Ridiculous 20-inch Laptop from Dell

I can still remember those huge Compaq "Portable" computers of the 80's (Wikipedia reference HERE). These were the precursors of the laptops and notebooks of today. In fact, it was the first PC that I purchased when I began my first tech startup. I think it was a Thursday afternoon when I walked into the local ComputerLand and bought that computer along with a copy of WordPerfect (I actually still have the entire package complete with 5¼-inch floppy disk software!) and Lotus 1-2-3 Ver. 1.0B or something like that. I had the weekend to pull together an entire business plan and projections. Never mind that I also had to learn the software as well. Nonetheless, I managed and -- over the next 6 months - we managed to raise over $500,000 to start the company. The Compaq had a little green screen, a small hard drive and a floppy drive all built in with a detachable keyboard. It was encased in Lexan to make it virtually indestructible (and amazingly it was!). I remember the Compaq Portable was more lovingly known as the Compaq Luggable, weighing in at something over 25-30 pounds. If you ran too hard through the airport swinging this thing for balance, you were just as likely to shear off a kneecap (which I managed to do on more than one occasion). Nonetheless, it did serve me well and it kept working long after we'd launched the company.

So now Dell has decided to come back with bigger once again by introducing a stupid 2-inch (yes, you read that right -- 20-INCH!) laptop. I emphasize the name laptop because I personally can't believe you could call this monster a notebook. It's huge, it's heavy and it's probably quite useless as an easily-transportable computer. I suspect that it will have some limited appeal to those who need the huge display for presentations on the road when you want it all in one package. Other than that, I suppose it could be used for a mini-theater that several people could sit around and watch but... Anyway, this reviewer for c/net UK did a really humorous video to demonstrate the size of this thing and it's well worth watching for the laughs.