Wiley Laptops For Dummies, 4th Edition
Contents
1. Feature wise the SLT had what most PC desktop users wanted in a portable system a full size keyboard full size screen floppy drive and 286 micropro cessor which meant that the computer could run the then popular DOS oper ating system The computer lacked a hard drive Weight Alas the SLT was a bowling ball at 14 pounds What the Compaq SLT did was prove to the world that portability was pos sible A laptop computer was designed to feature everything a desktop com puter could plus run on batteries for an hour or so Yeah believe it or not people were delighted The search for light Just because the marketing department labeled the computer a laptop didn t mean that it was sleek and lightweight For a while there it seemed like anyone could get away with calling a portable PC a laptop despite the com puter s weight of up to 20 pounds which is enough to crush any lap not to mention kneecaps Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest Calculating laptop weight The missing pieces When computer companies specify the weights of their laptops l m certain that they do it under ideal conditions possibly on the moon or at some other location where gravity is weak The advertised weight is as they say for compari son purposes only Commonly left out of the laptop s weight specs is the power brick the AC adapter used to connect the laptop to a wall socket When the laptop isn t2. Nearly every portable computer from the Radio Shack Model 100 onward required a modem or at least an option for installing one This was before the Internet era back when a modem was considered an optional luxury for a desktop computer Out on the road away from a desktop at the office early proto road warriors needed that modem in order to keep in touch The Radio Shack Model 100 was all that was needed for portability at the time which is why the device was so popular The Model 100 provided the form factor for laptops of the future It was about the size of a hardback novel It ran for hours on standard AA bat teries And it weighed just 6 pounds 1 So popular was the Model 100 among journalists that it was common to hear the hollow sound of typing on its keyboard during presidential news conferences in the 1980s Despite its popularity and versatility people wanted a version of the Model 100 that would run the same software as the IBM PC Technology wasn t ready to shrink the PC s hardware to Model 100 size in 1983 but the Model 100 set the goal for what people wanted in a laptop s dimensions The lunch buckets Before the dawn of the first true laptop some ugly mutations slouched in along with a few rejects from various mad scientists around the globe I call them the lunch bucket computers because they assumed the shape size and weight of a typical hard hat s lunch box The Compaq III shown in F
3. running on batteries you need the power brick to supply the thing with juice so the power brick is a required accessory something you have to tote with you if you plan to take the laptop on an extended trip In the old days what they didn t tell you in the advertisements was that the power brick often weighed half as much as the laptop itself Either that or the power brick was even bulkier than the laptop as shown in the figure in the obnox iously big Dell 320LT power brick and its heavy 30 minute batteries Lugging around those items isn t convenient Things are better today In the fall of 1989 NEC showed that it could think outside the laptop box when it introduced the UltraLite laptop shown in Figure 1 6 The UltraLite featured a full size screen and keyboard but no disk drives or other moving parts It used battery backed up memory to serve as a silicon disk The silicon disk stored 1 or 2MB of data which was plenty back in those days 15 16 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free a Figure 1 6 The NEC UltraLite As was required of all laptops the UltraLite featured a modem and it could talk with a desktop computer by using a special cable Included with the UltraLite was software that would let it easily exchange files and programs with a desktop PC The weight Yes the UltraLite lived up to its name and weighed in at just under 5 pounds a feather compared to the o
4. Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest In This Chapter Understanding portable computing Reviewing laptop history Recognizing the Tablet PC variation Getting to know the netbook Deciding whether you need a laptop figure sometime a long time ago one early proto nerd had an idea Wearing his thick glasses and a white lab coat he stared at the large vacuum tube monster he was tending He wondered what it would be like to put wheels on the six ton beast What if they could wheel it outside and work in the sun It was a crazy idea yet it was the spark of a desire Today that spark has flared into a full blown portable computing industry The result is the laptop Tablet PC or netbook computer you have in your lap or which your lap is longing for It s been a long road this chapter tells you about the journey by explaining the history of the portable computing quest Laptop History You can t make something portable simply by bolting a handle to it Sure it pleases the marketing folk who understand that portability is a desirable trait Put a handle on that 25 pound microwave oven and it s suddenly por table You could put a handle on a hippopotamus and call it portable but the thing already has legs so what s the point My point is that true portability implies that a gizmo has at least these three characteristics Lightweight No power cord 1 Practical 8 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free Long be
