Dude you help me recover a core memory. My family did missionary things to Indian reservation such as build new a school,community center that was a really big facility because my dad was into construction. So we stayed over in a basement in this house one trip out to South Dakota, and in the basement a kid showed off something like fisher price computer, or on a fisher price furniture. What stood out about that computer from my memories is that it had a child focus like GUI, and that kid was bragging that he could send emails to his friends/family. I don't remember the kid itself, I forgot what he looked like but I remember him showing off the computer. Also I recall seeing a garbage disposal device for the sink for the first time in my life in that same house. I think this is it device because i recall watching that Imax movie about the burning Iraq oil wells on their giant projection TV, and that movie came out around 2001.
I had one of those mail stations when I was a kid. Once the Dial Up was dead I used it as a sort of PDA where I wrote some of my stuff there. Then they got stuck there because there was no LPTE printer available at home. And the device was thrown away or given away. Can’t remember, I wish I had this knowledge back then….
that's what i did when i bought this. Had an old printer that it could print from circa 1999, but having the digital text stuck in this device was still useless.
**AWESOME sunlight readable display **Can't use outside because it relies on a phone line **Forgot to put the storage in **Stuck to using OUR ISP or else!!! **Silicon Valley must have made it
Great video! I love being able to use old hardware with some minor modification. It’s a shame the keyboard isn’t that good. Usually keyboards older devices are what was good about them. Curious, how long the battery on this lasts or does it have to stay plugged in? I like the beige but the black does look way cooler. If anyone is looking for something like this to just do word processing tasks, look into Alphasmart products. The Neo and Neo 2 were the best of the bunch and the keyboards feel great. Best past is they already connect to modern computers as with a USB connection. The cable required is USB-A to USB-B but almost everyone has one of these lying around or they are still readily available online.
Thanks! Battery life depends on how many times you dial up; but 3-4 weeks with typical use from what I recall. something to note, the manual say to never use lithium AA batteries, not sure why?
I also got one of these around 2004, and I absolutely hated it. The keyboard was awful, iirc the parallel port only ran at 9600baud max, and it felt cheap to type on. Totally not worth the $5.
I wonder if one can pull the LCD out of this and play videos on it. There's a video where someone did that and it looks pretty cool. Sort of like the videonow.
@@RetroBuiltGames these two links are the best ones I can find. ua-cam.com/video/zzJjE1VPKjI/v-deo.htmlsi=yU0RsZhBjJ_4ho32 ua-cam.com/video/n7uxEaGB9t0/v-deo.htmlsi=0gt8ioT482a05Dkh There's another one where someone is showing the output of an N64 console on a monochrome lcd from a Nokia phone. I really wish there was a way to show any type of video source like composite HDMI DVI or whatever. I wouldn't even mind having some type of device with a camera running into one of these screens.
I would remove that screen and put a slightly larger touchscreen in there and remove the motherboard and put a raspberry pie or tiny pc in there and use it as a raspberry pi computer or as a keyboard for a regular computer that also has a touchscreen menu with the top but I’m not sure if the keyboard is nice to type on so that might not be a good idea. But using it as a raspberry pi laptop would probably be the best bet as long as you get a screen that’s at least twice as high. This is a cool video though thanks!
A better solution would have been buying an old PC and putting Tandy Deskmate for DOS on it. It would have been easier to use, more functional, and cheaper. It's what my "parents" used. The Laser PC6 (as talked about by the 8Bit Guy) had more functionality for a third of the price.
Of course it's slow you set it to 9600 baud dude pick a higher serial clock If you use a program like HyperTerminal you can actually directly receive the text as a text file and not have to copy anything
ngl i honestly thought i was gonna get to see someone hack the device and "jail break" it and run Doom or something on it lol. still a neat piece of the past, i remember a lot of the proprietary stuffs and part of why i went in the direction of building my own PCs with the likes of Dell and HP basically roping you into a "you have to buy our replacement parts" scheme...
@@RetroBuiltGames it would be pretty neat to see one of those get reverse engineered and maybe a custom linux OS to turn it into a neat lil pocket PC though! i'm with you on installing stuff through command lines, too many years in the Windows age and few in the DOS era while was pretty young.
Dude you help me recover a core memory. My family did missionary things to Indian reservation such as build new a school,community center that was a really big facility because my dad was into construction. So we stayed over in a basement in this house one trip out to South Dakota, and in the basement a kid showed off something like fisher price computer, or on a fisher price furniture. What stood out about that computer from my memories is that it had a child focus like GUI, and that kid was bragging that he could send emails to his friends/family.
I don't remember the kid itself, I forgot what he looked like but I remember him showing off the computer. Also I recall seeing a garbage disposal device for the sink for the first time in my life in that same house.
I think this is it device because i recall watching that Imax movie about the burning Iraq oil wells on their giant projection TV, and that movie came out around 2001.
lol if there is a person less interesting than this device; that is the coldest of burns
Looks like a great thing to gut and use an ESP32 or Pico to make a compact WriterDeck.
ah i could never gut this thing. It's too interesting to me as a historical footnote.
