I had always used a desktop PC, which I took pride in opening and repairing when it gave trouble. But I needed something smaller that I could put on my tummy while I reclined on a bed, and read my huge collection of books and articles. I wanted to buy an Amazon Kindle ebook reader, but there were no dealers in India, and I did not trust internet transactions with credit cards. So I bought a netbook, and it worked wonderfully. Unfortunately I realized by and by that its fans put out heated air from its undersurface, and it burned my abdomen. When I kept it on my lap, it burned the lap. I also realized that when I kept it on a table or a mattress, the heat would not escape readily, and would heat the surface it was on. I had to leave the undersurface open to let the heat escape.
Then I had an idea. We had a folding container for newspapers and magazines. Its sides were of cloth and skeleton of light wood. I have drawn a rough picture to give you an idea. It is much prettier than that :-). I keep the netbook on its upper transverse bars, and sit under a fan. The warm air is easily dissipated. I keep the mouse and USB multihub in the cloth part. It has been working fine for quite some time. I thought about it when I saw an ad in the newspaper today. It was about a USB laptop table. It has two USB fans where the laptop sits. I wonder if those fans actually cool the laptop. My make-shift table cost me nothing as compared to 2100/- INR for this table, and my fan cools me and my netbook very well, while the USB fans of that table would never cool me. My make-shift table reminds me of my religion too. They used to keep their holy books on such tables (or stands) for reading convenience. Perhaps technology has taken me back by a century or so.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Laptop Table
I had always used a desktop PC, which I took pride in opening and repairing when it gave trouble. But I needed something smaller that I could put on my tummy while I reclined on a bed, and read my huge collection of books and articles. I wanted to buy an Amazon Kindle ebook reader, but there were no dealers in India, and I did not trust internet transactions with credit cards. So I bought a netbook, and it worked wonderfully. Unfortunately I realized by and by that its fans put out heated air from its undersurface, and it burned my abdomen. When I kept it on my lap, it burned the lap. I also realized that when I kept it on a table or a mattress, the heat would not escape readily, and would heat the surface it was on. I had to leave the undersurface open to let the heat escape.
Then I had an idea. We had a folding container for newspapers and magazines. Its sides were of cloth and skeleton of light wood. I have drawn a rough picture to give you an idea. It is much prettier than that :-). I keep the netbook on its upper transverse bars, and sit under a fan. The warm air is easily dissipated. I keep the mouse and USB multihub in the cloth part. It has been working fine for quite some time. I thought about it when I saw an ad in the newspaper today. It was about a USB laptop table. It has two USB fans where the laptop sits. I wonder if those fans actually cool the laptop. My make-shift table cost me nothing as compared to 2100/- INR for this table, and my fan cools me and my netbook very well, while the USB fans of that table would never cool me. My make-shift table reminds me of my religion too. They used to keep their holy books on such tables (or stands) for reading convenience. Perhaps technology has taken me back by a century or so.
