Radio, television, video tape, DVD, Cd's, Books, where does it all end?

It doesn't. I have it all. My boat has so many wires running around, it looks more like a telecommunications hub than a boat.

If I could just choose one item what would it be? A laptop computer! Why? It's simple a laptop can do it all.

Most people spend their time in front of a TV, most shore bound people that is. Of the cruisers/live aboards I know most don't spend that much time in front of the tube. However, most are very interested in at least the weather. I know I am. I spend most of my time on the water. I want to know if it's going to get bad. So let's face it TV is part of our lives. So what about the laptop?

There is a USB device that acts as a television reciever that can plug into your laptop and allow you to watch TV. Why not use a TV you might ask? Take it from me when you start loading all the electronic stuff on a boat it takes up alot of space. What about movies.

I've always loved movies, but I never invested in VHS movies. They took up too much space. But DVD's take up next to no space! I have nearly 100 movies, they fit in the same space as an edition of Chapman's. That's 200 to 300 hours of viewing entertainment. Entertainment I've chosen.

Of course everyone knows that computers will play music, that's nothing new. But the speakers on laptops sound whimpy. Simple add a set of external speakers. There are some great sets for under $100. But wait it gets better.

Not everyone is familiar with the term MP3. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread for music. Oh yea, you've read about those dinky players that you down load an hour or two of music into. Big deal., right. Wait, theres another way.

As I sit here writing this I'm listing to a portable disc player with 15 hours of music on one disc! You take your CD's record them into MP3 on your computer. They compress to about one tenth the size as audio discs. Then record them back to CD in the MP3 format, you can fit about 15 discs of music on one disc!

There is a draw back. You can only play MP3's on your computer or a disc player that will play MP3's. At this time the portable players are about $50 on the low end. A car type player is about $250. I asked a clerk at Best Buy if they made a disc changer that player that played MP3's. He said "No, why, a 10 disc changer would hold about 1500 discs worth of music". That made sense, if one disc is about 15 hoursof music, that's about what I need for most days sailing. I have a case for my portable player it holds 24 CD's. At 15 CD's per disc, that's 360 discs worth of music. That should hold me for an extended cruise. And, I've saved alot of space. By the way, my portable is also an FM radio. If you plug it into those external speakers, it sounds like a concert hall.

Books. I've struggled with this one for a long time. I like books. I can't fit enough of them on board. However, there are e-books. They are books that are in the public domain (not copywrited) that have been scanned and exist as text files. They can be downloaded from the net. Big deal, how many times can you read Dante's Inferno. True. This is something I've been working on.

My dream would be to build a camera that would allow us (cruisers) to take pictures something like micro-fiche. The best I've come up with, however, is to take digital pictures of books and store them on CD's. This I think is best for refrence type material. After all, who wants to read Tom Clancy on a screen. This really isn't a problem. Most marinas and Yacht Clubs have lending/trade libraries.

So, the laptop will do it all. Let's not forget, the laptop can also interface with your GPS and instrument to be a chart plotter with the proper software.

As it is now I have it all. A desktop computer, 13" TV, DVD player, portable CD/MP3 player, Boom Box CD Stereo. It takes up too much space...but I'm going to cut back and go small.