5. and more people are opting to replace their older desktops with laptops there s still a need for desktop power that can t be had in a portable computing device One item still on the laptop wish list is battery technology Today s laptops last longer on battery power than the laptops of ten years ago Then again going from 2 hours on battery power to 3 hours isn t really the improve ment that people want The solution for battery power in the future is something called the fuel cell which acts like a miniature power plant directly connected to your laptop PC Fuel cell technology promises power that lasts for weeks instead of hours which will prove a boon to portable gizmos of every kind but only when the fuel cell makes sense economically Although fuel cells are available now they re just too expensive and bulky for laptops Supposedly the first fuel cell powered laptops will be here soon but soon is still far enough in the future to be anyone s guess Until then laptop users will have to slug it out with rechargeable batteries and power packs Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest 2 See Chapter 10 for more information on batteries and other power management issues Do Vou Need a Laptop The journey is over You have arrived Adam Osborne s dream is here Portable computers are everywhere As a consumer and as someone who needs a computer in order to survive in the 21st century the questi
6. aptop covered in Chapter 19 you re off and running to anywhere you like although being in direct sunlight can make it difficult to see the laptop screen When you return from your road warrior trip you perform another synch and both computers get all caught up for the day 1 Laptops let you escape the confines of your office and do work any where you like for a few hours Or if there s power at your location you can plug in and work all day The laptop lets you take your work with you when you travel It lets you experience the reality of using a computer on an airplane which isn t as cool as it sounds Why you don t need a laptop Laptops aren t cheap They re also expensive to fix Forget about upgrading the hardware They can easily get stolen The battery life never lives up to the printed specifications It s tough to get work done on a jet or in a caf because people either look over your shoulder or ask you questions about the laptop Ack But those are minor quibbles Thanks to their light weight long battery life and increasing computing power laptops make ideal computers for just about anyone If you don t own a laptop now you will someday
7. bese laptops of the day And the battery lasted a whopping two hours thanks mostly to the UltraLite s lack of moving parts The modern laptop As technology careened headlong into the 1990s it became apparent that users were desperate for three things from their laptop computers in addi tion to the basic PC compatibility portability and communications features that were long ago deemed must haves Light weight Long battery life Full hardware compatibility with desktop systems Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest 7 Over time all these qualities were achieved at a price Today the holy grail of a lightweight PC compatible laptop that boasts a long battery life isn t elusive it s just expensive YY Weight Depending on how much you want to pay your laptop can be anywhere from a half inch thick to just under an inch thick and weigh between 2 to 6 pounds The weight and size also depend on the features you want in your laptop with more features adding more weight Battery life Although the batteries themselves haven t improved much in the past several years thanks to power management hardware and software modern laptops can extend battery life from the once standard two hours to about three or four hours vy Hardware compatibility Since the late 1990s all laptops come with color screens just like desktop systems do Most also sport optical drives CD or DVD just like desktops do Laptops featur
8. e computer was barely portable Face it The thing was a suitcase Imagine hauling the 24 pound Osborne across Chicago s O Hare airport Worse Imagine the joy expressed by your fellow seatmates as you try to wedge the thing beneath the seat in front of you Computer users yearned for portability They wanted to believe the advertis ing images of carefree people toting the Osborne around people with arms of equal length But no hip marketing term could mask the ungainly nature of the Osborne Portable Transportable Wispy Nope Credit some wag in the computer press for dreaming up the term luggable to describe the new and popular category of portable computers ushered in by the Osborne Never mind its weight Never mind that most luggable computers never ven tured from the desktops they were first set up on luggables were the best the computer industry could offer an audience wanting a portable computer In the end it wasn t the Osborne computer s weight that doomed it No what killed the Osborne was that in the early 1980s the world wanted IBM PC compatibility The Osborne lacked that Instead the upstart Texas company Compaq introduced luggability to the IBM world with the Compaq 1 shown in Figure 1 2 aaa Figure 1 3 The Radio Shack Model 100 Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest The Compaq 1 introduced in 1983 at 3 590 proved that you could have your IBM compatibility and haul it on the road wi
9. e gizmos galore toward specific needs For example an e book reader gizmo isn t a full on computer but instead uses its computer power to let you read electronically published books magazines newspaper articles and even browser the Web just about anywhere Portable computing means more than just a laptop and of course a laptop computer is more than just a portable PC So what is a laptop and what s not The laptop itself can be described by its size Lighter laptops have been dubbed notebook computers though that term appears to be more of a marketing phenomena than any offi cial laptop category The netbook is an ultralight mobile laptop of limited power Tablet PCs are traditional lap tops that let you write on the screen by using an electronic stylus Some Tablet PCs don t even have traditional computer keyboards Beyond the laptop you find a host of portable computing devices many of which are geared Also added to the mix is the typical smartphone which is a cellphone capable of accessing the Internet storing and managing information running special programs or apps playing music taking pictures or shooting video and doing a host of other wondrous things Some people predict that all these gizmos may one day be consolidated into a single device Only time will tell The laptop of the future I don t believe that the laptop computer will supplant the typical desktop computer system Though more
