HP Touchpad as a desktop
========================

Today I  have tried  to create a  sort of desktop  by connecting  my HP
TouchPad tablet  (it runs  the Cyanogenmod,  not the  WebOS) with  a HP
TouchPad Wireless  Keyboard (a  keyboard designed to  be used  with the
device, that is)  and the Lenovo Bluetooth Laser Mouse.  I have put the
tablet to a stand (and cheap metal one but it is stable enough).

Of course  the tablet is  relatively old - it  was a competitor  to the
first iPad.  So it  is of  course too slow  for the  modern "responsive
WWW". But I don't  plan to use it for WWW  browsing. The Overbite works
well here, the  Vim Touch works, too. I also  installed the Markor text
editor. For some reason I have been  using the Markor on the Gemini PDA
(well, if I  start the Gemini at all  - I must check if  its battery is
not empty as I  didn't touch it for months...) so  I installed it here,
too.

Many time  ago I have installed  the TeX Writer Android  program and it
still seems  to work (I assume  that no sophisticated LaTeX  macros are
available but  my needs  are not  high). The GNU  Octave also  seems to
(sort  of)  work  here  and  the  AddiPlot  (a  Gnuplot  variation)  is
available.  It wasn't  easy  to  find a  working  (compatible with  the
device) terminal program (with a ssh) but F-Droid still has one.

I have to check if the SmallBASIC still works (it is installed here for
years), and test the FBreader, too. Anyway, I have been using the MuPDF
which is very fast here and support much more than just the PDF format.

It is interesting  that this old tablet with and  Android OS feels much
faster than much  newer (and nominally much faster)  Aquaris M10. There
are no mouse  movement lags. Also the Bluetooth is  more reliable - the
keyboard reconnects quickly after disconnecting  and I noticed no other
issues (expect the  fact that arrow keys  don't work in the  Vim at SDF
but it  is probably  not a  Bluetooth issue  at all).  I can  even live
without F1-F10 keys  (it has to be mentioned that  dedicated WebOS keys
of the keyboard do  not work with Android by default).  By the way, the
key which is located at the <Esc>  key position is the <Esc> key and it
works in the Vim as such.

I should turn it off for now and start the actual thing (the Blackbird)
to continue my coding (I'm prototyping some code in the GNU Octave now)
but in  case of  emergency it  can be  here (with  a bit  more effort),
too...


Written on the HP TouchPad with the TouchPad Wireless Keyboard...