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ThinkPads on the job

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bobcardone
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:27 pm
Location: Sunny Saint Petersburg, Florida

ThinkPads on the job

#1 Post by bobcardone » Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:42 am

Hi all,
I started a new gig working on the ground crew for an aerial photography team.
We do most LPGA and PGA golf tourneys, so our "season" is just beginning.
Here's some shots of a couple of ThinkPads "in the field" at the LPGA ANA inspirational, held two weeks ago at the Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, CA.

First, a W520 doing real time RF spectrum analysis of the signal from the camera in the air.
This machine was built from spares, a T520 lid with 1920 x 1080 display. Quad i7 with 16 gig of ram, 256 gb mSATA ssd and 1 tb data drive.

Image

Next, the W520 and an X61 tablet that monitors a hex antenna array. The gear on the left is the receiver and the mpeg4 encoder.

Image

Last, me hard at work (not). a real fun gig.

Image

I'm off today for the LPGA LOTTE Championship at Ko Olina Golf Club in Kapolei, Hawaii. Should be a good trip.
Got some great comments from the network crew about the ThinkPads. There's still a lotta love for them out there.
Last edited by bobcardone on Mon May 01, 2017 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"What, me worry?" - Alfred E. Neuman

Daily: T520, ThinkPad Yoga

Museum: Z61M and Z61T Titaniums, X301, T43p, X32, X61 Tablet

In progress: T/W520 speaker mod

Panasonic Toughbook CF19 Mk 4 (Not a ThinkPad, but still awesome)

Tasurinchi
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#2 Post by Tasurinchi » Mon Apr 10, 2017 5:24 am

Nice! :thumbs-UP:

I like to see ThinkPads doing work. A thread like this was long due...
IBM Convertible 5140/L40SX/220/240/240X/2*340CSE/360PE/365XD/380D/380E/380XD/380Z/390/560E/560X/2*570/2*600/600E/750Cs/755C/760CD/760EL/760XD/770E
A20p/A22p/A31/i1600/G40/R50p/R61i/S30/SL510/2*T22/4*T4x/11*T6x/6*T40x/6*T5x0/3*W5x0/W700/3*X2x/4*X3x/3*X4x/5*X6x/3*X6xT/12*X2xx/4*X30x/Z60m/3*Z61x

Temetka
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#3 Post by Temetka » Tue Apr 11, 2017 1:32 am

Nice shots of some 'pads in action!

Secondly, this thread needs to be stickied.

Here's a shot of my new to me T430's

Image

I work in IT. Tomorrow I'll have it hooked up to a rack at clients site while I troubleshoot their SDI/HDMI encoder (Granicus setup). I'm having to trick the AJA HA5-PLUS by feeding an HDMI signal to it from a dvd player because we don't have a DV camera that outputs over HDMI yet. Just one that outputs over RCA. So the audio signal gets embedded in the HDMI stream on its way over to the encoder box. The biggest problem is that the DVD player shuts off if there's no disc. But I don't want the DVD unit to output audio which will interfere with the audio stream that's coming over the RCA jacks.

Solution: create a 2 hour "movie" that consists of the clients logo on a black background. Burn to disc. Thought of it on the way home today. Created the movie on my T430s and I'll burn it tomorrow morning then go on-site and test my theory.
New:
Thinkpad T470 16GB RAM 250GB SSD LinuxMint
Old:
ThinkPad Tablet 16GB 1838-22U
IBM Thinkpad X61T, T61, T43, X41T, T60, T41P, T42, T410, X301, T430s, T450, T460

RealBlackStuff
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#4 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Apr 11, 2017 6:35 am


FryPpy
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#5 Post by FryPpy » Tue Apr 11, 2017 11:38 am

Other hint - may be DisplayPort to HDMI adapter can help your Thinkpad stream different audio and video sources to debugging devices....

