Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by sp4rki on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @03:39AM
(#1833395)
No windows button and a properly placed control key where it should be? The caps lock is relegated to arrows territory? I'M FREAKING SOLD! Where do I get one? xD
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by FiddlerClamp on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @02:26AM
(#1833285)
I had the first full-keyboard portable, the TRS-80 Model 100 which Dad was still using into the 90s. I also had the very first ultralight laptop - the NEC Ultralite (4lbs, no hard drive, solid-state!) back in '88.
Good times, but you spend a LOT to stay on the bleeding edge. :)
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by RyanMcGreal on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @06:29AM
(#1833682)
Me too. I haven't fired it up in at least a year, but last time I tried it booted up with no problem other than some alarming smoke coming from the air vent. Seeing that customized autoexec.bat float up in ghostly green letters really brought me back.
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by aidenn0 on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @12:50AM
(#1833043)
My dad had a Toshiba T1200, the successor to this one. He still uses it as a serial terminal. On another note, due to its limited built-in storage, he ran command.com through pklite!
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by tajddin on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @12:42AM
(#1833012)
It really amazes me how far we've come in the last 25 years and how much has remained the same. Here's to the next 25 and making fun of today's technology :)
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by adrianwaj on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @06:36AM
(#1833689)
1991: Toshiba adds the first colour screens to laptops. From here on, portable PCs become more than work-obsessed business tools, and begin to pull double duty as entertainment machines.
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by alexyoung on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @04:29AM
(#1833486)
The first laptop I used in real life was an Acorn A4 in around 1993. When things moved the screen blurred so much it was hard to use, but it did run RISC OS which I liked back then.
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by rbanffy on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @05:26AM
(#1833574)
Sadly, no.
And that was a claim that didn't resist 15 seconds of googling.
There were a couple portables that could be called laptops before the Toshibas. The TRS-80 model 100, its NEC cousin. Even if we are talking of MS-DOS, PC-compatible computers, the Data General One predates this one by quite a bit.
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by almost on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @09:59AM
(#1834169)
If it has a USB port you can use either an external CDROM drive or a USB key drive.
If it has a network port then you can make a network boot floppy quite easily. This just contains enough to get the system booting off of an image retrieved from a TFTP server over the network.
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by lokijuhyhui on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @12:51AM
(#1833049)
my first PC going to college in 1988,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPC_512 4.7Mhz, 512kb RAM and a floppy drive, it could run a fortran compiler (rather slowly)
Although if you had access to a TV and a power socket at the destination my Sinclair QL was probably a more capable and lighter 'portable'
Re:World’s first laptop, 25 years old and still running
by wil2k on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @04:33PM
(#1835973)
Still got one. :)
It has an awesome design and it can also be seen in some movies (names don't come to mind though, but I've seen them), e.g. painted in some fancy color. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#QWERTZ
Specs: Dual 8bit Hitachi 6301 at 0.6 MHz, 16 kB RAM, 32 kB CMOS ROM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epson_HX-20
Good times, but you spend a LOT to stay on the bleeding edge. :)
Just stretching a simile to breaking point there..
(edit: on second thought, it most likely requires at least two laps.)
That's the one that runs for a day or something on just AA batteries, isn't it?
http://toshibalife.com/featured-articles/25-years-laptop-inn...
Not bad at all, considering the typical ~3 kg weight of many modern laptops.
And that was a claim that didn't resist 15 seconds of googling.
There were a couple portables that could be called laptops before the Toshibas. The TRS-80 model 100, its NEC cousin. Even if we are talking of MS-DOS, PC-compatible computers, the Data General One predates this one by quite a bit.
The Epson HX-20 laptop also ran CP/M (as an option, AFAIK).
If it has a network port then you can make a network boot floppy quite easily. This just contains enough to get the system booting off of an image retrieved from a TFTP server over the network.
I can't figure out a way to tell it to boot from a USB thumb drive. It doesn't list that option in the BIOS.
Would it still let me boot from an external CD ROM even though the BIOS doesn't mention USB? Maybe I could buy one.
Otherwise, any other thoughts?
Otherwise, you could maybe try a PCMCIA network card, assuming the laptop supports that.
Although if you had access to a TV and a power socket at the destination my Sinclair QL was probably a more capable and lighter 'portable'
It has an awesome design and it can also be seen in some movies (names don't come to mind though, but I've seen them), e.g. painted in some fancy color. :)