Sharp Wizard OZ-7000

Sharp Wizard OZ-7000
Sharp Wizard OZ-7000, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Flash: Off
Film: Pistil

Cleaning up and packing my office prior to a move, discovered this old, old piece of equipment. Not sure why I keep it, but…

From Wikipedia;

The Sharp Wizard is a series of electronic organizers released by Sharp Corporation. The first model was the OZ-7000 released in 1988, making it one of the first electronic organizers to hit the market.
The OZ-7000 was about 6.1 inches (155 mm) tall, 3.5 inches (90 mm) wide closed, 7.25 inches (184 mm) open, and 0.75 inches (19 mm) thick closed, making it much larger than current PDAs. It featured a connection port to attach to a Windows PC or Macintosh, an optional thermal printer and cassette tape backup, 32 kilobytes of memory, a 8 by 16 character black and white LCD, and an expansion slot for accessory cards.

The functionality of the OZ-7000 included a memo pad, a telephone pad, calendar and scheduling with alarms and repeating events, multi-time zone clocks, and a calculator. All the basics found in PDAs since. The keyboard was not QWERTY, although later models changed the orientation of the screen and keyboard to allow that.
The expansion cards were about the same size and shape of PC Cards but predated that standard and were incompatible. The slot was behind touch sensitive plastic allowing for up to twenty “buttons” on the card. The original selection of cards included memory expansion cards, a thesaurus dictionary, and some games.

The model numbers start with either OZ (for the USA, a prefix that’s meant to be a pun on The Wizard of Oz) or ZQ (rest of the world) followed by a number, for instance ZQ-770 is a non-US organizer with 3 MB memory.

The organizer was spoofed in the Seinfeld episode The Wizard when Jerry Seinfeld gave one to his father, Morty, who perceived its only function to be a “tip calculator”. Morty tried to give organizers to board members of his condo association as gifts, because Jerry supposedly had gotten one at a discount price. Jerry can only get them from Bob Sacamano’s father and they turn out to be low quality imitation Wizards, “Willards”, which do not calculate tips correctly.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Wizard

Robot City Workshop

Robot City Workshop
Robot City Workshop, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

One of the cooler stores in Chicago, especially if you like robots and robot toys. The sales clerk said this is the only robot store in North America.

www.robotcityworkshop.com/homeframes.html

All I could do to restrain myself from purchasing vintage Heathkit electronics, but I did buy a couple items, including a robot for my nephew.
Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathkit

Maybe next time…

No knowledge of electronics was needed to assemble a Heathkit. The assembly process did not teach much about electronics, but provided a great deal of what could have been called “electronics literacy,” such as the ability to identify tube pin numbers or read a resistor color code. Many hobbyists began by assembling Heathkits, became familiar with the appearance of components like capacitors, transformers, and tubes, and were motivated to find out just what these components actually did. For those builders who had a deeper knowledge of electronics (or for those who wanted to be able to troubleshoot/repair the product in the future), the assembly manuals usually included a detailed “Theory of Operation” chapter, which explained the functioning of the kit’s circuitry, section by section. Heath developed a relationship with electronics correspondence schools (e.g., NRI). Heath supplied electronic kits to be assembled as part of courses, with the school basing its texts and lessons around the kit.

Video Mino

I want one of these, even if it doesn’t perform well in low-light situations.


“Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder, 60 Minutes (White)” (Pure Digital Technologies, Inc.)

Introducing the Flip Video Mino
From the makers of the popular Flip Video Ultra comes the Mino, which puts the power of video in your pocket. The super-portable, super-simple Mino makes it easy to capture and share high-quality video anywhere and everywhere. And thanks to its flip-out USB arm and intuitive, built-in software, Mino lets you view, edit and upload your videos to popular video-sharing sites instantly. In addition to its sleek compact design–complete with touch-sensitive, backlit buttons–Mino boasts a rechargeable battery that powers up automatically while plugged into your computer or electrical outlet.

Flip Mino Highlights

All That Flip Video Goodness, Only Smaller
At 40% smaller than its already pocket-sized brother the Flip Ultra, the Flip Mino barely makes a dent in even the tightest of jeans. But small in size doesn’t mean short on function;

Flip Mino Highlights

Mino’s got all the Flip features–simple user-interface, one touch-recording, built-in USB, intuitive editing software, easy sharing functionality–that folks have come to know and love.

Sleek, Portable Design
The Flip Mino is the perfect combination of form and function. Its minimalist, retro front is the perfect complement to its high-tech modern back, with a large no-glare screen, touch-sensitive panel, and glowing backlit control buttons. All focused around Flip’s signature red record button that lets you go from pocket to recording in seconds.

With a camcorder this small and sleek, there’s no limit to where you can take it and what you’ll end up shooting. From a short film to enter in your favorite festival to footage of a hot new band, the Mino makes it easy because it’s always with you and always ready to go.

Mind-Boggling Quality
Despite its diminutive size, the Flip Mino produces video that rivals that of camcorders costing much, much more. With 2 GB of flash memory, the Mino can record up to 60 minutes of VGA (Video Graphics Array)-quality video that looks sharp when played back on your laptop or television (TV cable included). The high-quality microphone captures crisp, detailed audio, whether you’re paddling down the Amazon, or rockin’ out at your favorite club.

Revolutionary Built-in Software
Flip Video’s revolutionary software is built into the camcorder, so there’s no need for clunky 3rd party software or cables. Just plug the Mino into any PC or Mac via the flip-out USB arm and you’ll be viewing, organizing, editing and sharing your videos effortlessly.


Plus, Mino will let you upload videos directly to your AOL Video, MySpace and YouTube accounts in no time. If you just want to share your videos privately, one click of the “send via-email” button will send your clips on their way. Mino is ideal for video blogging and social networking.