Somewhat off topic: WTB: Old Laptop

[Shawn R. Lin]

"D. Barry Stubbs" wrote:
> 
> I've been looking locally for an older laptop to use with some of these
> wiz-bang programs that'll read the serial data and tell me what's going
> on under the hood.  I haven't been real successful finding one locally.
> Anyone here have one they'd like to part with?  I'd also consider buying
> any software licenses for items such as TunerCat et al.  About the only
> thing I'd like to have hardware wise is a 9 pin serial port (duh) and a
> 100 MHz processor, since the laptop would most likely see double duty
> every now and then.  Thanks for the bandwidth.

Go to Ebay and look for IBM ThinkPads.  They go for a lot cheaper than
other brands, in my experience.  ThinkPad 760's go pretty cheap and fit
your requirements and also have CD-ROM slots in them.  I went with a
ThinkPad 560 which was a P133 with 12.1" TFT LCD and only 4.1 lbs.  I
ended up selling it on Ebay for $420 and buying a ThinkPad 560X for $450
(also on Ebay) which is P233MMX, 4GB HD, and 12.1" TFT.  The 560 series
is very nice and compact, perfect for car use, but no built-in CD so
what I had to do was buy a 10/100 Ethernet card and install Windoze
through a network to my desktop machine.

My only advice is to be sure to get one with a TFT LCD.  MUCH more
readable in the car as you will probably be setting the laptop in the
passenger seat and the screen will be angled.  TFT is also much more
readable in the sunlight.  IMO, a TFT (aKa "active matrix") LCD is
essential.

Shawn
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