u/dbpm1

Angelina/SC

I've had this Workpad c505 for 15+ years and all I ever needed to do with it was a battery swap.

Last week I was looking into an online retailer old stock for something and found this gem kit that was just delivered for less than $10!

The kit was still in the original packaging, the leather case don't seem to be synthetic, I guess, because touching it feels real and after ~23 years stocked it is in pristine condition! Time will tell.

The keyboard buttons do not feel mushy so the rubber might be fine, but I'll need to browse palmdb archives to look for the driver and config app, because I do not have a cdrom drive to read this disk.

Three stylus completely made of plastic so I'm glad to still have my original, now I also have a few for backup.

Screen protectors might be unusable as the glue layer looks dry and crackled.

Posting just to show off and also ask.. Are there any games that may take advantage of this keyboard?

Manufacturers install proprietary software and encryption in vehicles that lock diagnostic tools behind dealer access only. Federal rules mandate constant driver surveillance technology in every new car by 2027. These features create persistent data profiles that track usage while blocking owners from independent repairs despite full payment of taxes and fees. Corporate lobbying and supportive legislation spread the restrictions with opaque data flows to manufacturers and agencies. The result concentrates control over mobility and personal information in few hands, leaving individuals dependent on authorized services with little recourse to reclaim ownership.

Sources

The Right-to-Repair Map: Which States Actually Let You Fix Your Own Car in 2026

https://www.thewire.com/automotive/the-right-to-repair-map-which-states-actually-let-you-fix-your-own-car-in-2026

Details state laws on vehicle self-repair access and manufacturer barriers to independent fixes.

Trump says Ford, GM pushing bill to restrict right to repair

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2026/06/04/trump-ford-gm-right-to-repair-bill/

Reports federal legislative efforts aligned with manufacturers to limit owner and independent mechanic repairs.

A New U.S. Law Will Require All New U.S. Cars To Have Constant Driver Surveillance Technology By 2027

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2026/05/02/new-law-constant-driver-surveillance-2027

Covers the federal mandate requiring ongoing in-vehicle driver monitoring systems in all new models.

Why You Can't Repair Your Own Car Anymore

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/why-you-cant-repair-your-own-car-anymore/

Explains how proprietary software, encryption, and diagnostic tools restrict vehicle repairs to authorized dealers.

Privacy risks of driver monitoring technology in vehicles

https://www.eff.org/issues/driver-monitoring

Analyzes data collection and surveillance capabilities embedded in modern vehicle systems and their autonomy impacts.

This is a really old computer that sits as the main controller in a test jig, it uses an ancient PXI card from National Instruments to link with the jig chassis.

The original disk became corrupted or had bad blocks, it wouldn't boot at all, only after running chkdsk on the c: partition.

So I cloned the hdd to an ssd and it booted first try but the happiness lasted a few seconds because it threw me an activation screen saying that a significant part of the hardware had changed and I needed to reactivate it.

Ok, I thought "let's do the phone activation" just like I did last year with a similar machine!

Selected the country and it gave two numbers, one local and one toll-free.. Neither worked...

Instead of panicking I tried for the first time a tool called xp_activate32.exe inside the Windows Sandbox app in a newer win11 machine, as most sites would tell it was a virus.

It got activated just as easily as possible, faster than calling and punching in the numbers from step 3 and hearing back the numbers to type them in step 4.

I decided to make this post just to show this off and share the link I used in a comment below.

Cheers!

This is a really old computer that sits as the main controller in a factory test jig, it uses an ancient PXI card from National Instruments to link with the jig chassis. We're unable to update it (cost and bad management issues), so it is imperative to keep it working.

The original disk became corrupted or had bad blocks, it wouldn't boot at all, only after running chkdsk on the c: partition.

So I cloned the hdd to an ssd and it booted first try but the happiness lasted a few seconds because it threw me an activation screen saying that a significant part of the hardware had changed and I needed to reactivate it.

Ok, I thought "let's do the phone activation" just like I did last year with a similar machine!

Selected the country and it gave two numbers, one local and one toll-free.. Neither worked...

Instead of panicking I tried for the first time a tool called xp_activate32.exe inside the Windows Sandbox app in a newer win11 machine, as most sites would tell it was a virus.

It got activated just as easily as possible, faster than calling and punching in the numbers from step 3 and hearing back the numbers to type them back in step 4.

I decided to make this post just to show this off and share the link I used in a comment below.

Cheers!

Got it from ULPT

Hello all, I just came home to find this blob, I poked it and a creamy goo came out of it.

On the third pic you can see the head of an ant that came right after I moved it, these ants are all over my grass, but this constructed area holds my butane cylinder and it's far (4 meters) from their colony.

Initially I posted it in r|mycology, it was immediately identified as Lycogala epidendrum, but since it appeared over one day, I'm curious to know if I should be worried and do something about it or just observe and see what happens?

Hello all, I just came home to find this blob that wasn't here yesterday. I poked it and a creamy goo came out of it. On the third pic you can see the head of an ant that came right after I moved it, these ants are all over my grass, but this constructed area holds my butane cylinder. Usually I get a few tiny mushrooms near the ants nest entrance (sorry, no pic of them), but this only happens sporadically, after it rained the day before. Should I be worried? Do I need to do anything immediately or just observe? TIA!