Won't you wear the black hat.

[reddragdiva]

Dodgy laptops 'r' us. I have just purchased a 1997 IBM Thinkpad 560X (type 2640-700) from mstevens for fifty quid. The battery is dead and bits are taped on. It is guaranteed to exist and boot at least once, and that's all. But it'll do. It had OpenBSD installed, so it should be able to run just about anything. Now to acquire a PCMCIA network card.

(ewtikins, I shall continue to keep an eye out for LocalTalk to Ethernet adapters at prices somewhat lower than US$170!)

MY HOLIDAYS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED at fucking last. redcountess is off to the doctor today to see about the latest round of illnesses; if that's all clear, it'll be ticket purchase time. If not, we'll have a quiet few weeks in London.

PFY came in this morning wearing a black suit with black shirt. Evidently I'm a suitable influence.

Comments

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Now to acquire a PCMCIA network card.

Bugger. Wish you'd said that a month ago.

I may have one somewhere. I shall look.

[reddragdiva]

I shall be checking various Dodgy Old Kit Piles, never fear!

ObIcon

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I don't see the french maid on her knees, and I just not looking hard enough?

The Stinkpad

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I really hope it has more than the listed 32meg ram. I've got a P-200MMX with 64 running OpenBSD, and that *just* covers running X, a wm, mozilla, gaim, and bitchx. Just.

Why do I keep wanting/thinking/almost doing a ctrl-X to post comments? My mind is going. I can feel it.

Re: The Stinkpad

[reddragdiva]

Michael said something about 96 meg. But even if it's just the original 32, it should be able to run an X server to her main machine perfectly well.

Re: The Stinkpad

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Yabbut the X server is the ram hog. Still 96 should be plenty.

[poggs.livejournal.com]

PFY in a suit? Hopefully he's going for another job where being a Microsoftie is a Good Thing ;)

[dan-lane.livejournal.com]

taped on? what speed does the old Intel Sellotape Bus do these days?

[reddragdiva]

The door to the PC card slot appears to be held on with rubberised electrical tape ... will need to replace that with gaffa when I get home.

[steer.livejournal.com]

If it's moderately old then avoid the "CARDBUS" type PCMCIA card. I got caught out like that with a '96 vintage laptop.

[mjg59.livejournal.com]

In principle, it's got a cardbus controller. The downside is that it's a TI 1250, and data sheets are not exceptionally well available, which means that it ought to work but there's the possibility that interrupt routing will be fucked and there'll be little hope of fixing it. A quick Google suggests that cardbus ought to be fine in this case, but I'm not a BSD person so...

(Technically, Cardbus isn't PCMCIA. PCMCIA is 16-bit PC Card, and Cardbus is 32-bit PC Card. Don't bother buying a 100MBit PCMCIA card, because it'll be shit)

[twicezero.livejournal.com]

news just in. The company I'm working for is selling old used tecra 8000s for 120 quid. Not recoditioned and heavily used in some cases.

If you find you are after another laptop let me know

dan

[redcountess]

If we can't get this one off the ground, we certainly will, ta :-)

[reddragdiva]

I know some Toshibas from 1998-2000 had a problem with the clitmouse - the rubber would rot and go really ... icky. This particularly happened with Satellites.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Aw, crap. I think I ditched an ethernet->localtalk adaptor a couple of weeks ago, in the massive stuff disposal ritual...

[reddragdiva]

Heh. If only you'd known what they go for ;-)

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

And now I know, and can be wracked with regret.

Of course, I couldn't get people to give me ten bucks for it over the course of the last summer's worth of MIT Flea Markets.

I'll check and see if I actually chucked it or if I'm confused and managed to keep it, but I'm pretty sure it's gone...

Printer adaptor?

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Etherwave one here with 16 hours to go, worldwide shipping, and US$15 BuyItNow.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2792840405

[artifx.livejournal.com]

PFY came in this morning wearing a black suit with black shirt. Evidently I'm a suitable influence.

so important to properly educate the young... :>

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

Hmm, so what's OpenBSD's PCMCIA support like, then?

-roy

[reddragdiva]

No idea. I guess I'll FIND OUT!

[owdbetts.livejournal.com]

I would suggest getting a 16-bit PCMCIA card unless you're sure CardBus works under OpenBSD...

Or reinstall it as a Linux 2.6.x machine :)

-roy