Complex Numbers

Alt-Tablet

Still no settled schedule for my voyage. It's kind of hard to plan when I don't know when I'll be leaving or returning. The agent emailed me on Wednesday to say they'd get that to me by the end of the week, but, well, here it is Saturday.

This week, I looked at computer/tablet options for the trip.

See, I'm not going to bring my expensive gaming laptop. One, I would be devastated if it got lost, stolen, or broken; two, I'd be tempted to use it for its primary function instead of, you know, looking at Europe or whatever.

I will bring my mobile phone, but if I want to write blog entries, or notes about the wines I taste, or whatever, I'll want something with a keyboard. It's gotta be able to connect to the internet in Europe, and run basic programs like Word, but it's not like it has to run Starfield or whatever. Something like a Chromebook, maybe, or similar.

So, I started looking into tablets. The kind that flip into mini-laptop mode.

I got frustrated quickly. I don't know what half the numbers mean, or how to compare them. A lot of the shit out there is cheap-ass junk. I don't really care how much it costs; I just want it to be somewhat reliable, and one cannot rely on internet reviews for that sort of thing. But some of them are surprisingly cheap, less than $200. Which, well, how do I know if I can trust that?

The idea is to get something I can use on the trip, but also be a backup computer if my main one crashes suddenly, which they've been known to do. Right now, the only backup is my mobile, and I hate typing on a screen. Not enough tactile feedback.

It might be that I have to go (shudder) outdoors and (gulp) talk to someone at a (shiver) retail store who can point me in the right direction. Or, hell, maybe the travel agent has recommendations, since I already ventured out to talk to them. As long as it doesn't take them another month to get back to me on that.