Word: pentium
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Sure, it was fun holding a laptop at arm's length and letting go, watching as the Intel Pentium-powered bugger hit the ground with a solid thwack! But I actually got more pleasure just from splashing my Diet Coke onto the keyboard. There was something oddly riveting about seeing the caramel-colored liquid whoosh over the letters of the alphabet and settle in between the keys...
...problem is that ruggedized laptops are often heavy--and pricey. That Rough Rider III runs $5,000. The good news is that manufacturers have begun courting the consumer market. Panasonic, the field leader, now offers so-called semi-ruggeds. The Toughbook 72, introduced last fall with a Pentium III 700-MHz processor, is water-resistant, can survive a 1-ft. drop onto concrete and sells for $2,700. The Toughbook 37 Ultra-Slim--just 1 in. thick and 4.4 lbs.--is around $2,000. Ruggednotebooks' XE-620 runs about $3,000. Other companies in the space: Melard, Itronix and Dolch...
...look like an interstellar villain because I'm test-driving the Mobile Assistant IV, a "wearable computer" produced by Xybernaut, a small Fairfax company. It's hard to believe, but the doodads attached to my head and waist add up to a full-fledged PC, with 233-MHz Pentium chip, 32-MB memory and upwards of 3 GB storage. The keyboard on my wrist has 60 keys, and there is a trackball built into the central processor. Suspended in front of my left eye is a full-color vga screen scarcely larger than a postage stamp but so close...
...upset. Apoplectic, even. He says I've forgotten to update his processor. (Which isn't the case. The Pentium 34 isn't due out for another couple of weeks.) This furthers my suspicion...
...recycled PC, on the other hand, is literally a gold mine. Pentium and other processors have golden tips. A computer's main circuit board, fashioned from copper and fiber glass, is studded with silver and gold connectors. A steel frame keeps the unit sturdy, and aluminum or copper heat sinks prevent the cpu from overheating. The outer plastic case can be recycled to make everything from pothole filler to pencil holders. Even the cords dangling from the back have rich copper wiring that can be reincarnated as pipes, pans or furniture...