Two questions

[Sarjenka Aeristan]

1) I am looking for a laptop. I don't have a lot of money; it would have to be at "Thrift Store" pricing level. It doesn't have to be "special", I just need it to get me online when I go places, that's really all. Anybody have a lead on one?

2) My roommate DOES have a laptop - a nicer one - but it is broken. He says it's the fan though I don't know for sure. Can anyone refer me to someone who might want to do the repair job, and let me know how much they cost? We are in the West Park area...

Thanks...

[dave walton]

Consider a windows tablet. You will need access to wifi to get online:

7" customer return for $42

 http://www.microcenter.com/product/439773/TW700_Tablet_-_Black

10" new $150

http://www.microcenter.com/product/437498/TW100_101_Tablet_-_Black

When they have returned 10" units to sell, there are ~$120 as I recall. 

Feel free to bring the laptop to a Tuesday meeting and see if anyone can help you tear it apart so you can order a replacement fan. However there are no guarantees we can get it back together :-)

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[joeo]

 Best Buy sells keyboards for Tablets for $15, to complete it's transformation into a laptop. You can get a 9 inch HP touchpad

on ebay for $54. It has 1GB ram and 1.2Ghz dual core cpu. It can run Linux or Android in addition to HP's Web OS.

https://github.com/freedreno/freedreno/wiki/HP-TouchPad

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-TouchPad-FB359UA-32GB-Wi-Fi-9-7in-Glossy-Black/251977125880

 

A step up from the above $70 combo would be this 2GB ram regular laptop for $120:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-LAPTOP-LATITUDE-WINDOWS-7-DUAL-CORE-DVD-BURNER-WIFI-COMPUTER-WIRELESS-2GB-/151580431563?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234ae5d4cb

[joeo]

It's not Best Buy, it's Big Lots, that's sells the inexpensive tablet
keyboards. 

Here is another approach: 

1. Buy a $20 Android phone from Dollar General, if you don't already
have one. Try multiple stores to find one on sale. 

2. Buy a Raspberry Pi for $30. 

3. Use the phone as a usb-serial terminal interface to the R-Pi. 

4. Buy $5 reading glasses to make the phone screen look like the same
size as a laptop screen. 

Another approach: 

1. Buy the $20 android phone from Dollar General. 

2. Go to the library or other public wifi location, and connect with the
phones wifi. 

3. Setup an Amazon cloud computer, free for the first year:
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ 

4. Connect to the Amazon cloud computer using a terminal application or
X-Windows on the Android phone. 

In other words the phone is just an interface to the Amazon cloud
computer, similar to use with an R-PI. 

5. Use the reading glasses. 

6. Or maybe just use the phone itself + glasses + keyboard as your
laptop. 

[Ian Km]

Decent laptops can be had on Craigslist for as low as $30, You won't get a powerhouse but you can install Linux on most of them and make them useable for internet and basic office programs. 

[ken]

On 06/01/2015 05:19 PM, joeo wrote:
> 1. Buy a $20 Android phone from Dollar General, if you don't already
> have one. Try multiple stores to find one on sale.
>
> 2. Buy a Raspberry Pi for $30.
>
> 3. Use the phone as a usb-serial terminal interface to the R-Pi.

Rather than use a cable to connect the phone to the Pi, get a $9
USB/wifi dongle for the Pi and use something like JuiceSSH to connect to
the Pi from the phone wirelessly for a terminal session or with X Server
and/or XServer XSDL to serve up GUI apps. All those apps are free on
the Play store. A USB cable will cost about the same as the dongle, but
isn't nearly as nice/comfortable to use.

When shopping for a phone, make sure it'll run at least android v.4.x.
Otherwise there'll be a lot of apps that won't install. You'll need
v.4.3 if you want to print from the phone what's on the phone, though
CUPS will print what's on the Pi.

I've also found that the same charger that comes with my phone will also
run the Pi, so there's no need to spend for a Pi power supply.

Also, I've 3d-printed cases for the Pi (well, actually, I had the
library print most of them for me) for under $2 each. Buying a Pi case
ready-made on the other hand sets you back $8 - $12.

[dave walton]

USB WiFi $1.79

http://m.aliexpress.com/item/32345603589.html