Looking for Toughbooks?

Please visit Bob Johnson's Computer Stuff for the most up-to-date information and to shop for refurbished Toughbook rugged laptops.

If you like typing on touch screens, you are in luck

Extra! Extra! Read all about it (on the bobjohnson.com blog): Microsoft is releasing Office for all iOS and Android devices, and it is going to be free.

Panasonic releases a zany superhero comic to promote Toughpad FZ-E1

A meek I.T guy (why are I.T. guys always presented as meek weirdos?) saves the day using his Toughphone Toughpad (which is definitely not a phone) when the superhero team he works gets themselves in a pickle. Supposedly this is only the first in a series of Panasonic comic books (Panacomics?)

Yeah, it's an advertisement, but at least it's a fun advertisement.

Read the first issue of "Unbreakable Valor" here.

Be careful with that caps lock key, boys and girls.

Building a better doorstop: The Jammer

Christine, a friend of the Johnson family, comes with us every year to the Police Security Expo in Atlantic City. It's a free trip for her and an extra hand for us. Provided her hands are operational.

Before the show opens, vendors file in and out of the convention center hauling giant display setups like ants carrying picnic scraps ten times their body weight back to the colony. Doors swing open and shut in constant flux at every threshold. The exhibitors are focused on the task at hand, tired and determined to collapse into their hotel rooms. In such an environment, it's easy to lose track of your surroundings, the people around you, someone's hand wrapped around the edge of one double door as you shove the other one open. Mistakes happen.

A few conventions ago, Christine was helping carry our gear into the center, fumbling with three large banners rolled up and stacked like logs. Holding the load between one arm and her chin, she snatched the side of the door with her free hand just before it swung closed behind the tactical flashlight sellers in front of her. If her fingers had been any less slender, she wouldn't have made it. At the same moment, a man from an EMS supply booth was heading out through the opposing door. When he pushed his door open, the gap between doors narrowed and snagged Christine's fingers, crushing them like coffee beans in a burr grinder. The guy felt so awful about it that he stopped by our booth regularly throughout the next two days to check up on her and tend to her injuries. It was sweet, really. Fast forward to today, and now they're married!

OK, that last part isn't true. That would be a good story, though. One for the grand kids.

If only there were some device that could stop a door from closing. Prop it open with a flowerpot full of dirt? That's a mess just waiting to happen. Remove it from its hinges? Too much work, plus we're not paying to heat/cool the outdoors! Wedge it open with a piece of wood on the floor? Oh. I've just described a doorstop.

Though I'm being a bit facetious, let's bear in mind that traditional doorstops suck. People kick them loose, they slide around on tile floors and always seem to disappear, integrating themselves into some child's building blocks. Not every new product has to be some fancy gizmo with a wireless internet connection and a flux capacitor. Sometimes we just need a better solution to a common problem, like that famous Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about building a better mousetrap (to paraphrase): "Someone oughta build a better mousetrap. My house is infested with mice."

Sometimes a solution to a problem is so simple and elegant that it seems obvious in hindsight. "Problem solved," it seems to say. "Next problem, please." Case in point, one of my favorite items from this year's Police Security Expo: the Jammer. It's a candy cane-shaped piece of plastic, available in black or high visibility yellow. Hang it over a door hinge to prevent the door from closing behind you, potentially locking you in or crushing someone's fingers. The bright yellow color makes it easy to mark where you've been, an effective way to communicate that a room has been cleared. You can carry a bunch of them around with you in your pocket, hooked onto a belt loop, dangled from your ears (for fashion), or tucked into your vest. At his booth, Jammer creator Tom Surowiec showed me a chunk of wood with a bent nail sticking out of it, his inspiration. "Firefighters use these," he said. "They're a resourceful bunch."

"That," I said, "is brilliant."

Ed reflects on PSE 2014

If you get our monthly newsletter or follow us on Twitter, you probably already know that earlier this week we picked up camp and headed to Atlantic City for this year's Police Security Expo. We had a good time meeting some of our current and future customers and reacquainting with old friends from expos past. Since I'd never gambled in any formal sense, Bob took me to a blackjack table. The dealer did this neato card trick where he made 45 of my dollars disappear in under a minute. But now I'm getting sidetracked.

Our awesome pens were very popular.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday at our booth in the convention center, where we divided our time between talking with law enforcement officers, handing out Jolly Ranchers and awesome pens, and watching the guy in the booth across from us drift off to sleep as the day wore on.  Every now and then, though, I'd find occasion to wander around. What had once been a huge, empty room now held a temporary city populated by vendors of every stripe. Armored police cars sat on soft carpet while disembodied light bars flashed endlessly. Nearby, the Optical Academy gave on-site eye exams, no doubt a useful service in a world of pepper spray and super-bright tactical flashlights.

Walking through the corridors, I fought an uphill battle against sensory overload. With all the body armor, high-tech gadgets and tactical everything, the modern police officer is basically Batman without the cape and goofy S&M mask. Out of all the impressive displays, several stood out for me. My favorites weren't, by and large, the big-budget set-ups with jumbotrons, laser light shows and fog machines (OK, I might be exaggerating a little). In my mind, the stars of the show were, more often than not, modest booths with unique, exciting products. Some of my favorites include a facility where civilians can get Special Ops training, a ruggedized rubber keyboard that feels better than the standard one I'm using now, and a brilliantly simple solution to a common problem. I'll be writing articles about these and more over the coming days. Stay tuned.

Jeff Gordon and Panasonic confirm Toughbook-branded #24 car

It's confirmed.

Will Jeff Gordon drive a Panasonic Toughbook-sponsored car in New Hampshire and Sonoma?

It looks like we might soon see Jeff Gordon tearing it up Toughbook style. According to Jayski, an ESPN-affiliated website for all things NASCAR, Panasonic could serve as the primary sponsor for Gordon's #24 car for two upcoming events this season:

Hearing that Panasonic, an associated sponsor / partner of Hendrick Motorsports will be the primary sponsor at Sonoma Raceway in June and/or New Hampshire in July. Supposedly the car will be blue and white and feature the Panasonic Toughbook mobile computers.

Cool beans.