Old Tandy laptops

Are there any writers or papers out there still using those old Tandy laptops from the early 1980s ... the TRS80, 100, 102 or 200? I have more than one of these, haven't used one in a while and don't know what to do with them. However, i did enjoy the queries of young writers about five years ago who would get an eyeful of my Tandy and ask "What is that thing?"

 

Oops, I didn't mean to post this in the writers' workshop. Oh well.

 

Jocko Connolly who covers track and college hockey for the Herald still has a TRS-80. Honest.

 

I'd actually kind of like to have one for sentimentall reasons. At the papers where I worked, filing was complicated as hell with them, but they were very dependable. One of the best days of my professional life was when I got at TRS200 with the flip-up screen that allowed me to see several paragraphs at a time rather than just four lines. Ah, good times.

 

I still curse the Trash 80s when I think about them. I'd love to see the reaction of younger reporters if they actually had to write stories on one of those things. The four-line screen was maddening.

 

Jocko would survive a nuclear winter. Guy's amazing.

 

Oh the days of the Tandy and the always trusty coupler. I remember those days, sending from my car and a telephone booth in the rain. What memories. And thank God they are memories.

 

So many old stories, so little time ...

And I never knew about the "banks." That would have come in handy many times.

 

Circa 1997: I was working on my laptop trying to file from a championship game. So here I am trying to hook up to the phone system in the arena, and I can't do it. Modem wouldn't communicate with their phone system. This was an older modem and a newer phone system, and for some reason they were incompatible. So I had to dictate.

Dude covering the game after mine using a Trash 80 mentions he was gonna file from the payphone after the game. Felt like a massive douche.

 

I swear to God you could drop a Trash 80 out of an airplane and it would still work when you parachuted to get it. I saw one guy, who was a lot more high-maintenance than the 80s, throw one across an NBA court one night when something pissed him off, and it still worked.

 

True story. One day in St. Pete, I left my Trash-80 on top of my car as I packed up to leave a spring training game. I only knew about it after I drove off and it slipped down the back of my car and bounced along the pavement. I backed up but accidently ran over it with one tire.

Damn if the thing still worked. Indestructible little critters. And kudos to any computer that could run on Double-A batteries like the good ol' Trash-80s

It's the Bill Brasky of computers