Check out this WEIRD tech I found at Free Geek Twin Cities!

[@StudioBebopUSA]

4:16 I'm amazed they managed to fit a whole ass pinball machine into that Mac!

[@angrydove4067]

I'm drunk, I am a pinball machine

[@Kalvinjj]

I thought slot machine

[@TommyAgramonSeth]

​@@KalvinjjI had the same thought, haha

[@Troppa17]

Yeah, sounds like one for sure. I guess the plastic fan blade broke and fall off the metal hub. Seen that on old small fans especially GPU fans but first time on an PSU for me at least...

[@smug_cat1]

I thought about a typewriter But yea u have a point 😂😂😂

[@strayiggytv]

That is the most "help me I had an uh oh" sound to ever come out of a computer 😂

[@linuxstreamer8910]

a music pc

[@Alefjj]

Sounds like a pinball machine.

[@pseudotasuki]

I think it miiiiight need a new fan.

[@clim30j]

Possibly a part of the metal "ribs" has bent in, causing the spinning fan fin to hit it.

[@TankVerKA]

Your guess on the captel phone is pretty spot-on. My grandparents have one and someone or some software transcribes captions while the phone call goes otherwise as normal

[@FredWallace18]

Yup, CapTel is a company in Madison, WI that does phone captioning. Voice-to-text software does best-guess, and grunt workers clean it up on-the-fly. I applied there long ago when I was between jobs.

[@lovesbonzibuddy]

I think you usually call 711 to get a relay operator, and they're the ones typing out the captions shown on the display.

[@richardestes6499]

In most of the US, it's all under the CaptionCall brand now. I only know this because I used to work at one of their call centers.

[@fox-paws]

I remember working for a phone and internet provider and having people call about those. Sometimes there would be really old people who subscribed to internet a long time ago and could only get about 1 meg internet because they were grandfathered into a plan we didnt offer anymore. Those people would then get upset because they would get these phones and wouldn't meet the 2 meg requirement that was required to use the phone.

[@AsamiImako]

The captions are provided by real people. We are frequently treated like computers/toys however.

[@susanpost1771]

I work for CapTel as a Caption Assistant. You are exactly right. The person with the phone would be able to read when the other person would say.

[@BCZF]

I used to work for Captel for many years. We had to copy what we heard from the conversation exactly using Dragon Naturally Speaking into our headsets, and we had to manually type in things like swear words, because Dragon would not recognize them. It was an ok job, except some phone calls lasted hours and you had to hand off to someone else if you needed to go to the bathroom, take a break, etc.

[@christiancoding]

"i think this mac has a problem." "Yup." I think that mac begging to end his cruelty.

[@ora2j251]

I hecking want the dual DVD enclosure RIGHT NOW. I would have a perfect use case for it in one of my machines.

[@coreybabcock2025]

Definitely I was like I need that !

[@charlesswansonii9319]

I dig that as well. You could reserve one optical bay in it for a DVD drive and then use the other bay for something like an IcyDock hot-swap SATA drive bay. It's genius.

[@PhillyMotoXTS]

These videos make me so jealous that you have this available. The only thing close to me is Goodwill which mainly has 15 year old DVD players and that's about it as far as electronics go.

[@ccoder4953]

Yeah, totally agree. I live near Denver and, while it's great we are one of the few areas with a Microcenter, the used PC scene is pretty much Goodwill having consumer electronics. Apparently the Goodwills in this area just don't want to deal with computers. There are a few used computer stores in the Denver area, but, as far as I know, none that are as weird and wacky (and cheap) as Free Geek.

[@grumpywurzel1973]

Totally jealous of the electronics and prices available, here in the UK the 2nd hand market especially from shops such as CEX etc is massively overpriced

[@MikeDS49]

From brands like RCA and Venturer.

[@1.4M-ry8zx]

I have literally nothing, at least you can get retro parts online for nothing in romania

[@SenileOtaku]

Yeah, Goodwill in this area (Hudson Valley NY & western CT) is absolutely useless for vintage equipment. Heck, they don't even have decent Anime either (last time I found any good anime was a DVD set of Martian Successor Nadesico). But if you're looking for severely fugly used furniture, you're all set.

[@StumblrNoE]

Yes, that CapTel phone does just that, displays captions for phone calls! The cost of the service is covered by a federally funded program, and it's just to help people who are hard of hearing. We had one for my grandma, it helped a lot. You're making me want to make a trip to the Twin Cities with this video, and I haven't had the time lately to visit Free Geek!

[@samred]

@5:45 I was the proud owner of a similar Sony 60-disc changer system from maybe a year later, which *also* supported CD-Rs full of MP3s. $300ish new at Fry’s. I had over 400 albums loaded onto that sucker.

