I got bored and now I’m looking at tiny phones on aliexpress
TINY PHONE!
Huge meta-thread by @Foone saturday on VIRTUAL THRIFTING
Posted by jpluimers on 2020/04/06
This was an awesome thread: [WayBack] Thread by @Foone: Someone (I think in the replies to the LGR “no thrifting during the crisis” tweet) suggested we do VIRTUAL THRIFTING! which is a great idea… saved from this [Archive.is] Twitter thread.
Someone (I think in the replies to the LGR “no thrifting during the crisis” tweet) suggested we do VIRTUAL THRIFTING! which is a great idea and also what I’ve been doing for a while. So I’m gonna link to some of these ali-express focused threads…
INCOMING METATHREADthe most recent one was yesterday’s “tiny phones” one. I managed to make it all the way through without even mentioning that most of these are so small so you can put smuggle them into prisons! in your butt!
foone@Foone
Last monday I was looking at breakout boards and found a lot of weird electronic components that I’m not sure why you’d need, including a PCI-over-DVI one that made me fall out of my chair:
foone@Foonehave you ever seen a breakout for a DB37 port?
No? TOO BAD YOU HAVE NOW, ALIEXPRESS HAS THEM
Back in February I found a bunch of weird adapters, like a 10-micro-SD-cards-to-SATA adapter:
foone@Fooneso I was looking for a MicroSD to M.2 adapter (shut up, it exists, and I have reasons to want it) and I found something way more cursed:
M.2 (SDIO) to SD card slot!
In January I found USB OVER FIBEROPTICS because why not have a USB device a kilometer or two away?
foone@Foone431 people are talking about this
Back in November I had a bad day and tried to get aliexpress to save it. and that USB-3 to angular industrial micro-usb B helped, as did the 120-port USB charger.
foone@Foone361 people are talking about this
Earlier that same week I was also looking at industrial shit on aliexpress.
“industrial” seems to be a code word for “has screws”
foone@Foonewhenever I get bored and think my life is going too well, I google “industrial USB-C” and now everything is back to shit
and I did one back in january of 2019 that started on amazon and mainly involved weird USB connectors, like the USB shark
foone@Fooneit’s always weird when you can go on amazon to look up cable adapters and get the same options as with romance novels
I also finished out the year of 2019 with a thread where I looked at aliexpress sex toys, which are hilarious because they have to keep their ads SFW so there’s a lot of fruit metaphors. More than you’d expect.
in February I went through some auction-related-sites and found a bunch of weird novelty phones:
foone@Foone173 people are talking about this
in December I looked up weird keyboards on aliexpress and found Weird Things, like a keycap that uses a meme from a yaoi manga from the early 2000s?
foone@FooneI went on aliexpress for Foolish Reasons and who needs a 10-key on your keyboard when you can get a separate external 9-key?
and this thread where I went through all the industrial keyboards on ebay.
there are a lot. they all look painful to type on.
foone@Foonethis keyboard is great.
It’s from a Computer Identics Scanstar 326 bar code system https://www.ebay.com/itm/Computer-Identics-ScanStar-326-Bar-Code-Terminal-New-old-stock/123637940269 …
and a bunch more in august, for custom devices, the kind which don’t have QWERTY, they instead have buttons like “HOME BONUS”:
foone@FooneI love custom keyboards.
This is for a scoreboard from TransLux and it has lots of fun buttons, like HORN and VISITOR INJURY TIMER and WEIGHT GAME
and one time I went through GovDeals and found some computer stuff and a lot of weird stuff like a machine that tells you not to use bleach near it, but has no explanation why…
foone@Foonesomeone reminded me of http://govdeals.com and boy there’s some fun categories on there.
like “driving simulators”
and there was a time I was bored and stuck at a Guitar Center so I took pictures of various things and got a (musical!) keyboard to ask me to agree to the GPL:
foone@FooneThis one is awesome looking. It’s got the whole button-thing and all the dials and the keyboard.
And for a less “virtual” sort of thrifting, there’s the threads where I go to the monthly Electronics Flea Market (currently canceled because of the crisis)
Here’s the one from May 2018:
foone@FooneThe monthly Electronics Flea Market (formerly at De Anza) was today.
