Before the web, before even PCs, one company provided a vision of how computers and software could change lives when put into the hands of ordinary people. Hewlett-Packard’s amazing series of hand-held calculators and portable computers, begun in 1972, introduced a generation of technically inclined people to personal computer power. As these tiny computers grew in capability and came to be depended upon, user groups were formed to exchange information and help members solve each other’s problems.

One such user group, the Handheld and Portable Computer Club (HPCC) started in Britain in 1982 and is still active forty years later with an international membership.