Retro

"Nibby" (nibby68) 08/11/2014 at 22:39 • Filed to: None

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Ramblin Rover - The Vivisector of Solihull > Nibby 08/11/2014 at 22:40

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Oh yes. I can remember chatting over a serial cable with HT for the giggles.

Clown Shoe Pilot > Nibby 08/11/2014 at 22:43

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More retro -

(recent version of an ancient program)

I configured many a router with Z-Term and an old Mac PowerBook 170. I miss the excellent monochrome active matrix LCD. I'd pay decent money for a modern basic laptop w/ a real serial port and the display off an old PB170.

Nibby > Ramblin Rover - The Vivisector of Solihull 08/11/2014 at 22:46

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YESSSSSSS

Ramblin Rover - The Vivisector of Solihull > Nibby 08/11/2014 at 22:49

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I also transferred a ~200mb file over a serial cable with Hyperterminal once. SO. SLOW.

If you turn up the transmit rate, most serial cables throw errors at least once moving something that big, and you have to try again. Which I did, more than once.

dogisbadob > Nibby 08/11/2014 at 22:50

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erase flash!

twochevrons > Clown Shoe Pilot 08/11/2014 at 23:03

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I still use an ancient Psion 5MX PDA to talk to various serial port devices at work.

It's got a pretty good backlit LCD, as well as a real serial port, it runs a remarkably powerful multitasking OS with an Office compatible word processor and spreadsheet, and a calendar app that is, in my opinion, still unbeatable. On top of that, it will run for a month off a pair of AA batteries, and can dual-boot Linux as well.

Of course, the platform has been obsolete since the late '90s, but it's still a fantastic device. I'm seriously considering building a serial-to-OBD adaptor and writing some basic data logging software for it – I'd much rather be carrying that around for diagnostics rather than a laptop.

Clown Shoe Pilot > twochevrons 08/11/2014 at 23:16

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I don't even care about backlight. I just want a laptop that I can use in full sunlight. The old monochrome active matrix screens on the powerbook 170/180 looked AMAZING in full sunlight. They look better in full sun than they do indoors. Just incredible.

The downside is that the resolution is only 640x400. However, that's plenty for running Z-Term!

twochevrons > Clown Shoe Pilot 08/11/2014 at 23:28

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Heh, I've got a PowerBook 180 sitting around in my basement for when I feel like a game of Dark Castle. They're glorious machines.

The Psion's the same way in sunlight – the display is an oddball 640x240, but it's perfect for text. I've got unusually skinny fingers, so despite the tiny keyboard, I can still touch type on it. I've written papers and lab reports on it many a time. I once even did some number-crunching in Octave (an open-source MATLAB clone) on it. Not fast, but it did the job. It's definitely one of my favourite gadgets.