Here’s some pictures!
First off, an InternetPhone Wizard!(And check @TubeTimeUS‘s posts, they were there too and took pics)
and the one from April 2018:
foone@FooneSo today was the first day of the Electronics Flea Market at the new location, the Sunnyvale Fry’s (instead of De Anza college).
Did I feel like death? YEP! Should I have gone? NOPE! Did I go anyway? YOU BET!
Here’s my thread of pictures of junk I thought was neat.
April 2019:
foone@Foone128 people are talking about this
August 2018: weren’t many pictures this time, for some reason:
foone@FooneSee foone’s other Tweets
June 2017:
foone@FooneToday was the Electronics Flea Market @ De Anza College. First up, here’s the thread for stuff I saw but didn’t get.
May 2017:
foone@FooneCool Stuff at the De Anza Electronics Flea Market that I didn’t buy, part 1:
A TRS-80 Coco 2 & IBM PC jr, in box!
A PS/2 portable, and an XT
March 2017:
foone@FooneThings I saw at the fair but didn’t get : a special effects generator, and a trs 80 coco 2
June 2019:
foone@FooneThis is terrible. I’ve been at the electronics fair for like 45 minutes, I’ve spend half my money, and I’ve seen ZERO LASERDISCS OR FLOPPIES
May 2019:
September 2017:
foone@FooneDe Anza electronics fair time! Incoming live tweeting of old electronic crap
That one has a followup thread for the stuff I actually got:
foone@FooneHere’s the cool stuff I got at the electronics fair.
First up, an Osborne Vixen! This is the 1985 model.
It’s a CP/M portable.
August 2017:
foone@FooneSee foone’s other Tweets
and here’s a “stuff I got” thread for the July 2017 fair:
foone@FooneAnother De Anza Electronics Fair has come and gone, and I have many pictures. First up, stuff I did buy.
Rollercoaster Tycoon, in box!
September 2019:
foone@FooneMe: wow, a Hybridizer!
Seller: oh yeah, want to do some CRISPR?
other guy: I’ve actually got a CRISPR kit in my fridge, haven’t done anything with it yet.
Me: yeah, that’s why you’re not a catgirl yet!
Seller: what’s a catgirl?
Me:
And here’s the didn’t-buy from the July 2017:
foone@FooneThe longer of the two De Anza Electronics Fair picture threads: The stuff I didn’t buy!
First up, this network tester. Solidly built thing!
and here’s the stuff-i-got thread from August 2017:
foone@FooneSo I also went to the De Anza Electronics Fair yesterday. Here’s what I got:
A book on building your own PC!
and here’s a stuff-i-got from June 2017:
foone@FooneDe Anza Flea Market Thread Part 2: Stuff I did get!
First, this sweet stylish CRT TV (color).
Lovely knobs. Knobs are good.
this one isn’t a thread, but I feel I should share it anyway:
The September 2018 Electronics Fair Corgi:
foone@FooneI’m not at a real keyboard so I’m not yet ready to share all my neat electronics fair pictures and pickups so here’s just a hecking big corgo.
and for the September 2018 one I got so much neat shit that I did a video of it, which is 25 minutes of me pointing at shit and talking about how cool it is
then here’s a thread of standard goodwill-style thrifting back in 2018, when I got my tires slashed:
foone@FooneSome neat stuff I saw while thrifting: a mixer that can record to minidisc
Another time of thrifting. I found barbies that were wrapped in plastic. it’s weird.
foone@FooneI went thrifting today. Here’s some pictures I took of stuff I saw.
I saw this and started breathing heavily. Educational? FOR DOS? and it’s empty. of fucking corse.
I went antiquing and found some weird VHS tapes and tiny toasters
foone@FooneMy roommate and I went out antiquing today, and she picked up a sweet telephone https://twitter.com/gewt/status/1033929103877885952 …
contents under pressure@gewt
another good time at good will, which starts with tijuana christmas and ends with pregnant yoga (as do most good weekends)
foone@FooneThe best thing to do in a Goodwill is check out the vinyl.
