Happy Birthday Osborne 1

On this day in 1981, Adam Osborne introduced Version 1 of his eponymous line of portable computers to a curious and hopeful audience. Version 1 soon became the first commercially successful computer that could be easily carried from place to place. The computer weighed almost 25 pounds and came with a five-inch screen,  an 8-bit processor and 64 kilobytes of memory, no battery - it plugged into a wall socket - and hefty bundle of software, and a price tag of over $5000 in today's economy. It was advertised as a perfect fit under your airplane seat.

There was plenty of competition already in development when the Osborne 1 went on the market. It was soon surpassed by the IBM PC (introduced in August 1981), the Kaypro II (August 1982) , and the Compaq Portable (first delivered in early 1983). Regardless, today we remember it as the first commercial success in what has become a huge world-wide industry.  

Here's how it was in the olden days

Wordstar! SBASIC2! dBASE2! SuperCalc! I wonder what Adam Osborne (1939-2003) would say today?

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

dunfield.classiccmp.org

Text:

osborne I, Wikipedia.org

Elections By The Numbers

Here is some excellent number crunching by Jim Geraghty involving key races in suburban counties earlier this month. There are some dramatic shifts in loyalties going on, perhaps the most significant in the last fifty years, and they will impact next year's midterm elections. As we move closer to the election, I expect to see similar work coming from Michael Barone, the dean of American political analysts, and Patrick Ruffini, a younger wired wizard on the rise among conservatives.

Singularity Summit

Here is a report on the Singularity Summit held in New York last weekend. Source: Instapundit.

One Thousand Trillion Operations Per Second

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) has posted an article about Kraken, a supercomputer at the University of Tennessee that has achieved the petascale - see the title for a definition.

Video Pages To Appear In Magazines

Imagine flipping through a magazine and coming to a page featuring video. The same technology we have enjoyed in audio greeting cards is behind this new development. You can see for yourself in the September 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly sold in the Los Angeles and New York markets. BBC News has the story here. My source: Instapundit.

Top Ten Endearing Habits Of A Geeky Spouse

This one was so on the mark that I am compelled to share it with OTR readers. The technical support habit, however, is the responsibility of my children. Source: Glenn Reynolds.

Power To The People

The New York Times Company has been caught in another fauxtography tangle, this time, involving a Portuguese freelancer and his "photos" of unfinished housing projects across the U.S. Powerline has some comment along with links to the story, original photos, and Adam Gurno, the very average Joe who exposed the fraud.

An Ancient Bible - Codex Sinaiticus - On Line

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript - the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity - is of supreme importance for the history of the book.

Here is a link to the site. Thanks to four institutions, each holding a large segment of the book, an electronic version of this important document is available for scholars and curiosity seekers around the world. Source: Blue Crab Boulevard.

What Will The Next Web Look Like?

Outside the Beltway gives is the word here. This is another video from TED, one of the most informative and thought-provoking sites I've found in my cyberlife.

Wheelchairs With Ego-Drive

The Toyota Motor Company not only builds some outstanding cars - we own three of them - but also researches how to drive other vehicles, for example, wheelchairs. The company announced it has developed a technology that moves wheelchairs by simply thinking about it. Go left, go right, go forward. Just imagine the future applications. You can read about the research here. Fast forward a century and you can imagine the ease with which we will control our environment. I suppose this will work quite well if all the users are wired correctly, but I can't expect perfection. The Dr. Morbiuses of that world could make it most exciting.

Iran Unrest Grows: World Watches Live

Hot Air has a full roundup of today's events in Iran here. A few days ago, I commented about the information singularity. It would appear the post-election turmoil in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in the country may be an illustration of this phenomenon. As the regime crushes dissent and slaughters its own people, sounds and images from hundreds of cell phone flash around the world at the speed of light. News reports and commentary cannot be written fast enough to address the moment. In its place, there is a stream of observations captured by the participants. As of 11:00PM, EDT, almost 1000 hits addressing the protests are available on YouTube.

Millions 0f viewers form their own conclusions from the raw input. This is the face of personal empowerment. The Western ancients would be pleased.

UPDATE: The state-run media operating in the U.S. cannot get away with falsehoods in light of the new empowerment. Bruce Kessler, blogging at Maggie's Farm, exposed The New York Times on its rigging of a nationalized health care poll appearing in today's edition. Gateway Pundit has the story here. Times readers may be liberal, but they're not stupid. Even they will tire of this arrogance and deception.

Political Singularity

Here are some interesting thoughts on what happens to a society when news of events and their interpretations reach the audience almost simultaneously. The singularity concept fascinates me. I hope to be around to see it happen with artificial intelligence.

Putting it in Perspective

This is why I enjoy sitting in the woods and doing absolutely nothing.