Oh Lord,  Len.  Powered USB hub - I'm now well out of my depth. I'll look it up when I have a bit of time.  And the mental energy.

Anyway, I have finally and heroically,  updated my blog: www.anniehill.blogspot.com.  (Will someone please explain to me why you can't move forward or backwards on phone/tablets, but can only delete backwards.  It's infuriating.  I'm sure they could squeeze in a shifted key next to a.)  In spite of my best efforts some of my photos have ended up in the ether.  Or possibly the Cloud.   Anyway,  I can't find them, but I don't think it really matters :-D. There are plenty more where they came from!

Hi Len.  Thanks for that.  I've been told that my little tablet cannot run my external hard drive from one of those USB adapters, unfortunately.   I will get a keyboard once the gates are unlocked.  I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I'd rather pay  $45 for something that lasts a few years rather than keep sending $3 jobs to landfill!

Well,  one thing I find with this tablet - and I get the same with my Samsung Phone, is that it is very difficult to persuade the cursor to let me start typing on the white area, if I use the Quote facility.  I reckon I can live wih this.

David: your experience seems to back up what I have concluded.  A lot of the thinking that I am putting in to my present situation is influenced by the thought that soon I shall be living afloat once more (at least I certainly hope so!), so anything I have now will be used aboard.  I like the concept of solid state - I have found it is much more economical on power than a conventional hard drive.  I also like how little space a tablet requires and how comparatively robust they are.  Charging is straightforward, but then I have a dedicated (and adjustable) 12 volt computer charger anyway.  What I don't like is the way you can only go backwards through text by using the delete button and how difficult it is to highlight stuff.  I'm a touch typist who generally uses short cut keys, so these things are a tad irritating.

Graeme: I don't really miss the computer at all.  It was a tool to do certain jobs, not something for pleasure.  I am busy building my boat and the bit of spare time I have is largely given to reading.  The main reason I am annoyed with breaking it is that it means I can't help Lynda with the magazine.  I  have small hands and would have no problem with a small keyboard.  I wouldn't use Windows 10 or Apple and the little I'm have seen of an i-Pad leads me to believe that it's even more limited than a good quality Android, because you are not only locked into Apple software, but their hardware,  too. However, one of the problems with using Android, is that things like Adobe Digital Editions isn't available for it.

Toni: I have already thought of a Bluetooth keyboard. (To my astonishment,  I managed to Bluetooth files from phone to tablet.  Honestly, sometimes I feel fit to take part in the 20th century,  even if I'm not so sure about the 21st!).  I wonder if the alt and ctrl keys would work with a tablet as they do on a computer.   One of the essential things for proofreading is to be able to go from pdf screen to corrections screen.  Normally I do this by pressing alt tab.  I can't conceive of doing it by a s-l-o-w press of the middle button, then tapping the screen, making it  full size, typing the correction and then reversing the procedure.  And I miss the little touch pad: I dislike moving my fingers away from the keys, let alone smearing them all over the screen.

Thus far, the major drawbacks of a tablet (assuming I had a keyboard) are that there is no USB socket for my hard rive (or Thunderbird-on-a-stick; I cannot work with multi screen projects and I have constantly to take my hands away from the keyboard (and polish the screen!).  It's more difficult to ensure that spacing between characters is correct and a nightmare to change one lower case letter to upper case, moving that horrid little blue dot about.  However, I assume that a keyboard would at least allow the arrow keys to work, even if Home and so on don't.  On the other hand, i was struggling with how I was going to use a laptop on Fanshi. The table is too high and my back wouldn't take 20 minutes of work before protesting.  However i could easily make a nice (tigerwood!) stand for a tablet, sit back and use the keyboard on my lap, or on some sort of tray.

I refuse to spend 10% of what I live on annually, on a computer.  To me, it seems ridiculous.  I am very reluctant to buy another cheapo.  I would be sorry not to be able to do more to help with the magazine, but even if the JRA were to provide me with a suitable laptop, I really don't want either the responsibility for something so valuable or the battery drain.  I am trying to simplify my life, not make it more complex.

