Just the other day, I picked up a double-helping of cool items for my retro collection.
First, I bought a fairly grungy (but cleanable!) Kaypro II from an electronics surplus store which is going out of business. I had a Kaypro II when I was a kid (a hand-me-down from a teachers husband, who used to work for Kaypro back in the 1980's), and I really loved it. $30 later, and I have one again! This particular unit looks like it had something nasty (soda?) spashed on the case at some point in the past 20 years, so it's in need of a careful cleaning before I'll power it up. It didn't come with any disks, which may present a problem if I ever want to do anything with it...
The second find was a very cool IBM ThinkPad 701c, at a Goodwill store. You may remember this one - it was nick-named "Butterfly," because of the super-cool, expanding keyboard. When the screen is opened, the keyboard slides out and apart, to form a "full-size" typing surface in a machine that otherwise would've had a rather small keyboard. See here for video proof of the coolness:
$10, and she was all mine! This one came pretty much bare - no power supply, no disks, nothing. The battery seems to have badly corroded, so powering it up is pretty unlikely at this point, although if I can find a compatible power brick, I'm eager to see what happens...
Huxley
First, I bought a fairly grungy (but cleanable!) Kaypro II from an electronics surplus store which is going out of business. I had a Kaypro II when I was a kid (a hand-me-down from a teachers husband, who used to work for Kaypro back in the 1980's), and I really loved it. $30 later, and I have one again! This particular unit looks like it had something nasty (soda?) spashed on the case at some point in the past 20 years, so it's in need of a careful cleaning before I'll power it up. It didn't come with any disks, which may present a problem if I ever want to do anything with it...
The second find was a very cool IBM ThinkPad 701c, at a Goodwill store. You may remember this one - it was nick-named "Butterfly," because of the super-cool, expanding keyboard. When the screen is opened, the keyboard slides out and apart, to form a "full-size" typing surface in a machine that otherwise would've had a rather small keyboard. See here for video proof of the coolness:
$10, and she was all mine! This one came pretty much bare - no power supply, no disks, nothing. The battery seems to have badly corroded, so powering it up is pretty unlikely at this point, although if I can find a compatible power brick, I'm eager to see what happens...
Huxley
