AndyR1976

And post a link on this forum

brickies wife

Has anyone taken their PC as part of their luggage allowance. I am thinking about doing this, but sure if it would be a good idea.

Any advice appreciated

dedmeet

Hi,

I have 3 pc's to send. My laptop will stay with me as hand luggage (if it is allowed)

I plan to strip mine down, and only send accross the parts I want to keep (motherboard, gfx card, hard drives). Each part seperately boxed up. No need to send accross the screen, they just break to easy.
Don't see any point in paying to send the case(s) over, as it is heavy, and it will be cheaper just to buy that side. I need new case(s) anyways.

If at the time of leaving (waiting to hear still), and my hardware is to dated, I won't even bother. Just sell it off on ebay, and re-buy other side.

As for the data, I will copy the most crucial bits (excuse the pun) to an extra h/d and have a mate here in UK keep it. If I get that side, and something did damage in the trip, I can just download it from him. I am a software developer, and will die if I loose any of my code.

DunRoaminTheUK

I sent a 19" Dell CRT and it came out of the box at the other end intact. They really do seem to do a very good job of shipping things like this.

I must say that your method of sending your PC seems fairly complicated and labour-intensive. It sounds as if the only piece that you are not sending is the chassis?

Also, why don't you just take an external HD of all of your crucial data with you in your hand luggage? They are small and cheap these days and at least you will be able to access your data from any PC once in Australia?

dedmeet

Like I said, I need new cases anyways, mine is old and dented, so a good time to 'upgrade', same goes for the parts, good time to get rid of old parts, and upgrade. I see no point in sending over something that I plan to upgrade.

Someone mentioned that with thiers the cpu fan came loose. If the parts were individually boxed, then something like that can't happen.

Take me 10 minutes to strip a pc down to its parts. Maybe some 20 minutes to box it all. Time I feel is worth spending to make sure the parts I want to keep gets that side safe.

As for the data, well, 10 years of code is a lot, and it is my bread and butter, so I feel a lot safer to leave a copy this side, have copies on my laptop, and a set on the pc's hard drives. The chances of all three going bust is just impossible but hey, it is a chance I am not willing to take. (who knows what the xray, and other scanning-the-package methods will do to the hard drives) Paranoid, yes I am, but rather paranoid, and retain all my work!

I_Will_Freckle

I'd like to do this too so would like to hear any views on it.

MarkMC

our lap top has a 17 inch widescreen monitor, its plenty big enough for surfing etc.

DunRoaminTheUK

Surely uncompiled code should easily fit onto a USB device (encrypted 'n all)?

Oh well, you just keep swinging that sledgehammer and maybe, just maybe you will manage to hit the nut first time?

dedmeet

Yes it most probably will, if you just have code. Included will be a couple of databases (you do know what that is ?), Delphi Ide enhancements, and modules (you do know what an ide is?), api documentation (you do know what an api is?) and graphics to go with the applications, and websites.

I really don't understand your stupid comment about a sledgehammer, and frankly I don't care what it means.

The original poster asked for opinions, I gave mine. He/She/Someone else can use it or not, agree or not (you are clearly the latter)

DunRoaminTheUK

I'd like to apologise to everyone else in advance for getting my "professional schlong" out in public. I promise to put it away straight after...

To DedMeet:

I'm a Senior Software Engineer with 13 years post-graduate software development experience across a broad-range of industries of which telecomms is the predominant one.

As for database I have developed applications across platforms such as VMS, UNIX and XP using Oracle RDBMS, SQL-Server and My-SQL. I am currently using SQL-Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 on a daily basis.

As for Delphi I spent 4.5 years developing applications under Borland C++ (VCL), incorporating technologies such as XSL(T).

I'll leave it up to you to decide what the best answer to your question is.

I was never being insulting or offensive but merely suggesting in a tongue-in-cheek manner that perhaps there is a better way for you to achieve your ends? Maybe if you had more experience of using BE you would have been able to pick-up on the subtle yet inoffensive humour that I was using to get my point across (hence the smiley in my last post).

Maybe you can write some sort of AI-based application which uses induction techniques and heuristic pruning to figure out when someone is being inoffensive and when someone is being offensive?

dedmeet

Ah, now your last post is way better.

I am all up for a nice disussion, with valid arguments (pros and cons) on an idea.

As for not understanding your comment, well, I am not english. English is a second language, so sometimes I miss nuances...(I still don't understand the sledgehammer comment).

So, as we are now achieving a more mature discussion, how would you achieve a failsafe method of makeing sure your code does not get lost.

I will recap my suggestion:

Software:
1. A hard drive left with a friend this side. This will actually be a subversion repository with all my code/images/modules/database structures etc checked in. My friend is also a developer, so he will not have any hassle in setting this up for remote access if I need it.
2. Copy of it all on my laptop, so I can have immediate access to it once in auz.
3. Copy of it on hard disk that is sent accross with pc parts.

I now have 3 copies of my critical software. The first one will most definately not go bust, as it will not travel far, the last two may go bad, as I have never transported harddrives that far, and seriously don't know what effect it will have on them. As a developer, you can understand the worry of loosing any code.

Hardware:
1. Stripping down my pc's. My hardware is getting dated. My immegration application is in progress, and I expect to get a result by June/July 2008. If I don't upgrade any hardware by that time, I will use the oppertunity to discard any old parts (I still see no point in paying to send accross dated equipment)
2. Screen. I once posted a screen to my brother in law who lives in South Africa. Got there all busted up, so from experiance, I am not to sure. Thinking it may be a waste of money to transport one, and have a chance that it will get other side broken. Seems simpler to just buy a new ones locally. I use 3 19" screens.
3. Cases: The heavy parts. Why pay to send them accross. I have not looked into it yet, but my assumption is that the cost to send them will be more than the cost to replace. Why pay more if you don't have to.

Your suggesion about the AI application. Now that is funny.

I await your views

DunRoaminTheUK

Are you German? Just a hunch....

What you should bear in mind is that I have successfully shipped a desktop system with 19" CRT screen from the UK to Australia and I also successfully created a contingency for my "critical" data such that it made it from A to B intact and safe. I took my laptop and I also secure-ftp'ed other critical data (compressed) to my web-server directory. The web-server directory has no bearing on where in the world I am and I was not dependent on another person. Consequently, I was also able to secure-ftp the "critical" data back down to the point of destination at will without anyone's involvement but my own.

My suggestion was based upon a real-world situation which actually transpired and successfully delivered hardware and software to where I was going. This was not based upon a hypothetical plan but experience.

As for your hardware, I have no real opinion as to how and what you should do as this matter is more subjective. However, if your hardware is damaged in transit it gives you the added advantage of actually making use of the relatively high shipping insurance premium and providing you with a shiny new contemporary system. As long as data is intact what does it matter about the hardware?

Feeling the need to get my academic schlong out this time, I received a first class grade for "AI" and "Intelligent Robotic Systems" whilst at university.

dedmeet

Afrikaans (think Dutch)

I_Will_Freckle

dedmeet - I hope I don't have to give my IT credentials before my opinion will be considered but I think what you are intending to so sounds like a very vigorous approach.

I am hoping to take my base unit on the plane with me but I don't know yet if I will have to check it through. I will carry data back ups with me.

DunRoaminTheUK

Yes I know what Afrikaans is but thank you for re-enlightening me. My partial lineage hails from Mauritius so I am very aware of that part of the world.