In article , jo4hn
wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:
[snip] span are more like 1000's fold.

I'm typing this on a 2-year old laptop. 3/4 of a gig ram, 40 gig hard
drive, 1 GHz processor, 1024 x 768 x 24-bit color display, wireless
ethernet, DVD-reader (CD-burner). It cost me about $1800 and weighs under
5 lbs. 30 years ago, some of those specs could be met for millions of
dollars, some couldn't be met for any money. The machine that could come
closest would fill a room bigger than my house and I couldn't afford the
electric bill to keep the lights blinking.

But, you know what sucks about my laptop? The battery. It's probably 25%
of the weight of the machine, and can't keep it running more than about a
half hour any more.

I have a laptop that is about three years old. Battery is fine. Why is
that you say? I usually use it in a house that has electric outlets.
I plug the damn thing into to the house current. I guess you use it
in places where there is no such thing?

Not any more I don't :-(