There are a number of reasons why a PowerBook
is the perfect computer for writers. Some of the advantages are
obvious. The portability lets you take it to places where your
creative juices can flow, like the trendy coffee house with the
hotties behind the counter or the only quiet spot in a house full of
kids - that would be up on the roof, next to the chimney. (Thank
goodness for AirPort!)
The small, intimate size is an advantage too. A 500
MHz Power Mac G4 with a couple of 19" monitors is just the thing
for page layout or Photoshop, but it's a little intimidating and
writer's-block-inducing for banging out columns or letters - kind of
like composing haiku on the side of a building with spray paint.
Then there's the coolness factor. What PowerBook owner doesn't
like to whip his or her unit out in a public place and start pounding
away on it? People cast envious glances at our equipment, even
if it's only a 540 with a mere 9-1/2
inch screen. If it's a well endowed Pismo,
look out! We won't even consider the Unobtanium
G4 'book!
Those are all great reasons to own a PB, and any one of them
should be enough to compel you to whip out your plastic.
But there is another advantage that's rarely spoken of, and it's
not given the credit it deserves. I'm talking about how well a 'book
accommodates those among us who are, shall we say, keyboard
challenged. We're the ones who took typing in our sophomore year
because we heard there were girls in the class, and then managed to
spend an entire semester not only not learning how to type,
but also getting nowhere with the girls. Then, by faithfully applying
that same kind of discipline after high school, we managed to use up
all of the free synapses in our brains on other manual skills, so
that now there is absolutely no chance of our ever internalizing the
dexterity needed to navigate a keyboard.
Those of us in this elite cadre practice what is known as "hunt 'n
peck" typing, and we're proud to be called "hunt 'n peckers." But
along with our glacially slow WPM (words per minute), we also suffer
from an occupational disorder known as "hunt 'n pecker head," which
is brought on by constantly having to look up at the screen and down
at the keyboard. The primary symptom of this dreaded condition is a
pain that begins at the base of the neck and eventually works its way
around your entire head until your eyebrows hurt.
If this sounds familiar, help is on the way. Just plop a PowerBook
onto your lap, prop your chin up on a Coke can, and get ready for
hunt 'n peck nirvana. The screen and keyboard are both right there in
your field of view, needing only a slight flick of the eyeballs to
take in. Now you can work for hours without your neck giving out and
your head rolling onto your left shoulder. You may even be able to
keep at it long enough to get a case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, just
like a real typist.
If your lack of typing skill has always been a pain in the neck,
you now have all the reasons you need to get a PowerBook.
My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28.
The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04.
PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
Mac of the Day: Blue & White Power Mac G3, Jan. 1999 - The most colorful Power Mac introduced an innovative 'drawbridge' enclosure.
List of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
July 6 in LEM history: 00: 3 user accelerators - 01: SCSI and FireWire Disk Mode - Stick with the Mac - Computers for college - 05: Optimizing OS X performance - Return of the bumper snicker - 06: Can consumer MacBook replace 2 PowerBooks and a ThinkPad? - Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows PC - Run Windows apps without Windows
The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03.
Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
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even
if it's only a 
