But I thought of it already!

Back in the 80s I had a friend who liked to get stoned and go to the movies. One night we got lit and saw Brazil. It was a weird Terry Gilliam thing, like Time Bandits, full of whimsicality and visual wonder. I loved it.

One feature that particularly caught my imagination in this strange retro-futuristic film was the design of the computer terminals. They looked like old Royal typewriters with tiny black and white monitors, enhanced with magnifying lenses not unlike those deals people stick in the rear windows of their RVs. I had my father's old Apple ][ and I thought, hey, I could build one of those!

In the twenty years that passed I occasionally thought about it. Still do. I just need the time. Everything else I have to do would need to be shoved aside for an art project, but it would be cool: An old typewriter carefully wired up to emulate a computer keyboard (I know how to do that); the Apple ][ guts hidden away in some old box; video output sent to some ancient B&W monitor of the sort used years ago for security cameras; and a magnifying sheet stuck in front of it in a frame. It would be an odd-looking thing, rickety, kind of cool, and totally functional.

Now some hopeless geek is getting international attention for doing just that: A Laptop Your Great-Grandfather Would Love. I like my idea better, because he copped out and used a modern LCD screen. But credit is given for using an old telegraph key for a pointing device.