New Sony PC with 5 to 7 Inch Screen

Len Lanetti

Len Lanetti

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
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1,199
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Malvern, PA
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Display name:
Lenny
Hello,

I saw an article recently in one of the computing magazines regarding a new, small Sony PC. This is a full blown PC with a very small footprint...IIRC the screen size was bigger than 5 inches but not larger than 7 inches. I don't know the name of the model, model number or other identifying information. I can't find anything on the unit on the Sony website. I also don't remember the name of the magazine but it may have been something along the lines of Mobile Computer or Mobile Computing.

I'm thinking this might be a grey market unit.

If anyone knows anything about this or a similar device please post a note.

Thanks,

Len
 
Nuttin' new. My second PC bought in 1982 had a 5" screen...well actually the viewable area was more like 3" diagonally.

http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html (I have the blue case version).

Early on I joined a geek session with a bunch of guys where we actually used only that screen on ours and after an hour or two we all had red, bleary eyes. In those days my eyes worked otherwise.

I still have two of those. The other is an Executive. I also have my Kaypro. I should see if I can still use that screen WITH my glasses.
 
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Len Lanetti said:
Ahhh!

The U750 is destined for the American market...found this webpage.

http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2389

Thanks,

Len
Click to expand...

The u750 was released in around 6 months ago and sold out very fast. They are no longer shipping to the us. To get the top of the line model you need to order the u71 which is the same as the 750 except it has a 40gig hard drive instead of a 20 gig. To purchase this unit you need to buy used on ebay or from this site which imports them from Japan http://www.dynamism.com/u71/main.shtml


You can also buy the u50 which is a slightly slower unit for about $500 less.

I'm also looking at these units for xm wx...
 
Mike,

I couldn't get an extension cord long enough to do what I want to do.

My first computer was a Commodore 64...I also had the souped up version that came in black...80 column card and an SSSD floppy...now we're cooking.

The first computer I used at work was the Compaq Portable. IBM PC compatable as they used to say...Intel 8088, I don't think it had a hard drive. Ran a real early version of Word Perfect and I just loved Lotus 123 version 1.1.

About a year or so after initially using PCs at the office I bought myself an AT&T PC "clone"...Intel 8086, 20 meg hard drive, 640 RAM, monchrome monitor...I think I paid $2,500 or so for that machine.

Len
 
Creeeeep! Old computers!

The first computer I had access to was when I was in college. An IBM 1620 that was the size of a desk, and had a whopping 8k of memory (if MY internal 8k is operating correctly :D ). Input/output was by selectric typewriter built into the console or by punch cards. The memory "cards" could be removed and had the network of wires with the ferroceramic doughnuts at the wire intersections. This machine was advanced because it had a hard disk drive. A stack of 6 or more platters whirling away clearly visible inside a plastic cover (none of this clean room stuff... you could open the drive and replace the stack of platters with another, adding infinite offline storage). So I graduated, and after a stint in the USN I joined a money center bank where I soon had to learn how to "program" punch card machines to get a job done. We did have access to a dial-up acoustic modem connection to a timeshare but that was it.

Through all of this I was a non-IT geek - pushing projects towards the machines because it was a better way to get the job done but mostly to learn how the machines worked. Finally joined a different company and communicated to the corporate office at 300 baud. Man those were the days! We had one of the first DECmates, a dedicated word processor that used 8" floppies.

At home, my first PC was an IBM PC with two floppies and 256K ram. Now that was living! 1983, I believe!

-Skip
 
Re: Creeeeep! Old computers!

Skip Miller said:
The first computer I had access to was when I was in college.

At home, my first PC was an IBM PC with two floppies and 256K ram. Now that was living! 1983, I believe!

-Skip
Click to expand...

For me, the first computer access was high school. We had dial-up access to some kind of - I think - HP box. Might have been PDP. (cobwebs) :dunno: Used an old Teletype ASR-series keyboard & acoustic coupler with the paper punch tape. It worked in Basic. The janitors did NOT like the paper punches :evilgrin:

In college, I managed to scarf a dialup account on the IBM 370 (later 3036) mainframe. It made doing the engineering programs a lot easier as I could setup, test, and run the programs on dialup, then have it automagically punch the card deck. We had to batch run w/cards and turn in both the print out and the cards. I still snicker at the poor engineering students that were stuck in front of the keypunch each night making changes to their deck after the programs bombed.... B)

First home computer was one I built myself. Based on a Z80, it used 4 boards that I got in kit form from Jade Computer, and a couple of 8" drives.
 
OK, another trip down memory lane...

The first computer I had access to was an IBM System 360, Model 67 at Washington State University. The first time share version of the System 360, I'm told. We could access it from a teletype in the basement of Pullman High School, or we could go over to the campus and punch cards (or use a teletype). I don't think these were much faster than 110 baud. The dial-up system was CRBE - Conversational Remote Batch Entry system. Not very reliable. When it was down it wasn't unusual for people to dial another teletype from theirs and play. One person was a user and the other the computer. We knew what the typical responses from the machine would be and could send them almost as fast as it did. CRBE RIP had a common usage.

