Gentle HP 3000 list members,

Recently on another list, someone asked the question about the size of the
biggest screen available on a laptop.  I answered and then got whimsical.
  I thought I would share my answer with the members of this list.  I
apologize in advance to the few people who are members of both lists, and
to the members who are definitely not interested in this issue, and
especially to those who do not think it is funny.



The biggest screen I have seen advertised is 15.1 inches.  Most are running
between 12.1 to 14.1.

It is an interesting question though, because it leads one to ask, "What is
the biggest size screen you can have on a laptop?".  My guess would be that
we are about at the limit now, since these machines are supposed to be
notebooks, or laptops, i.e. portable.

Then again one must not be constrained in one's anticipation of future
technological development.  It would be interesting to see if there could
be such a thing as foldable screens, a bit like the butterfly keyboards IBM
had a few years ago.  In the future, when you open up the laptop, out would
unfurl this big ole screen 17, 19, 21 or even 24 inches across.  This would
not be desirable on a plane.  Even the current notebooks are too big to use
when you sit in cattle class.  Especially when the person in front of you
suddenly reclines their seat to the maximum, magically transforming your
12.1 inch screen into a 2.1 inch screen. As you peer onto the person's
scalp, you toy with the idea of testing the temperature of the coffee on
that head of not-recently-washed hair that has just appeared 4 inches in
front of your eyes.  As your eyes water from your personal disaster, you
are left to wonder if the sudden blizzard of dandruff is harmful to the
remnants of your laptop.

I guess in a few years, we will have little notebooks, about the size of a
credit card, that we put down on the desk, press a button and out,
cartoonishly, comes a 27 inch screen and a full size keyboard.

Then again, we may have computers were the monitor fits in a pair of
glasses, and equipped with voice-recognition software.  I can see it now,
walking down the street, or driving even, and Windows 2001 puts up a blue
screen of death.  You can't see anything and you walk into someone or a
wall, or crash your car into the truck in front of you.  You can then blame
Bill Gates for your misfortune: "I'm sorry Sir/Ma'am/Officer, it's Bill
Gates' fault.  He made me do it," which seems to be the favorite sport of
some people on this list.  <Very Big Grin>

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys P. Beauchemin
Hicomp America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863   (281) 288-7438  Fax:(281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com       www.hicomp.com