OESF Portables Forum
General Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: macwiz on May 04, 2004, 11:52:49 am
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I notice from some signatures that folks have more than 1 Zaurus. Same here. I now have an 860, and a 5500, which I want to hang on to ... just in case.
But what do people use their old Z for? I can\'t imagine leaving it to languish in a drawer. Perhaps you have some suggestions.
(You may ask why I don\'t sell it/pass it on. Perhaps I will when my kids are older, but I once had a Psion that I sold on, and have always regretted parting with it. Sad, eh?)
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I have my old handhelds piling up here, i try to pass them on to someone in my family/friends so nowadays everyone has a pda:-)
I use the 860, my 5500 went to my girlfriend (upgrade to her old psion 5 she is addicted to reading ebooks), the psion 5 on to my sister, psion siena to my mum, psion 3c to my brother, Palm pilot to my dad. So everyone is always happy when i upgrade as they all get to upgrade to the next pass-me-on in sequence everytime there is a new zaurus release :-)
It comes in useful to have the old zaurus around, to test stuff on - but in general i am not so great with throwing out hardware. I havent sold on any of my old stuff, theres a spectrum 128Kb, 48K, some amstrad PCWs and notepads, a tandy monochrome laptop, and thousands of tapes/discs (including some 3 inch ones) - maybe someday they will be worth something, for the moment the nostalgia is great - football manager on the original spectrum 48K is almost as good as the emulation on the Zaurus :-)
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I keep some of my old PDAs for nostalgia/historical/display purposes, Psion Organiser (the very first black one), Psion Organiser II, Atari Portfolio, HP Omnigo, HP 200LX, HP 71B, Casio PB-100, some TI calcs (pre-LCD). I kept my first ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum and two Atari 130XEs. Still got some 8\" disks, yes 8\" disks, from ICL DRS20 systems. Mainly because they are in mint/good condition and may be worth something to a museum or me when I\'m old and grey.
Imagine if you will my false teeth flapping in drool saying \"hey sonny boy, back in the 20th century we didn\'t have bio-nets and quantum technology, it was good old fashioned silicon... those were the days..\" I\'ll have robo-teeth by then I hope.
Usually I give them away to charity, friends and loved ones, or someone like here for example who lost theirs or couldn\'t afford one.
My 5500 went to \'mentat_bashar\' who weeps daily with joy (He\'ll kick my ass for that!)
:-)
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read the sig
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Imagine if you will my false teeth flapping in drool saying \"hey sonny boy, back in the 20th century we didn\'t have bio-nets and quantum technology, it was good old fashioned silicon... those were the days..\" I\'ll have robo-teeth by then I hope.
Ha Ha Ha Ha!! Hilarious!
\"Yes, we had to actually use something called a remote to change the channels on the TV and we had to prepare our own food. We had to be awake while driving, and trans-continental trips would take hours not minutes.\"
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An Ex of mine has a little borther who refused to beleve that there was ever a tv without a remote till he was about 14 and I could prove it to him.
An on topic not, most of my old mobile equitment tends to end up with my Mom, laptops and palm tops, I think thats the way it\'s worked the last 3 rounds.
What she does with them later I\'ll never know.
Gester
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I don\'t yet have a Z.....but soon an 860. At that point, I\'ll hang on to my (2) Newton 2100s. Can\'t ever give those up - 6+ years old and still running strong.
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\"Yes, we had to actually use something called a remote to change the channels on the TV and we had to prepare our own food. We had to be awake while driving, and trans-continental trips would take hours not minutes.\"
Anyone remember TV remote controls with wires?
My first computer literally had to be programmed in binary!
10101101 [load]
11101011 [load]
101011.. \"Aah crap!\"
[reset]
10101101 [load]
11101011 [load]
10111101 [load]
1110100.. \"Oh b*ll*cks! stupid machine!!!\"
[reset]
ad nauseum....
:-) Oh my, I love a good laugh....
I hope my robo-teeth will have an auto-chew feature, but with my current waves of toothache, wooden pegs would suffice. ;-)
LOL! Keep \'em coming!!
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Ummm. So I\'m not the only one that\'s sad. I mean how can you have a soft-spot for a chunk of plastic/metal/silicon?
