My New Gadget, & My Mom's New Gadget Too!

I got my new gadget!

My mom got her new gadget too!

See what we got...

My notebook and my mom's sewing machine! They were all new gadget to both of us, err... 15 years ago if I recall the year correctly.

More than a decade ago before the Millennium, I got my first ever notebook, at the same time my mom got her dreamed sewing machine, not new though but inherited from my granny. I remember both of us were darn excited upon receiving the gadgets. Hehe... This old baby of mine is a Pentium based notebook with 40MB RAM. Hey, don't play play, small size = premium (young chaps, no netbook yet in 90s!), it's a 12" portable and it was one of the "Lexus" if not "Ferrari" in notebook segment that time. Despite the size, this tiny oldie has all the connectivity options including wireless 802.11b but no USB and Bluetooth as both technologies only came in a year or two later.

Unlike current kopitiam or mamak stall (cafe like Starbucks was not common yet), you don't easily get to see a notebook on the table top that time. I was like a celebrity walking on the red carpet into the mamak stall with all attention on me. Power it on with volume loud enough to share the endearing Windows 9x start up tune to everyone in the stall. You might already think what an arrogant fellow I was, to show off the notebook when none of the mamak stalls provide wifi in that decade?! Generation Y may not figure out what I'm blogging below but to the rest, do you recall your first mobile phone, the colorless screen and monotone ringtone? Did you change the operator logo to something else instead of the boring Maxis, DiGi text? Did you compete among your clique for the latest ringtone? Did you send flash sms expressing your love to your dream girl? Naughty you! :P Yeah, connecting my phone via infrared to this shabby notebook installed with a ringtone manager software, I helped my gang to stay at the front line in the trend with all trendy ringtones and fancy operator logos. Plus, this was the trick to attract more girls too! :")

Those were the days. Enough walk in the memory lane, I am looking forward for a new notebook now. It would be a joke of the century if I were to sit in KLCC's Starbucks with this machine, so any sponsor for a new lappy? :) Lenovo Malaysia is having a Breakthrough Contest. I found out the contest when I was browsing Lenovo site for my next potential notebook. Let's see if they are kind enough to give me one. Hurry up if you are interested to join too.

Check out more photos below if you are interested to see my old toy before I send it to museum. Mom's gadget? Nay, I ain't a "sewing geek" to blog about its functionality. Hehe...

Intel inside? iCore? Designed for Windows 95? What about W7? Hehe...

One thing to praise, the keyboard was well designed that maximizes the full size of the chasis, no space wastage. Perhaps new netbooks should inspire from here.

All the connectivity options, floppy, audio I/O, IR, battery, parallel port, serial, PS/2, VGA D-sub, docking, 2 x PCMCIA with 10/100Mbps, the hard disk...

This notebook has an extra feature that you can never find in other notebooks even the latest notebooks nowadays...

It comes with a crystal ball. Without it, you will not be able to use the notebook. Insert it and power on...

Hehe... It's the trackball. I lost the lock ring therefore the trackball can easily fall apart from the notebook, it's still operational though.

Ah, antivirus is outdated. Not sure if Symantec still support this dated version.

Lastly, this beast is still working flawlessly. Any potential buyer? LOL.