I remember the good old days of sending data out to be keypunched in.  The only good thing about it was, one of the guys that worked for our firm had his wife working for the keypunch place.  Supposedly, she would look for our batches to throw on top of the pile for processing. 

As far as those portable Compaq computers go, we had one that we would take out for audit field work.  It was the biggest pain in the neck to haul around, but we were "cutting edge" and able to "impress" our clients with our technology.  I'm glad I don't have to work with one now ---------- I don't think I would be able to see anything on the screen at my age.