[lug] Sean's geek travels.

[Sean Reifschneider]

Hi, I'm Sean and I'm a geek...

I was invited out to give some talks at a Eugene Oregon Internet Expo.  I
decided to take my VW camper van, which some of you have seen.  Those of
you who know me, know that I have been known to have some tech...

The nice thing about going to Eugene is that there was coverage in a number
of places along the way for CDPD, and coverage when I got here.

On the way out, I stopped outside Salt Lake City at a rest stop that had
CDPD coverage.  I checked my e-mail, IRCed with the folks back in Colorado,
and the #python crew...  Had a delightful time, but I was tired...

The next day, I was driving along after leaving, with the laptop in the
passengers seat, and slowly plodding along typing responses to messages on
IRC while on the Interstate.  Kevin mentioned that he wanted to mount his
laptop in a more convenient place in his new 'burban so he could get the
cup-holders back.  I had been wanting a dash-mounted display for a while...

Right after we mentioned this, I drove past the SuperTarget.  I decided to
make it happen...  So, I created a dash mount out of some string, velcro,
and a couple of $0.98 clipboards.  It's actually amazingly sturdy and works
delightfully...

To make a long story short(er)...  I now have a delightfully mounted
laptop, connected to a camera pointing out the front window.  About once a
minute, while I'm in coverage and driving, an image from the front of my
van gets uploaded to the web.  I don't yet have a GPS so you can tell where
exactly I am.  I'm writing journal entries to keep my location logged and
some additional information.

So, if you're interested in seeing my travels, check out
http://www.shaggginwagen.com/

The main page has a picture of the laptop mount.

You can now start changing your bumper-stickers to read "Log out and
drive"...  I'm working on combinations of speech or morse-code feedback,
and some sort of single-hand entry system to make it so I can type and/or
get data back from the computer without ever having to look away from the
road.  Too bad the twiddlers aren't very good.

Sean
-- 
 "I'm a big girl."  "Yeah, and in all the right places, too."
                 -- _North_by_Northwest_
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python