[RobGR]

I don't know where you could get something like that these days.

However, TI used to make a real portable terminal:

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/ti-tymshare-100/...

That one is considerably larger than the smallest models. The smallest onse were about the size of an eeepc, but thicker, had a built in modem instead of an acoustic coupler, and a thermal printer so you could print out a transcript of your session on receipt style paper.

I am not old of enough to have ever used one, but I once saw a couple of the smaller ones made for sale at the Austin Goodwill Computer Works.

For your purposes, I would get an old, small laptop such as a Compaq Aero and install a simple, text-only linux on it.