What it was like to actually use the TRS-80 Model 100 as a journalist on the go

I use an Alphasmart 3000 as my single use portable writing device. Transfers text by showing up as a USB keyboard and “typing” what you’ve written into the software of your choice. Also runs for a year on 3 AA batteries.

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Find yourself an old Alphsmart Neo 2. Has USB output to get the writings off the machine. Basically, it’s just a keyboard with a screen - a bad screen actually - but for 20$-40$ you can’t really go wrong.

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What it was like to actually use the TRS-80 Model 100 as a journalist on the go

Was yours a V8 or the 4 banger model?

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I think the Pomera kickstarter failed because it looks so much like a folding bluetooth keyboard or a 1990s spelling/translating gadget. The design seems to imply “this should be $20-$30”. And they were asking nearly $400 for it!

Symmetry on two axes is really a must.

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I have one of these! I keep it next of my Microvision game system. Back around 1990 I used to use it to get into chat systems on the old X25 network like that one at 208057040540 or 26245400080177

I have to point out that you can take the oldest, cheapest ultrabook you can find on Craigslist, and install FreeDOS on it in minutes, and then a DOS word processor. Yes, it will use only 640K of your 4GB of RAM, that is, 0.023% of it, but so what? Definitely no distracting pop-ups.

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I had one in the late '80s, built-in 300 baud modem, used to take it on the road to log in to dial-up bulletin boards, no horsepower to it, but it had a great keyboard. I took many phone jacks apart in motel rooms in those days…

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I love my Neo. It was about $89 when I bought it new and I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words on it now. Tens of those words were even worth keeping!

I can’t imagine what the other customers at Starbucks thought, to see someone typing on a TRS-80. I’m sure some were pleasantly very surprised. :smile:

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I get the appeal of a distraction-free writing environment…

but maybe just buy a dedicated chromebook (or something similarly affordable) and remove/disable any distracting software?

Google, so that’s why I wouldn’t.

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Powered by 2 AA batteries, instant on, hardwired MS-Works.

Wrote large chunks of my diploma thesis on one of those.

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It was inevitable they would end up having the most skin in the game.

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Had one of these that was also part of that first wave of palmtops:


Loved the stuffing out of it.

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topic-1359743641

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I use a Tandy WP-2 for writing. It does what I need and the battery life is pretty good but transferring data over is a bit annoying. It is physically very similar to the Model 100 I briefly used, but more geared towards the single function of word processing.

I also have an AlphaSmart Dana, which is the big brother (sister?) to the AlphaSmart Neo and 3000. In this case the Dana is a PalmOS device roughly compatible with the PalmIII except with keyboard, wider display, USB device emulation and SD/MMC slots. There are multiple word processors for Palm and it’s quite a good device. Transferring data is a cinch, you plug it into any PC/Mac and it emulates a keyboard and “types” out your document into your favorite app. Battery life is not great either with alkaline cells or with NiMH packs.

I used one of these things to file countless stories on corruption in a podunk little Connecticut town in the 80s for the Hartford Courant, and really fell in love with it. Sturdy, compact, does what it says on the tin.

The challenge of the “Trash-80”'s primitive technology wasn’t the rubber-cup modems that didn’t always stay on greasy payphone receivers, or the nasty crick in your neck that would develop after spending any amount of time hunched over sickly-yellow LCD display. The real challenge was that you could only read what you’d written 8 or 9 lines at a time, and you’d almost spend more time scrolling up and down to vet your copy and see whether you’d already used a quote or made a point than actually writing.

But it felt like the future, and the choice was adapt or die, so I adapted.

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Naw, they were the second best. The best were IBM Model M.

(I still have a Model 102 in my attic somewhere. It would probably still work if I fed it some batteries. But alas, I have no Model M bluetooth keyboard.)

It won’t be a great keyboard. I recommend an NEC Multispeed from 1989. It might weight 12 pounds but it does have a decent keyboard and a 720K floppy drive. I miss mine, I lost it in a nasty roll over car accident.