Halo

Since the observer is generally closer to the light source, crystal orientation matters less in the formation of these pillars. However, most modern mid-range laptops have integrated WiFi, so only require a wireless router to connect to the internet; or a wireless hotspot. Pillars forming from ground-based light sources may appear much taller than those associated with the sun or moon. The growth of Metropolitan area networks may render a constant connection possible in the future. Light pillars can also form around the moon, and around street lights or other bright lights. This is possible via Wi-Fi or related technologies, but most laptops do not maintain a constant connection to the Internet. The crystals tend to orient themselves near-horizontally as they fall or float through the air, and the width and visibility of a sun pillar depends on crystal alignment. This is a myth perpetuated by many commercials, where a person is shown using the company's website from a laptop with no wires plugged into it.

Plate crystals generally cause pillars only when the sun is within 6 degrees of the horizon, or below it; column crystals can cause a pillar when the sun is as high as 20 degrees above the horizon. Some computer novices assume that laptops are constantly connected to the Internet, even (for example) while located on moving vehicles. Hexagonal plate- and column-shaped ice crystals cause the phenomenon. The word laptop is often spelled incorrectly as "labtop," "lab top," or "lap top.". A sun pillar appears most often as a vertical pillar or column of light rising from the sun near sunset or sunrise, though it can appear below the sun, particularly if the observer is at a high elevation or altitude. It is sometimes preferable to use a laptop on a desk. When the sun dog phenomenon is seen around the Moon rather than the Sun, it is called a mock moon, moon dog, or by the proper name paraselene. Despite their name, using a laptop on one's lap can be both unpleasant (due to heat from the computer, particularly from its CPU) and possibly even dangerous to the laptop, as it may overheat.

The crystals are hexagonal cylinders, and they have to be oriented vertically. This still existent difference in performance continues to be minimized. The orientation of the ice crystals involved in this process is important. While desktops continue to outperform notebooks at the high end, both types of systems generally offer sufficient performance for the mainstream. Sun dogs are uncommon and typically appear only when a low sun shines through loose cirrus clouds, e.g., in a milky-white winter afternoon sky. These new technologies take time to tranfer over to the laptop market because of its smaller package. Sun dogs, also known as parhelia (single parhelion), appear as near-horizontal colored spots or bars on both sides of the sun, at nearly a 22 degree angle. Desktops have outperformed mobile computers because new technologies expend more heat.

This sign is supposed to have prompted him to become a Christian. Laptop performance has been inferior to desktops for the same price. Emperor Constantine I of the Roman Empire is said to have seen such a halo in 313 near Trier. There is not a standard for A4-size laptops. Halos can also have unusual shapes, for example a cross. Outright replacement of faulty parts can include the display screen, drives, daughterboards, modem, storage devices and other components, but repair costs can be high, even when feasible (low upgradability). Atmospheric phenomena such as halos were used as an empirical means of weather forecasting before meteorology was developed. Because nearly all functions are integrated into the proprietary-design mainboard theoretically to save space and power, laptops are difficult to repair and upgrade.

The crystals behave like jewels, refracting and reflecting sunlight between their faces, sending shafts of light in particular directions. Many laptops also include a MiniPCI slot inside, however it is usually not intended to be utilized by the end user. Sometimes in very cold weather optical halos are formed by crystals close to ground level, called diamond dust. Often the CPU can also be replaced, and sometimes video card modules are upgradable too. A more Christian interpretation, less dualistic in its assumptions, is that the halo represents the light of divine grace suffusing the soul, which is perfectly united and in harmony with the physical body. Upgradability is severely limited: typically only the RAM and hard drive can be upgraded. Some think the halo symbolizes the saint's consciousness as 'radiating' beyond the physical body, and that it serves as a pictorial reminder to the saint's devotees of the saint's transcendence of the physical body. Performance is usually lower than that of a comparable desktop because of the compromises necessary to keep weight and power consumption low.

Tibetan Buddhism uses halos extensively in the Thangka paintings of Buddhist saints such as Milarepa and Padmasambhava. Laptops generally cost more than a desktop computer of similar specification. In Pure Land Buddhism the halo is used in depicting the image of Amida Buddha. Some parts for a modern laptop have no corresponding part in a desktop computer:. In Zen Buddhism, ink brush paintings also commonly use the halo in depictions of saints such as Bodhidharma. Many parts for a laptop computer are smaller, lighter, or otherwise adapted from the corresponding part in a desktop computer:. Halos are found in Buddhist sculpture and painting from the Gandharan period, influenced by Greek artists brought to India with the army of Alexander the Great. The pricing goal is to start at $100 and then steadily decrease.