For those of us who used Radio Shack model 100s with acoustic couplers, this Mail Station thing would have been the balls. Great video, thanks.
Interesting. I no longer have any hardware with parallel printer ports, but will remember this video in case that changes. Merry Christmas 🎁🎄
Merry Christmas to you too!
I had one of those mail stations when I was a kid. Once the Dial Up was dead I used it as a sort of PDA where I wrote some of my stuff there.
Then they got stuck there because there was no LPTE printer available at home.
And the device was thrown away or given away. Can’t remember, I wish I had this knowledge back then….
that's what i did when i bought this. Had an old printer that it could print from circa 1999, but having the digital text stuck in this device was still useless.
Thanks for the great video. That white one looks nice.
the camera lies, it's beige
Can't even load the CD Drive properly
First time viewer here, thumbs up and wry smile to camera was on point! Love it.
Thanks and welcome!
we need to bring these back imo
This was a great video. More obsolete hardware videos please.
0:04 Oh that CD placement 😱
triggered
I'm always learning more stuff. Thanks for the video
Glad it helped.
**AWESOME sunlight readable display
**Can't use outside because it relies on a phone line
**Forgot to put the storage in
**Stuck to using OUR ISP or else!!!
**Silicon Valley must have made it
This thing cries for a modern firmware replacement. :D
Great video! I love being able to use old hardware with some minor modification. It’s a shame the keyboard isn’t that good. Usually keyboards older devices are what was good about them. Curious, how long the battery on this lasts or does it have to stay plugged in? I like the beige but the black does look way cooler.
If anyone is looking for something like this to just do word processing tasks, look into Alphasmart products. The Neo and Neo 2 were the best of the bunch and the keyboards feel great. Best past is they already connect to modern computers as with a USB connection. The cable required is USB-A to USB-B but almost everyone has one of these lying around or they are still readily available online.
Thanks! Battery life depends on how many times you dial up; but 3-4 weeks with typical use from what I recall. something to note, the manual say to never use lithium AA batteries, not sure why?
I also got one of these around 2004, and I absolutely hated it. The keyboard was awful, iirc the parallel port only ran at 9600baud max, and it felt cheap to type on. Totally not worth the $5.
I am trying to find a spec on the parallel port speed; cant find it other than experience it being "slow"
I wonder if one can pull the LCD out of this and play videos on it. There's a video where someone did that and it looks pretty cool. Sort of like the videonow.
oooo! that would awesome to watch videos at 20:9 format. do you have a link?
@@RetroBuiltGames these two links are the best ones I can find.
ua-cam.com/video/zzJjE1VPKjI/v-deo.htmlsi=yU0RsZhBjJ_4ho32
ua-cam.com/video/n7uxEaGB9t0/v-deo.htmlsi=0gt8ioT482a05Dkh
There's another one where someone is showing the output of an N64 console on a monochrome lcd from a Nokia phone.
I really wish there was a way to show any type of video source like composite HDMI DVI or whatever. I wouldn't even mind having some type of device with a camera running into one of these screens.
I would remove that screen and put a slightly larger touchscreen in there and remove the motherboard and put a raspberry pie or tiny pc in there and use it as a raspberry pi computer or as a keyboard for a regular computer that also has a touchscreen menu with the top but I’m not sure if the keyboard is nice to type on so that might not be a good idea. But using it as a raspberry pi laptop would probably be the best bet as long as you get a screen that’s at least twice as high. This is a cool video though thanks!
Thanks! If the pi500 would just get a screen bolted to it I'd be down. this form factor= yes; but the keyboard feel...
Depending on what you use the usb with the arduino usb may not be sufficient
A typewriter without paper, LOL
A better solution would have been buying an old PC and putting Tandy Deskmate for DOS on it. It would have been easier to use, more functional, and cheaper. It's what my "parents" used.
The Laser PC6 (as talked about by the 8Bit Guy) had more functionality for a third of the price.
your better solution seems worse from a cost/portability perspective.
CINKO MAIL STATION?! WOW
they make everything!
La petite vidéo au début est extraordinaire. 😅
That is from "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job". A wonderful, irreverent skit comedy.
Of course it's slow you set it to 9600 baud dude pick a higher serial clock
If you use a program like HyperTerminal you can actually directly receive the text as a text file and not have to copy anything
thank you?
ngl i honestly thought i was gonna get to see someone hack the device and "jail break" it and run Doom or something on it lol. still a neat piece of the past, i remember a lot of the proprietary stuffs and part of why i went in the direction of building my own PCs with the likes of Dell and HP basically roping you into a "you have to buy our replacement parts" scheme...
i am not smart enough to install doom over a command line.
@@RetroBuiltGames it would be pretty neat to see one of those get reverse engineered and maybe a custom linux OS to turn it into a neat lil pocket PC though! i'm with you on installing stuff through command lines, too many years in the Windows age and few in the DOS era while was pretty young.
Replace the guts and display, and it will be awesome cyberdeck
🪬
I was enjoying this until you brought up that annoying energy wasting LLM. That was enough to make me stop watching.
Thank you for commenting! *this comment is LLM generated*