[@lukeson8934]

the dual DVD laptop disc drive is actually genius! I want one for my retro Win XP PC!

[@Afsafs123]

Funny how perspective shifts when you grew up with something. That Sony CD changer/stereo is just a slightly different model from what my grandparents had, so it looks completely normal to me.

[@warkface0]

Yeah, I worked at a department store electronics section in the mid-2000s, and I don't think shelf units like that were wildly uncommon.

[@ukmk3supra]

That's not a quicksilver, it's a cleverly disguised TARDIS and the cloister bell is sounding! :D

[@cy8646]

I'd like to put a modern, decent work PC in to one of those PowerMac's. I always wanted a Mac growing up and I got to use that shape PowerMac in college. Loved it.

[@IsoMacintosh]

Sonnet still makes mac mini rack cases that are cool but damn expensive. Despite xMac mini server being the name they advertise it for non server uses too, specifically mentioning that you could install a RME sound card with a daughter card while still leaving one pci-e slot for other stuff.

[@JonaDes]

The ketchup phone seems like something for This Museum Is Not Obsolete

[@SenileOtaku]

Well, it's handy if an old school chum calls and you want to ketchup on old gossip...

[@perspektive42]

The ketchup phone is the natural companion to the burger phone.

[@DatBlueJJ]

5:34 This brought me childhood memories. We used to have a Pioneer XR-P770F at home. It had a 25 CD rack hidden behind the front panel I loved to look inside of as it was the coolest thing ever to me. I remember having it from sometime 1997-98 until my mum got rid of it sometime in 2007 as its front panel buttons responded erratically and she didn’t see any point in fixing it.

[@BSFJeebus]

you know who would love that mac server? Jeff Geerling

[@dhpbear2]

5:20 - A friend of mine had THREE of those 200-CD changers connected together! Wow, have things changed!

[@libertyernie]

One thing i saw there back in december was something that looked like a tower PC, but it had like eight 5" drive bays. I imagine it was simply an enclosure for hooking up a ton of scsi drives to an external PC, but I've been curious about it ever since.

[@Zorqueozwald]

Imagine watching someone getting mad at a phone call and hanging up by slamming a novelty ketchup bottle phone on the table.

[@LucaBlightOfHighland]

I like this video, it's almost a substitute for LGR thrifts 😂

[@ronhutcherson9845]

That PB video mod is kinda impressive. And that phone would be a great way to catch up with a friend… oh you’ve heard that one already. Wonder if that was on the box?

[@glynnetolar4423]

That computer sounded like it was counting change.

[@IgnatSolovey]

I actually had a dual-wheel A4Tech mouse. And it was pretty convenient, actually. In all honesty, I wouldn't mind a second wheel on my present-day Logitech M510.

[@VEC7ORlt]

Yeah, dual scroll wheels were pretty cool, 4tech did them wrong tho - I've had a boeder mouse that was arranged button-wheel-button-wheel-button - that was goddamn perfect.

[@nigelchin3286]

That ketchup phone reminds me of the cola phone covered by dankpods last week😂

[@H31MU7]

i was thinking that too

[@meatblazestudios3778]

It'll go great with his nuggets XD

[@georgeh6856]

I have never seen a rack-mounted server drawer with that much empty space in it. Usually, every cubic millimeter is filled with something.

[@stuckin2003]

I miss Free Geek Twin Cities so bad! Always so much fun to wander around and look at all the obscure tech.

[@TheGigashadow]

I had (and still do have somewhere) a shelf stereo system similar to that back in 1996-1998, it's a Pioneer with a 25 disc changer and 5.1 Dolby surround, sound along and a remote control along with some other very cool features... It was a very good system!

[@neozeo25]

At 07:30 this is a Captel for people with hearing loss, CapTel works like any other phone - plus you see captions of everything the caller says.

[@robsquared2]

I'd have definitely bought the 2 laptop drive to 5.25 converter back in the day, but IDE is dead. Also it sounds like someone put a pinball machine in that tower mac.

[@FalbertForester]

You can still get IDE to SATA converters!

[@AaronOfMpls]

Maybe the drives can be swapped out with SATA ones. ...And yah, that does _not_ sound like a happy Mac!

[@nicholasjulianriley]

Oh man, that HP 9000/710 next to the Dell with the gigantic subwoofer brought back bad memories (we had them in a computer lab). What a terrible keyboard layout.

[@Raptor50aus]

I wish we had these stores in Australia. By the way my D-82 and D-88 both working perfect inc the LCD. I even restored the original lead acid battery.

[@Prototheria]

I had one of those disc duplicator things in a Dell tower back around '06-'08 timeframe. I seem to remember it being an option . And yep... I made a ton of copies of stuff!

