[rescue] AIX N40 Tadpole

[Justin Haynes]

Ian, *exactly*.  I was so frustrated when I heard that.  Likely, they just
threw them in a dumpster or let some kids tear them apart:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/invtreports/tx072004.html



On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Ian Finder <ian.finder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ugh. And what do you think they charter school even did with them? I'll bet
> they had no idea what to do and once they found out they couldn't run
> Windows 98 they probably eCycled them...
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Justin Haynes <justin at justinhaynes.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Rescue -
> >
> > If I could go back and do this over again, I would.  I used to work at
> > University of Houston and at the time was the property custodian for my
> > department.  As such I could go to property management and pull items
> from
> > storage that were mostly ultimately destined for recycling or various
> other
> > non-profit or privileged organizations who could come and take their
> pick.
> >
> > There was a pile of Tadpole N40 laptops and I checked out a couple.  I
> > finally checked them back in, thinking maybe I'd buy one at auction.  But
> > before that could happen, a "charter school" came and took them.  It was
> a
> > school later mentioned on the radio as one of many who were taking
> > advantage of public funds and leaving disadvantaged kids with less of an
> > education than the public alternative.
> >
> > At any rate, they ran AIX and and almost no battery life at all, but they
> > represented an interesting slice of time at what I read as the very end
> of
> > the UNIX wars where there was a market, but not much of one, for small
> > laptops that matched the architecture of big iron.
> >
> > Does anyone have one of these today?  I'd be interested in preserving
> one.
> > My SPARCbook 3gx is a delight.  I don't use it often, but I will preserve
> > it and keep it alive, bootable and usable.  I'd do the same for the N40.
> >
> > I run OpenBSD on the 3gx but I have all the media for Solaris.  I know I
> > could always put Solaris back on the box.  But I think it is a testament
> to
> > the architecture that a software project can choose to maintain a modern
> OS
> > for an older architecture and that it can still be usable today.
> >
> > If I had an N40, I'd keep AIX on it, because I think this platform is so
> > rare as to be really dififcult to find.  (Any disagreements here?)  If
> > anyone wants to make space who has one, I'd be interested in preserving.
> >
> > Thanks!,
> >
> > Justin.
> > _______________________________________________
> > rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
> >
>
>
>
> --
>    Ian Finder
>    (206) 395-MIPS
>    ian.finder at gmail.com
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue