[Yimboli]

AT~

I'm in the Coast Guard on a buoytender in Rhode Island... I have some experience with toughbooks, let me tell you...

all of our units that do buoys and aids to navigation have at least one of those toughbooks loaded with the uber software we use to keep track of where we place buoys, their condition, etc... basically all the stuff we do to track our aids to navigation and also cover our *** if someone runs aground - everything we need to prove that we put the buoy on station is in the CG's massive database, and the information is recorded via the toughbooks on site. Then it's uploaded to our main database when we pull in and hook up to internet again.

when we send our smallboat to work a buoy or check its position we use it because we can go out and not have to worry about a fragile laptop, and let me tell you man that thing rocks. the only thing that we've had a problem with is the stylus breaking because someone rolled their chair over it =D

so imagine someone sitting on a boat next to a buoy and typing information with wet hands in a wetsuit, maybe dropping it, maybe it gets tossed around on the rough trip on the way ... not to mention the times we spill coffee on it !!

yeah they basically rock.

that being said I'd never use one except for strictly utilitarian purposes because (at least on the one we have) the screen is tiny, like optimal for 640x480 so... =/