Nobeltec dongles
Dear Ones,
I was very disappointed to discover that the latest version of Nobeltec
requires a dongle to operate. As the former owner of a software company, I
have personal experience with the problems caused by dongles. Not only are
they unreliable electronically but they are all too prone to physical
damage. Can you imagine a heavy wave shifting your laptop on the helm and
breaking the dongle off in the middle of a turbulent night? Oops - time to
shift to the paper charts!
To tie the reliability of a mission-critical element of the ship to a little
gadget who's sole purpose is making sure I haven't pirated my software is a
risk I am unwilling to place on my boat or its crew. Is this a concern of
others as well? What other navigation software do you use that doesn't
include this liability?
Douglas Cochrane
M/V Four Seasons, N46-70
P.O. Box 752
Yachats, OR 97498
541/913-0632
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of image003.png]
Having looked at the others and their chart avaliability and currency it
seemed well worth strapping down the laptop.
Anthony
Carmen
NT42
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Douglas Cochrane
Douglas_Cochrane@msn.comwrote:
Dear Ones,
I was very disappointed to discover that the latest version of Nobeltec
requires a dongle to operate. As the former owner of a software company, I
have personal experience with the problems caused by dongles. Not only are
they unreliable electronically but they are all too prone to physical
damage. Can you imagine a heavy wave shifting your laptop on the helm and
breaking the dongle off in the middle of a turbulent night? Oops - time to
shift to the paper charts!
To tie the reliability of a mission-critical element of the ship to a
little
gadget who's sole purpose is making sure I haven't pirated my software is a
risk I am unwilling to place on my boat or its crew. Is this a concern of
others as well? What other navigation software do you use that doesn't
include this liability?
Douglas Cochrane
M/V Four Seasons, N46-70
P.O. Box 752
Yachats, OR 97498
541/913-0632
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of
image003.png]
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
Anthony,
Strapping everything down is fine but having a little plastic gadget
sticking out of the side of any electronic box is an invitation for
something to get dropped or bumped or slammed. Not to mention that the
electronics of a dongle can go phooey for no apparent reason. My short-term
solution is to stick with the older version of the software until I decide
which product to replace it with.
The funny thing about this new approach by Nobeltec is that, in my
experience, a bit of benevolent piracy can actually work to the benefit of
the provider. For example, on our first oceangoing trawler the previous
owner left a computer loaded with Nobeltec. This gave me a chance to learn
enough about the product to know that I wanted the latest version and the
technical support that comes with it. After our first shakedown cruise I
ordered a copy of my own. When a company is more concerned about the few
users who aren't legit than the many users who are, it is time to reconsider
the business relationship.
Thanks for the response.
Douglas
-----Original Message-----
From: passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
Anthony Thorne
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 8:17 AM
To: Passagemaking Under Power List
Subject: Re: [PUP] Nobeltec dongles
Having looked at the others and their chart avaliability and currency it
seemed well worth strapping down the laptop.
Anthony
Carmen
NT42
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:07 AM, Douglas Cochrane
Douglas_Cochrane@msn.comwrote:
Dear Ones,
I was very disappointed to discover that the latest version of Nobeltec
requires a dongle to operate. As the former owner of a software company, I
have personal experience with the problems caused by dongles. Not only are
they unreliable electronically but they are all too prone to physical
damage. Can you imagine a heavy wave shifting your laptop on the helm and
breaking the dongle off in the middle of a turbulent night? Oops - time to
shift to the paper charts!
To tie the reliability of a mission-critical element of the ship to a
little
gadget who's sole purpose is making sure I haven't pirated my software is
a
risk I am unwilling to place on my boat or its crew. Is this a concern of
others as well? What other navigation software do you use that doesn't
include this liability?
Douglas Cochrane
M/V Four Seasons, N46-70
P.O. Box 752
Yachats, OR 97498
541/913-0632
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of
image003.png]
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World Productions,
formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
Hi Doug,
I had the same concern so I am using Rosepoint's Coastal Explorer
(http://rosepointnav.com/default.htm), also marketed with a few minor
enhancements by Maptech as Chart Navigator Pro. I have found it
extremely easy to use and very intuitive. It is not perfect (what
software is) but it is relatively bug free. The cost is reasonable and
they are coming out with a new version soon (which they say they will
upgrade all current users to for free).
By the way I also have Capn' which is what Russ used on Four Seasons. He
liked it, I hate it.
