Hi-tech History
The need
I took early retirement and decided to devote some of my new free time to our local history. On my first visit to the Local Studies Room at Vestry House Museum I wore down three pencils, and had to spend the evening typing up my scrawly notes. Buying a laptop computer suddenly became an urgent necessity. Like so much shopping, this was a question of quickly realising I could not buy what I wanted, a lightweight and compact keyboard and screen. The laptops readily available were larger, with screens over 15 inches across, and given a high specification to run the latest version of the Microsoft Windows operating system and to cope with the demands of nearly all software. Three years ago this cost upwards of £ 500. There were smaller and lighter laptops, but these commanded a premium price of around £ 1,200. All I wanted to do was type out notes using two fingers ! Something affordable with just sufficient computing power for typing did not even seem to be available for schools. Parents were encouraged to send their offspring to university with a machine able to run the latest games simulating on screen the visual experience of fighting monsters.
The drawbacks I have found with a standard laptop are the weight (it is manageable in a rucksack but tiring), its large size on a cramped library surface (impossible to use in conjunction with a microfilm reader), the length of time it takes to become functional after switching on, and the noise of its fan, which on my basic Toshiba keeps cutting in and out.
The answer ?
The unexpected craze this year (2008) has been for a new type of laptop. Previously
all computers stored their software and information on spinning magnetic discs, a
‘hard drive’. Now affordable memory ‘chips’ with no moving parts, of tiny size and
weight, can hold a computer operating system, software and the owner’s files. The
manufacturer Asus launched the Eee PC for under £ 200. My dream had been realised
! There was however one big problem. The battery life of this machine was just
a couple of hours. I think this must be related to a fire at a Far Eastern factory
which was one of the world’s few sources of computer batteries. At present they
are an expensive component in short supply. Nevertheless, stocks of the Eee PC were
sold out as soon as they arrived in Europe and America. Rival manufacturers quickly
produced equivalent machines but all offering insufficient battery life for a day
in a library or a half day on a train journey. Asus achieved another first, with
a model, the 901, with at least half-
The ancestry
The inspiration of this new type of computer seems to have been the ‘One Laptop Per
