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If early 1980's marketing is to be believed, then the guy hauling around dead trees in a faux leather case is doing it completely wrong.
Sadly, the pioneering Osborne 1 didn't thrive for very long due in part to two large flaws. One being the diminutive 5" (10 cm) screen and the fact that it weighed in at a hefty 23.5 pounds (10.7kg). To put this into perspective, the weight of a single Osborne 1 is equivalent to 122 hot dogs (buns + ketchup included)
Need something smaller than the Takeru Kobayashi Special? Why not opt for Radio Shack's TRS-80 Pocket Computer instead.
Only slightly longer than a checkbook and weighing in at only 6oz (170g) it seems like a dream come true when compared to the Osborne 1. It is, if your dream is to have a 24x1 character display and you're ok being limited to programs written in BASIC (ok assembler too, but what kind of sadomasochist would program assembly on this thing, seriously!)
Aw heck, if a single line of text is all you need, why not release your inner-geek and go with the Pocket ASCII Terminal with its "Man-Sized" capabilities.
Well, not in a briefcase fight, anyways. Unless he's super-quick off the draw and gets in the first shot. Otherwise, he's got 23 pounds of 'fully functional computer' coming down on him. And even if guy-on-the-left manages to beat the Osborne guy, it's only a matter of time before he's back, dressed in green, flying a jetboard and chucking explosives and his son's girlfriend. How do I know that's the outcome?
Frog-dang, that's creepy. |
Re: What the Ad? - Portability, 1980's Style
2008-12-12 10:21
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by
Gumpy Gus
(unregistered)
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Ah yes, The Osborne. Tiny screen and tinier diskettes. A useless GPIB interface.
The main selling point was not the hardware, but the excellent software package (for that era). Somehow Osborne got a great deal on WordStar and DBase II. Once that package deal ended the Os was a whole lot less interesting. I think this was the machine that blew air OUT of the case, which sucked dusty air in through the only open apertures-- the floppy disk slots. Made for very dusty 100k diskettes. |
Re: What the Ad? - Portability, 1980's Style
2008-12-12 10:52
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by
Anon
(unregistered)
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Yes, but be warned the the Imperial Standard Hotdog (ISD) weighs slightly more than the metric Hotdog (D). 1 ISD is approx. 1044 mD IIRC. Also, there is no metric equivalent to the "foot long". |
Re: What the Ad? - Portability, 1980's Style
2008-12-12 10:58
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by
Nodody
(unregistered)
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The real WTF is that this is also the TRS-80:
and so is this: 
and this: 
Couldn't they think of more than one name? |
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