This blerb and the screen shown here taught me WHY there is an option to make mouse pointer leave trails - before I thought about that option as a random appearance thing.
My grandfather has an Extensa 565 that he still uses. Its only job is to automate opening/closing of his curtains. The screen is so faded he has to use an external monitor.
ima tell you the life story of that laptop. So the protagonist is Tim, Tim really likes this girl Vania. Tim really wants to impress Vania. Tim goes to his local computer shop and buys the cheapest laptop he can get. He sets up the laptop just for her, he waits until valentines day. He puts the flash animation of himself on the laptop to set the mood when she brings it home. On valentines day he confesses his love for her by giving her the laptop. she rejects the laptop and throes the power brick at him and walks off. Heartbroken Tim sadly walks home, he puts the laptop in the closet never to be touched again. he finds the laptop again, and donates it to you. So Tim tell me if I am wrong I think I got the story pretty close didn't I. Tell me Tim, tell me if I got it wrong and if so tell me the actual story.
Screens like this remind me again of how thankful I am that active matrix finally became the norm. You paid a good $400+ premium for them back in the day, but the difference was night and day - almost literally.
I worked at Texas Instruments in the early to mid 90's. They made laptop computers in a small town in Central Texas. The TravelMate brand was fully TI designed and built by TI. By 1995 TI decided to bring in some less expensive models built by Taiwanese manufacturers. The Extensa 550CD was one of those systems and it was built by FIC. I was on the team that brought those in. I got to spend a couple of months at the FIC factory outside of Taipei doing what was called "factory authorization inspections" which was quality inspections on the first production run of the Extensa models. TI also had another Extensa model that was produced by Acer.
It doesn't seem like anyone else is going to bring this up, so I will. That flash animation was actually done by John K., of Ren a Stimpy fame. He made a lot of Flash back in the day.
$2,799 for this bad boy without the extra RAM, from what I can find. You could also get it with an active matrix display for an additional $800. Unbelievable how expensive laptops used to be if you also consider inflation.
This is taking me back to high school, my dad had gotten a really, really out of date laptop for 'cheap' (IDK what he paid for it, but he said 'cheap'). How out of date? It ran windows 3.11 and I graduated in 2004.
This is the laptop I had in highschool and college. I loved it so much, and I miss the heck out of it. if any manufacturer can make something like this again, I would buy it immediately.
Man...I remember these. When my department, back in '98, was depreciating old equipment to give away to employees, one of these was turned in by the hardware engineering dept. so they could upgrade to a shiny new Compaq. Anyway, I'd made everything else ready for the giveaway, and this was one of the few stragglers. I could NOT get the Ti video or sound drivers to work. They'd install and let me put the display at 8 or 16 bit color (it's been a while, don't recall) and play audio but as soon as I rebooted the laptop, it would default back to the previous settings, and from there on it wouldn't acknowledge the changes. Ended up going to the recycle bin.
I just picked up a mint Toshiba 430cdt P120 machine. Has a fresh restore from 2004 with only one user created document. Screen is really nice on it too. Battery even still holds a charge. I like that the PSU is internal.
I love these videos. Perfect for to watch with a coffee during a cloudy, rainy day. I was born in ‘97 but I get nostalgic for this kind of old hardware.
To those pointing out Acer also makes Extensa laptops: yep, and with good reason! They bought the notebook division from Texas Instruments in 1997.
Water faucet is power management indicator; 1 drip is conservative, 2+ drips is max power. :)
This blerb and the screen shown here taught me WHY there is an option to make mouse pointer leave trails - before I thought about that option as a random appearance thing.
My grandfather has an Extensa 565 that he still uses. Its only job is to automate opening/closing of his curtains. The screen is so faded he has to use an external monitor.
I see TI managed to fit a second screen on a laptop without removing the function keys... i wonder why apple couldnt figure it out 25years later...
Clint, stop kink-shaming the power cable
The ghosting on that screen makes my blood pressure rise.
ima tell you the life story of that laptop. So the protagonist is Tim, Tim really likes this girl Vania. Tim really wants to impress Vania. Tim goes to his local computer shop and buys the cheapest laptop he can get. He sets up the laptop just for her, he waits until valentines day. He puts the flash animation of himself on the laptop to set the mood when she brings it home. On valentines day he confesses his love for her by giving her the laptop. she rejects the laptop and throes the power brick at him and walks off. Heartbroken Tim sadly walks home, he puts the laptop in the closet never to be touched again. he finds the laptop again, and donates it to you. So Tim tell me if I am wrong I think I got the story pretty close didn't I. Tell me Tim, tell me if I got it wrong and if so tell me the actual story.
Screens like this remind me again of how thankful I am that active matrix finally became the norm. You paid a good $400+ premium for them back in the day, but the difference was night and day - almost literally.
You skipped over the most important connectivity option, IrDA! That little black window on the back looked like IR and old ads confirm that it is.
I worked at Texas Instruments in the early to mid 90's. They made laptop computers in a small town in Central Texas. The TravelMate brand was fully TI designed and built by TI. By 1995 TI decided to bring in some less expensive models built by Taiwanese manufacturers. The Extensa 550CD was one of those systems and it was built by FIC. I was on the team that brought those in. I got to spend a couple of months at the FIC factory outside of Taipei doing what was called "factory authorization inspections" which was quality inspections on the first production run of the Extensa models. TI also had another Extensa model that was produced by Acer.
"I don't know what this little water faucet icon is that showed up right there..."
It doesn't seem like anyone else is going to bring this up, so I will. That flash animation was actually done by John K., of Ren a Stimpy fame. He made a lot of Flash back in the day.
$2,799 for this bad boy without the extra RAM, from what I can find. You could also get it with an active matrix display for an additional $800. Unbelievable how expensive laptops used to be if you also consider inflation.
This is taking me back to high school, my dad had gotten a really, really out of date laptop for 'cheap' (IDK what he paid for it, but he said 'cheap'). How out of date? It ran windows 3.11 and I graduated in 2004.
This is the laptop I had in highschool and college. I loved it so much, and I miss the heck out of it. if any manufacturer can make something like this again, I would buy it immediately.
Man...I remember these. When my department, back in '98, was depreciating old equipment to give away to employees, one of these was turned in by the hardware engineering dept. so they could upgrade to a shiny new Compaq. Anyway, I'd made everything else ready for the giveaway, and this was one of the few stragglers. I could NOT get the Ti video or sound drivers to work. They'd install and let me put the display at 8 or 16 bit color (it's been a while, don't recall) and play audio but as soon as I rebooted the laptop, it would default back to the previous settings, and from there on it wouldn't acknowledge the changes. Ended up going to the recycle bin.
ok Clint, that Gothic game in the background has been teasing me for quite some time now! I'm dying to see your review of it.
I just picked up a mint Toshiba 430cdt P120 machine. Has a fresh restore from 2004 with only one user created document. Screen is really nice on it too. Battery even still holds a charge. I like that the PSU is internal.
I love these videos. Perfect for to watch with a coffee during a cloudy, rainy day. I was born in ‘97 but I get nostalgic for this kind of old hardware.