[@dillosauras7718]

that pc sounded like it ran on gears

[@iscariotproject]

twin cities the gold mine that just keeps on giving

[@blodyholy_]

I actually owned that Sony 60 disc changer. (Not that exact one, of course.) I’m fairly certain it was either a JCPenny or QVC gift by a family member. If I recall it had gear issues and would get stuck often.

[@AlistairWolfe993]

At around 6:00 - my sister used to have a 50+1 CD Sony shelf system. I cannot remember the model number for the life of me, but basically it had this carousel system that always held one disc in the actual drive and the rest would be held vertically in the carousel. Very neat system. Surprisingly good 3-way speakers bundled with it, I have no clue what ever happened to it. I would guess it came from anywhere between the early-mid 90s and maybe 2001-2002 at latest.

[@kobalt_ren01]

8:30 My mother had one of those! I think I might still have the RAM... for some reason? I recall playing 3D Pinball Space Cadet on it, with the giant matching blue CRT.

[@zachazlett]

I had that mouse and it was my favorite to this day!! The back and forward buttons on the side made it awesome!

[@GeekmanCA]

I was always curious about those xMacs but the prince point was just too high for playing around . I was extremely skeptical about the reliability of that PCI-Thunderbolt bridge, especially when picking a random PCI card off the shelf.

[@HamburgerAmy]

9:38 shoutout to the person who did that mod back in the day, that's super slick looking.

[@MotownBatman]

I want that MacMini Rack Server! Thats Fresh as Hell! That DVD Duplicater would have been awesome back in the day of my DVD & XBOX......Backups....

[@rosemeyer1939]

That Dell speaker system is an Altec Lansing ADA995. It really, really rocks. Limited connectivity nowadays, but it's a quality bit of kit.

[@KoalaBerzerker]

I think there might be something wrong with this computer! * Turns it on * Slot machine and pinball table sounds * Plugs it off, looks at it Yup.

[@andyzib]

I don’t remember why but I do remember looking into that Sonnet enclosure when I was dealing with a Mac fleet. Hi fellow Minnesotan!

[@puciohenzap891]

That Mac was hilarious, must've been a diesel! The 200CD Sony was a nice bargain, I think the Pio receiver underneath it as well.

[@willcrowley4540]

I work IT for a company that captions telephone calls for the hard of hearing CapTel is one of our competetors. You're right though. We have captioning agents who recieve one side of the conversation then captions it into another program which then sends it to the phones screen similar to the one you see here. But that phone and ours should also have wifi built in, so they can use eather wifi or ethernet hardwired for the captions to work. The captions aren't instant there is a 3 to 5 second delay from the time they are said to the time they show up on the screen.

[@ajax700]

Ah, those A4tech dual wheel scroll mice that ended as an evolution dead-end main feature ha ha. Best wishes.

[@SenileOtaku]

I have one of those dual scroll wheel mice.

[@vinnieravioli4653]

I wish we had a free geek or something like it where I live in northwest Arkansas. Love this style of content from you man!!! Keep it coming!

[@adey88splace]

I don't know why, but I really wanted that combo dvd drive setup. That was pretty neat.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Indeed, and I'm kinda wondering if the drives can be swapped out for modern SATA ones. My current PC's case only has one 5¼" bay. And while I haven't _needed_ more than one drive in it, I now have some idea of what to look for if I ever do! (** debates driving over to Free Geek, on the off chance the thing _hasn't_ sold like 5 minutes after this video came out **)

[@Kumimono]

Heinz phone is perfect, if you want to catch-up with an old acquaintance. Also, I really thought that one Mac was a, mechanical instrument of some kind, in a Mac case. Like a barrel organ.

[@dennisud]

Those old stereo systems are so cheap its tempting to head there from here! I wish we had a place like this in Florida!

[@phr3dmcc0y]

Dude, the 50.00 dell w subs is worth it. that would be a bangin MP3/winamp unit.

[@Agent57000DM]

4:28 - I thought you found a funky custom Pachinko machine.😄

[@grafxgear]

4:25 LOL! That Power Mac sounds like a pachinko machine!

[@ericbauer4559]

My grandma had something like one of those shelf stereo systems that could hold a ton of CDs. I can remember the brand or the exact amount of CDs. This was in the mid 90s.

[@negirno]

That PowerMac rattling was hilarious! :-D

[@zebby]

4:25 that's not a computer, that's a pinball machine

[@SHADOSTRYKR]

I can confirm CapTel services are based out of Madison WI here. A live person is transcribing the second parties voice to text for the hearing impaired recipient. My friend’s wife worked there and I even interviewed there for a college summer job.

