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I love using old machines for productivity. I still write my blog posts in Markdown within vi running on a 1998 SPARCbook 3000ST (Solaris 2.5.1): https://jasone

I love using old machines for productivity. I still write my blog posts in Markdown within vi running on a 1998 SPARCbook 3000ST (Solaris 2.5.1): https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/hipsterism.jpg https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/hipst...

jseliger 3y ago
Reminds me of https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/my-long-goodbye-to-windows-xp https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/my-long-goodbye-to-windo...
- andsoitis 3y ago
  Their love for Windows XP resonates. But “My belief is that computer security is highly overrated” is just ignorant.
- torh 3y ago
  Wonder how long Windows 7 will last for him. I have Windows 8.1 at home (not my daily driver, for that I use Linux), and Google Chrome is no longer updated. Nor is much else. But it works for my tasks, which is Lightroom (the last one that was not subscription I guess).
emchammer 3y ago
Cool machine. How is the battery still functioning, have you replaced it?
- jasoneckert 3y ago
  Yes - I replaced the battery with a smaller/lighter version that provides much longer usage.
jacknews 3y ago
That keyboard (and trackpoint) is begging to be touched. I'll guess it's a thinkpad k/b. I do love vintage gear, but as a daily diriver, the rest of the machine looks, um, very vintage. Check those bezels! Though the LCD is barely visible anyway.
evanjrowley 3y ago
In case anyone wanted to read the article shown in the picture, here's the link: https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/ I facepalm'd when I realized the image itself was in the same article.
WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
I understand the thinking. My son's daily driver is a 1963 Dart he pulled out of some guy's weeds and then welded in scrap metal for floors.
- oblib 3y ago
  That is so cool to hear! I had one of those `63 Darts with a straight 6 in it back in the 80s. It was a blue four door. I put snow tires in the back and drove that car all over the dirt roads in the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles. One day I drove to the very end of a dirt road way up near the top of a mountain there and was just sitting there soaking in the view when I heard two big 4Wheeler Pickups rumbling up the road and when they came around the bend in the road where it ended and saw me in that old Dart sitting there it just crushed their egos. That is truly a great car!
  - drfuchs 3y ago
    Is your last name Magliozzi? The Car Guys were always talking about Tom’s (Ray’s?) ‘62 Dodge Dart that just wouldn’t die.
    - WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
      A 63 convertible, iirc.
justsomehnguy 3y ago
Makes me wonder if you can downgrade to GRID. Or teletype: https://deadstate.org/look-at-these-hipsters-and-their-fcking-vintage-typewriters/ https://deadstate.org/look-at-these-hipsters-and-their-fckin...
jbeard4 3y ago
Beautiful hardware
bpye 3y ago
I searched for that laptop and your blog [0,1] is the only result I found. I love it. [0] https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook3000st-the-coolest-90s-laptop/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook3000st-the-coo... [1] https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook-teardown/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook-teardown/
Duanemclemore 3y ago
Stunning. My high school roommate (1996-7ish) had a Sparcbook. He let me use it a few times, and even at the time it just felt good. I still have the dot matrix printout of everything I ran / wrote on a TI-99/4a in the early nineties. I wish my parents hadn't s#!tcanned that machine when I went to college, I bet I could write markdown with a modem and some kind of VCS on it to publish content even on the modern web with that old dog. Anyway, that's not to hijack your comment - even at the time, probably almost 15 years after the TI-99/4a came out I felt like there were restrictions on what you could do with a machine that kept you focused on the task at hand in really productive ways. So I totally understand.
metadat 3y ago
How are the keys in such good shape? My keyboards wear out within a few years on the meta keys, and sometimes particular letters. They typically lose some of the lettering and the plastic is shiny or worn down. Note: I keep my fingernails quite short. I do type a lot, though.
- jasoneckert 3y ago
  It's one of those original indestructible Lexmark-designed IBM keyboards - I'm not sure what coating they used, but they rarely wear. That's why there are so many pristine mid-90's Thinkpads out there.

jseliger 3y ago

Reminds me of https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/my-long-goodbye-to-windows-xp https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/my-long-goodbye-to-windo...

andsoitis 3y ago
Their love for Windows XP resonates. But “My belief is that computer security is highly overrated” is just ignorant.
torh 3y ago
Wonder how long Windows 7 will last for him. I have Windows 8.1 at home (not my daily driver, for that I use Linux), and Google Chrome is no longer updated. Nor is much else. But it works for my tasks, which is Lightroom (the last one that was not subscription I guess).

emchammer 3y ago

Cool machine. How is the battery still functioning, have you replaced it?

jasoneckert 3y ago
Yes - I replaced the battery with a smaller/lighter version that provides much longer usage.

jacknews 3y ago

That keyboard (and trackpoint) is begging to be touched. I'll guess it's a thinkpad k/b. I do love vintage gear, but as a daily diriver, the rest of the machine looks, um, very vintage. Check those bezels! Though the LCD is barely visible anyway.

evanjrowley 3y ago

In case anyone wanted to read the article shown in the picture, here's the link: https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/copyleft-is-dying/ I facepalm'd when I realized the image itself was in the same article.

WarOnPrivacy 3y ago

I understand the thinking. My son's daily driver is a 1963 Dart he pulled out of some guy's weeds and then welded in scrap metal for floors.

oblib 3y ago
That is so cool to hear! I had one of those `63 Darts with a straight 6 in it back in the 80s. It was a blue four door. I put snow tires in the back and drove that car all over the dirt roads in the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles. One day I drove to the very end of a dirt road way up near the top of a mountain there and was just sitting there soaking in the view when I heard two big 4Wheeler Pickups rumbling up the road and when they came around the bend in the road where it ended and saw me in that old Dart sitting there it just crushed their egos. That is truly a great car!
- drfuchs 3y ago
  Is your last name Magliozzi? The Car Guys were always talking about Tom’s (Ray’s?) ‘62 Dodge Dart that just wouldn’t die.
  - WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
    A 63 convertible, iirc.

justsomehnguy 3y ago

Makes me wonder if you can downgrade to GRID. Or teletype: https://deadstate.org/look-at-these-hipsters-and-their-fcking-vintage-typewriters/ https://deadstate.org/look-at-these-hipsters-and-their-fckin...

jbeard4 3y ago

Beautiful hardware

bpye 3y ago

I searched for that laptop and your blog [0,1] is the only result I found. I love it. [0] https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook3000st-the-coolest-90s-laptop/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook3000st-the-coo... [1] https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook-teardown/ https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/sparcbook-teardown/

Duanemclemore 3y ago

Stunning. My high school roommate (1996-7ish) had a Sparcbook. He let me use it a few times, and even at the time it just felt good. I still have the dot matrix printout of everything I ran / wrote on a TI-99/4a in the early nineties. I wish my parents hadn't s#!tcanned that machine when I went to college, I bet I could write markdown with a modem and some kind of VCS on it to publish content even on the modern web with that old dog. Anyway, that's not to hijack your comment - even at the time, probably almost 15 years after the TI-99/4a came out I felt like there were restrictions on what you could do with a machine that kept you focused on the task at hand in really productive ways. So I totally understand.

metadat 3y ago

How are the keys in such good shape? My keyboards wear out within a few years on the meta keys, and sometimes particular letters. They typically lose some of the lettering and the plastic is shiny or worn down. Note: I keep my fingernails quite short. I do type a lot, though.

jasoneckert 3y ago
It's one of those original indestructible Lexmark-designed IBM keyboards - I'm not sure what coating they used, but they rarely wear. That's why there are so many pristine mid-90's Thinkpads out there.