Softwords Blog

Computer Technology 101

As we all know, technology never stops. Anyone who’s ever shopped for a computer has gone through this. What devices, specifications, programs, do you want on your computer? How much do you want to spend? How fast should it be? If you wait six months from now, that same computer will come do wn in price, but there will be one that’s faster with more memory and hard drive space for the same price you were willing to spend. When do you buy? How long will it be before your new computer becomes ‘outdated?’

“Outdated,” is a relative term. If you use your computer with your programs and you don’t constantly add new programs to your computer, you will never need anything more. It’s only when you start getting new versions of some programs or adding new programs that your hardware requirements might have to increase. And then, your computer may become “Outdated.”

This article is not meant to answer these questions, but to show you the next stage of technology and how quickly it’s moving. I’m sure we all know of people that are into gadgets. The line of toys we are referring to today are extensions of PDA’s (otherwise known as Personal Device Assistants). Today, the subject is pen-based computing.

The first company out of the gate seems to be IBM with their product ‘ThinkPad Transnote.’ IBM has described it as “the revolutionary portfolio notebook.” Similar in size to a conventional portfolio, it opens up pretty much like a leather-bound portfolio. The one side has the screen while the other side is a tablet that is used for writing. IBM describes it as a ‘digital notepad,’ that allows you to take notes, create sketches and fill out forms.

As you write, using IBM pens and pads, the information is written on the pad like a conventional ink pen on paper. What actually is happening is the reading of that information on a digital format thus allowing you to save it in JPEG, TIFF, or PDF file format thus saving exactly what you have written or drawn. How many physicians out there write quicker than they type?

Also, have you ever needed to draw a sketch or diagram on a sheet of paper that’s been inserted to the patients file? To draw or sketch something is not possible with a keyboard and that’s where the IBM ThinkPad Transnote comes in.

If your office is thinking about electronic record keeping, this device in conjunction with the A&L Document Console would fit the bill. The A&L Document Console allows you to scan existing paper documents, type new documents, and import text or image documents to patients files. However you choose to document your files, there are new ways of creating and storing them.

Due to its slim, compact design, it has some nice features such as a pivoting “FlipTouch” TFT touch screen. You can use your fingers instead of a mouse! Its current configuration is a Pentium 3, 600MHZ computer. It comes with 64MB of RAM memory (expandable to 320MB) and a 10GB hard drive. It’s capacities are about even compared to other notebooks and laptops. But because of its physically small stature, it does not have a 3.5” floppy nor a CD-ROM.

The idea behind these devices and its portable nature is to take it with you where you. Ideally this is used in a networking situation where you can ‘dock’ your computer and transfer the information to a network drive. Thus to transfer information, including software applications, you may have to load them through a shared CD-ROM or floppy drives. Of course, you can purchase external drives and connect them as needed. It would be no different from the first generation notebook and laptops. Those would have also required an external CD-ROM to load programs.

If you want to be the first one on your block to have one, there it is. However, Microsoft has licensed some OEM manufacturers to produce a similar product that is about the size of a clipboard. We’ll all wait anxiously for the next “toy” to appear on the scene.

Click here to view other Softwords publications

Note: All issues from the year 2000 are provided in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To view these files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat® Reader installed on your computer. You can download this free software from the Adobe Web site.