Now Any Computer Can Provide the Comforting Personality of a Home Office or PC
Peripatetic professionals who need to use computers — and what peripatetic professional doesn't? — have two choices: they can lug a laptop wherever they go, or they can switch from one unfamiliar PC to another. Soon, they will have a third, more comfortable option. IBM researchers have created a system that lets you carry your computer's personality with you. The personality, simply put, is your computer's desktop, including whatever background and icons make you feel comfortable.
It's also your address book, your bookmarks or favorites, your passwords, and your communication settings, including Internet protocols and modem dial-up numbers — not to mention the data you are working on, or that presentation you have to make in a few days across the continent. Dubbed the Portable Personality, the new system — which combines hardware and software — shrinks your computer's desktop attributes and preferences down to easily transportable pocket or purse size.
The system is an outgrowth of a wider-ranging IBM research and development program called Next Generation Desktop. "We have been looking into how to create a solution that bridges the gap between traditional mobile computing using laptops and handheld devices with desktop computers," explains Nick Dono, a member of the research team that worked on the project at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Laptops have long filled a need for mobile and highly personalized computing options, but they can be cumbersome to carry from one location to another — a definite drawback in a workplace with increasingly fluid physical boundaries.
The Portable Personality reduces what must be carried between venues to a device roughly the size of a credit card. At the heart of the device is IBM's Microdrive™ (see IBM Research, Number 4, 1998, "Microdrive breaks through the size barrier," page 7). On the market since fall 1999, the latest version of the tiny disk drive can hold up to 1 gigabyte. For comparison, a conventional diskette holds about 2 megabytes and a CD-ROM can carry 650 megabytes. "The Microdrive lets you carry your personal settings with you and automatically inserts them into a machine and then removes them when you unplug the drive," explains Dono, who uses the Portable Personality to carry his "stuff" between his lab and his office.
To prepare your computer personality for travel, you install on your principal computer a utility program that is part of the software package. The utility copies your Windows® profile to the IBM Microdrive™. In the process, it copies all documents listed as "recent," as well as the software used to create the documents (which the utility determines by reading the three-letter extension of each filename).
When you reach your destination, you insert the drive into a host computer's PC card slot, and the host immediately looks and acts like your home computer, according to Ernie Mandese, an engineer in IBM's Personal Systems Group at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, who is working to turn the Portable Personality into a commercial product.
The rapid transformation is possible, according to Dono, because the host computer treats the Portable Personality simply as an attached hard drive. "The PC would interpret it as, say, its f drive or its g drive," Dono says. From the new drive, the PC can load your own desktop environment: icons, bookmarks, documents and applications. When you have finished your session and you eject the Portable Personality, not a byte of information is left on the host computer; your data is totally secure.
The Portable Personality could simplify life in many different fields. Oil company engineers who previewed the system at a computer trade show saw the Portable Personality as a way to take their work to European and Asian operations without having to remember which plugs and adapters are needed for varying electrical currents. Similarly, news reporters recognized the potential to travel lighter, while university professors saw an opportunity to bring presentations to classrooms without having to set up their own computers for each class.
Victor D. Chase is a freelance writer who lives in Yorktown Heights, New York.
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