Author Topic: What to do with a Thinkpad 350C... (Read 4329 times)

ChadTower · « **on:** September 28, 2005, 09:07:48 am »

...I'm picking one of these ancient laptops up in a couple of days. I believe it's a 486 SX 25. I'm sure it has some Vantage type use...

Ideas?

MustardTent · « **Reply #1 on:** September 28, 2005, 09:18:52 am »

Funny, I have one of these collecting dust in my closet. The LCD screen is WAY too crappy to be used as an arcade monitor, picture frame, or anything else that I can think of.

Do they even have PCMCIA slots (I'm not at home to check right now)?

ChadTower · « **Reply #2 on:** September 28, 2005, 09:22:53 am »

Doubtful... I wasn't really thinking anything elaborate, but were I to build a small table top type deal, I could make it so that I could simply swap it out with a better laptop when one comes my way.

Goz · « **Reply #3 on:** September 28, 2005, 10:22:25 am »

I have one I'm using as a door stop

Harry Potter · « **Reply #4 on:** September 28, 2005, 01:17:58 pm »

Do a gravity test off the side of a tall building.

paigeoliver · « **Reply #5 on:** September 29, 2005, 01:49:29 am »

I had a 100mhz version of that laptop. I gave it to some little girl in my apartment complex a few months ago. You could use old version emulators on it, but the LCD screens on them were terrible for games other than RPGs.

You won't be happy with any games with lots of motion.

ChadTower · « **Reply #6 on:** September 29, 2005, 08:59:16 am »

Yeah, I may just give it to my son to mess around with... I wasn't thinking anything with much effort, but maybe something quick would work.

NiN^_^NiN · « **Reply #7 on:** September 29, 2005, 09:23:28 am »

dont bother with vantage i used it on a old 486 laptop and the screen is just useless

plus thats a passive screen isn't it?

a digital picture frame is best

ChadTower · « **Reply #8 on:** September 29, 2005, 09:30:28 am »

I have a real digital picture frame, though.

ChadTower · « **Reply #9 on:** September 30, 2005, 10:43:18 am »

I am torn between putting stripped down Linux on it and giving it to my kids, to expose them to Linux... or just slapping vantage and some very basic pac etc games on it and keeping it in a place we can all get to it easily.

DemonBrew · « **Reply #10 on:** September 30, 2005, 11:52:15 am »

Not exactly *great* ideas, but:

You could dump a decent hard drive in it and run it as a NAS server. Check out the free diskette bootable NASLIte+ http://serverelements.com/ I use this app for a backup / mp3 jukebox storage.

Or if it has PCMCIA (two nic cards), make it a linux firewall / router.

I also used an old thinkpad as a Wardriving rig. Installed the Auditor Collection http://new.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_main with an Orinoco gold card.

Any of the Live Linux bootable CD distros is fun to play with on old hardware. Knoppix, KnoppixMAME, Helix, etc)

If you can stick a wireless nic in it, maybe configure it as a wireless access point?

Or as mentioned earlier - stress testing it with firecrackers, ability to leap tall buildings, stop a locomotive?

ChadTower · « **Reply #11 on:** September 30, 2005, 12:00:01 pm »

Hrm... don't need NAS, if I wanted more space I'd just grab another HD and stick it on the network. I keep most things I want around on permanent media anyway.

I have a dedicated firewall/router already.

I figure, I'll stick something basic on it, we will use it for a week, then it will go on a shelf in the basement until I dump it someplace.

missioncontrol · « **Reply #12 on:** September 30, 2005, 12:04:36 pm »

You must save it for your antique computer/console museum

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #13 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:18:05 pm »

use it for a prop in pro wrestling, you could mangle someone with it

ChadTower · « **Reply #14 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:21:56 pm »

Eh, only big things with a loud sound make a good prop.

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:25:08 pm »

kinda like your mom from behind, big and loud

Harry Potter · « **Reply #16 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:26:39 pm »

you're on fire today.

ChadTower · « **Reply #17 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:30:21 pm »

Damn, that makes my mom almost as big as yours. Gotta talk to her about that.

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #18 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:31:06 pm »

we should have them wrestle, we'll call it clash of the TITans

ChadTower · « **Reply #19 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:33:18 pm »

My mom is like 115lb but she can whup some ass.

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #20 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:33:42 pm »

got any pics?

ChadTower · « **Reply #21 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:38:02 pm »

Oh that's gonna happen.

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #22 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:40:38 pm »

hey did you ever post that pic of yourself you were debating whether or not to post on aim the other day? i wanna see =p

ChadTower · « **Reply #23 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:45:48 pm »

Oh, yeah, I didn't. It's on the PC at home. I'll have to get to it later.

Sephroth57 · « **Reply #24 on:** September 30, 2005, 01:47:39 pm »

do it up!

Stingray · « **Reply #25 on:** September 30, 2005, 04:17:12 pm »

Quote from: Sephroth57 on September 30, 2005, 01:33:42 pm

got any pics?

M'kay, now that's just disturbing.

-S

ChadTower · « **Reply #26 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:13:40 am »

Bah, no projects for this. The woman giving it to me stood me up after I drove a half hour to her house.

Stingray · « **Reply #27 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:27:31 am »

Freecycle?

I just signed up for a couple of local lists after reading your thread. Nothing I've been interested in has come up yet though.

-S

ChadTower · « **Reply #28 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:28:45 am »

Yep... drove three towns over, she was to have put it on her porch. I get there no one is home and nothing on the porch.

Sadly, no shows and not putting stuff out are far too common on Freecycle.

If you want something specific, put out a request for it. I've gotten some really kickass stuff off of Freecycle.

Stingray · « **Reply #29 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:33:35 am »

At this point, I'm not really looking for anything, just fishing to see what comes up.

-S

SirPoonga · « **Reply #30 on:** October 05, 2005, 10:41:25 am »

Other than IRC chat on #byoac, not much

That's all mine does. Can't even bring up web pages because
1) win98 won't install, stuck with 95 and IE 3
2) while opera does install it is insanely slow


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