The halo has been widely used in Buddhist iconography as well since at least the 1st century AD. Ad-hoc wireless mesh networking may be used to allow many machines Internet access from one connection. This form of halo is still used in many popular depictions of angels and of blessed souls in heaven. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. During the Renaissance, when rigorous perspective came to be considered essential, the halo was changed from an aura surrounding the head to a golden ring that appeared in perspective, mysteriously floating above the heads of the saints. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. The term "glory" may also refer to a glowing effusion —used in art to cover up depictions of genitalia. The aim is to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education.

This whole-body image of radiance is sometimes called the 'aureole', a lemon-drop-shaped item that appears to radiate from the entire body of the saints' being. In 2005, faculty members from the MIT Media Lab including Nicholas Negroponte introduced the $100 laptop as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. Of the many stories about saints, some reports claimed that a saint was literally glowing. Among them were:. Some faithful believe the halo to be equivalent to the Eastern religion aura, and as with the latter, believe that halos are visible to those with perception. Several developments specific to laptops were quickly implemented in their design, improving their usability and performance compared to desktop computers. In popular piety, this practice has led to the literal belief that saints' have visible halos around their heads, rather than it be understood as a metaphorical representation. As technology improved during the 1990s, the usefulness and popularity of laptops increased while prices went down.

Especially noteworthy in this respect is Michelangelo Buonarroti's statue of Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli. Later PowerBooks introduced the first 256-color displays, first true touchpad, and first built-in Ethernet networking. This description was taken literally by Medieval and Renaissance artists, who depicted Moses with small horns growing from his forehead. The following year, IBM released its Thinkpad series, offering similar miniaturization. Jerome avoided this by translating the phrase into Latin as "cornuta esset facies sua" (his face was horned). The Apple PowerBook series, introduced in 1991, heralded many changes that are now standard on laptops, including ergonomic improvements such as the placement of the keyboard at the back of the machine, thus creating a palm rest, and the inclusion of a built-in pointing device (a trackball). However, this would have implied a halo, which was reserved for Christian-era saints. In the absence of a true Apple laptop, several compatible machines such as the Outbound Laptop were available for Mac users; however, for copyright reasons, the user had to supply a set of Mac ROMs, which usually meant having to buy a new or used Macintosh as well.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the tablets of the law, he is said in the Hebrew text (Exodus 34,29) to have a glowing or radiant face. Another "luggable," rather than laptop, the Mac Portable was praised for its clear active matrix display and long battery life, but was a poor seller due to its bulk. The use of halos to designate Christian saints presented a problem in the translation of the Hebrew Bible. The first Apple Computer machine designed to be used on the go was the 1989 Macintosh Portable (although an LCD screen had been an option for the transportable Apple IIc in 1984). Square halos are used to depict unusually saintly living personages. Truly the size of a notebook, they had hard drives and standard-resolution screens. Triangular halos are used for representations of the Trinity. The first notebook computers with standard drives were the Compaq LTE series, introduced toward the end of that year.

A cross within a halo is used to represent Jesus. The NEC Ultralite, released in mid-1989, was perhaps the first notebook computer, weighing just over 2 kg; in lieu of a floppy or hard drive, it contained a 2-megabyte RAM drive, but this reduced its utility as well as its size. people considered as spiritually gifted. By the end of the 1980s, laptop computers were becoming popular among business people. Round halos are typically used to signify saints —ie. Although it anticipated the future miniaturization of the portable computer, as a ROM-based machine with a small display it can — like the TRS-80 Model 100 — also be seen as a foreruner of the PDA. It first appeared culture in the art of ancient Greece and Rome, and was incorporated into Christian art sometime in the 4th century. About the size of an A4 sheet of paper, it ran on standard batteries, and contained basic spreadsheet, word processing, and communications programs.

The halo represents an aura or glow of sanctity which was most prominent around the head and was conventionally drawn as a circle. Another notable computer was the Cambridge Z88, designed by Clive Sinclair, introduced in 1988. The halo has become an object of religious iconography in both Christian and Buddhist traditions. These also introduced the now-standard "resume" feature to DOS-based machines; the computer could be paused between sessions, without having to be restarted each time. . Although limited floppy-based DOS machines (the operating system was stored in ROM), the Toshiba machines were small and light enough to be carried in a backpack, and could be run off lead-acid batteries. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion, similarly to the rainbow. Among the first commercial IBM-compatible laptops were the IBM PC Convertible, introduced 1986, and the Toshiba T1000 and T1200, introduced 1987.

