I have fond memories of the 1401, although I never programmed one. In the mid 60s I worked for the Harvard Computer Center. We had a 1401 whose sole job was a tape to print server for the 7094. It had attached a 1403 printer, a screaming behemoth (literally) that could print 600 lines per minute. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/1403.html compares the sound of a 1403 to a jet plane, an old jet, mind you, now one of those whisper quite modern ones. There are stories of people writing music to be played on a 1403, maybe even true. Another feature was the 1301 disk drive, the size of two refrigerators, with an astounding 28 megabytes of storage,whirling away at 1800 rpm. For a mere $2000 a month you could have your own.

Computers tha one person can carry are for wimps.