Erm, have you tried balancing even a laptop on a lathe
bed? Many times I
need to claculate angles, amount of metal to remove, etc and an HP
calculator is a lot more usable than a PC...
\begin{trol}
That's the time where I pull out my Android smart phone and start the
HP48 emulator App... ;-)
\end{trol}
I find a real physical keyboard (particualrly an old=style HP one :-)) to
be a lot more useagble than a touchscreen in such circumstnaces.