[ltp] In search of the perfect laptop combination

[Andrew Biggadike]

On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 11:10, Steve Krulewitz wrote:
> This is the one I use:
> 
> http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-4NFQ25
> 
> Got it cheap from compgeeks.com a few years ago.  Has worked great with old
> and new iPods in both windows and Linux.  In linux, it uses the ohci1394
> module.

Approximately how much did you pay?  That card seems to be much more
expensive than the "generic" cards out there (around $100 compared to
$30-$50).

> Some firewire pc cards have firewire ports built on to them, but they would
> probably obstruct any other pc card you put in.

Don't these other cards extend out and up?  My wifi card extends
outwards straight and not up at all, so I think I could put it
underneath and have the Firewire up top.

> One final note -- most firewire pc cards do not supply power to the bus, so
> the iPod will not charge while connected.  There are some hackish ways to
> get around this (i think there are some firewire cables that can also be
> plugged into another port to draw power, etc) but I just make sure I have a
> good charge in my iPod before hooking it up.

This is disappointing.  I had assumed that 6-pin ports meant powered,
but (as you said) this doesn't seem to be the case with PCMCIA cards. 
The IEEE 1394 port on my previous laptop was 4-pin and unpowered, so I'm
used to it.  The "solutions" to provide power seem like more trouble
than they're worth.

Thanks a lot for the information.

Andrew