The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Initial specs included 8 kb of RAM (expandable to 24 kb) and a 3 MHz processor. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5-10 km, or 3-6 miles) in the upper troposphere. It weighed less than 2 kg (4 lb) with dimensions of 30 x 21.5 x 4.5 cm (12 x 8.5 x 1.75 inches). Halos, also known as icebows, are also optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. Due to its portability, good battery life (and ease of replacement), reliability (it had no moving parts), and low price (as little as US $300), the model was highly regarded, becoming a favorite among journalists. In Christian sacred art (Eastern and Western churches), holy persons (saints) are depicted with a halo, a golden, yellow or white circular glow, around the head. With its internal modem, it was a highly portable communications terminal.

They are often used in religious works to depict holy or sacred figures. The computer was not a clamshell, but provided a tiltable 8×40-character LCD screen above a full-travel keyboard. A halo (also known as a nimbus or Gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds an object. The Tandy's internal programs, including a BASIC interpreter, a text editor, and a terminal program, were supplied by Microsoft, and are thought to have been written in part by Bill Gates himself. The machines ran on standard AA batteries. Although it was at first a slow seller in Japan, it was quickly licensed by Tandy Corporation, Olivetti, and NEC, who saw its potential and marketed it as the Olivetti M-10, NEC PC-8201, and [1] Radio Shack TRS-80_Model_100_line or Tandy 100.

1983 also saw the launch of what was probably the biggest-selling early laptop, the Kyocera Kyotronic 85. Both had LCD displays, and had optional printers that attached to their cases. Like the GriD Compass, the Gavilan and the Sharp were housed in clamshell cases, but they were partly IBM-compatible, although primarily running their own system software. The Gavilan was notably the first computer to be marketed as a "laptop." It was also equipped with a pioneering touchpad-like pointing device, installed on a panel above the keyboard.

Two other noteworthy early laptops were the Sharp PC-5000 (1983) and the Gavilan SC, announced in 1983 but first sold in 1984. GRiD Systems Corp was later bought by Tandy (RadioShack). The GRiD company subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace. military, and was used on the Space Shuttle during the 1980s.

However, it was used heavily by the U.S. It was not IBM-compatible, and its high price (US$ 10,000) meant that it was limited to specialized applications. The computer could be run from batteries, and was equipped with a 320×200-pixel plasma display and 384-kilobyte bubble memory. Enclosed in a magnesium case, it introduced the now familiar clamshell design, in which the flat display folded shut against the keyboard.

However, arguably the first true laptop was the GRiD Compass 1101, designed by Bill Moggridge in 1979, and released in 1982. While it was made to be used upon one's lap, it weighed 150 pounds, and therefore could not be deemed truly portable. Another claim to be the "first laptop" was made by a novice programmer Thomas Kelly in 1982. (IBM's own later Portable Computer, which arrived in 1984, was notably less IBM-compatible than the Compaq.).

Although scarcely more portable than the Osborne machines, and also requiring AC power to run, it ran MS-DOS and was the first true IBM clone. A more enduring success was the Compaq Portable, the first product from Compaq, introduced in 1983, by which time the IBM Personal Computer had become the standard platform. However, it was not possible to run the Osborne on batteries; it had to be plugged in. The Osborne was about the size of a portable sewing machine, and importantly could be carried on a commercial aircraft.

This and other "luggables" were inspired by what was probably the first portable computer, the Xerox NoteTaker, developed at Xerox PARC in 1976; however, only ten prototypes were built. Although it was large and heavy compared to today's laptops, with a tiny CRT monitor, it had a near-revolutionary impact on business, as professionals were able to take their computer and data with them for the first time. The first commercially available portable computer was the Osborne 1 in 1981, which used the CP/M operating system. Before laptop computers were technically feasible, similar ideas had been proposed, most notably Alan Kay's Dynabook concept, developed at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s.

. In addition to a built-in keyboard, they may utilize a touchpad (also known as a trackpad) or a pointing stick for input, though an external mouse or keyboard can usually be attached. Laptops usually have liquid crystal displays and use SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM) modules (rather than the larger DIMMs used in desktop computers) for their RAM. Laptops contain components that are similar to those in their desktop counterparts and perform the same functions but are miniaturized and optimized for mobile use and efficient power consumption.

Laptops are capable of many of the same tasks that desktop computers perform, although they are typically less powerful for the same price. Laptops usually run on batteries, but also from adapters which also charge the battery using mains electricity. Terms for subtypes of notebooks (and related computer types) include:. A laptop computer (also known as notebook computer) is a small mobile personal computer, usually weighing from 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds).

Zyrex. Winbook. Voodoo PC - Envy. Rock Direct.

