The MacBook Air is advertised by Apple as "The world's thinnest notebook". I've got news for the folks in Cupertino: my notebook is thinner. It's made of paper and cardboard. When I have filled a sheet of paper I'll tear it out and throw it away (for recycling, natch). My notebook therefore gets thinner the more I use it.

Out of curiosity, is there any difference between a "notebook" and a "laptop" PC?

Notebooks are supposed to be smaller and less powerfull. In most of the companies I've worked at in the past five years or so, laptops are as fast and powerful as the desktops they've replaced, but notebooks are for reading email, browsing the Web, and taking notes during meetings. Anyway, that's my take on the distinction. Me, I'm waiting for my first palmtop or wearable.

[Addendum: And does anybody remember the first portables of the late '80s? the size of a piece of check-in luggage and weighed as much as a sewing machine. First one I used was a Compaq I borrowed from work.]

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And does anybody remember the first portables of the late '80s? the size of a piece of check-in luggage and weighed as much as a sewing machine. First one I used was a Compaq I borrowed from work.

I can top that. In the early '70s, some folks at IBM thought that the technology was ready to build a portable computer. They envisioned a computer for scientists and engineers that weighed less than 50 lbs and would fit in an airplane overhead compartment. It would have a built-in monitor and HP cartridge tape drive. When the IBM 5100 finally came out in 1975, it was a little over 50 lbs and just barely didn't fit in an overhead bin. It had a CRT a little bigger than a 3x5 card, and although the virtual display had 64 columns, it would only show 32 columns at a time; there was a little switch to toggle between the right and left halves. It also booted up to an language interpreter (not an OS prompt like DOS), either BASIC or APL, depending on -- wait for it -- the position of a toggle switch. Of course, the market in the sciences for such an expensive ($9K - $20K) beast was pretty small and it never took off. When I worked at IBM in Rochester, MN in 1979 our electronics lab was full of them. People used them as microcontrollers. I don't think I ever saw one with the chassis closed.

the IBM 5100

Whoa! Dude, I am not worthy! Damn, that is some serious geekery. I especially liked the manuals. Thanks, neveu.

I had one of these. The Commodore SX-64 "Executive". Computers sure got a lot sleeker and smaller in the 10 years since the IBM 5100. The SX-64 would easily fit in an overhead compartment, probably, maybe.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,

We also had a Commodore 64. I remember Shu typing in a program for word processing, from a program that was printed in a computer journal. It was very similar to Word or Wordperfect, but free for the typing. There was one problem though. I remember, for example, you had to put a [c] and then [/c] for underlined material. I used it for the first draft of my dissertation, and the entire paper was underlined because I had forgotten the [/c], and I didn't have time to reprint it.

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Me, I'm waiting for my first palmtop or wearable.

I am, too, Z! I've heard they can inbed a keyboard into fabric that actually flows and hangs like real fabric - have you seen such a thing yet? I'd love to have a vest or apron that I could just wear around the library, get a small screen to attach to the side of my glasses frames . . . and I'm good to go!

've heard they can inbed a keyboard into fabric that actually flows and hangs like real fabric - have you seen such a thing yet?

I've read about cloth keyboards, but haven't tried one yet. There's also a virtual laser keyboard that I'd like to try