Lapping up the laptop
QUESTION What was the first laptop?
The Osborne 1, launched in 1981, was the first commercially successful personal computer.
Adam Osborne was a British-American computer pioneer who specialised in writing manuals. After selling his firm to McGraw-hill in 1979, he founded the Osborne Computer Corporation with the aim of creating a portable machine.
The Osborne 1 weighed a hefty 24½lb, cost £1,000, and had a 5 in screen, a modem port and two floppy disc drives. It came with word processing and spreadsheet software. Though powered by a wall plug, an external battery pack was added later, giving it a one-hour charge — effectively making it a laptop.
Sales were going well, but in 1982 Osborne announced two next-generation models that were not yet available to buy.
This resulted in a collapse in demand for the original model, and the company folded three years later.
The phenomenon of customers cancelling orders for a current model in favour of a future one has been dubbed the Osborne effect.
The 16-bit Dulmont Magnum, designed by David Irwin and John Blair of the Australian firm Dulmison, was the first true battery-powered laptop.
Launched in 1983, it had an internal battery and weighed only 11lb. As one user said: ‘It would sit on your lap without cutting off the blood supply to your feet.’
The first clamshell laptop was the Grid Compass in 1982. It introduced the familiar design in which the flat display folds shut against the keyboard. The computer was ordered by Nasa and used on the space shuttle. however, there wasn’t a battery supply and it was expensive, costing £5,000.
The first mass-produced laptop was the Toshiba T1100 in 1985. It did not have a hard drive and was run entirely by floppy disks. Weighing 9 lb, it was small and light enough to be carried in a backpack and could be powered by a battery.
It also introduced the now-standard sleep feature: it could be paused between sessions without having to be restarted.
QUESTION Did Winston Churchill actually say any of the humorous quotes attributed to him?
BOOKSHOPS are awash with spurious Winston Churchill quotation books. Nigel Rees, who devised and hosted the Radio 4 panel game Quote...Unquote, coined the term Churchillian Drift to describe the process whereby the originator of a quotation is elbowed to one side and replaced by someone more famous.
Many of the quotes attributed to the great man were not originated or even said by him. A good example is the description of Clement Attlee as ‘a sheep in sheep’s clothing’. In fact, Churchill held Attlee in the highest esteem.
It is thought the sheep phrase was spread by a rival within Attlee’s party who felt his post-war reforms did not go far enough.
Another misattributed jibe was: ‘Attlee is a modest man who has a great deal to be modest about.’
In 1920, drama critic heywood Broun had crafted a similar gibe about the theatre: ‘Generally speaking, American critics are apt to be over-modest about American plays. It must be admitted that there has been a good deal to be modest about in our theatre.’ Several versions of this phrase can be found before 1945.
Often repeated is an encounter between Churchill and Lady Astor. ‘If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee,’ says Nancy. The response: ‘If I were married to you, I’d drink it.’
This was probably said by Churchill’s friend F. e. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, who was famous for his razor wit.
On many occasions, Churchill adapted existing quotes. There is the exchange with Bessie Braddock Mp: ‘Winston, you are drunk and what’s more, you are disgustingly drunk.’ Churchill: ‘My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.’ Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames, felt this was out of character as he was usually courteous to women.
however, bodyguard Ronald Golding, who was present on the occasion, claims Churchill did say this when leaving the Commons after a punishing evening debate. he was sober, but extremely tired, which caused him to launch the vicious riposte.
he had borrowed the idea from W.C. Fields’s 1934 movie It’s A Gift. When told he is drunk, Fields’s character responds: ‘Yeah, and you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow and you’ll be crazy the rest of your life.’
Gareth Enwright, New Quay, Dyfed.
QUESTION Why was Australia involved in the Vietnam War?
AUSTRALIAN support for South Vietnam was in keeping with its foreign policy objective to stem the spread of communism in Asia.
It was a founding member of the 1955 South-east Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO), a military coalition to check communist expansion. Other members who sent troops to Vietnam included New Zealand, Thailand and the philippines.
In 1961 and 1962, Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam’s president, requested military assistance from SEATO.
Australia responded with 30 military advisers, dispatched as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, but known simply as The Team. They trained South Vietnamese forces in jungle warfare.
Between 1962 and the culmination of the war in 1975, 60,000 Australians, including ground troops, air force and navy personnel, served in Vietnam, with 521 killed and more than 3,000 wounded.
As in the U.S., there was significant opposition to the war, particularly after 1964 when conscription was introduced. This reached a peak in May 1970 when more than 200,000 people marched in a co-ordinated mass protest.
Tom Davies, Gerringong, New South Wales.
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