On Sun, Jun 4, 2023 at 1:16 PM Rick Bensene via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote:
> I'm not sure that you could fit a complete Model 33-ASR Teletype in the > passenger seat of > the Bug. I suppose if the Teletype was removed from its stand, it might be > able to sit on the > seat, and be powered by the same generator that runs the Straight-8. The > Straight-8 came with a 110-baud current-loop serial I/O interface, so it'd > just be a matter of cabling it up to the Teletype. > > It'd be really hard to operate the machine while driving, for sure. It'd > be far worse than messing with a smartphone while driving :-/. But, once > stopped somewhere pleasant, you could > actually develop programs using the punched tape reader/punch on the > 33ASR. It'd definitely be > an example of early "mobile computing". (Tongue firmly in cheek). Back in the late, great Silicon Valley circa late 1990s when we had the Ricochet packet-switched radio network (well before "smartphones") I had me a Psion Series 5 ARM-powered palmtop computer with a TCP/IP stack installed connected up to my 128Kbps Ricochet data modem and via telnet successfully logged into my server at home (connected to the internet, appropriately enough, through the early @Home cable internet with a fixed IP) and wrote an e-mail while hurtling westbound on I-580 over the Dublin Grade at about 75mph. I'm an experienced distracted driver, so it was perfectly safe. Those were the days. Sellam
