BK>>  My first PC was a portable, sold by some company I don't
 BK>>  remember. I bought the portable so I could take it to work.
 BK>> They
 BK>>  had no expansion capability, but a plug for an external
 BK>>  expansion bus. They never sold the external bus, couldn't get
 BK>>  FCC clearance. Most likely, too much interference.

 EV> Bob, Was it a Grid Luggable PC?
 EV> A Friend of mine who worked for COuthern Bell bought the one
 EV> he used from the Co. after they gave him a laptop.

 It was about the size and shape and weight of a modern laptop,
 only no screen, no Hard drive or cd, floppy only. Oh, and AC
 only, no battery.

 The company bought a Toshiba laptop, 3.5 floppy only, but it had
 a screen and battery. It was bought for running temperature
 checks on the ovens. When I set up some disks to program our
 machine controls the boss got upset. Said that was only for oven
 checks.

 I pointed out that we did oven checks once a month, and the rest
 of the month that computer sat around doing nothing. OTOH, the
 old dedicated computers were used were about the size of a
 Kaypro, a PITA to deal with, and had to go through boot up when
 you hooked it up.

 I told him, the laptop can boot up in the time it takes to get
 it to the machine and hooked up, and be ready to use and save
 time fixing a machine that might cost us $1000/hr to shut down.

 That did persuade him. Or maybe we just ignored him, can't
 really recall.


 EV> ... Flying's the 2nd greatest thrill known. Landing's the
 EV> 1st --- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.49

 Now that one I know.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... E-mail: When it absolutely has to get lost at the speed of light.
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