[@coreybabcock2025]

Those captel phones were popular with sbc ameritec and ameritec back in the day we had them at goodwill in Appleton WI

[@alles_klar]

Oh wow, that Dell ith the THX speakers. I used to LUST over this in computer magazines when I was in high school. I would buy it in a heartbeat.

[@GrizzLeeAdams]

The jankiness is because they reused the same thunderbolt bridge board that was in their Sonnet Echo boxes. Why respin the bridge board when you can just build up three different products with the same bridge boards as demand requires? Sure, they could have done a different design on the riser card, flipping the thunderbolt ports internally, but then they would need to include another thunderbolt cable extension for the passthru port.

[@l3chevalier]

On 09:06, on the left side of the Dell, there is an AT Case machine, it is just like my first computer. I'd buy that, but I'm Sweden ='( Nice stuff! I love those exploration videos.

[@AcornElectron]

Might as well. Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!

[@dkmillares]

More Free Geek videos please!

[@jowi_24seven43]

Lmao what a hack job of a rack "server". I loved this episode, so much comedy

[@queegfivehundred8197]

I bought a Pioneer 25 disc mini system (with dual cassette decks at the bottom) in 1996 or 1997, and am planning on servicing it to put back into service (albeit mainly for listening to music from my plex library).

[@asd36f]

7:05 - "Dont' Power On" tells you all you need to know LOL

[@Plasmacore_V]

At 6:15 it looks more like clear lamp cord you'd buy to rewire a table lamp not speaker wire.

[@thefakemaker]

Yeah. Had a Panasonic Big Mouth 60+1 shelf system.

[@AnonyDave]

More interesting (to me) was that HP next to the dell. Couldn't quite decide if it was a little HP9000, or an x terminal. Just can't quite see clearly enough

[@PrinzMidas]

The CD-Tape combo doesn't have a headphone jack. There is one port for a remote, one for Mic and one for Aux.

[@nachiopistachio]

I expected literally anything inside of the Quicksilver except something as mundane as that. But hey, at least it boots

[@MikeDS49]

8:00 For some reason I thought it would be a third person signing on the screen for the hard of hearing caller.

[@DVRC]

9:09 Is that an HP 9000 workstation or an X thin client?

[@dhpbear2]

4:35 - It's running a pinball sound-emulator program!

[@crimsonlion100]

wow, if i ran a dvd pirating operation in 2004, that dual laptop drive enclosure wouldve been SICK.

[@SmilyTheMare]

my nana had one of those caption phones (way newer than that one)it tries to auto caption what the other person said so people with hard of hearing can communicate with people over the phone

[@johnbarrington2526]

I wish we had that store in my area

[@Tarkov.]

I can't help but think that laptop drives had to be slower than regular desktop burners. EDIT: Also, I love the idea of the ketchup phone sitting on someone's kitchen table and their cat comes over and knocks it "off the hook" haha what a nightmare.

[@dennislacroix5478]

One moment please, I need to ketchup on all my important phone calls.

[@aliendave]

My dad has had that ketchup phone since the 70s! Also I'm pretty sure my college roommate had that 60 CD changer. Looks very familiar.

[@GarthBeagle]

This was great Colin, thanks

[@donwilson]

Very jealous that there isn't a store like this around me, there isn't much electronic preservation going on around where I live. Might have to make a trip up to the twin cities sometime

[@TheGamesPlayr]

Love that 60 CD HiFi, I have a 3 CD and 3 MD HiFi from the 90s it's a Sony DHC-EX880MD. Also used to have one of those Sony 200 disc DVD players, was so cool but sadly it broke, wish I'd kept it and tried to fix.

[@keithsweat7513]

I wish I had know about or this store existed when I lived in the twin cities! I would have been in there every weekend!!

[@firefoxsimp]

My school had that EIKI 7070 sound system!

[@maltronik]

The ketchup phone looks like something maxwell smart would use….

[@smoothallday]

These are some of my favorite videos. I need to visit this place.

[@xsleep1]

Heinz 57 phone? I have one in a box in my garage right now. It works but who has a land line anymore?

[@faenethlorhalien]

Two scroll wheels. That's something someone made on a drunken dare, I'm telling you.

[@DouglasFish]

The sonnett chassis are very common still.

[@mysticmarble94]

mutated mouse .... also known as x-mice

[@bradnelson3595]

I'm trying to decide is that fan is louder than the one that came in my G4 MDD. Close call.

[@mechanicmantyler]

honestly would love the stereo speaker setup that the dell dimension had

[@RandomTechWZ]

I really wish we had one of these in Michigan.

[@demons500]

That Apple pc sounds like my first car.

[@superJK92]

4:50 It sounds like popcorn popping