And yet we do. Even something that is getting hopelessly out of date. Except obviously the point is that my 5500 isn\'t really past it. There\'s a lot about it that I really like; that natty little pull out keyboard for instance, and the way Opera in column view makes better sense of confusing web pages than I can with the unaided eye on a big screen! And how thanks to new roms the 5500 does more than it did when I bought it!
I just want to do stuff with it that I wouldn\'t risk on my crucial working day machine (the 860). So I am open to suggestions and pointers, and am just interested how I justify not putting it on ebay.
\'coz I\'m not.
Thanks
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I just want to do stuff with it that I wouldn\'t risk on my crucial working day machine (the 860). So I am open to suggestions and pointers, and am just interested how I justify not putting it on ebay.
Well that\'s not really an answerable question, it completely depends on what you use a Z for, run a webserver? use it as a terminal to servers? install apps for testing? just mothballing it for an emergency?
Only you can answer that really..
I would advise that if you cannot do something nice with it for someone, why not just wrap it up and put it somewhere safe... you never know..
I wouldn\'t sell it.
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Usually I give them away to charity, friends and loved ones, or someone like here for example who lost theirs or couldn\'t afford one.
Like me...I am poor and need your old Zaurii becuase:
1) I need to pay for my new c860
2) I\'d rather sell yours than my 5500 on ebay as I like mine too much.
:roll: :roll:
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ouch!
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My 5500 is just lying around in my desk drawer. I hate that I never use it anymore, but it\'s just hard to go back to it after using my 760. I won\'t sell it because I paid $450 when it first came out, and I know I\'d barely get over a $100 for it... just doesn\'t seem worth getting rid of it. Besides, I feel comfortable having a spare unit around.
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I just want to do stuff with it that I wouldn\'t risk on my crucial working day machine (the 860). So I am open to suggestions and pointers, and am just interested how I justify not putting it on ebay.
Well that\'s not really an answerable question, it completely depends on what you use a Z for, run a webserver? use it as a terminal to servers? install apps for testing? just mothballing it for an emergency?
Yeah, I know. Just want some suggestions. I’m not a techie, and I suspect there are things that Zs get used for that would be out of my depth. But on the other hand when you have had one as your daily working machine - I mean a PDA in nearly the consumer sense - and now it is released from that burden, what fun could I have with it? Oh maybe it is a case of keep the ol’5500 for a PDA, and do some really amazing stuff with the 860!
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My 5500 went to my Mrs when I won my 5600.
(We had a huge VCR with one of those tethered remotes - and I can\'t believe I\'m old enough to remember that)
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Doh!!
I have a personal website that I used to run just for family and friends. The home page was on time warner\'s server and there were redirects back to my linux server (SSL and password protected). I could never keep the server on as I couldn\'t justify the electricity and safety of leaving a server on while away from home.
You just gave me the idea that my old 5500 could have housed the site with minimal electricity and less worries of safety. Hindsight.....
run a webserver?
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When researching the Z about a year ago, I came across a R&D site where the author published a picture of about 4 5x00s stacked with ethernet cards and SD storage running webservers, it looked cool seeing those little bundles of joy being used that way.
A cluster of Z\'s?
I also remember someone using a 5x00 as a digital photo frame.
oooh, how about the brain of a robot (seriously, could be done)? Evil robots with atomic powered Z\'s firing lasers from their eyes and giant crushing hands, maybe to conqueror the world! I could wage war on ..... no, maybe not. mmh, more medication would be nice, thankyou nurse.
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My 5500 is still used on a daily basis for testing stuff out, but mainly for reading ebooks in bed. I always fall asleep and end up dropping it on the floor.
I\'ts also nice to know that if my 760 went bang (or god forbid I lose it!) that I have a ready to go backup (dr box if you like)
I can also take it places that I wouldn\'t dare to take my c760 (like places where it may get damaged, the beach, the pub, camping, local magnet factory, iraq, any Leeds v Manu game, etc etc)
I have had loads of offers for it but it simply isn\'t for sale!!
besides all that, if I sold it I would lose my UK charger and a spare battery for my 760, I am sure the battery would fit with a blob of blutak to hold it in place.
