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LGR - Netpliance ๐ i-Opener ๐
🕑 Added 2023-08-16 18:34:56 +0000 UTCGreetings! It's been quite a busy week. I returned from my Long Island convention trip on Sunday and immediately got back to work on the projects I left behind earlier in the month. This particular episode is one of those I was laying a bunch of groundwork on before the trip, with the goal being to get enough done beforehand to finish it in a few days once I got back. Thankfully it worked out.
The Netpliance i-Opener is a topic I've wanted to cover for years now! Although it's one that I've had so long that when I first got the thing in 2012, it wasn't yet "old enough" for a retrospective. I simply grabbed it while thrifting because it was something I remember reading about on Slashdot and various forums for its hackability. Well, eleven years have passed and the time has finally come for a video.
I've always found the brief era of internet appliances around the turn of the millennium to be a fascinating one, with all its associated billions of invested dollars and marketing hype going down the drain just about as quickly as it arrived. And the i-Opener is a great place to start on the topic, I think. I have a number of devices in this category for future coverage should this one go over well, but yeah: one appliance at a time.
And now it's back to the other two videos I left literally on the table the other week. One being a 1990s digital camera, it's been ages since I've done one of those so I hope you're in the mood for some ugly plastics and crunchy JPEGs. So till next time, have a good one and thank you for your support! And a big shoutout to all of you I met at LI Retro โ it was a fantastic show in such a unique space, and I had lots of fun meeting up and hanging out. Y'all are awesome.
Comments
frankie2chins
Oh please hack this and make it order pizza directly.
CubicleNate
This came out during my "tech dark ages" when I basically hated all things computers (post death of Amiga, miserable on Win98). I had no idea about this thing. Very cool, tho. I would like to get Linux running on it because that is one of the fun things to do with Linux, for me. Thanks for the video!
LGR
Heh. Wonderful.
Anthony Biondo
https://i.imgur.com/gjMmnjw.mp4
Brett Walton
Reminds me of a dial-up version amazon echo or google nest.
LGR
Do you recall if yours had the same giant heatsink as mine? I was surprised to see that as I've only seen photos of these having much smaller coolers.
LGR
RELATABLE. Come to think of it, I had no interest in tennis growing up but all of a sudden I began taking lessons around 2000... pure coincidence I'm sure
LGR
I'd love to, I feel like I hardly saw anything in the grand scheme of things
LGR
The ghosting is horrendous for 1999! Possibly even worse than the Monorail computer I covered and that was made in '96.
LGR
And a Quite Nice eXample of it!
LGR
It legit inspired me to go and look up specially-made pizza keycaps for modern keyboards. Turns out they exist and I'm quite tempted.
LGR
I've never really considering the iMac to be related to the Internet Appliance category, but you're onto something! Despite it being quite the capable full desktop computer, I wouldn't doubt at all that it inspired some appliance ideas with its compact footprint and playful all-in-one design.
Josh Bernstein
I had a modded one of these! Bought it used (I think) after seeing it could be hacked. I used a USB ethernet adapter and that custom IDE cable with a CF adapter to originally run Linux. I did eventually switch to Windows though. That LCD screen really was terrible. I think I may have added a fan at some point too.
50_SHADES_OF_BEIGE
Agreed
50_SHADES_OF_BEIGE
Anna Kournikova ๐ฅฐ pretty sure she was my first crush. ๐
Richard
I hope you come back to LI one day! Thereโs a bunch of stuff that you HAVE to see over here.
Elliot Reid
So as with a lot of cheap IoT devices, weโve essentially gone full circle with this manufactured e-waste.
The Enforcer
Man, this device gives me serious WebTV/MSNTV vibes. Good for email and web surfing... but not much else. And no pizza button on that keyboard. Also, that LCD screen ghosting, JAYSUS.
ctrl.alt.rees
Oh man, QNX!
EdTheNerd
I need the pizza key
JennaKay
I always loved these things, so glad to see coverage! Back then even normal PCs had some kind of "web appliance" orientation. I remember the media buttons on my Sony Vaio's keyboard like "Mail" and "Internet" and a similar setup on the monitor of our old Toshiba tower. I wonder, where would you rate the iMac compared to these? It seems like it really kicked off the idea, and was in some ways a very successful "Internet Appliance".
LGR
Indeed. Same kinda walled garden of curated online content, except even more limited! No wonder AOL went onto release their own internet appliance back then.
LGR
Sure, thatโs always possible with a thing that relies on a server. The question is who would spend all the time engineering it, especially when itโs far easier to install Linux or whatever and have a better experience, right?
Hernando Heilbron
So it's basically AOL 5: The computer
Dukefazon
Would it be possible to set up some sort of a backend so it could connect to it? Somethink like with terminals, set up a fake server that it can connect to and download stuff that you put on it? I don't know what purpose it would serve other than the fact that you could see it actually doing something active and not just showing the time capsule data it has. It would be neat to have this as some sort of a dedicated Duke Nukem playing machine, but with that screen I can't think of a game that would work half decently on it.
LGR
Dang really? Admittedly never looked up online sales on these things since Iโve found them thrifting. Kinda surprised theyโd command much of a price!
LGR
I got this before Thrifts existed :)
Milos Jovanovic
Anyone remember in which thrifting episode this was found?
MichaelM
Also that Sony model with the vertical screen?? I want one!
MichaelM
The โpizza keyโ and the name I-Opener, along with that price makes this the best attempt at headline grabbing Iโve seen from the appliances - if they hadnโt doomed themselves by taking $400 loss per sale, they may have had a shot! Anyone remember when buying a pizza from WoW chat was a thing? Lol
Deckard Games
Weird stuff for us humble Europeans.
Knifethrower
Oh I always meant to grab one of these or the Compaq iPAQ but never did and now the prices have gotten to the point that I can't justify it now even if I could find one. Glad to see you covering it.
