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19th Century Steampunk Laptop Runs Windows, Linux

A remarkable steampunk laptop was found deep within the bowels of an obscure museum in London...

Actually, the truth about this gem is almost as amazing.


(Datamancer's Steampunk Laptop)

The hand-crafted wooden case conceals a modern-day Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop. As you might expect for a machine that backs its way in to the future, it runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux.

Putting on my dusty London shopkeeper voice, I urge you to admire the engraved brass accents and clawed feet. Note as well the antiqued copper keyboard and mouse and genuine leather wrist pads. A customized wireless (Wi-Fi, that is) network card is also availabe. The violin-style sound holes, or "F-holes" are functional speaker grills covered with black cloth.

The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts. Pray click upon the video below, if you will.


(Datamancer's Steampunk Laptop video)

Datamancer, aka Richard Nagy, is both craftsman and nerd; read more about him at Datamancer.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/6/2007)

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