10. e modems networking wired and wireless capabilities and expansion options Special laptop processors and other types of hardware have been devel oped over the years keeping laptop hardware small and energy efficient The Tablet PC Computer manufacturers have long attempted to create the electronic equivalent of a pencil and pad of paper a very expensive pencil and pad of paper Basically what they re after is a portable computer with a monitor but no keyboard Data is input by using a digital stylus to write directly on the screen Over the years this digital triptych has had various names attached to it the PenGo computer the Apple Newton Pen Windows and eventually the Tablet PC The Tablet PC began life a few years back as its own computer category The machine was about the same size as a laptop but it didn t fold open the monitor was face up all the time That model failed miserably The Tablet PC now exists as a laptop hybrid The machine can be used like any other laptop but the display can be pivoted and laid flat over the keyboard as shown in Figure 1 7 The result is a flexible computer system that is a laptop with Tablet PC features 18 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free SSS Figure 1 7 A Tablet PC 1 Even as a hybrid Tablet PC sales haven t taken off Apparently writing on the screen isn t a feature that laptop users are eager to use 1 Tablet PCs are disc
11. each other s data and files And you still have the luxury of having one system that s portable 22 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free ENa Mr Laptop Goes to College Setting up a computer in a college dorm room in the 1980s was the sure sign of being a nerd Today not setting up a laptop computer in a col lege dorm room is the sure sign of being a social outcast implore future students to pester their parental units early say starting in the seventh grade to ensure thatthey leave for college armed with the best portable computing power possible No I m not being silly Some colleges require students to arrive with a laptop in tow Those Institutions may even publish laptop guides so that campus compatibility is guaranteed and Take the laptop on the road issues such as viruses and spyware are dealt with before classes start My advice Follow those guidelines Look for a laptop based on the school s recommendations But there s still more you need to do Be sure to prepare a college bound laptop for the onslaught of malware See Chapter 17 for vital information about laptop security Also see Chapter 21 for dealing with another college laptop issue theft You ve probably spent a lot of time preparing for college you should pre pare the laptop for college as well Laptops let you take your work on the road After a few moments of synch ing transferring current files between your desktop and l
12. er and only a half inch thick The top part was a screen the bottom a keyboard a Figure 1 1 A late model Osborne PC Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest The Dynabook never left the lab remaining only a dream Yet the desire to take a computer on the road wouldn t go away For the next three decades after the Dynabook concept many attempts were made to create truly por table computers The Osborne 1 The first successful portable computer was the Osborne 1 created by com puter book author and publisher Adam Osborne in 1980 Adam believed that in order for personal computers to be successful they would have to be portable His design for the Osborne 1 portable computer was ambitious for the time The thing would have to fit under an airline seat and this was years before anyone would even dream of using a computer on an airplane The Osborne 1 portable computer see Figure 1 1 was a whopping success It featured a full size keyboard and two 5 inch floppy drives but only a teensy credit card size monitor It wasn t battery powered but it did have a handy carrying handle so that you could lug around the 24 pound beast like an over packed suitcase Despite its shortcomings 10 000 units a month were sold for 1 795 you got the computer plus free software 9 10 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free Figure 1 2 The luggable Compag 1 ESSE The loveable luggables The Osborn
13. fore people marveled over solar pow ered credit card size calculators there existed the world s first portable human powered cal culator Presenting the abacus the device used for centuries by merchants and goatherds to rapidly perform calculations that would other wise cause painful headaches Abacus comes from the Greek word meaning to swindle you faster Seriously the abacus or counting board is simple to master Many ey eee DR SEPARE The ancient portable computer kids now learn to use the abacus in elementary school In the deft hands of an expert an abacus can perform all the same operations as a calculator including square and cubic roots In his short story nto the Comet science fiction author Arthur C Clarke wrote of stranded astro nauts using many abacuses to plot their voyage home when the spaceship s computer wouldn t work because the Internet was down and their version of Windows couldn t be validated In the history of the portable computer those three things didn t happen all at once and definitely not in that order The Xerox Dynabook The desire to take a computer on the road has been around a long long time Back around 1970 long before the notion of the personal computer existed Xerox PARC developed the Dynabook concept Today you d recognize the Dynabook as an e book reader very similar to the Amazon Kindle The Dynabook was to be the size of a sheet of pap
