The invention was primitive at best, but all
the right parts were there: keyboard, screen, disk drive.
Captivated, and without a project of his own, Peter persuaded the
boys to include him in their project which, five minutes before
the show began, he renamed the Portable Personal Computer.
The project won first prize, and after the show an older
gentleman named Mr. Towers introduced himself. He told the boys
that they were on to something and that they should give him a
call sometime if they advanced the design of the box. Peter
shoved the man's business card in his pocket.
Peter became more and more intrigued with the concept of a
computer you could take with you wherever you went. Theirs came
close, but it required a wall socket to power it so the only
place you could really take it was from room to room. During the
summer after his high school graduation he reread all of his
science fiction books featuring robots and computers as their
main characters. In his mind's eye he fashioned a small computer
that could be his friend, like the ones in the books. He imagined
taking his computer with him for walks in the woods, telling the
computer about the things he saw, and what he thought. His
computer would keep these things in its memory, and the more it
learned about him and the world, the more loyal and dependable a
friend it would become.
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