26 July 2006
Gateway Handbook circa 1994 and now.
Why Won't the Big laptop companies build something worth while and easy for carrying.
Wow, Computers are such a Black Hole for my time. Think way back, dredge up the memory modules and put yourself around 1993 or 94... Got it yet, Win95 was a beta being passed around the warez Bullitin Boards and the Web was a thing of dreams. I was running a Cardinal Technologies PC-10 an Integrated computer, it was a nice little unit similar to a IBM PS2, 486SX-16 with 8 meg of ram and a 20mb harddrive. Well at that time Gateway was selling, what I thought, a cool little machine called the Handbook. It orginally came out as a "286" with 4 meg of RAM and a 20 meg HD. But then they came out with a 486 version which I lusted after. lots of info about the Handbook can be found here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Handbook.
Well thru the luxuries of Ebay I finally ended up with one. Well I actually have 2 but I am using the faster dx40 and letting the sx25 sit. I have just about gone thru the whole rigamarole that many on The web have gone thru, changing the HD for a 512 Compact Flash card, ripping apart an existing battery pack and rebuilding it into a AA pack for 4 NIMH batteries and finding a 16 Meg Ram chip to put in it. I can now run win 95 and sit with it on my lap for about 2 hours of taking notes and reading QuickBible NASB, WWW.Lockman.Org, before a set of 4 AA NIMH runs out. This computer make for a lot of good sense, and I wish that the Big makers would come up with a similar one with today's technology in it. It would make great sense if Dell or some other company made one of these with a good 800x600 color screen, a built in WIFI, and a PC card slot or one for the newer flash memory cards like SD. If these could be built with a little slower technology that would not require an internal fan they could be sold to students and families for around $250 to $400. Look what kids (and parents) are willing to spend for an iPod...
<<< I almost got this off of Ebay but it went above my limit by $1, Dang it. It is a 6 AA battery pack for a Handbook. The biggest problem with a Handbook is the batteries are upwards of $50 and the charger/power supply is almost as big as the handbook itself.
Well I have been having a lot of fun with this and while it is older tech, it will do the job I want for it.
http://www.angelfire.com/al/priddyink/handbook486.html
http://www.jblum.com/articles/gwhb/gwhb.htm
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/rees/openbsd/gwhb.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Hb486_dillo_big.jpg ¶ 9:25 AM
Wow, Computers are such a Black Hole for my time. Think way back, dredge up the memory modules and put yourself around 1993 or 94... Got it yet, Win95 was a beta being passed around the warez Bullitin Boards and the Web was a thing of dreams. I was running a Cardinal Technologies PC-10 an Integrated computer, it was a nice little unit similar to a IBM PS2, 486SX-16 with 8 meg of ram and a 20mb harddrive. Well at that time Gateway was selling, what I thought, a cool little machine called the Handbook. It orginally came out as a "286" with 4 meg of RAM and a 20 meg HD. But then they came out with a 486 version which I lusted after. lots of info about the Handbook can be found here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Handbook.
Well thru the luxuries of Ebay I finally ended up with one. Well I actually have 2 but I am using the faster dx40 and letting the sx25 sit. I have just about gone thru the whole rigamarole that many on The web have gone thru, changing the HD for a 512 Compact Flash card, ripping apart an existing battery pack and rebuilding it into a AA pack for 4 NIMH batteries and finding a 16 Meg Ram chip to put in it. I can now run win 95 and sit with it on my lap for about 2 hours of taking notes and reading QuickBible NASB, WWW.Lockman.Org, before a set of 4 AA NIMH runs out. This computer make for a lot of good sense, and I wish that the Big makers would come up with a similar one with today's technology in it. It would make great sense if Dell or some other company made one of these with a good 800x600 color screen, a built in WIFI, and a PC card slot or one for the newer flash memory cards like SD. If these could be built with a little slower technology that would not require an internal fan they could be sold to students and families for around $250 to $400. Look what kids (and parents) are willing to spend for an iPod...
<<< I almost got this off of Ebay but it went above my limit by $1, Dang it. It is a 6 AA battery pack for a Handbook. The biggest problem with a Handbook is the batteries are upwards of $50 and the charger/power supply is almost as big as the handbook itself.
Well I have been having a lot of fun with this and while it is older tech, it will do the job I want for it.
http://www.angelfire.com/al/priddyink/handbook486.html
http://www.jblum.com/articles/gwhb/gwhb.htm
http://www.citi.umich.edu/u/rees/openbsd/gwhb.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Hb486_dillo_big.jpg ¶ 9:25 AM
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Doesa the aa battery pack work with the 486 handbook? I though it only had the power for the 286.... hmmmm, if onloy I coiuld find one (I'd pay more than a buck at this point for aa batteries as my power source)
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