14. igure 1 4 was typical of this type of portable computer 1 The lunch box beasts weighed anywhere from 12 to 20 pounds or more and most weren t battery powered 1 The lunch bucket portables were the first PCs to use full screen LCD monitors The Osborne and Compaq portables used glass CRTs ESSE Figure 1 4 The Compaq Ul D Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest 13 Incidentally around the same time as the lunch bucket computers became popular color monitors were becoming standard items for desk top PCs All portables at the time even those with LCD monitors were monochrome Honestly the lunch buckets did offer something over the old transport able or luggables less weight A late model lunch bucket PC weighed in at about 12 pounds half the weight and about one eighth the size of the suitcase size luggables Dawn of the PC laptop The computer industry s dream was to have a portable computer that had all the power and features of a desktop computer yet was about the same size and weight as the Model 100 One of the first computers to approach that mark was the Compaq SLT back in 1988 as shown in Figure 1 5 The Compaq SLT was the first portable computer that resembles one of today s laptops A hinged lid swings up and back from the base which con tains the keyboard This design is known as the clamshell 14 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free aT Figure 1 5 The Compaq SLT
15. on is simple Do you need a laptop Why you need a laptop I can think of several reasons for getting a laptop computer Have a laptop as your main computer Why dither over saving money with a desktop when you really want the por tability of a laptop A desktop computer cannot pretend to be a laptop but a laptop can certainly fake being a desktop You can use a full size keyboard and monitor with your laptop You can also connect any number of popular desktop peripher als such as a printer a scanner or an external hard drive The advantage is unlike with a desktop system you re free to disconnect the laptop and wander the world whenever you want Use a laptop as a space saving computer system Unlike with desktops you don t have to build a tabletop shrine to your laptop computer that is you don t need a computer desk If space is tight where you live or work keep the laptop on the shelf or in a drawer Then set it up on the kitchen table or coffee table whenever you re ready to work Forget about the constant mess and clutter that orbit the typical desktop computer station Viva Adam Osborne Get a laptop as a second computer Why buy a second desktop computer when you can get a laptop and enjoy not only the presence of a second computer but also the ability to make that computer system portable Furthermore you can network the two comput ers allowing them to share the Internet connection and printers as well as
16. th you as long as a power socket was handy and you had good upper body strength Yet the power cord can stretch only so far It became painfully obvious that for a computer to be truly portable as Adam Osborne intended it would have to lose that power cord The Model 100 The first computer that even remotely looks like a modern laptop and was fully battery powered was the Radio Shack Model 100 shown in Figure 1 3 It was an overwhelming success The Model 100 wasn t designed to be IBM PC compatible which is surprising considering that PC compatibility was all the rage at the time Instead this model offered users a full size full action keyboard plus an eensie 8 row 40 column LCD text display It came with several built in programs including a text editor word processor a communications program a scheduler and an appointment book plus the BASIC programming language which allowed users to create their own programs or buy and use BASIC programs written by others 11 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free Portability and communications Long before the Internet came around one thing that was deemed necessary on all porta ble computers was the ability to communicate A portable computer had two communica tions duties First it had to be able to talk with a desktop computer to exchange and update files Second it needed a modem to be able to communicate electronically over phone lines
17. ussed throughout this book and specifically in Chapter 8 1 The ancients used something called a tabulae ceratea to write temporary messages Every Greek or Roman schoolboy took with him to class a folding wooden tablet The insides were coated with a black wax Using a stylus basically a stick the student would write into the wax again and again Oh we ve truly come such a long way The netbook Human laps aren t getting any smaller Human eyes can only comfortably read text that s so big Most important human fingers have trouble with keyboards that are too tiny Despite these limitations the most recent step in laptop evolution is the netbook which is the smallest lightest and most portable computer The netbook is not powerful and not truly a complete desktop replacement It lacks an optical drive for instance and most of them lack the computing horsepower to run some advanced programs What they do provide how ever is an inexpensive and highly portable platform for using the Internet accessing e mail and performing simple tasks such as word processing Figure 1 8 illustrates a typical netbook computer the ideal laptop system for students or anyone who s on the go and doesn t need the bulk or power of a full size laptop computer Chapter 1 The Portable Computing Quest g a Figure 1 8 The eensy weensy netbook PC ey 20 Part I The Laptop Shall Set You Free Portabl
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