Picture the scene: Semi-rural setting, stream, ducks, and hikers,
including one who writes about technology for a living. He bends over to
pick up a quarter and watches the PDA slip from his top pocket and fall
into a river. I won't even mention the time I actually snapped off part
of a notebook screen hinge and heard a crackling, fizzing noise as the
display subsystem shorted out.
Suffice to say I have special needs when it comes to technology.
Very special needs.
The low-rent approach
For almost seven years, I've taken the low road to avoid expensive
damage. I've been making do with off-lease notebooks, sold under
warranty on eBay or at local branches of Computer Renaissance and other
stores. These notebooks have already taken a licking, been refurbished,
and keep on ticking. They're not pretty, they're not light, but they do
the job.
For some years, the Compaq Armada 3500 has been my tool of choice.
It was a decent mid-range computer when I first reviewed it, and it's
proved to be a real workhorse. I still have one that's probably five
years old at this stage, and when it's pumped up with enough RAM, it
does the job. When it eventually breaks down (and it will, trust me),
I'll do what I've done in the past: Scrub the hard disk thoroughly with
Norton Utilities' WipeDisk and sell the whole thing for parts.
The only trouble is...well...it's a late 1990s notebook--a
333Mhz Pentium II, no less (and certainly no more). Though it's fine for
word processing, e-mail, and Web browsing, it's no good at all for some
of the more heavy-duty work I need to put it through. And then, there
were two assignments I was about to go on that would mete out harsh
conditions too: Two archaeological explorations during the heat and
thunderstorms of a northeastern summer, and an EPA cleanup site in the
oil fields of northern Pennsylvania. Clumsy writer, fragile technology,
harsh conditions. That's a triad of trouble, make no mistake about it.
Getting tough
That's why I turned to a ruggedized tablet PC from Xplore
Technologies. The company recently introduced two harsh-condition
tablets for businessfolk--the iX104 Renegade and the Renegade Dual Mode
Tablet PC. I used the iX104, a pen-based device running Windows XP for
Tablet PCs, coupled with a tough USB keyboard and a cigarette lighter
adapter to keep its charge up during long drives. The device was bulky,
with heavy gray rubber devices to protect the shock-sensitive corners of
the device, and also to help it grip surfaces so that it's less likely
to slide off. The same heavy rubber covered the devices ports--including
its USB, Firewire, and power socket. The active stylus that all Tablet
PCs use was tethered to the PC with a heavy cable that wrapped tidily
around the rubber footing. When carrying it, it was a tidy and
manageable, though heavyish, bundle. When using it, it was just like a
regular Tablet PC. It even connected nicely to several wireless networks
in different locations.
The iX104 Renegade Tablet PC, as the pen-only version is called,
isn't a cheap alternative, so it's lucky I've been saving my pennies for
the past seven years. But at $2,995, it's not exorbitant for a rugged
computer of this caliber. I didn't test their claims that I could drop
the notebook four feet without causing any damage, but I did take it
places I wouldn't normally take anything costing more than $200.
I found the active stylus Renegade perfectly acceptable, but if I'd
favored a regular Palm Pilot style touchscreen that I could use with,
say, a fingertip. Xplore Technologies also produces a Dual Mode Renegade
for $3,145.
Tread softly
Of course, even rugged PCs aren't completely shatterproof. The
Xplore Renegade line, like all Tablet PCs, has a glass substrate
underneath its touch screen. Like all glass, it's susceptible to damage
from abuse, such as heavy blows with sharp objects. My engineer brother
figured that it wouldn't take much to shatter the glass beneath a
conventional Tablet PC--tossing it onto a car seat with a heavy object
with corners (such as a power supply "brick"...or a regular brick) would
concentrate enough force to do the trick, he reckoned. So would leaving
the thing on a pile of papers in the passenger seat, then braking
heavily.
But nobody with a smattering of Newtonian physics would do anything
that stupid, would they?" he asked. In the recesses of my mind, I was
replaying the scene when I moved offices in 1994, balancing a coffee cup
on top of a notebook on top of a pile of magazines while moving offices.
Even now, I can feel the itch beneath the cast they put on my ankle
later that afternoon...
