When I was a kid, before laptops were commonly accessible, I had a device … I can’t remember what it was called, I keep thinking “Altavista,” but I know that was a search engine, not a device. I do recall that it was blue.
Anyway, the idea was, you’d type into it and it would store what you typed locally. Later, you’d plug it into a computer’s PS/2 port it would reproduce what you had typed by imitating a keyboard and literally typing out what was in its memory. My mom teased me because she’d sometimes review what I had put in and encounter  .
This device was how I discovered Y-connectors, which later resulted in me having a keyboard on my desk and a keyboard in a keyboard tray with one hand on each.
You can only see a few words at a time, very hard to read what you have typed out. The interface and software to get them to work was a pain in the ass. The file system they had was less than stellar, my shit kept getting overwritten or would not save correctly. Total junk.
It used volatile memory, which was standard for the time, and required a battery backup to keep your data preserved in case the 3 AA cells (which lasted about 700 hours of use) completely drained. No, 700 is not a typo.
The later editions (the Neo and Neo 2) are still compatible with modern technology, since when the Alphasmart is plugged into a computer (or smartphone) via USB, it shows up as a keyboard. Sending your text file to the computer basically just sends all the keystrokes over to your text editor of choice as though you’re typing it really fast.
They will never take notes the same way again. You know it’s bad when you use MD with pencil.
When I was a kid, before laptops were commonly accessible, I had a device … I can’t remember what it was called, I keep thinking “Altavista,” but I know that was a search engine, not a device. I do recall that it was blue.
Anyway, the idea was, you’d type into it and it would store what you typed locally. Later, you’d plug it into a computer’s PS/2 port it would reproduce what you had typed by imitating a keyboard and literally typing out what was in its memory. My mom teased me because she’d sometimes review what I had put in and encounter
 .This device was how I discovered Y-connectors, which later resulted in me having a keyboard on my desk and a keyboard in a keyboard tray with one hand on each.
AlphaSmart 2000?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart
Was it the AlphaSmart 3000?
I would guess 2000, since blue.
If it wasn’t, it was very similar looking.
Fuck, I hated those things. I would rather hand-write and then retype than use one of those.
Why?
You can only see a few words at a time, very hard to read what you have typed out. The interface and software to get them to work was a pain in the ass. The file system they had was less than stellar, my shit kept getting overwritten or would not save correctly. Total junk.
It used volatile memory, which was standard for the time, and required a battery backup to keep your data preserved in case the 3 AA cells (which lasted about 700 hours of use) completely drained. No, 700 is not a typo.
The later editions (the Neo and Neo 2) are still compatible with modern technology, since when the Alphasmart is plugged into a computer (or smartphone) via USB, it shows up as a keyboard. Sending your text file to the computer basically just sends all the keystrokes over to your text editor of choice as though you’re typing it really fast.