Omineca
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#6 Post by Omineca » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:07 pm

I just found out that my T430 will be my last work ThinkPad. We've been supplied with ThinkPads at work since I started, back in 2003. Lenovo's prices have been rising significantly in Canada (probably the result of the sliding dollar), so the IT department made the decision to change brands, and the replacement (coming in June) will be a Dell. It's the end of an era, but to be honest, the T430 wasn't my favourite ThinkPad. 16:9 screens don't have enough vertical real estate.

I may have to put together my own machine for work if I can't handle the Dell keyboard. If so, it will likely be a T410 ... for the 16:10 LCD.
Home: L440 | R500 | X120e Server
Work: ThinkPad Yoga 260 | Dell Latitude 5320

aptivaboy
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#7 Post by aptivaboy » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:33 am

I still use my A30 occasionally to do typing at work. We have Dells at work with crappy keyboards and overly sensitive touchpads, so when I need to do some heavy laptop typing, I will sometimes bring out the Pad. It's gotten a raised eyebrow here and there from my students. They have no idea what a Trackpad is!

Bob

bobcardone
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#8 Post by bobcardone » Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:18 pm

Aloha Mahalo!
Just finished the LPGA tournament at Ko Olina Golf Club Oahu, Hawaii.
We had a lot of rain and some frequency interference problems, but everything got worked out.
I brought one W520 and one T520 this time, the extra screen real estate was really helpful.
Gotta love ThinkPads, they worked hard 12 hours a day in inclement conditions without skipping a beat.
I'll be posting some pics after I get home to Florida this week.
Again, Aloha.. 8)
Last edited by bobcardone on Mon May 01, 2017 10:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
"What, me worry?" - Alfred E. Neuman

Daily: T520, ThinkPad Yoga

Museum: Z61M and Z61T Titaniums, X301, T43p, X32, X61 Tablet

In progress: T/W520 speaker mod

Panasonic Toughbook CF19 Mk 4 (Not a ThinkPad, but still awesome)

bobcardone
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Location: Sunny Saint Petersburg, Florida

Re: ThinkPads on the job

#9 Post by bobcardone » Mon May 01, 2017 10:31 am

Aloha,
This trip was to Oahu, Hawaii for the LPGA Lotte Championship at the Ko Olina Golf Club. Everything went well, our aerial video came out great. Got some shots of breaching whales, nice boats and even a beachfront wedding! Even though we were on the leeward side of the island, it rained every day. A real test of the gear, especially the ThinkPads.

On this gig, in addition to the W520 running signal analysis I decided to use a T520 to monitor the hex antenna array. Originally, I was using my trusty X61 tablet, but the CCFL display was too hard to read outdoors. We also were able to watch the broadcast feed and monitor NOAA radar for weather conditions on the T520.

Here's the ground station...
Image

Here's the antenna array
Image

Here are the ThinkPads. The one on the right is a T520 i5 with 8g, 128g SSD, Intel graphics and a 1920 x 1080 hi gamut display.
Image

Here's me hard at work 8)
Image

The next couple of trips are on the US east coast, so the travel won't be as brutal. We usually ship 6 to 8 crates of gear, and load in and load out can be a pain when you're exhausted from a long plane ride.

I'm sorry my trusty X61 tablet couldn't cut it. Really, it worked great except for the display, which is fine indoors but is unreadable outside. I may look into an LED backlight upgrade, but this X61 has the rare multitouch display. I'm afraid of screwing it up. A shame, as I've used this one as my main daily driver through 5 years of school and many other tasks.

I'm currently building up a T220 tablet to add to the setup. Specs are i5, 80g SSD, 8g, BT, and multitouch. We'll use this one to monitor the broadcast feed and local weather.

Mahalo for the interest and comments on this thread!
Each trip, I learn more about field deployment. The ThinkPad battalion is growing and becoming more battle hardened.
Last edited by bobcardone on Mon May 01, 2017 5:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"What, me worry?" - Alfred E. Neuman

Daily: T520, ThinkPad Yoga

Museum: Z61M and Z61T Titaniums, X301, T43p, X32, X61 Tablet

In progress: T/W520 speaker mod

Panasonic Toughbook CF19 Mk 4 (Not a ThinkPad, but still awesome)

RealBlackStuff
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#10 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon May 01, 2017 10:46 am

Nice job to get such trips thrown in!
And also nice to hear that your ThinkPads are performing the way they should.

