There's a scene in Inherit the Stars, written by James P. Hogan back before he went completely nuts, in which a couple of characters are riding a suborbital hypersonic rocket-liner in the fabulous Space Age, and one of them pulls out a gadget that I recall being described as very much like that.
The briefcase styling is also slightly reminiscent of the TI Silent 700, a small acoustic-coupler terminal that my dad carried around through most of the 1970s. But that shallow video display in the lid would have been a rather fantastic touch--the Silent 700 just used a thermal printer for output. And it used a phone rather than incorporating one!
Wow, I had a Silent 700 terminal when I was a kid. My dad got it at some sort of a local salvage shop, and I don't think he quite knew what it was. I think it may have needed some sort of minor repair, like a fuse, to work. It was 1980, and I was 8 years old, and I had used a computer and modem just a little bit (Compuserve, etc.) and some friend's houses. The 700 was pretty amazing tech for the day, and I used it to rack up hundreds of dollars in long distance bills calling the nearest BBSes and using electronic mail, which all happened to in the 617 area code (and we lived in Maine). I remember keeping the "scrolls" of the output of the 700 for years. I even used it to get onto the local university mainframe, illicitly, of course. The 700 was directly responsible for getting me in big trouble with my dad for the phone bills, and for my infatuation with the entire on-line scene and concept from an early age.
...I think one of the things that makes it appear quaint is that it's such a conglomeration of discrete parts rather than a single unit with a molded case--which is probably just a consequence of it being a custom-made movie prop rather than a mass-produced item.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-12-19 02:23 pm (UTC)Anybody remember the Osbourne portable computer?
ROTFLMAO
Date: 2007-12-19 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 02:32 am (UTC)The briefcase styling is also slightly reminiscent of the TI Silent 700, a small acoustic-coupler terminal that my dad carried around through most of the 1970s. But that shallow video display in the lid would have been a rather fantastic touch--the Silent 700 just used a thermal printer for output. And it used a phone rather than incorporating one!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 02:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 02:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-20 01:27 pm (UTC)