NTBOOK.THD --- Copyright 1988 by Phil Wheeler An original compilation of Compuserve Model 100 Forum messages for use by Forum members only. Have you ever been bugged by those who refer to the Model 100 as a "notebook", rather than the highly-respected(?) appellation "laptop"? Did you ever wonder why the Model 100 has been referred to as a "MEWS"? No?? Ah, come on -- get with the program, and read on! Message range: 173150 to 173476 Dates: 8/19/88 to 8/25/88 Sb: #Notebook Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: All Wonder if anyone else here is offended by the semantic downgrading of the M100 family to "notebook" status? If recent trends continue, it appears, the smaller MS-DOS portables will win the exclusive right to call themselves "laptop computers" -- while the machines that started it all get branded with a name sounding like something out of a 4th-grader's knapsack. I don't like it. If the Tosh's and the Sharpy's and the NECEL's wanna call themselves laptops, fine. They're MS-DOS laptops, or they're PC-compatible laptops, or whatever. Just don't tell people who've been using M100, or 102, or 200, or Kyo, or Oly, or NECy, _laptops_ for years ... that their machines are now "notebooks." Maybe I'm jousting at windmills. Maybe nobody else cares. Maybe everybody else *likes* the new label we're being pinned with. Let's hear about it... Takin' notes, Van Fm: Ron De Iso 72300,3645 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 "Sticks and stones may break our bones"......but Model 100's are FOREVER! Non carborundum bastardi est...or something to that effect. Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 Methinks thou dost protest too much! I think the title "Notebook" pre-dates the MS-DOS laptops -- and so long as the words "computer follows it (as in "notebook computer"), what's the big deal? And (I must hasten to add), the "other" laptops are in a totally differnt class -- better for some applications, worse for others (and are basically] mini-desktops). The "notebooks" designate a different animal, both in function and in design philosophy. Fm: bob scott 73125,1437 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 Van: What cracks _me_ up is that only a few "laptops" can be used on one's lap. Maybe they should be "readily transportable battery powered MS-DOS compatible table top" computers...has a certian ring to it, eh? Bob Fm: Stan Wong 70346,1267 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 Notebook computer? Well, I guess it depends on your perspective. The M100, as orginally equipped, is really just a computerized notebook. You can't do too much more with it than some light-duty note taking and wordsmithing. With the small screen serious writing is difficult at best. With the 300 baud modem, "serious" telecommunicating is difficult. The M100 after-market, however, has transformed the M100 into a serious machine worthy of the "laptop" appelation. Members of the CIS M100SIG have contributed many programs which make the machine truly useful. For the first year that I had my M100 I didn't do much more than take notes and do some light duty telecommunicating with a VAX computer. After I adding a 96K ram bank, commercial roms and a 8-rompack I have a machine that rivals, and often exceeds, the capabilities of my IBM PC in certain areas. So, as far as Tandy is concerned, it's a notebook computer, because that's what they sell. Portable 100, however, should know better because they promote advanced usage of the machine(s). Anyway, the distinction is actually useful. Do YOU want to be lumped in with the MS-DOS, three-piece suit, laptop crowd? In an airport or airplane DOS laptops are commonplace, but an M100... Fm: Mark Lutton 73106,1627 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 "Notebooks"? I thought they were "MEWS"! Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Mark Lutton 73106,1627 Right! That MEWS name (Micro Executive Workstation) was sometyhing else. Still looking for a "micro executive" at last reports; Any at Tandy Tower? Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: Stan Wong 70346,1267 Points well taken -- but I've gotta say there are several hundred, if not se veral thousand, journalists (like me) who do a lot of "serious" writing on the M100. And when the deadline rolls around, we've been known to do some pretty " serious" telecommunicating, too. All in all, though, I get your point; and, no I don't want to be lumped in w ith that crowd of MS-DOS laptop users whose battery packs have just run down. Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: Mark Lutton 73106,1627 Only when they hear the sound of the can-opener in the kitchen. Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Glad you explained what a MEWS is. It took a real Micro Executive to dream that up. And he was probably Working on his third martini. BTW, who can I complain to about your earlier message (the one that said I p rotest too much)?? Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 YOur last message to Stan(?) re journalists reaally makes the point. The Model 100 is about the best portable writing and telecomuting machine around. And the battery situation is the MAIN factor in my view. the Toshiba T1000 I use is just as convenient, not much heavier (especially if you need a disk drive around) and MUCH more powerful. I boot mine up and in 8 seconds have Wordstar, Lucid-3D (fantastic product, by the way), PCOutline, Sidekick and lots of utilities at hand -- most as pop-ups. But I am always conscious of battery state. Now -- I use all the above software EVERY day, most anywhere I am. ON the otherhand, if I am on the road, and know I just will be writing and Telecoming (have time for little else on most trips), I take the Model 100 and 1-2 spare sets of batteries -- and then I don't care where the pwoer plugs are. That is what will make the 100 a permanent necessity to me. And most folks really don't need the peortable power the Toshiba T1000 gives me. Fm: Bob Getsla 72536,213 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 I agree! I bought my M100 when those other machines weren't even a pencil mark on a drawing board. If my memory is correct, didn't the M100 prove that a thing that rests on your knees and doesn't need a power cord to do something useful was practical? I find I can't live without mine. I have used it to predict when the sun will wipe out a communications satellite (called a solar transit) each spring and fall since I got the M100. I have also used it as my keyboard under the trees many times. Since when do the MS-DOS things get to be called laptops, anyway? Most of them look more like lunchboxes with tilt down sides (Zenith) or large flip tops (IBM). None of them look like they would actually sit on my lap (and stay there!) Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 I'll bet that somewhere in the government, ensconsed in some tiny office, all but forgotten, sits a little man who is in charge of making up ridiculous acronyms for all branches of the government, the military (boy, he works overtime for THEM), academia, and both foreign and domestic corporate interests. About the only place he doesn't have his fingers, is in religion. (Although if you go back far enough, someone from his office must have come up with "Tut" for Tutankamen.) Anyway... when the last fellow who had that office retired, as most governement employees do, he sought employment in the private sector; and guess where he's working now? We have ample evidence that he's working for Tandy Corp, in the "Ivory Towers", making up such wonders as "Micro Electronic Work Station". (M.E.W.S. or MEWS for short) And now you know more than you ever really wanted to know.... (grin) Fm: Stan Wong 70346,1267 To: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 Your point about journalists is well taken, however, I had something a bit different in mind when I said "serious." What I meant was "heavy-duty." For telecommunicating, like serious CISers, 300 baud can be an exercise in patience (that's no problem for me , it's a cultural trait). The small memory poses a problem unless some sort of DOS is used to read/write to disk. I typically capture ALL sig messages to a file then edit out the stuff I'm not interested in. Hard to do in 32K. I'm a Wordstar user (finally, out of the closet!). I use the M100 to capture words and thoughts. Once I transfer it to my desktop machine and bless it with formatting codes it is not practical to take it back to the M100 for further editting. For large documents (proposals and technical reports for the government -you know, they rate how good a job you did by how much the paperwork weighs) I haven't found the M100 up to the whole job. Fm: Wilson Van Alst 76576,2735 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Well, the 'journalist' message makes _a_ point, but it doesn't make _the_ point -- at least not the one that I was trying to make at the start of this thread. I am not arguing about which computer is "better" than another, or whose dog barks louder, or whose dad my dad can whup. I am simply saying I dislike Madison Avenue style attempts to create an artificial 'laptop vs. notebook' distinction, with the M100 family -- as I see it -- suffering a semantic demotion. No sense being too long-winded about it though, 'cause the marketing mavens don't tend to be very good listeners. I just thought I'd blow off some steam and see if others here felt the same way.