We have user xiphmont on the forum, who is really adept with LED-kits for the X61.
See this: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=114881
If you ask nicely, he may be even willing to help you out!

I would like to ask you though to keep the pictures a bit smaller on the forum, preferably something like 800x600.
And you can always post a link to bigger versions of your pictures.
There are lots of people who don't have such wide screens (or check the forum on their phone)...

bobcardone
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Location: Sunny Saint Petersburg, Florida

Re: ThinkPads on the job

#11 Post by bobcardone » Mon May 01, 2017 5:05 pm

I resized the images to 800, and will do so in the future. Sorry about that!
If the X220 doesn't fill the bill, I'll look into this...thanks!
RealBlackStuff wrote:We have user xiphmont on the forum, who is really adept with LED-kits for the X61.
See this: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=114881
If you ask nicely, he may be even willing to help you out!
Yeah, there are some perks...
RealBlackStuff wrote:Nice job to get such trips thrown in!
Image
"What, me worry?" - Alfred E. Neuman

Daily: T520, ThinkPad Yoga

Museum: Z61M and Z61T Titaniums, X301, T43p, X32, X61 Tablet

In progress: T/W520 speaker mod

Panasonic Toughbook CF19 Mk 4 (Not a ThinkPad, but still awesome)

theterminator93
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#12 Post by theterminator93 » Tue May 30, 2017 7:29 pm

Here's one I snapped the other day while working on an image for an HP Stream (yuck!!) for one of my clients. Only 240 of them coming in over summer...

The trusty T601F FrankenPad still my weapon of choice in the field.

Image
T480 with T25 keyboard | T25 | W520 i7-2860QM·Quadro 2000m·IPS FHD | T601F T9900·NVS 140m·LED AFFS UXGA
T420 IPS FHD | X220 IPS FHD | T61p·T61·43·42p|X13 Yoga G3·220T·301·41T·24·23·22|G41|A31p·22m|i1200|TransNote
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Omineca
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#13 Post by Omineca » Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:16 am

aptivaboy wrote:
Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:33 am
I still use my A30 occasionally to do typing at work. We have Dells at work with crappy keyboards and overly sensitive touchpads, so when I need to do some heavy laptop typing, I will sometimes bring out the Pad. It's gotten a raised eyebrow here and there from my students. They have no idea what a Trackpad is!

Bob
Resurrecting a dead thread, but the Dell arrived. It's a Latitude 5480. The keyboard is not as nice to type on as the Lenovo and we've been upgraded to Windows 10 Enterprise, so I spent Friday afternoon installing classic shell and doing everything I could to de-10-ify the machine. The Fn and CTRL keys are backwards too and there's no BIOS setting to swap them.

I may bring in an old ThinkPad and use it as my general machine, and use the Dell to store encrypted records, access my employer's intranet and printing, etc. ‎

gfuller
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#14 Post by gfuller » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:14 am

Sorry I'm late to the game...

The doctor's office I attended was a small, rural office who wasn't very technologically advanced (still used almost all manual machines for checking vital signs, if that is a sign) and, despite being "old-school", had made the decision to upgrade to computerized/digital charts. My doctor used a ThinkPad T420 for quite some time and it took a beating. He said he dropped it about a dozen times and the only damage was one of the corners of the case was missing. After a while the entire office got updated to Dell Latitudes.

Just the other day I saw a technician of some sort (engineer?) sitting inside their truck entering data on a ThinkPad. :)

Of course, I use my T420 practically every day for everything (including writing this post!) I use it to take notes, do homework assignments, complete projects, maintain my personal website, listen to music, etc. I practically lug it around with me everywhere I go in my ThinkPad carrying bag (circa late 1990s.)

