If you don’t know me, Hi! I’m Steve (aka Chippy) from UMPCPortal.com and in about a month from now I will be starting my Solar UMPC Tour and this site is where the project will be detailed and journaled from start to finish and beyond. Yes, a Solar UMPC Tour! I’ll be taking a bike, camping equipment an off-the-shelf UMPC and solar kit to South Germany, climbing on the bike and cycling down the Rhine for about 7 days while continuing to work on UMPCPortal.com and Solar-UMPC.com using a UMPC. No, not while I’m riding. I’ll be stopping at lots of cafe’s on the way! There’s one important rule I should mention though – No mains charging of equipment is allowed. Everything will run off solar power for a week. Camera, Mobile Phone, Lighting and UMPC.

Sounds like a challenge doesn’t it. It will be! Its one month away and I haven’t even started testing solar equipment yet. I don’t know how long I will need the UMPC each day. I don’t even know what UMPC to take. I don’t know how long my camera will last on AA batteries. What data connectivity should I use? Bike? Tent? There also the small worry that I haven’t done a bike tour in years. I need to get on a 4 week training program so that I can cover the ground between stop-overs and still have enough time to work. And then there’s the weather. More unpredictable than a UMPC manufacturers battery life figure! One thing is for sure, I won’t be going if there’s no sun forecast and if the weather breaks half way through I probably wont be able to go on. End of story!

All these questions will be answered in the coming weeks. The project starts today and I’m happy to say I’ve got the support of the best sponsor possible. VIA Technologies. I have been thinking about this project since last year and put the details to VIA some time ago. They came back very quickly with a positive feel and after our first project conference call this morning, we’ve agreed to do it and are all very excited about it. Its what the UMPC is all about of course. The combination of Ultra Mobility, power-efficiency, work and play. Ultra Mobile Life!

So there’s the introduction in plain text. Things will get more detailed and colourful from here on and I hope you’ll stay with me, help me, advise me and pass the word on about Ultra Mobile Computing. Help me. I’ll say that one again!

Steve.