Time to "unbox" and check out this Logitech Trackman Portable. Will it be as expected? Well... no. Does it work with my AST Premium Exec just the way I want? Yes. Am I happy with it? YES!! Let's get into details in a 🧵 here!
Okay, well, let's start at the beginning and unbox. I took the "shrinkwrap" off, and this is the box. I always love having the box for cool devices like this.
Here are the contents! Some manuals, the trackball itself, and some communications program called Crosstalk because.. well.. who doesn't need a telecom program bundled with a pointing device? 😂. Ah, those were strange times 🤣
Here we have a closeup with the trackball. Hey! This isn't serial!! Hey, the accessories are missing. And why are things crossed out in marker? Yea, this is clearly a "rebox". But to be honest, when I picked this up, I was hoping for a PS/2 version instead really! Win!!
Here's some more "evidence" that this is not new old stock. Once again, that's fine, because it does WORK GREAT!
With this now in my possession, I'll be replacing this grody old serial mouse for use with the AST Premium Exec. For $15, I am well pleased, and this snaps on the keyboard nicely! Anyway, thanks for following along!
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During my travels to different thrift stores in the Northern Virginia area, I did pick up THREE different parts to create an Altec Lansing setup. Or, so I thought I had what I needed for a setup 😂. Yeah, not quite. Let's talk about what I learned in a 🧵 here.
When I was at one one of the thrift stores, there were a set of speakers and a subwoofer on a rack. I thought they would pair together since they were on the same shelf. These were the speakers. And I think this was the subwoofer (not my picture).
Here once again is the subwoofer I picked up today. An Altec Lansing ACS45. And you can see my speakers are ACS5's. Looking at the back of the speakers, they use a standard 3.5mm connector. The subwoofer expects a DIN for the speaker connection. Oops.
Going through my thrifting photos for the past few days, and I didn't get to posting a few, so here we go. Time for a 🧵
First, we have some optical drives and some media I found at one of the Goodwills. Glad I waited, I found a much better deal on media at Savers today!
At a Savers in Woodbridge, VA, Justin found a modem he wanted. I also saw a few computers (not too interesting), and this cool boombox!
As I noted yesterday, L&Y Electronics is a vibe 😂. Even looking through the windows reveals the "organized" chaos that awaits. And it never disappoints!
As a part of my "PC deduplication" efforts, I decided to swap this UMC Green CPU into my Gateway 486/33C tower. Naturally, not everything went to plan 😂. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here.
First of all, to get started, here's some pictures of the insides of the Gateway. Currently there is a 486DX-33 "overdrive" processor, which I will hold onto for later. I took a nice picture of the card order (less critical for an ISA system, but figured why not!)
Here are the cards currently in the system too. Some of them will get reinstalled, but some will not, more on that in a minute. That goofy card you see on the bottom left is for my tape drive!
Okay, just wrapped another case swap, this time for my 486DX4/100 system. Naturally, I had a few problems to sort out as I went through this. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here.
I ended once swapping from a "new" Macase that I bought recently that was in better shape. Despite being the same model, they are slightly different! One is a little taller and has some other differences. Funny how things that look so similar can be different 😂
Here you can see the inside of the DX4/100. I took a picture of the front panel connections and the order of the cards per usual. This will help with placement in the new case, perhaps 😂
Time to do a case swap for my Pentium 233 MMX. We're going from one Enlight case to another! Here's the end result. I thought this was going to be easier than it was, let's talk about it in, you guessed it, a 🧵 here!
So, you might ask: why do a swap? Well, the current case for my Pentium 233 MMX is nice, but it is a little bit beat up. I found this poor computer in 2019 at Computer Reset being used as a "stepping stool" to get to higher shelves. And I rescued it!
I thought to myself "okay, this is only going to take a few minutes, I'll just swap the cover." Well, despite looking the same, these two Enlight AT cases are actually different! So that plan didn't work out 😂. The cover doesn't fit!!
Okay, the first PC project is complete in support of my "slight collection slimdown." I've set up my Compaq Presario 2200 to "match" how the Presario 2100 was configured. Let's talk about it in a 🧵 here.
So, the first question people may ask is "why the trade up?" Well, the Presario 2200 is slightly faster, and is cosmetically in better shape. The 2100 is missing a FDD button and a volume button. Probably could be 3D printed, but that's ok.. a future project for someone else😂
The 2100 does have a slightly better condition top cover. I was going to swap it for the 2200... but... they are actually a little different, one is taller than the other! That's fine, no biggie.