[inforoots] Portable?

[Mike Albaugh]

> From: rweaver at ix.netcom.com
> Date: Tue, February 21, 2006 9:41 am
> To: Open Discussion about the history of the Information Age

In the discussion of what constitutes a "portable computer"

(BTW: Once was a time when one could expect to see
some AN-TBX equipment for sale in Ham magazines, every
spring around April 1st :-)

> When you are functioning as a computer user, there are computers you are intended to take your work
> to and their are computers that you are intended to bring to where you want to work.  

 I think you forgot the very important possibility of
   "Computers that you can use from where you
    are, even if the computer is not there"

Bell Labs did a demo of remote computing (via teletype(tm))
on their Relay computer (late 1940's, early 1950s).

Much later, after years of using VMS and Unix systems
(sometimes at the same time), from the comfort of
my fan-free office with no need to even know where they
were, I was given a task that involved a (Windows) PC.
After 20 years, I once again had to "go to the computer"
to do my work. It was cold-water in the face...

> Computers that you, the user, are intended to bring to where
> you want to work, are, from your user viewpoint, portable.

 _AND_ a royal P.I.T.A
 
  Mike