Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!skybridge!davisp From: davisp@skybridge.SCL.CWRU.Edu (Palmer Davis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds Subject: Re: calculators vs computers Summary: What did you use a PC for ten years ago? Keywords: hp48sx, green fuzzy bananas Message-ID: <1990Sep21.202803.148@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Date: 21 Sep 90 20:28:03 GMT References: <1049@helens.Stanford.EDU> Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu Organization: TIDNU System Research Group Lines: 86 X-Post-Machine: shasta.scl.cwru.edu In a previous article, zimmer@calvin.stanford.edu (Andrew Zimmerman) writes: >Anyway, my question is, "How do people actually use this type of calculator/ >computer?" So far, a lot ot the messages on the net have been for such >things as appointment books, phone numbers, games (tetris, brix, music) >and for hacking (sass, sad, and the processor notes). Those are exactly the sorts of things I use my 48sx for. The 48 reminds me quite a bit of the way things were ten years ago when most desktop PC's were tiny little 8-bit machines with a few tens of K of RAM available and maybe a floppy drive. Getting small things (like some useful utility or maybe a game with some new innovative feature) done on little machines like that was quite a challenge -- and at the same time, there was quite a bit of entertainment value in it. The fact that my previous calculator happened to break at an inopportune moment helped me rationalize my decision to purchase a 48sx (as did the fact that it makes hamburger helper out of my Physics homework), but my real reason for getting one was the idea of having a system with actually more horsepower than my first desktop unit had, that was sufficiently portable that I could throw it in my backpack and have it available to be played with and hacked upon whenever I felt like. Sort of a "Game Boy for hackers." What I've found, however, is that there are a lot of little jobs that the 48sx can for which it's actually more convienient to do them on the 48sx. You mentioned datebooks and telephone directories -- these are the sorts of little things that they used to advertise that you could do on a computer ten years ago that nobody ever actually used because it was more work to type them into the computer than to do them by hand. (Has anyone here ever actually balanced a checkbook with their home computer?) And half the time for things like datebooks, you'd frequently need to have the information along with you so it did little good to leave it sitting on a disk back home. I used to have a collection of little scraps of paper and outdated business cards in my wallet with all sorts of random reminders and people's phone numbers. All that's in my 48sx now... it's actually useful to me there because I actually *have* my 48sx with me whenever I might need to get the information back out (i.e. in a phone booth in the middle of the night). And, beyond all that, it *is* awfully good at being a calculator.... >It would seem to me that some of the laptop computers would be better >suited for these types of applications. . . . >Laptops also have the >advantage of more memory, and usually a disk device. For me, the big advantage of a 48sx instead of a laptop is convenience. The 48sx is small enough that I can throw it into my backpack or even the front pocket of my sweatshirt and always have it with me, and it's handy enough that I can pull it out to jot something down. It's small enough that I can set it down on one of those little armrest thingies they have in lecture halls and still have room to take notes while using it. Laptops have certainly gotten lighter, but not to the point that I could see myself lugging one around wherever I go like I do my 48sx. The Poquet is a different story; if it were cheaper and had software that was as relevant to what I'm doing right now built in like the 48sx does, I very well might have gotten one instead. I'm eagerly awaiting the "notepad" machines several companies are working on; I'm sure they'll be hideously expensive at first, but once the technology matures, those will be really nifty. I can see where you're coming from about laptops being more powerful, but at the moment, I really don't have any tasks that a laptop could do that my 48sx can't. I'm not trying to write papers on my 48sx... I let my desktop machine with LaTeX and GNU Emacs take care of that. I wouldn't take notes on a laptop; I can scribble down diagrams on paper more efficiently than I could attempt to type in a description of what's being written on the board. (A notepad computer would be the ideal solution here.) About the only thing that it would be nice to have a laptop for would be to have a C compiler available during programming tests (or in class to try things out), but they wouldn't let me use one anyway. I *can*, however, take my 48sx into my math and physics tests with no problem.... :-) I'm rather surprised that HP hasn't tried to market the 48sx more agressively as a low-end PC rather than a high-end calculator. That's why I bought one, and that's the reason why most of my friends might be interested in the 48sx themselves. I'm certainly not going to recommend the 48sx to them after the way Hewlett-Packard has treated those of us who bought early (and I'm certainly going to think twice the next time I consider buying anything from HP), but I'm rather enjoying rediscovering the uses of small machines. And it's nice being able to have the whole system with me all the time. Yes, it's a toy sometimes, but it also does useful work. After all, what good is a laptop if you leave it at home? -- PTD -- -- Palmer T. Davis | davisp@scl.cwru.edu -OR- ptd2@po.cwru.edu Case Western Reserve University | {att,sun,decvax,uunet}!cwjcc!skybridge!davisp ------------------------------------------------------+------------------------ Wake up and smell the cat food in your bank account. | Life is short.