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\twelvepointconcreteroman
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\headline={\hfill\twelvepointsanserif31 July 92}
\footline={\hfill\twelvepointsanserif\folio\hfill}


Dick --

\dropcap{I} don't know if you realize what it is you got for me\dots{}
OK, from our conversations, I was expecting a rather nice ``portable
text editing machine'', some 286 jobbie like we talked about\dots{}

But damn! A 20MHz 386?! I moved nearly half my working tools to the
damn thing. It is completely great. It's fast (though I run it at
``low speed'', 10MHz, since text-editing is mainly waiting for the
fool at the keyboard to type). I'll describe the machine below in more
detail.

Of course I wasted the whole day installing DOS 5 (the non-ROM DOS is
definitely the way to go), 4DOS, tools, and finally, \TeX, which is
about 8 megs of stuff. I had to tweak some of my super-VGA to VGA, and
fiddle a few things so that they aren't green on blue (or whatever)
which of course show up as grey \#7 on grey \#8 -- not real good.

BTW, do you want the receipt and VISA paperwork? I should mail it to
you. 

I almost feel guilty having consumed your money. Rest assured the
thing won't go to waste\dots{} I'm not much of a hardware monger, I
tend to use things 'til they're way past their life. I'll keep you
informed as to what (ab)uses it comes to.


\bigskip
\dropcap{T}he thing is the exact same size as the Tandy 200, maybe
3/8" thicker. Of course twice the weight, though if you consider that
I had to take an external USR 2400, cables, power cubes, I start to
wonder if the equation is that simple. 

The screen is fine. The viewing angle ain't bad (I'm kinda fussy). It
also tilts back enough -- a big drawback of the Tandy was it didn't
fold back enough for people over 5'8" tall! I found I got great
results if I set things to be BRIGHT WHITE on BLACK -- absolute
maximum contrast. ``Highlight'' is then one or two greyscale lighter,
which works fine. (I have 4DOS's {\tt DIR} colors set -- if you don't
use it you oughta -- files that have been modified ie.~Archive bit
show up as BRIGHT WHITE on my big ugly 386, and as slightly dimmed on
the laptop -- graphical indication of what's changed and needs backing
up.)

The keyboard is probably the weakest thing, though quite safely in the
``decent'' category. The problem is of course width. The TAB, ESCAPE
and \backslash{} keys are 1/2 the width of a regular letter key, which
is a drag. CTL, ALT, SHIFT etc are rearranged from my ``battleship''
100,000 key job, but that's hardly a problem. The feel and other
characteristics are completely fine. A pretty good compromise. I'm
sure a lot of these laptops are downright awful.

The modem is great. It has some odd thing about being powered on and
off and connected to COM1 or COM2, there's this weird program that
takes over 5 seconds to switch the above, and there's no real
indication that anything really happens. It also comes with ``COMIT'',
a rather blah comm.~program. I've gotten it before when I bought 
el-cheapo modems to put into the free PCs I build out of spare junk
and give away. 

Whatever. But FidoTerm works fine on it. I just use X00 as always. It
has the usual unintelligible noise maker, I hate to call these things
``loud speakers''. Of course I had to take the cover off and look. Its
about the size of 6 cigarettes. 

It has a powerup password scheme -- which I never thought of, and is
completely great. It's in the boot ROM. The power down stuff seems OK.
They claim 2 hours on the battery; portable is more important than
batteries anyhoo. Luckily, the power adapter is 12V so I can make a
cable for auto use, etc. There is an inactivity-based ``very low
power'' mode. I'll be watching battery life as I use it.

Amusing thing in the manual. In the section describing controls,
connectors, etc. On the left edge is the usual ``expansion''
connector. The manual says ``This connector is reserved for further
enhancements. You cannot use it.'' Why not?!

There's a 2nd serial port, bus-mouse port, LPT, VGA monitor adapter on
the back. Haven't tried those yet. I will ASAP to check for early
mortalities.

Norton indices: CPU 7.7 slow, 15.7 fast. HD 5.8 slow, 6.6 fast.
Overall: 12.3 slow, 12.5 fast. That last is a little odd; apparently
Overall relies a lot on disk speed. Tells you something about usable
performance. You can tell the difference only during things like LHARC
and my admittedly-excessive 992 bit RSA encryption, both of which are
massively compute bound. 

Umm, I think performance is adequately greater than the Tandy 200
(which I routinely overtyped\dots{})

Memory -- the usual 640K plus 384K ``hi memory'', set up as HI DOS and
the rest EMS for 4DOS swapping. 

Microsoft makes a laptop trackball; it sticks onto the side of the
computer; I'll eventually get one. I called Uxbridge, 4MB memory costs
\$220. I will get this as soon as I can afford it. Will ask about a
second battery. With those this will be a perfect all-around machine.
I can't think of anything else I'd want to add. 

\bigskip
\dropcap{A}nd I realized it also lets me do something I'd dreamed of
on my last road trip, but had set aside for ``maybe someday'' -- the
ability to run my AUTOMAP program whilst driving. Very Cool. (I still
haven't turned my notes on my road trip last July (when I visited
you) into a new LPG book revision. When I do I'll of course send you a
copy.)

\bigskip{A}s if I wasn't busy enough, I've volunteered to work on next
year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. The Advisory
Committee, to look at peoples papers and suchlike and advise yea/nay
on what panels, speakers etc.~should be given a go. Also the
Scholarship and Outreach Committee, to make sure it's not just a bunch
of liberal suits talking about nerd things. (OK so I am going to
massively push to get our local weirdo culture to take part, but also
my ``NRA type'' friends and other non-corporate people that have
unpopular views and use computers. It's not like it's a big
convention of liberals; it is about half law-enforcement types.)

I am going to retire Fido/FidoNet. I will actually do it ``your way'',
ie.~simply pack it away. I will tell people ``it's final'' so that I
don't have people trying to talk me into reviving it.

Keep this secret -- I am thinking of passing FidoNews on to someone I
haven't even asked yet -- Lisa Gronke. She's a friend of Randy Bush's
(don't hold that against her!) She has a good attitude, and is not a
meddler. She has been doing hard work in FidoNet and is not a whiner
or a power monger. She is friend of the K12 net people in Portland,
and helps out librarian types on the net, I believe. She's also got
usenet connections, and so isn't too myopic about FidoNet.

I am not in a hurry to ``dump'' FidoNews. I still enjoy it, but I'm
tired of the daily traffic that it generates. I'll only pass it on if
I find someone close to perfect, like Lisa. Otherwise I'll simply keep
doing it indefinitely. I suppose it could take a long time\dots

\bigskip
\dropcap{A}bout Fido docs -- I'm not sure what to do. It is a huge
project that will only cost me money. I am still interested in it
though. The work I've done is not lost or wasted. I'll probably do it
in \TeX{} like I started, and make it half-legal size. Not sure abuot
bindery. They will cost about \$12 each to produce (current one cost
\$9 each!), and there's a limited market. We'll see. I am interested
in making a book that size though in \TeX, and the Fido Book is as
good as any.

\bigskip
\dropcap{W}ell, I'm gonna wrap this up for now. I'll stay in touch and
keep you informed. I'll see if I can put you on the CFP93 mailing
list. You should pass it on to Ken, maybe some K12 people could
actually attend. It's in March 1993, some San Fran Airport hotel.
Details to follow\dots

\bigskip

Thanks once again for the marvelous gift.

\bye
