Netbook on board

[Aries]

I am just buying a Toshiba netbook to have on board.
As well as GRIB.US, what other packages are recommended?
We already have a 3 modem for internet access.

 

[elton]

I find JTides and SeaClear quite handy (both are free).

 

[charles_reed]

GribUS will only work on WinXP, not Linux or Vista (tho' a beta for the latter has been written).

Perhaps an almanac and sight reduction programme if you're into celestial.

Definitely a tide and moon phase programmes such as Tidecomp.

Perhaps a HF propagation programme if you're intending using SSB.

A general programme (download Open Office it's free and not as resource-hungry as MS) with word-processor, spreadsheet, database etc.

Firefox (tho' Explorer 8 is near up to speed).

 

[elton]

There's a Grib viewer available for Linux here

 

[charles_reed]

[ QUOTE ]
There's a Grib viewer available for Linux here

[/ QUOTE ]

unfortunately won't work with USgrib, which is quite a good bit of software and IMHO streets ahead, for usability, of anything else I've seen.

However, it's a good idea to remember that the GRIB forecasts are simple computer simulations and take no regard of topography, hence can be very misleading in coastal navigation.

 

[Blue5]

I got gribUS working on Vista.

 

[jay]

ditto - gribUS works fine on vista - and has done so for the last year on my machine. Very useful piece of software

 

[st599]

Software I use on the netbook:

<ul type="square">
[*]Seaclear
[*]xTide
[*]zyGrib
[*]RF Prop
[*]Celestia
[*]Open office
[*]Firefox
[*]Thunderbird and Lightning
[*]Skype
[*]Picassa
[*]Google Earth
[*]GPS Babel
[/list]

I also have copies of all NOAAs free stuff plus a training DVD full of flash goodies on there. Plus some software I wrote myself to download weather from various sites and produce a local overview page.

 

[tudorsailor]

Is the software that you have written yourself to get weather from multiple sites something I could use in the Med? Is it something you would allow others to use??? Sounds interesting

I use Moving Weather on board as the weather files are very small

Tudorsailor

 

[st599]

Possibly - I'd need to tidy it up a bit - it's all Java based so runs on any platform and grabs stuff from the BBC weather website producing weather trends graphs.

I've also written one for my sailing club which grabs the weather for the weekend, the latest entries from the club calendar and tidal data and sends a pdf to members.

 

[Aeolus_IV]

Just a note about the Netbooks which I occationally find frustrating: Screen resolution. Not size, pixels W x H. Some applications these days have an implicit assumption that a screen in never less than 768 pixels high, Netbooks seems to be mostly 600 pixels high. Typically this isn't a issue for the applications main window, but the dialog boxes that crop up from time to time. These don't resize, so I have found a number of times that the button I need to press is off the bottom of the screen. I haven't yet found a way of "pushing" the top of the box off the top to reveal the buttons.

Any good ideas anyone?

Anyway, I suppose the warning is "make sure that the application really will work in the screen available".

Regards,
Jeff.

 

[smartcom]

Other things to look at (assuming you are running Windows XP/Vista):
PC Navtex (www.pcnavtex.com) to get NAVTEX messages on your PC
Astro navigation with WinAstro (www.winastro.com)
and from www.smartcomsoftware.com:
- TideWizard for tide height predictions
- SmartMet for weather forecasts, current weather reports and satellite images
- SmartCom for easy and efficitent internet access with your mobile or satellite phone