Dinosaur laptop....

[blueonblack]

I've got this ancient Texas Instruments laptop that I obviously never use, and was wondering what I could do with it. It still works like a charm, but it is so old that it proudly displays on the case that it's in color. Running Windows 3.1, has a trackball with a propietary connection, and does not have a CD-rom (though it may be possible to attach one through the parallel port). I love the keyboard, soft touch and very quiet, and the case itself is very sturdy.

Anyone have any interesting ideas to do with this fossil? Or should I donate it to the Smithsonian perhaps?
________
CANCER - LUNG ADVICE (http://www.health-forums.org/cancer-lung/)

[Pointy_Stick]

Since its a dinosaur, definitely a dino-themed mod. Plenty of bone/skeleton showing through, dinosaur scale-like skin, some teeth maybe and so on, like Crimson's Alien Fossil Mouse (http://blog.makezine.com/img413_991.jpg)(couldn't find it on TBCS, link?)
Or maybe make it look like it belonged to Jurassic Park, like this (http://www.hollywood-diecast.com/jurassic%20park%20explorer.jpg). I think either of those would look absolutely killer.

[blueonblack]

Interesting. Obviously I would want to update the hardware, but keep the ancient case. Never even opened a laptop, could be interesting. Obviously anything I do to it will have to be custom-made, but that's what modding is all about.
________
MERCEDES-BENZ GLK-CLASS (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_GLK-Class)

[TheGreatSatan]

Laptop parts are pricey!

[blueonblack]

Laptop parts are pricey!

Well, then I should probably be considering turning it into something other than a computer....... Hmmmmmmmmm :think:
________
Vapor Genie Vaporizer (http://vaporizer.org/)

[thingswithmovingparts]

well, you said it still works well. have you thought about leaving it more or less as-is internally and running a nice small-footprint linux (like puppy, or maybe PCLinuxOS 2008 Minime). I discovered that running a low powered OS on my old desktop (running puppy now, working on a shaved-down Ubuntu) has brought new life to the old bugger, making it usefull for practically anything that isn't graphics intensive. i'm working on making it a sort of media server/thing-my-small-children-can-use-to-surf-and-play-games-through-the-TV (hereafter to be known as the MS/TMSCCUTS&PGTTTV PC), and it looks like it's going to work very nicely for that.
my point is it can still be a viable compy for light duty tasks with some adjustments while looking good with a custom case!

[chaksq]

You got pics of this beast?