[aprssig] RE: PC Card, barcodes, etc.

[Ray McKnight]

Maybe so.

But for us, Hams, is this important?

Do most Hams run out and buy a new $2000 laptop just to play APRS?

No.

Do most Hams, tens of thousands, have laptops 3-5 yrs old?

Probably.

So do most Ham laptops have the ability to utilize a PC-Card device.

Yes.

I haven't been paying attention to the laptops sold in the last 6 months.

I honestly don't know what an Express Card is.

I don't have a laptop with one, so I don't need to care what it is, yet.

To me, it means replacing all the existing PC card hardware I have, in

Favor for shortsighted marketing of gadgets and whizmo's I don't need.

I still have computers that have ISA and EISA slots.

I still use serial ports regularly. Even tho there are still NEW laptops
sold with serial,

We continue to have folks lamenting the demise of the RS-232 port, let's
throw all our 

Serial devices away.  I'll go pry the DCD and DTE ports off my H-89 CP/M
machine now.

I'll continue to as long as they do what I need them to and the peripherals
work.

There will never be an Express Card device produced for the Amateur market,
IMHO.

So why do I care as long as my current cards still work and do all I need
them to.

Why do MOST Ham peripherals still have serial connectivity?
Because that's what most Hams' computers have, and PCMCIA too.

I don't live my life based on the marketing strategy of some corporate bean
counter.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]
On Behalf Of Mark Fellhauer
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 22:21
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: [aprssig] RE: PC Card, barcodes, etc.

 

At 08:55 PM 2/27/2007, Ray McKnight wrote:




Anyone out there considered a Type-II PC Card TNC?

There used to be a 1 and 4-port ISA TNC card, but it never really

Caught on because it was introduced just about the time PCI showed up.

 



Almost all manufacturers have abandoned the PCMCIA standard.  AFAIK, only
three laptop makers are including PC Card support in current models - those
are:  Sony, Fujitsu, and Toshiba on selected models.

I just purchased a Fujitsu Lifebook A6020 for Vista development at work as I
have a need for PC Card support

PC cards have been replaced by the Express Card standard.


http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/about.jsp

73,

Mark

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/attachments/20070228/e20e8fa1/attachment.html>