16 Jan
2003
16 Jan
'03
4:49 p.m.
chris wrote:
Sounds like you are describing the Apple Set Top Box.
A wonderfully
useless peice of hardware.
[quick scan through Google]
Oh, that's the one alright. Nice looking thing. Might make a nice case for a
Performa or some other Logic Board.
This box does in/out as it is a sort of cable TV
tuner/interactive TV
device. But, as far as I know, there are no functional units in
existance. I think this is due mostly to the fact that they needed to
be connected to a special "server" of sorts to do anything. Mine
powers up, and does nothing from there (I can get a quick pop of
audio on occasion, but nothing more). I have heard rumor that some
have gotten a blue screen to be displayed, but really every one that
I know about does the same as mine... powers on and sits doing
nothing.
I notice from the manual on Applefritter it has an RJ45 port. Now, IIRC,
that's the same as an Ethernet port. So, does this thing have an Ethernet
port? If so, has anyone tried hooking it up to a LAN and doing a bit of
port-sniffing?
Will it run Mac OS or anything similar or is the hardware 100%
Mac-Incompatible?
The intent of them was to make an interactive TV unit
for schools and
other groups. They never made it past the testing stage, and it would
seem that although a good number of the boxes made it into the public,
the server unit to make them do anything did not.
:-(
I think Tom Owad had some info on them onhis
AppleFritter site. If
anyone knows how to get one to do something, I'd be interested to
hear... and if anyone wants one, for a while there was someone
selling them on eBay, opening bid of $9.99, and I think most were
closing with no bids. (I got mine at a garage sale for $5... some
poor kid went off to college, and his mother was selling off
everything he had, tons of old toys, baseball cards, and odd computer
parts. I'm sure he was NOT happy when he came home for break!)
LOL!
If only items such as the Mac STB were as easy to find over here... I'm
having all-on just to find a C64 or a ZX Spectrum at a car boot sale, let
alone a ZX80 or a ZX81...
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/