>...
>>>>
>>>>>Or is he hoist by his own petards? :-)
>>>>
>>>>In one of Larry Niven's RingWorld books (1970+) he describes a device that is striped to your wrist like a watch. This device (I beleive) was called a Joy-box. It not only told you the time, but was your phone, access to the central computer system, and even could make you a drink, and more. When I see what is continuously being added to the PDA these day, I can not help but think of the Joy-Boxes.
>>>
>>>Yeah, some of them were commendable. One I vaguely remember from some 20-odd years ago - the guys carried a "minisec" (miniature secretary) that had computer, comms, video, database, probably camera, etc.
>>
>>And, yet, I see them every day on the commuter train. I think they call them laptops.
>
>That's the point. They were considered to be SF - only available when Man has reached the stars.
>
>The closest I've seen is the series starting with "Ender’s Game", by Orson Scott Card (1977). In this the cadet students have a "desk" - a sort of all-singing-and-dancing large plaque - cf. a laptop - that can also project holograms, and there is a lot of discussion on "the Nets" (strangely prophetic). In his later novels of the series, seeing the dev. of the Interweb, he subtley changed the terminology to reflect actuality.

John Brunner was writing about computer worms (not to be confused with a virus) in the internet before the internet was common knowledge. "Shockwave Rider" was published in about 1975. There are (imho) valid arguments that he invented the term 'computer worm'. I don't think it ever appeared in print previously.

Previously in 'Stand on Zanzibar' (1968), he still had the future using giant computers, but he got a lot closer to future reality with 'Shockwave'.