Another suggestions could be a \"honeypot\" for hackers to attack while leaving my other machines alone. I would love to watch some script kiddie trying to install a root kit on it
Peter
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oooh, how about the brain of a robot (seriously, could be done)? Evil robots with atomic powered Z\'s firing lasers from their eyes and giant crushing hands, maybe to conqueror the world! I could wage war on ..... no, maybe not. mmh, more medication would be nice, thankyou nurse.
http://www.dahlweb.net/index.php?page=zaurbot (http://www.dahlweb.net/index.php?page=zaurbot)
Here you go padishah_emperor! He did this a while ago back when the Sharp DevNet still lived.
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You just gave me the idea that my old 5500 could have housed the site with minimal electricity and less worries of safety. Hindsight.....
That\'s not such a bad idea.
How many viri, trojans, backdoors etc wil attack, or run on an arm processor unless specifically compiled/created for that purpose.
I also remember reading a post on the old devnet board from a guy who lost his cable and phone connections for three days. He worked from home and his business depended on his internet connection, he survived the ordeal by using his zaurus as a bridge from gprs (cf bluetooth) through his mobile phone to his linux server (usb). It may have been a bit slow and a tad expensive, but it worked!.
Try doing that with a palm or ppc pda!
Peter
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Try doing that with a palm or ppc pda!
Heh, I did something similar with an iPaq for almost a whole year. My apartment was near a WiFi hotspot, so I used the iPaq as a router to my local network. It was an original 3650 model, sitting in the dual-PCMCIA expansion sleeve, with a WiFi card and and ethernet card. Left it on the whole year, never had a crash, even during power failures.
But, it was running handheld.org Linux.
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padishah_emperor -
<< I kept my first ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum .... >>
On this side of the puddle there was the Timex Sinclair <G>. Remember trying to type in programs without jiggling the RAM backpack & having the silly sucker reboot? ARRRRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <G>.
Think that I\'ll go fire the old sucker up just to remember.
Once upon a time (MANY mango seasons ago) one could justify the cache of old equipment as \"parts\". But today?? Toasting one VLSI SMT was more than enough to convince me that \"parts\" is no longer applicable. Sigh.
But, one day, that HP95LX on the shelf there will be worth big bucks, friends! To my estate, that is <G>.
Worse come to worse, all that stuff makes for WONDERFUL \"old foggie\" show\'n tell for the younger generations!
Bob W
Miami FL
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On this side of the puddle there was the Timex Sinclair <G>. Remember trying to type in programs without jiggling the RAM backpack & having the silly sucker reboot? ARRRRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <G>.
That\'s right, Timex 1000 was the brand over there, if you ever get the chance to glimpse inside, it\'s art, about four chips. To this day, as an engineer I think it is the most impressive thing I\'ve ever seen, given the year it was first made (as a kit). My 16K RAM pack sits well, no problems like that but I remember a friend used black tape to secure his.. :shock:
Here you go padishah_emperor! He did this a while ago back when the Sharp DevNet still lived.
Ah thats it, but no lasers or HAL-9000 brains, with giant claw hands to destroy buildings and........ :twisted:
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...as for my old SL-5000D, I, er... still use it, since I can't afford an upgrade at the moment. Go go gadget 32-0 OZ install! And actually the limited memory hasn't been THAT limiting since I moved almost everything onto an SD card.
Sure would like one of the clam-Z's, though...
Though if I upgrade, there are a few useful things to do with the old Z, like home automation, etc (load up on X10 devices and have a touchpad Z running the show...). And I'm still trying to learn enough about hardware interfaces to figure out ways for the Z to run everything from ovens to fans, just to play with software controllers).
-->VPutz
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I still use my 5500. As much as I would love a 860 or 3000, I just can't afford it, I can't justify it either as I am just now (after 1 year) getting it completely tweaked for my use. 64-0 Roms Rock when you have an SD card that works in them. But I figure that when i can afford and justify the upgrade, I'll probably relegate my 5500 to a media center controller, or GPs for my truck.
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A cluster of Z's?
Don't laugh. This is exactly what I want to do with my 5000d, 5500, and two IPAQs: make the worlds slowest supercomputer cluster. Or the most portable - whichever way you want to call it.