Took an assembly language programming course in college using the Interdata Model 3. This was a desktop system with about 4K of core memory. Diode-transistor logic. A speed control on the front panel that could slow the clock to the point where you would see the next instruction and memory location in the front panel lights and decode it in your head before the machine could execute it. That, folks, is SLOW! :D I think the maximum speed was about 1 kHz, which isn't all that quick, either. The instructor kept complaining that he wished we had PDP-8s and PDP-11s for the class...

Working for the Navy I was trained on programming and maintaining the AN/UYK-20 minicomputer. What a tank! And, I got to take a 1 week class at DEC on PDP-11 assembly language. Guess what? That instructor at WSU was right. Much easier to program than those pieces of junk from Interdata.

Used a Cyber 176 with the NOS operating system for a while at Martin Marietta. Also DEC VAX 11/780 systems running VMS. When the IBM PC came out and people complained that DOS was "user hostile", I just laughed. Compared with IBM JCL or CDC NOS (on the Cyber 176) DOS is child's play.

My first computer at home was a Commodore 64. Serial number is in the 30,000 range, so you know it's an early one. Still in a box out in the garage somewhere. I'm sure it works, too.

We've gone through a few machines since. I can think of at least 6 that are heating the house simulaneously right now. Hey, got to keep looking for little green men with SETI@Home! :D
 
Re: Creeeeep! Old computers!

Skip Miller said:
At home, my first PC was an IBM PC with two floppies and 256K ram. Now that was living! 1983, I believe!
Click to expand...

A friend of mine had one of those too. I think his was 1981. Paid through the nose for it too...$6K or some such price tag right after they hit the market with 4 color CGA.

My first computer (bought new) is a circa 1984 Apple //e which to this day resides my living room and I still use it semi regularly. 64K RAM, extended 80 column card (which means a whopping 128K total) Get this: a COLOR monitor!!! Printer card, two 5.25" floppies, cassette ports, game port. The clincher of the day that drove everyone else in the dorm to pure jealous envy is the Phazor sound card that plays music and make weird sounds in, get this, stereo. The voice synthesizer is great fun. A couple years ago I picked up a $150 Super Serial Card in the original shrink wrapped box for $27 off ebay. I now have a CD with all my programs (no data loss risk) and I can do a full DOS 3.3 bootup through the serial card even with no initial formatted disk. The whole computer is in mint condition. Unless they tossed them without telling me (unlikely), the original boxes from Apple are still in my parents attic.

I think what I paid for the Apple as it sits on my desk right now is about what I spent on the 2 ghz Athlon/ 80gb DVD/CDRW 512mb that I'm typing on right now...that is if you include the cost of my digital camera and SD cards. Even then you're likely to have change left over. :eek:

A few months ago I was loading a SD card into my camera and I stopped in my tracks. I was holding 128Mb the size of a quarter in my hand and looking at my Apple with an unbelievable 128Kb. 1000 times the memory except I can loose it so easily just by dropping it in the grass. That kind of memory wasn't even a hallucination when I opened the Apple box on day one.

Visual Basic. Bah humbug. Pinko wannabe computer science geeks... :rolleyes: Basic is just that, basic, primitive as you can get... Real Programmers write in machine code straight to the bare metal. B)

Speaking of old computers, I have some stuff I need to do tonight on my 80286.

$60 RTS
 
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corjulo said:
Fly above 8000 feet and use the computer ,, kiss you hard-drive goodbye.
Click to expand...

Is there something different about the hard drive that sony uses? in my experience you are definatly safe at <12000 and many have reported that they do not experience problems until >15000.
 
corjulo said:
Fly above 8000 feet and use the computer ,, kiss you hard-drive goodbye.
Click to expand...

Theory of floating heads and ambient pressure aside, why? I've run mine over 12K lots of times with no ill effects even years and thousands of hours run time later. Ancient MFM to new IDE.

0 AGL here 6400+MSL. Just a couple stone throws away lots of people are >8000MSL. I seriously doubt they're all going without computers. Computer evolution is likely to put them in the dumper faster than failures do.
 
fgcason said:
Theory of floating heads and ambient pressure aside, why? I've run mine over 12K lots of times with no ill effects even years and thousands of hours run time later. Ancient MFM to new IDE.

0 AGL here 6400+MSL. Just a couple stone throws away lots of people are >8000MSL. I seriously doubt they're all going without computers. Computer evolution is likely to put them in the dumper faster than failures do.
Click to expand...

As you get to thinner air the flying height lowers and if the air was thin enough the heads will touch the recording surface. Even if there is enough air to keep the heads flying, the drive's resistance to shock induced damage is reduced. The disk surface is lubricated because the heads actually land when the drive stops turning and don't begin to fly until the spindle RPM gets to a significant fraction of the running RPM. Unfortunately that lube won't prevent damage if a head makes contact at running RPM. Typically a small head "crash" may leave enough of a "bump" that the flight of the head is disturbed each revolution and the result can be a delayed full blown failure.
 
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