Comment on America has a solution for everything

• toynbee@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  When I was a kid, before laptops were commonly accessible, I had a device … I can’t remember what it was called, I keep thinking “Altavista,” but I know that was a search engine, not a device. I do recall that it was blue.

  Anyway, the idea was, you’d type into it and it would store what you typed locally. Later, you’d plug it into a computer’s PS/2 port it would reproduce what you had typed by imitating a keyboard and literally typing out what was in its memory. My mom teased me because she’d sometimes review what I had put in and encounter &nbsp.

  This device was how I discovered Y-connectors, which later resulted in me having a keyboard on my desk and a keyboard in a keyboard tray with one hand on each.

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  • Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Was it the AlphaSmart 3000?

    Image

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    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Fuck, I hated those things. I would rather hand-write and then retype than use one of those.

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      • toynbee@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Why?

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    • Fmstrat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I would guess 2000, since blue.

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    • toynbee@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      If it wasn’t, it was very similar looking.

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  • Fmstrat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    AlphaSmart 2000?

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart

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