geekhack
geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: SamirD on Sat, 02 December 2017, 12:35:01
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Found this while looking for something else:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bizarre-Netpliance-I-Opener-keyboard-from-dot-com-bust-with-D-Pad-and-pizza-key/222734418559?hash=item33dc01827f:g:JuEAAOSw9hdZ8q4o
"Here is an unusual find and a tacky souvenir from the end of the dot com bubble: a compact PS/2 keyboard with built-in arrow keys, made in China for the first mass-market "Internet appliance": The Netpliance I-Opener. It has a rubber circle (called a D-Pad) in the upper right for the 4 arrow keys.
In 1999, when cheap home PCs were $500 to $700 Netpliance built a somewhat retarded PC for $300, which they soon discounted to $99. They required a $21.95/month subscription for dial-up internet access, and designed their internet terminal first time internet users who didn't want to know about IP addresses, Windows device drivers, cache memory in CPUs, or upgrade options. They partnered with several companies, now mostly forgotten. The one partner we remember is Papa John's Pizza, who was rewarded with a dedicated key on the keyboard. All a subscriber had to do was press the Pizza key to connect to Papa John's website and place an order for delivery.
What we also remember about Netpliance is that in 2000 a hacker from Indiana noticed that the innards of the I-Opener were similar to a standard PC, and that it could easily be hardware hacked to run Linux or WIndows and avoid using Netpliance as your internet service provider. Netpliance thought they could thwart hardware hacking by securing their BIOS chip into the socket with epoxy, and then by releasing a more restrictive BIOS. However, the company went belly-up in 2002.
Netpliance 6511-N keyboards are usually available on eBay, but they rarely sell, since the sellers assume that the internet is full of wealthy tacky-tech collectors who value the novelty of the "Pizza key" at 3 or 4 times the monthly income of a farmer in Burkina Faso. The I-Opener was born to be cheap, so I'm keeping its keyboard that way."
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Interesting. I've never even heard of Netpliance.
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I vaguely remember them back in the day. This was around the time AOL was passing out CDs to every person on the planet and Netzero was starting to introduce 'free' dialup internet. There were some crazy ideas on how to get everyone online back then. :-\
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I vaguely remember them back in the day. This was around the time AOL was passing out CDs to every person on the planet and Netzero was starting to introduce 'free' dialup internet. There were some crazy ideas on how to get everyone online back then. :-\
Speaking of this epoch, I just finished watching a great series called "Halt and Catch Fire (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/halt_and_catch_fire)" that ran from 2014–2017. Maybe you all know about it, but I didn't... It follows a group of engineers and entrepreneurs, from the dawn of the personal computing era to the early Internet. The characters are compelling, and the producers bent over backwards to make as historically and esthetically authentic as possible. It's on Netflix now—I highly recommend it.
("Halt and catch fire" was a facetious term for a bug that locked up the system.)
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I vaguely remember them back in the day. This was around the time AOL was passing out CDs to every person on the planet and Netzero was starting to introduce 'free' dialup internet. There were some crazy ideas on how to get everyone online back then. :-\
Speaking of this epoch, I just finished watching a great series called "Halt and Catch Fire (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/halt_and_catch_fire)" that ran from 2014–2017. Maybe you all know about it, but I didn't... It follows a group of engineers and entrepreneurs, from the dawn of the personal computing era to the early Internet. The characters are compelling, and the producers bent over backwards to make as historically and esthetically authentic as possible. It's on Netflix now—I highly recommend it.
("Halt and catch fire" was a facetious term for a bug that locked up the system.)
Oh, I remember when that series came out on TV. I never got a chance to watch it, but will have to check it out! :thumb:
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I'm tempted to buy it just because of the the effort the seller went to with the description. Rather interesting!
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Yes, he does such a great job on all his descriptions--just worth it to rummage through his listings and read. :cool:
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Found this while looking for something else...
That's how I found my wife, too, but don't tell her that.
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Found this while looking for something else...
That's how I found my wife, too, but don't tell her that.
lmao
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WOW! THAT IS AN AMAZING KEYBOARD. I AM GOING TO BUY ONE RIGHT NOW IF I CAN FIND ONE AT A LOWER PRICE.
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[edited to remove annoying quoted text—you're welcome]
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maybe it once belonged to pizza hut :/
now its a retired pizza typer
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WOW! THAT IS AN AMAZING KEYBOARD. I AM GOING TO BUY ONE RIGHT NOW IF I CAN FIND ONE AT A LOWER PRICE.
I take it you support The Donald? That would explain all the shouting.
I BET YOU SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP TOO.
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Found this while looking for something else...
That's how I found my wife, too, but don't tell her that.
Me too! lol! :))
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WOW! THAT IS AN AMAZING KEYBOARD. I AM GOING TO BUY ONE RIGHT NOW IF I CAN FIND ONE AT A LOWER PRICE.
I take it you support The Donald? That would explain all the shouting.
Nah, that's just Microsoft Windows, akin to tp4tissue in posting style. ;)
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[edited to remove annoying quoted text—you're welcome]
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My man, I think your political views are little skewed and though I don't neccessarily agree with you, I think this is the wrong venue for political arguement. I really want to say something about your last comment but a thread about a keyboard with a pizza key is not the right setting.
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...I really want to say something about your last comment but a thread about a keyboard with a pizza key is not the right setting.
Sorry, but I can't show that comment anymore because it was in response to something people didn't want me to quote. My hands are tied, which makes it very difficult to type.
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DO YOU EVER ORDER PIZZA IN THE MAIL?
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No, but I have gotten some via email.
Anyone remember these guys (Samurai Pizza Cats)?
(https://d1m6vmmwsgiy3l.cloudfront.net/images/screenshots/screenshot_1_21226.jpg)
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I HAVE NO MEMORY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THAT IMAGE.
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I HAVE NO MEMORY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THAT IMAGE.
So you do remember!
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I HAVE NO MEMORY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THAT IMAGE.
So you do remember!
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Alzheimer's must be a pain in the ***
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