Relion. Toshiba - Dynabook, Portege, Tecra, Satellite, Qosmio, Libretto. Tadpole - SPARCbook. Sager - NP series.

Sony - VAIO. Samsung - Sens. Panasonic - Toughbook. Packard Bell - EasyNote.

NEC - VERSA. Medion. Linuxcertified - Linux laptop. LG - XNOTE.

Lenovo - IBM ThinkPad. iQon - Qompanion. Hypersonic. Hewlett Packard - HP Pavilion and HP Omnibook.

Gericom. Gateway. Fujitsu Siemens - Lifebook. ECS.

Dell - Inspiron and Latitude. Compaq - EVO, Armada, LTE, and Presario. Clevo. Bacoc.

Averatec. ASUS. Apple Computer - iBook, PowerBook and MacBook Pro. Alienware - Area 51m, Sentia and Aurora m series.

Acer - TravelMate and Aspire. These devices weigh about 500 g (about 1 lb) and often take the name "power brick.". Most laptops are powered or recharged from an external AC converter that usually takes the form of a plain black rectangular box. Docking stations may be used for expanding connectors and quickly connecting many components to the laptop, although they are falling out of favour as laptops' integral capabilities increase and USB allows several peripherals to be connected through one plug.

Batteries gradually degrade over time and eventually need to be replaced, depending on the charging and discharging pattern, from one to five years. Typical battery life for most laptops is two to five hours with light-duty use, but may drop to as little as one hour with intensive use. Current models use lithium ion batteries, which have largely replaced the older nickel metal-hydride technology. At one point, the Pismo G3, at up to 500 MHz, was faster than the fastest desktop G3 (then the B&W G3), which ran at 450 MHz.

However, the PowerPC G3 and G4 processor generations have been able to offer almost the same performance as their desktop versions, limited mostly by lower performance in other parts of the system bus bandwidth and peripheral units) in Apple's notebooks; recently, though, with the introduction of the G5s, they have been far outstripped. Generally, notebook processors are less powerful than their desktop counterparts, owing to the need to conserve electricity and reduce heat output. Motorola and IBM develop and manufacture the PowerPC chips for Apple notebooks. Notebook processor: There are a wide range of notebook processors available from Intel (Pentium M (with Centrino technology), Celeron, Intel Core Duo and Centrino Duo) and from AMD (Athlon, Turion 64, and Sempron).

Modern laptops can often handle sophisticated games, but tend to be limited by their fixed screen resolution and display adapter type. Display adapters and sound cards are integrated. Internal hard disks are smaller—2.5 inch (64 mm) compared to the standard desktop 3.5 inch (90 mm) drive—and usually have lower performance and power consumption. Most modern laptops use an active matrix display with resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels (XGA) and above, screen sizes 10 inch (250 mm) or larger, and have a PC-Card expansion bay for expansion cards, formerly called PCMCIA.

Internal modems and standard serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports on IBM PC-compatible laptops made it easier to work away from home; the addition of Ethernet networking ports and, from 1997, USB, and from 1999, Wi-Fi, made laptops as easy to use with peripherals as a desktop computer. Improved interconnectivity. As thin, high-capacity hard disk drives with higher reliability and shock resistance and lower power consumption became available, users could store their work on laptop computers and take it with them. Early laptops had only floppy disk drives.

Improved hard disk technology. Improvements in production technology meant displays became larger, sharper, had higher display resolution, and could display color with great accuracy, making them an acceptable substitute for a traditional CRT monitor. Early laptop screens were black and white or grayscale passive-matrix LCD displays prone to heavy shadows and blurry movement (some portable computer screens were sharper monochrome plasma displays, but these drew too much current to be powered by batteries). Improved liquid crystal display design, in particular active-matrix display technology, and increasingly, color screens.

While laptops in 1991 were limited to the slower 80286 processor because of the energy demands of the more powerful 80386, the introduction of the Intel 386SX processor, designed for the specific power needs of laptops, marked the point at which laptop needs were included in processor design. Power-saving processors. The heavy lead-acid batteries were replaced with lighter and more efficient technologies, first nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and then lithium ion and lithium polymer. Improved battery technology.

Computers larger than PDAs but smaller than notebooks are also sometimes a called palmtops. Powerful laptops (often heavy) designed to compete with the computing power offered by a typical desktop are sometimes known as desktop replacements. Notebooks weighing around 5 kg are sometimes termed desknotes (desktop/notebook). Notebooks smaller than a A4 sheet of paper and weighing around 1 kg are sometimes called sub-notebooks or subnotebooks.