If you’re lucky, you’ll find laserdiscs.
if you’re not lucky, you’ll at least find vinyl like this.
another minithread on goodwilling, which has some air force vinyl albums and UNISEX ROCKING
foone@Foone15 people are talking about this
and a time I went down to Santa Cruz and found laserdiscs and VHS tapes and a monopoly dress.
foone@FooneI went to a few Goodwill thrift stores today. And as always, there were laserdiscs in the vinyl pile.
Like Hollywood Vice Squad or Courage Mountain
back on the subject of virtual thrifting, there’s that time I got bored and looked through every VHS tape about Satan on ebay:
and a similar thread where I looked through Jesus Tapes, mainly 90s prophecy stuff:
foone@FooneSee foone’s other Tweets
one of the sad threads from the good ol’ days when Weird Stuff Warehouse still existed:
foone@FooneToday at the junk shop: A bunch of small-box Mac games! Mostly boxes, no discs. A SIX PORT IDE controller. Old school RAID, I guess?
Another time involving GIANT HARD DRIVES:
foone@FooneWent to the junk store today, and saw some hard drives. The one on the left is 80mb, I suspect the right one is even smaller.
the time with a pile of PC/XTs:
foone@FooneI went back to the junk store to test those PCs/XTs and OH SHIT THERE’S EVEN MORE NOW
junk stores and pinball:
foone@FooneToday @gewt and I showed @LuigiThirty around some of the bay areas FINEST JUNK STORE and the pinball museum. it was fun. Here’s some pictures of the stuff we saw:
This lovely 70s(80s?)-era walkie talkie from Radio Shack. Originally 99.95$!
another time with the PCs:
foone@FooneI went to the junk store and HOLY SHIT A PILE OF 5150s? And 5160s? and a clone? And even more old PCs?
More times at Weird Stuff
foone@FooneHere’s the last two junk store trips merged into one.
First, this neat suitcase-sized Network Tester.
the time I went to weirdstuff and found plotters and mpreg:
foone@FooneSome fun stuff at the junk store today, like this HP 9836C computer! This is the 1983 color monitor version of the 1981 machine.
390×512 display. 8mhz 68k CPU. 512k-2.5mb RAM
and another time, which featured a STEALTHY CRT:
foone@FooneI went to the junk store again. (I’ve been off work for 5 days and gone on 3 of those days. I may be an addict.)
First thing I see: PCMCIA SCSI card! naturally, doesn’t match any of my SCSI dongles.
and a big pile of mini-discs!
The time with the Noise Machine:
foone@FooneWent to the junk store again. It turns out the Dot Com era is definitely over, they’re throwing out all the CueCats!
The Time I Didn’t Get A Vic-20:
foone@FooneSome really good stuff at the junk store today, that I didn’t get
A VIC-20, in box, with power supply and Datasette!
And a bunch of IBM Model M keyboards.
the time with the TRS-80 CoCo2:
foone@FooneHit up the junk store today. First up, a laptop in the “as-is” section that’s VERY as-is.
The time with the 8-port VGA KVM:
foone@FooneIt’s a day ending in Y, so the chances I went to a junk store or two are pretty good.
First up, a Powerbook 3400c! Sadly, no power adapters on hand so I couldn’t easily test this. looked to be in decent shape, though.
The time with the minidisc recorders:
foone@FooneWent to another junk store today.
Here’s Excess Solutions in San Jose!
THREAD O’ PICS
the time with the 200amp fuse:
foone@FooneJunk Store Thread!
I love the look of prototyping boards. They’re like those baby activity centers, but for people of soldering age.
The time with the pile of 486s:
foone@FooneThings I didn’t expect to see at the junk store: an entire car dashboard
Starcraft 64 Time:
foone@FooneNeat things I saw at the junk store: A mass EEPROM programmer. This thing is huge, like 4 feet across.
Another time, with a Sphygmomanometer
foone@FooneHere’s the stuff I saw at my local junk store but didn’t get. First up, this awesome mixer panel. Look at all these controls!
OK I’m gonna stop now.
Please enjoy the thrifting.
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
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