The Laptop Celebrates 40 Years

[I-75]

The Laptop Celebrates 40 Years

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/museum-celebrat.html

Laptops today vary greatly in size, weight and purpose, but they all have one common origin: Alan Kay's Dynabook.

Kay, a former Xerox PARC computer scientist, drew up the idea of a portable computer in 1968, when computers still weighed over 100 pounds and ate punch cards. His definition of the perfect, portable computer was a very thin, highly dynamic device that weighed no more than two pounds.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Yeh it was an idea way ahead of its time, it would take 20 years alone to meet the ideas the dude originally had...
The early laptops were titanics, it wasnt till the late 90's where the modern laptop came into shape as he envisioned.

[myusername]

much like that dude with his ipod patent that apple bought out or whatever happened

[handy]

Alan Kay is my hero.

Smalltalk inspired Steve Jobs to make the mouse/menu/icon driven computer DT GUI happen, & Squeak-eToys is teaching kids of all ages, nationalities & incomes how to think smarter & be more creative using the ever evolving Smalltalk programmatic base.

Alan Kay must be the humanitarian IT world champion.

[Chilli Bob]

Any relation to Andrew Kay of Kaypro fame?

[treesurf]

The first computer we had at home when I was growing up was a Kaypro. A Kaypro 2 if I remember correctly. It was advertised as being portable, but man that thing weighed a ton. My father wrote an entire book using it.

[handy]

Yeh, I remember the early laptops, they weighed as much as a portable electric sewing machine. You would rather that they were not on your lap. :lolflag:

They were lugged, not carried.

[handy]

Any relation to Andrew Kay of Kaypro fame?

I can find no mention of it on the web.

& by the look of the software used it would appear to strengthen the idea that there was no connection between the two.