Image

While not ThinkPads, I've seen a lot of ThinkCentre's at work.

Most recently, I transferred to another small medical office (moved) and every office has a M700 Tiny ThinkCentre in it. The Tiny never ceases to amaze me.

I've had a love-hate relationship in the workplace with IBM ThinkCentres. During an internship I got stuck without a computer... small newspaper office that was entirely Macs. The boss saw I didn't have a computer (and thus couldn't be productive) so she lugs in this huge IBM ThinkCentre. It was slow... took around 15 minutes to boot into Windows, another 10 to login, and could take anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes just to load Notepad. There was a lot of bloatware on that machine, and it wasn't very well maintained. It sounded like somewhat placed a busy airport across the street (the CPU fan kept ramping up/down to try to keep the Pentium IV cool.) That machine was very temperamental, as while it was slow and unreliable on most days - some days it actually cooperated and was somewhat snappy. After a while I gave up on it and upgraded to a Early-2005 MacMini they had lying around, which had a missing (external) power supply that I had randomly found.

Pictures of my ThinkCentre from the newspaper internship:
Image
Image

At my first job (college student here), we had a bunch of IBM ThinkCentres. They were nearly identical to the one from my internship, but much quicker. They were very dirty, and the management was dead set on keeping them going as soon as possible. These machines were used to input orders (pizza joint) and cash customers out. One day the hard drive failed on one of them, and my manager was frantically asking me to try to get it going again. The machines were dusty inside, they had been there and working continuously for 13 years (or so) at that point and the exterior was just covered in sauce and dust. I came in the next week to find that the original IBM ThinkCentre had been replaced with... yep, you guessed it... another identical (but clearly different) IBM ThinkCentre. A few months later we changed management and they replaced the ThinkCentres with a bunch of PAR point-of-sale systems. Besides the hard drive failure (which, lets face it, 13 years of continuous use [roughly 56,940 hours of use] will do that), the IBM ThinkCentres were extremely reliable and never skipped a beat. I can't say the same for the PAR systems, though. Almost all of them had issues at one point or another - with less than six months of use!
ThinkPads: T420, T42

CrazyTPFan
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#15 Post by CrazyTPFan » Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:31 pm

bobcardone wrote:
Mon Apr 10, 2017 3:42 am
First, a W520 doing real time RF spectrum analysis of the signal from the camera in the air.
This machine was built from spares, a T520 lid with 1920 x 1080 display. Quad i7 with 16 gig of ram, 256 gb mSATA ssd and 1 tb data drive.
I know no one has posted here in a while (also not to be nosy) but, Is that W520 yours? because in your signature It only says you have a T520 and a X220T.

bobcardone
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#16 Post by bobcardone » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:03 am

The W520 is a custom machine I built for the company just for the spectrum analyzer. I'm still doing shows, with two ThinkPads doing all the heavy lifting.
We have five more shows this year, I'll post some updated pics of the ground station setup as it is now configured.
It's surprising how many thinkpads are used in the broadcast industry. I always see a few used in various applications at every show.
"What, me worry?" - Alfred E. Neuman

Daily: T520, ThinkPad Yoga

Museum: Z61M and Z61T Titaniums, X301, T43p, X32, X61 Tablet

In progress: T/W520 speaker mod

Panasonic Toughbook CF19 Mk 4 (Not a ThinkPad, but still awesome)

CrazyTPFan
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Re: ThinkPads on the job

#17 Post by CrazyTPFan » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:43 am

bobcardone wrote:
Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:03 am
The W520 is a custom machine I built for the company just for the spectrum analyzer. I'm still doing shows, with two ThinkPads doing all the heavy lifting.
We have five more shows this year, I'll post some updated pics of the ground station setup as it is now configured.
It's surprising how many thinkpads are used in the broadcast industry. I always see a few used in various applications at every show.
Ok just wanted to clarify on that, Your job sounds fun from all the ThinkPad use :D .

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