I wish there were a room around here where we talk about all the gadgets where this stuff is supposed to work.

Cool Uses for Perl might be the place for that - see stevieb and jmlynesjr's Pi-related posts. There's plenty of such discussion which goes on in the chatterbox too, albeit in an ephemeral way. Corion and marto have been discussing various hardware-related projects in there recently.

Also, what is the difference between a phone, a tablet and a laptop besides the topology of the plastic that houses it?

I don't make much of a distinction between phones and tablets - certainly not these days now that phones are too big to fit in a pocket and some are now fold-outs to be double-width. OTOH, a laptop has a physical keyboard and pointer device, a hinged lid with a separate non-touch screen and lots of physical ports on the outside of the case. It is almost always fan-cooled. It is basically a portable desktop with integrated keyboard, pointer and monitor.

It rained last night. There's so much relief in the air. Clouds have returned instead of the creosote, CO, SO2 umbrella. I think we're gonna make it.

Very good to hear. With luck the worst has passed.