Friday, March 29, 2024

November 18, 2001– Newsletter #157

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Goodies to Go ™
November 18, 2001–Newsletter #157

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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,


Now on to today’s topic…


OK then. I have a desktop. No. Wait. I want it smaller.
Actually, I want the tower smaller. I want the monitor
bigger. Well, I want it bigger but not as deep. In fact, I’d
like it…uh…wait. I’d like my computer portable. Yeah.
That’s it. I want to walk around with it. OK. Now I
have a laptop. I’d like it really thin…but with a full-sized
keyboard. No…wait. Maybe I need something I can put
in my pocket. You know, something like a really small
computer. OK, now I have a PDA. Perfect. Now I have
all sizes, all shapes, all powers, and I’m set.


No…wait. Is there something I can get that’s kind of
right in the middle? I want something that not quite as
bulky as a laptop and a bit bigger than the PDA. Oh
yeah, and I want to hold it like a stone plank and walk
around with it like someone from ancient Rome. I might
even put on a toga just for the office parties.


Is this you? It may not be now, but given a few months,
you may find yourself asking just these questions.


Always thinking, Bill Gates decided to use the COMDEX
meeting in Las Vegas to announce the future of personal
computing. It’s called, “The Tablet.”


If you’ve not heard of a tablet computer then you’ve not
been reading all the tiny articles in the very back of
extremely tech-heavy magazines. Gates claims that he’s
been pitching tablet computers since 1999. The problem
is that until now, the software to run these tablets hasn’t
been available or simply didn’t work very well.


Here’s the basic concept of a tablet. Take a rectangle.
Make it about the size of a piece of paper. Make the face
of the rectangle almost all screen. There should be very
few buttons or other “touchable” elements on the face.


People will communicate with the tablet by either
speaking to it or by writing on it. Internet connections
will be made though a wireless system. Current wireless
systems can run up to 11 megabits. Image what they’ll
run in two years.


The tablet will be an all-inclusive device. It will be your
desktop when you arrive in to the office and jam it into
the docking station. It will be the pad you take with you
to make your notes at the meeting. It will be your PDA.
It will be your Web connection. It will gather your email.
It will allow you to make cellular phone calls. It will be
surgically implanted in your left arm.


Ok, I’m lying about the surgery thing, but the rest is true.


If you’re anything like me, you want to stand firm and
proclaim that the tablet is just another silly gadget and
that you’ll stay away from it while inside you are secretly
drooling, wishing you could buy one right now.


“Sit tight,” says Gates. The first ones should be out
round about Christmas 2002 and in “common” use by
2005.


Once I have it, I’ll have everything. That is…until they
come out with the mini-tablet. That’s the one you take
with a glass of water and take notes by patting Morse
code on your stomach. Printing with that one’s not very
pleasant either.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


That’s that. That’s for reading. I’m still glad to be
writing if only to the end of the year.


Joe Burns, Ph.D.


And Remember: Contrary to popular belief, Thomas
Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. Crapper was a
successful plumbing businessman who held nine patents,
but none were for the flushing system. That honor goes
to Albert Giblin who first held the patent on the “silent
valveless water waste preventer.” Giblin, who worked
for Crapper, either sold him the rights or just allowed him
to use them under a work-for-hire agreement. Either
way, U.S. soldiers who spent time in England before
going to battle noticed that most of the toilets had
“T. Crapper-Chelsea” printed on them. There’s your
nickname.

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