Realm Systems Inc. unearthed and brought back to life an idea whose day may finally come: the small form factor mobile desktop. Only this time Realm CEO Rick White calls it a mobile server.

Plugging into any USB port, users can carry with them their entire desktop look and feel, applications, files, and customized favorites in a device about the size of a pack of cigarettes -- for those who remember what that looks like.

The Mobile Personal Server, otherwise known as the MPS 1400E, is just that, a full-blown server that requires users to authenticate themselves before loading its applications -- or projecting the applications, as White said -- onto another device. For the few people who actually own a Tablet PC, Active Word Systems has a nifty software utility program that allows users to quickly access Web sites and applications with a mere stroke or two of the stylus.

The ActiveWords InkPad box pops up anywhere and anytime you like on the screen and allows a user to write in NYT, for example, and the system will take them to The New York Times Web site. A quick scrawl of the word Excel will, of course, launch that Microsoft Office product.

Previously ActiveWords was only available for non-touchscreen-capable devices.