[OB] My $.02 's worth.

[Michel Bel]

Kevin Curran wrote:
> Ta Da!!, I revived the OB425's using fresh double AA's overnight.  
> Thank you all for your suggestions.  This list, even in its moribund 
> phase, gets things done.  Thank you all. 
>
My word, Kevin...Moribund?  Shame on you - It's called _'hibernating'_  
- just waiting for a new spring. <VBG>

OK, with - finally- those new (old hat) netbooks finally popping up, WE 
are the ones that survived the long winter on
our OB's, and know what those things really should do. Evolution 
apparently finally caught up after 15 years, with ASUS
reviving the concept that HP discarded, (Although PSION tried to keep 
alive with it's NetBook, but the CE handheld concept
requires it's own hackers, e.g. on http://www.hpcfactor.com et al. - and 
oh yes, we run Linux on our HP Jornada's now, and
our NEC 900C's handhelds )

And still - running a lean DSL Linux on an OB800CT with refurbished 
batteries and a 4GB CF card in lieu of a hard disk,
( Total refurbish cost about $40) keeps it well up with the new 
netbooks. Now why doesn't my pop-up mouse work yet in DSL...
Anyway, I still have instant-on, now on a mixed W95/Linux system. And it 
even has WIFI/WPA (under DSL that is).

Michel
PS: (still there) and still in love with good old hardware

- OB 425, 600C, 800CT 166/80MB
- 95LX, 100LX, 200LX, 700LX
- Jornada 720 with Jlime linux, Nec 900C with cmonex rom and/or jlime 
henchman linux
- more older antiques waiting for display room: Epson PX-8 etc...

PPS: Oh yes, my first PC ( really Personal Computer) was the 
university's DEC PDP-8 in a corner
of the computer center of the Math building.
wholly personal, with big 8KB of memory, a real teletype ASR-33 for 
input and output,
and with real DecTape random access storage to load FOCAL.
In 1972 much better than the faster CDC/Cyber; no waiting in line, 
punching cards
and waiting for the batch output...
Oh, those memories of REAL cut-and-paste (papertape FYI).....
( I don't miss any of it though, there are so much new toys to play 
with, or old toys to
keep alive for a 57 year old hacker....)

PPPS:  Finally - coming back to the OB425: Where elsewhere do we find a 
real PC running on 4 AA's?
and with those new 3000mAh  AA NiMh batteries it runs forever.
And my OB800 now has a 4400mAh Li-Ion now....