Notebook info [was Re: tlug: US student moving to Tokyo

[craigoda@example.com]

From: John Chase <jchase@example.com>
Subject: tlug: US student moving to Tokyo
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 13:57:17 -0400

jchase> US?  (my current plan)  I am currently leaning very heavily towards the
jchase> Dell Latitude CPi266XT.  (yes, I know its neomagic)  Concerning
jchase> notebooks, are there any problems with issues such as voltage (will 110
jchase> volts agree with a notebook?) and the phone system?  Also, does anyone
jchase> hav eany experience with linux on one of these dell machines?

Japanese voltage in Tokyo is 100VAC.  The notebooks are generally rated for
some variance off of 110VAC.  Normally, electronic equipment works in
Japan without any problems.  Analog phone system is the same.  ISDN
phone system uses a different interface.  Wireless gear such as
celluar phones won't work in Japan.   Japanese keyboards are different,
but this won't make much of a difference since Linux/Windows/almost_anything_else
will have an option for you to use a US keyboard.  So, if you're using
a standard modem 56K, the main difference is price.  With the weak Yen,
prices are pretty competitive in Japan.  I can't comment on the Dell
Latitude.  I've never used it.

  ------------

On a different subject.  Since I'm in writing mode, a while back Rob
asked me about the Sony Vaio 505.  I now have the modem working.  The
config worked fine with pppconfig and I was up in minutes.  I actually
had never tried it with a modem before since I had ethernet/satellite
access but no phone.  The world is getting kind of weird when I find myself
explaining this type of situation.  

There is an infrared HowTo for Linux and it covers irDA, which the VAIO uses.
I guess it is possible to use it.  There is even mention of using it with the
Palm III organizer. I have not tried this yet.  There is also mention of
support for universal serial devices under Linux, but I have not tried 
any yet.  

There was some discussion on the power management of the Sony VAIO.  I
can't remember what it was.  I compiled APM support into the kernel and
I have it working fairly well.  I can use both system suspend and system
hibernation modes with Linux.  I couldn't use these functions until I
recompiled the kernel.  At boot time, if you press the ESC key then F2,
you can jump into the system BIOS.  The power management of the VAIO
is fairly configurable.  You can even turn off various power management
features.  The system hibernation mode uses less power then he system
suspend mode.  I'm not sure if it uses power or not since the power light
is turned off.  







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