[JesseK]

I'm against the idea of requiring teams to have a standardized laptop, notebook, or any netbook. It doesn't matter if the cost is comparable, I'd rather have my own choice of laptop as a driver's station. A limited CPU/graphics/screen size notebook would eliminate a huge portion of the possibilities for human-robot interfaces. I'm not just talking about how to control the bot, but also displays for state data, target tracking, and aesthetics (which are all important in industry). Try putting all of that onto a miniature 10" screen with a mobile celeron processor...

So I suppose I'd rather have a hardened version of this year's DS with the ethernet ports as they are, minus the ESD. This setup forces teams to get creative if they want fancy driver controls and doesn't limit the data display aspect of the overall system. I'm quite surprised I haven't seen more use of softpots, touch sensors, etc on the drivers station.