The 5500 will probably be the head node, with its 64mb of ram, and the whole thing will be hooked up through USB networking.
After I've played with that for a while? Who knows. That ZaurBot looked interesting.
I'll be getting an SLC-3000 to replace my 860, then one of them is going to end up with PDA X Rom.
I love the Zs - I don't think I'll ever be able to part with them. I've used a PalmOS device as my PDA for years (I started with the palm professional). This 860 has finally let me completely replace my latest Palm.
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I've got an 860 that I use daily, and a 5500 I use for various technical tasks around the house (wifi scanner, ethernet testing, testing of Z code when the 860 isn't docked)
Right now I'm trying to use the 5500 as a baby monitor. I'm using Palantir on the server end, which allows me to view the webcam above my son's crib. Currently I use the java palantir client for the Zaurus although I'm trying to port the QT palantir client at the moment. There's no audio, as normal baby monitors are cheap and have better range, but otherwise it works well.
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...
But, one day, that HP95LX on the shelf there will be worth big bucks, friends! To my estate, that is <G>.
...
Damn, I thought my HP95LX was worth big bucks 'cause I thought it was the only unit left on the planet.
This is the second time this month I come across someone who also still has one.
The other guy was still using it daily. I found a message from him asking for a copy of the floppies with the connection-pack-utilities. His good old AT286 had given up, and he couldn't find his floppies to reinstall.
I sent him a copy of mine, hope he can now move on to a 386 but he's definately not thinking about giving up on his HP95LX yet.
Chero.
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I only have one Zaurus.
If anyone has a VGA unit (the 5000/5500/5600) they wouldn't mind parting with, I can use it to further test KDE Pim/PI (http://sourceforge.net/projects/kdepimpi/), so get in touch
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Damn, I thought my HP95LX was worth big bucks 'cause I thought it was the only unit left on the planet.
This is the second time this month I come across someone who also still has one.
The other guy was still using it daily. I found a message from him asking for a copy of the floppies with the connection-pack-utilities. His good old AT286 had given up, and he couldn't find his floppies to reinstall.
I sent him a copy of mine, hope he can now move on to a 386 but he's definately not thinking about giving up on his HP95LX yet.
Chero.
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:-]
I also still have a 95LX, a 1000CX, a 700LX and several 100LX and 200LX machines.
I have used a 200LX for 8 years until June of this year, when finally the SL-C3000 replaced my daily-used 200LX with 32MB, Doublespeed and backlight upgrade.
daniel
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My 5600 is on loan to my daughter. I set her up so that she could check email or IM with it. She also likes to take it along on vacations to work on her short stories.
You could always build the old Zaurus in to a RC airplane - here's what one guy at IBM did... (wouldn't it be cool to have a job where you got paid to play with this stuff!)
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9733962835.html (http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9733962835.html)
I can remeber the VCR with the cable remote but prior to that, I can remember BEING the REMOTE! Kids have it so easy now compared to what it was like in my day. Jeez, I'm feeling old now.
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A cluster of Z's?
Don't laugh. This is exactly what I want to do with my 5000d, 5500, and two IPAQs: make the worlds slowest supercomputer cluster. Or the most portable - whichever way you want to call it.
The 5500 will probably be the head node, with its 64mb of ram, and the whole thing will be hooked up through USB networking.
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can't be the worlds slowest. I've got a cluster of Cyrix 6x86 166Mhz CPUs. Most mobil maybe, but not most slow. Mine do however have 96MB of RAM.
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Has OpenMosix been ported to the Z kernel? If you're making a cluster, may as well do it right.
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(snip)
I can remeber the VCR with the cable remote but prior to that, I can remember BEING the REMOTE! Kids have it so easy now compared to what it was like in my day. Jeez, I'm feeling old now.
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Was browsing this thread and remembering the old Sylvania TV we had in Florida in the early 60s; the remote control was *sonic*, I kid you not, it contained a tuning fork ... you used it to flip up and down the VHF channel spectrum. We got 2.5 stations in Daytona Beach ... one was iffy, so I call it half a station.
But that was back in the Cretaceous Era, of course. I'm positive for the Age Thing.