[SFDXA] Technology note: Hinged Lap top developer dies

[Kai Siwiak]

Bill Moggridge, the Brit who developed the hinged lap top concept died Sept 8:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bill-moggridge-20120911,0,1227981.story

Bill's GRiD laptop was the standard portable computer during the Shuttle amateur 
radio days.
If you worked them on packet or SSTV, you worked the GRiD lap top which was 
operating
a NASA-certified version of the DOS operating system.

 From his US patent 4,571,456:
"We claim:
1. A portable computer constructed to be contained within an outer case for 
transport and to be erectable to a viewing and operating configuration for use, 
said computer comprising
a base,
a display housing,
a top cover,
a rear cover,
hinge means for permitting swinging movement display housing about an axis of 
rotation adjacent the rear end of the display housing and from a closed and 
latched position of the display housing on the base to an erected position for 
viewing by an operator, and including stop means for holding the display housing 
at the desired angle for viewing,
the hinge means being located in a mid portion of the base and wherein the hinge 
means permit swinging movement of the display housing to an erected position in 
which the inner surface of the display housing is held in an upward and 
rearwardly inclined angle for viewing by an operator in front of the computer, and
including a keyboard in the portion of the base which is exposed by the movement 
of the display housing to the erected position."


73
Kai, KE4PT