Regards,
Stan Heirshberg
CrossRoads N50-01
Lying Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA
Douglas Cochrane wrote:
Dear Ones,
I was very disappointed to discover that the latest version of Nobeltec
requires a dongle to operate. As the former owner of a software company, I
have personal experience with the problems caused by dongles. Not only are
they unreliable electronically but they are all too prone to physical
damage. Can you imagine a heavy wave shifting your laptop on the helm and
breaking the dongle off in the middle of a turbulent night? Oops - time to
shift to the paper charts!
To tie the reliability of a mission-critical element of the ship to a little
gadget who's sole purpose is making sure I haven't pirated my software is a
risk I am unwilling to place on my boat or its crew. Is this a concern of
others as well? What other navigation software do you use that doesn't
include this liability?
Douglas Cochrane
M/V Four Seasons, N46-70
P.O. Box 752
Yachats, OR 97498
541/913-0632
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of image003.png]
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
Unfortunately ther are no charts for Coastal Explorer outside of the USA, so
it is no use for some of us,
Anthony
On Wed, Sep 24, 2008 at 8:52 AM, Crossroads crossroadsn50@yahoo.com wrote:
Hi Doug,
I had the same concern so I am using Rosepoint's Coastal Explorer
(http://rosepointnav.com/default.htm), also marketed with a few minor
enhancements by Maptech as Chart Navigator Pro. I have found it
extremely easy to use and very intuitive. It is not perfect (what
software is) but it is relatively bug free. The cost is reasonable and
they are coming out with a new version soon (which they say they will
upgrade all current users to for free).
By the way I also have Capn' which is what Russ used on Four Seasons. He
liked it, I hate it.
Regards,
Stan Heirshberg
CrossRoads N50-01
Lying Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA
Douglas Cochrane wrote:
Dear Ones,
I was very disappointed to discover that the latest version of Nobeltec
requires a dongle to operate. As the former owner of a software company,
I
have personal experience with the problems caused by dongles. Not only
are
they unreliable electronically but they are all too prone to physical
damage. Can you imagine a heavy wave shifting your laptop on the helm and
breaking the dongle off in the middle of a turbulent night? Oops - time
to
shift to the paper charts!
To tie the reliability of a mission-critical element of the ship to a
little
gadget who's sole purpose is making sure I haven't pirated my software is
a
risk I am unwilling to place on my boat or its crew. Is this a concern of
others as well? What other navigation software do you use that doesn't
include this liability?
Douglas Cochrane
M/V Four Seasons, N46-70
P.O. Box 752
Yachats, OR 97498
541/913-0632
[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/png which had a name of
image003.png]
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
Anthony Thorne wrote:
Unfortunately ther are no charts for Coastal Explorer outside of the USA, so
it is no use for some of us,
Not true. CE supports Maptech charts (MX, Central America. Caribbean,
Europe, parts of So America) , Canadian NDI, and v2 will support
Navionics charts. I have CE v1.1 and the Maptech charts for MX and
Central America and they work great.
--
Frank Osborne
Discovery N46-37
Home Port: Anacortes, WA
Blog:http://mvdiscovery.blogspot.com/
Anthony also said that "Maptech is defunct", which to my surprise turns
out to be more or less true. I have been out of touch cruising for the
last few months and just returned so I
was unaware. It seems that Maptech has been split into several pieces
and is looking for a buyer for the marine/charting division.So, at this
moment the future of Maptech and its products is a bit uncertain.
Still, I think that CE will adapt and that Navionics will fill the gap
if Maptech goes down the drain altogether. I still like the software and
believe it to be a viable option.
Stan H
CrossRoads
Nordhavn 50
Frank Osborne wrote:
Anthony Thorne wrote:
Unfortunately ther are no charts for Coastal Explorer outside of the USA, so
it is no use for some of us,
Not true. CE supports Maptech charts (MX, Central America. Caribbean,
Europe, parts of So America) , Canadian NDI, and v2 will support
Navionics charts. I have CE v1.1 and the Maptech charts for MX and
Central America and they work great.
Also, Canadian (CHS) rasters work just fine in Coastal Explorer.
John Marshall
Serendipity - N55-20
Sequim Bay, WA
On Sep 24, 2008, at 7:41 PM, Frank Osborne wrote:
Anthony Thorne wrote:
Unfortunately ther are no charts for Coastal Explorer outside of
the USA, so
it is no use for some of us,
Not true. CE supports Maptech charts (MX, Central America. Caribbean,
Europe, parts of So America) , Canadian NDI, and v2 will support
Navionics charts. I have CE v1.1 and the Maptech charts for MX and
Central America and they work great.
--
Frank Osborne
Discovery N46-37
Home Port: Anacortes, WA
Blog:http://mvdiscovery.blogspot.com/
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power
To unsubscribe send email to
passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word
UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message.
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.