonus. Plus, even if your guesthouse does charge an access fee (most won't), it still won't cost much more than an internet cafe. Besides, the more off the tourist path you get, the internet cafes are filled with kids playing extra loud and violent online games anymore anyway.

The down side, of course, is that anytime you take something of value on a trip you spend some time and worry protecting the thing. So, just be sure that you won't be too bothered either having to carry it with you wherever you go and/or leaving it in your room occassionally (or with the lock up at the guesthouse front desk) so that taking care of it doesn't interfere too much with your fun. Cheers.

Thanks, both of you. It's coming along. Good idea about keeping the hard drive as clean as possible -- i can probably get by with just a thumb drive!

I'm just in AWE at all your technical knowledge busylizzy! Unlike you my brain just can't absorb computer geekspeak... it's full of words that don't mean what the dictionary says.

For example, when my computer says it has a "fatal" error it's totally over-reacting and isn't actually on death's door at all. What it really means is "I'm experiencing a bit of minor indigestion here. Cure: switch me off and turn me back on again please."

However I do take a netbook with me ... it doesn't weigh much more than a Lonely Planet guide and is much more useful. Last year a kind young man I met put some movies on it for me in MP4 (I think?) format ... they were great for killing time on very long bus rides and two day Indonesian ferry journeys etc. and it saved me having to carry an external DVD drive.

I wouldn't mind getting some more movies onto my netbook for my next trip but I haven't the faintest clue what you have to do to covert the DVD into a smaller file for the netbook. Is this something a (very) IT challenged person could do? Also last year you linked a very good Indonesian language course... can I put those on my netbook too or do I have to be online to listen to the lessons?

"I'm just in AWE at all your technical knowledge busylizzy"

Don't be!! Mostly, I'm really just an impostor that happens to have lots of geeky friends who sort me out, technologically-speaking. As soon as my laptop starts whinging about something, I'm the first to thrust it into their hands in disgust and say 'Stupid computer isn't working again'!

Now, at the risk of sounding like I might know what I'm talking about, there is lots of software around to convert standard DVD's into MP4 and AVI format. Just google 'DVD converter' or 'DVD Ripper'.

This link will give you some options, including reviews: http://download.cnet.com/windows/rippers-and-converting-software/?tag=bc
I'd probably suggest the first one (Easy DVD Rip). I don't do it very often so I tend to just download a free trial version. If you do this, just make sure the trial version is one that converts the entire movie, and not the first 10 mins of the movie. Also be aware that some might place a watermark on the movie.

Once you convert them to MP4 or AVI format, just copy them onto your netbook and you're away!

Sometimes you might have a format problem related to codecs and your standard media players may not be able to play them. I don't really understand this... I just downloaded a nice little multi-format plaer called VLC and it works perfectly. I've been using this for years.
VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

In terms of the Indo language lessons, you can download these as MP3's onto your hard drive from here: http://www.learningindonesian.com/download-all-free-audio-lessons/download/. I used iTunes to download them, then just copied the MP3's to my netbook. You can find the MP3's in your Music folder (...\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Podcasts).

Hope this is helpful!

This has been so valuable to me! Thank you everyone.

I think I'm taking it, but will keep the hard drive pretty clean, and will keep pictures etc on a thumb drive, so if it gets stolen, it's just the computer that gets stolen. It'd be a drag, but no where near the end of the world.

Thank you.

I guess I should mention one other point - my son, who's 23, will not travel anywhere without his cell phone and his computer. He just won't do it. When we go to my wife's village, which has no cell phone service or internet access, he HATES it. He has become psychologically dependent on being connected to the outside world. For me, one of the joys of hoping on my chopper and going to points unknown is to forget about the rest of the world for a while. Just a thought.

Hey SBE - not sure if you already figured this out or not but I love a program called Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php) ...it basically super-shrinks any movie from a DVD to your PC and keeps good quality without taking the memory of burning a whole movie. I put a bunch on my ipod so I always have a movie to pass the time without lugging out a laptop and running down the battery.

For my next trip I am taking a droid phone (mine is an Evo - or you could use an iphone/iphone touch to basically do the same things) that has an SD port (to hold the memory card from my camera) so I can geo-tag (GPS location) pics and upload to my online photo storage from my phone then edit from any computer. The droid also has apps for maps, PDF guide readers, GPS, internet, email, online blog (OnTheRoad.com), plays movies and music, Skype, etc. and it fits in my pocket or in my passport stash. I also keep some portable apps on a flash drive for when I am on a public computer so I can do all the things I'd do on my personal computer (http://portableapps.com) such as skype, firefox, etc.

Just some other options to throw out~ Have a great trip!

So here's some follow-up:
I had a wonderful trip. Ready to go back.

Brought my netbook with me and rarely used it during the day. Instead, I found that at night in my room, I could look at the pictures I'd taken, sometimes do email (if there was wifi), and sometimes journal or prepare an email on what we'd been up to. Then, when I got to someplace with wifi, I could send it off without having to sit there and write. So for me, it actually increased the time I could spend enjoying where I was.

I really appreciate the feedback you all gave me. Thanks!

We were in pretty early-to-bed early-to-rise places, and we're not much into the drinking and partying scene, anyway. We tend to be up and out all day, walking, hiking, talking to people, seing the sights and generally being there. So yes, we're generally in the hotel by ten. (Of course, we adjust that when we're in a location where there's stuff going on late at night...).