Doing Without (opens in new tab)

For the first time in many years, we went on a trip without bringing a computer. We did not have, that is, a computer with a keyboard and a fair-sized display. We did have mobile phones, which have computational power beyond what some of those computers in the past did. Only a few times did I think that it would have been well to have a computer. Those were times that I wished to write something at length, or to read something in larger increments than will display on a telephone. Yet despite...