Part of the interest of living on a small boat is in overcoming these little challenges.  With the boatyard literally being locked down (the gates are padlocked!), I can't order anything by post or courier anyway, so there is no reason to be hasty about  this decision .  Your input and suggestions are much appreciated.

Graeme wrote:

What I found was (due to my clumsy fingers) the touch screen kept me leaping into all  sorts of unexpected and unwanted avenues - and the keyboard I found too small and so sensitive as to require constant correction of mis-typings - and it seemed to run at about half the speed of a laptop - the upshot of all this leaving me to wonder if it really was any more economical, due to the fact that everything I did took (literally) about twice as long to perform as it otherwise would have.

Of course on a Tablet a stylus can help a lot with screen functions, and advanced work such as graphics. The reason I like the mobile operating systems is that my Samsung S7 phone which is now 4 years old is still incredibly fast, much faster than my good Laptop, both in start up and general processing. I have a large number of useful Apps on it including the Microsoft Office Apps which I use, and I have still only used up half of the 32 GB internal memory. All photos, videos and other files are stored on the external SD card. As soon as you get into a device such as the Microsoft Surface you are using the full Windows 10 OS which gobbles up memory.

Annie Hill wrote:

So I hear, David.  However,  the laptop I just broke was a relative cheapie, although still a lot of money in my  book.  It had insufficient memory capacity even to update itself and the battery started to give out after a year.  I'm told that even a $500 machine is considered "cheap" and a second-hand one will almost certainly have a defunct battery.  I'm fed up of buying expensive items that only last a few years and then malfunction especially as I have no way of recycling these electronics, which now pile up like last year's leaves, because I can't bear to send them to landfill.   Shirley has given me a little old tablet she had and I can do most things on that.  One thing I cannot do without the ability to swop from screen to screen,  is the copy editing and proofreading for the magazine.  Well, with 850+other members, many of whom are twiddling their thumbs in lockdown, I'm sure someone will be capable of and prepared to take over one or both of those tasks.  In many ways it would be a relief to get rid of another expensive, electricity-greedy device.  Certainly I can't even think of buying something until the financial sitation settles down again!!

However, the little tablet should be easier for updating my blog!

This is off the subject of boat building, but for a small live aboard cruising yacht with limited space and relying on alternative energy for battery charging - what is the most appropriate 'device' to have on board. Having put a daughter through 12 years of schooling and needing to provide some type of electronic learning device for that whole time I have certainly learned some lessons about Tablets, and Laptop computers, and durability.

To buy any capable, long lasting, good on battery power and easy to charge, and with sufficient performance and memory, you certainly need to spend close to a thousand dollars or more in New Zealand for a Laptop. Preferably it should have a solid state drive. For Catherine we have good success with Dell Laptops bought online. They sometimes have some very good specials where it is possible to save almost 50% of the regular price. Her first Dell Laptop lasted 6 years of fairly rough treatment and being carted off to school each day before it developed a fatal CPU error. She also has a smaller 11" touch screen Dell which gets a fair bit of abuse but just keeps on going. Unfortunately when I bought that I was being a bit of a scrooge and only got a 32GB Drive which was a mistake because with the requirements of the Windows OS it cannot now update, but she still uses it everyday and it is her take to school computer. This is backed up by a very good Dell Laptop for home use and for her graphics work which I bought for almost half price on a special pre-Christmas sale last year, but even that was about $800. And yes we have a computer graveyard in one of our cupboards.

I am impressed with the stability, low memory and power requirements, and capability of the mobile operating systems, both Android and Apple. So I think for me I would go to a Sumsung Tablet with attached Keyboard, or iPad if someone was an Apple fan. I like the Android devices for their expandable memory and comparatively lower purchase price. Also Tablets do not need a 230 volt supply for charging. A Tablet would provide all requirements for various computing functions, photo editing, media and communication. The only thing that may not work so well is serious document editing work, but I don't know so much about this, but no doubt there are Apps which can make even this work.