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[–] 8 points 1 week ago (9 children)

They will never take notes the same way again. You know it's bad when you use MD with pencil.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago (8 children)

    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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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)
  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    You can only see a few words at a time, very hard to read what you have typed out. The interface and software to get them to work was a pain in the ass. The file system they had was less than stellar, my shit kept getting overwritten or would not save correctly. Total junk.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    It used volatile memory, which was standard for the time, and required a battery backup to keep your data preserved in case the 3 AA cells (which lasted about 700 hours of use) completely drained. No, 700 is not a typo.

    The later editions (the Neo and Neo 2) are still compatible with modern technology, since when the Alphasmart is plugged into a computer (or smartphone) via USB, it shows up as a keyboard. Sending your text file to the computer basically just sends all the keystrokes over to your text editor of choice as though you’re typing it really fast.

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