MDT9100

by zdw • 7 years ago

98 20 7 years ago

runjake• 7 years ago

Back when the local cops had these, a bunch of us used to intercept their communications with radio scanners and some software from the L0pht or some such.

The cops would use them like some early form of proto-instant messaging with apparently no oversight.

Lots of stories about sexual conquests, "check this slut's cleavage on 6th and Monroe out", etc. I remember one interesting conversation one night, where a patrol unit was requesting permission to pull over a train that was speeding through town too fast.

ocdtrekkie• 7 years ago

My guess is that its less likely it was without oversight, but that oversight wasn't concerned about the contents of messages perceived to be secure. And was this before FOIA? I feel like FOIA put a lot more government entities on alert to keep internal communications professional.

Semiapies• 7 years ago

The FOIA was effective in 1967; it became a bigger thing in by the late 70s.

msla• 7 years ago

I knew the cops in your town had SCMODS.

tlb• 7 years ago

That is a cool machine. It makes me think of something I wish I had: a portable computer that's (a) only usable for hacking, not surfing or gaming and (b) looks like it's for hacking.

Making good hacker laptops could be a great business. Similar electronics to gaming laptops but with very different industrial design.

blacksmith_tb• 7 years ago

Well, there's the Novena[1], depending on what kind of hacking you had in mind...

1: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena

thanksDr• 7 years ago

I bought a Novena as an act of personal faith. I don't regret it, as it was a religious choice.

It is completely unsuitable for browsing, that's for sure!

tyingq2• 7 years ago

How about a Jornada 680? I put an Altoids tin next to it for scale: https://imgur.com/a/EdtAerc

equalunique• 7 years ago

Pre-2013 ThinkPad with WiFi kill-switch

mmjaa• 7 years ago

Open Pandora. Dragonbox Pyra. PocketCHIP. They're out there ..

threeio• 7 years ago

Its funny that I remembered the new york resistor group as the people who did my teensy morse code keyboard, when in fact its the same dude. (https://trmm.net/Morse_Code_keyboard)

tyingq2• 7 years ago

The rest of Trammel's site is worth looking at. He's constantly doing something cool and interesting. I particularly like the sections on driving analog displays...he gets asteroids running on an oscilloscope, for example. In another post, he gets the PRU's in a Beaglebone black to drive the video display on an old Mac SE. Working well enough to display X11.

timthorn• 7 years ago

Nearly 20 years ago I was following the progress of his "Autopilot" project closely, to create an autonomous rotorcraft out of a remote control helicopter base platform. Tram went on to commercialise that through Rotomotion, but he's moved on since.

http://autopilot.sourceforge.net

LeoPanthera• 7 years ago

I have one of these, if you have any questions. I object to gutting them - they're amazing little devices as-is. Some notes:

You can hold down Shift while booting to let you into the Windows 3.0 Program Manager so that you can edit the GUI. (It is not, as claimed in the article, Windows 3.1.)

Holding down Alt-Shift allows you to edit the boot drive, and then there's a SYNC script to write your changes back. But it is VERY EASY to irretrievably brick the device doing this, so be ultra ultra careful.

JonathonW• 7 years ago

Maybe yours is running a different version of the software? The second picture in the article looks like it's running the original software, and it shows Windows 3.1 (running in 386 Enhanced Mode).

Agreed that it seems like a shame to gut the device. If it didn't boot, it'd be a different matter, but this one looks fairly functional-- seems like destroying a bit of history to me.

loeg3• 7 years ago

1.7A is pretty impressive (as in, substantial, for what that device does). My 2018 16-core PC draws like 0.5A at idle and the 30" LCD another 1.25A.

vageli• 7 years ago

I wonder if it's because of the CRT.

loeg3• 7 years ago

Yeah, that would be my guess too.

wtallis• 7 years ago

Are you saying your desktop idles at 6 W, or are you comparing current draw without regard to voltage difference?

In my experience, 30-50W is a more typical figure for a desktop to be drawing from the wall when idle but not put to sleep.

loeg3• 7 years ago

No, I'm saying my desktop idles around 60W and the monitor takes about 150W, on a 120V circuit. You're right, I didn't notice the article's 1.7A figure was on a 12V circuit.

MDT9100

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