Hi All,
In my quest for minimalism, I think I've finally reached
the end of the line. My last attempt at a minimal e-mail
configuration saw me putting everything I needed on a 360k
diskette - including the OS. The success of that venture
really got me going and wondering how far I could actually
take this. If I could use an XT, why not a Mac, or even a
calculator? Well, that is exactly what I've done! I found
that I could use my "legacy" 4 banger (Sharp Elsi Mate
EL-220) calculator to send mail.
The trick is in the way it is connected to the modem. I
discovered that since it runs on two 1.5 volt batteries,
the logical on and off runs a full 3 volts differential.
That is enough to drive my old Packard Bell 300 baud
external modem. Finding the best place to hook into the
circuit was a bit of a challange, but some careful probing
with a digital VOM soon brought the desired result..... in
fact the power adaptor plug carries the desired signal. So
now all I had to do is run it off the internal batteries
and solder up a cable to run from the adaptor plug to
my modem. Easy! The hard part is inputting the letters
with the numeric keypad, but as it turns out, the percent
key is actually the same as Alt on my regular computer so
with a bit of practice I find that I can use the
Alt-number entries rather quickly. After practising with
it for a while and getting up to speed, I have been able
to input this message in just under 20 minutes.... just a
little slower than the average 2 finger typist. So there
you have it. A new survivor!
Cheers,
Ole Juul
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