Bertram has figured out some commands to communicate with the cube. It’s generating screens of garbled text. We don’t know what it means yet, but we’ve managed to print out the data. I’ve scanned the pages and have uploaded them to our forum. Bertram’s pouring over the printouts now, I have no idea what to make of them – is it just random characters or does it mean something? We’re trying to create a text file to see if we can work with the gibberish. We’ll add that to the forum when we finish it. If anyone has a clue as to what this might be, please help us.

Bertram laughed at me for, I thought, being so involved in this side project that I was willing to purchase antiquated technology and build a conversion interface for it just to see if I could talk to a paperweight. But what he was actually laughing at was my ineptitude (Which mondrianaire quickly noticed). B put together a video that explains that. It’s just too stupid to go into. I should know better.

BUT… the exciting part: as soon as we remedied the problem, the screen came alive with questions. Well, one question, really. “Who are you?” Bertram, always the jokester, immediately thought of 2001 and 2010. But he’s kind of right. Once we discovered we could give it an address, the cube welcomed me on one line and asked for my new code on the other. Here we have some chunk of metal stuck to a long-since-obsolete computer we tinkered with asking us who we are. It’s just too cool. I mean, WOW!

We tried to get more out of it all night. Finally, Bertram started typing in random commands. Unfortunately, Bertram is more of a rapid-fire kind of guy than a write-it-all-down type and has no idea what he did to make it work. I was asking the Twitter community for help at the time, so I didn’t see it either.

What he made happen was strange, though. I mean, all sorts of gibberish just started scrolling up the screen. This isn’t even connected to the Internet. It’s just the cube and the computer across cables.

We’ll keep at it. Even without knowing what happened, we know the cube can communicate with a properly restructured computer. This is a HUGE step and we’re elated to see it right now. This could definitely help in the EI2 design.

Now, if we can just figure out why nobody at the day job will talk to us.

I’ve been rewiring and reworking everything trying to connect this cube to the computer. Nothing works. If anyone knows anything about this, please contact us. I’ll check the comments here as well as the Forum. Charlie Brown had it right when he said, “AAUGH!”

Bertram spent a little time on Saturday getting to know our area thrift stores and garage sales. He found something that might work. We’ll see. I have a feeling I’ll be reworking the innards before it meets the requirements. Either way, it’s a step in the right direction. Bertram is filming everything, so if anyone sees a way to do something we don’t see, let us know. People have been really helpful so far and if we ever get to the point where we can hire employees, we know where the talent is now. Keep it coming, guys.

We’re already getting attention for the company. People are really interested in the EI2. As of right now, we’re in the concept/design phase, but the idea has not changed. Our goal is to create a child-friendly computer at a reasonable price. Anyone interested in acquiring an EI2, send us your contact information and we’ll let you know when we go into production. Or, just continue to follow our progress here.

Investors: while we are not quite ready to send out business plans yet, if you will give us your contact information, we’ll be sure you get one as soon as they are ready. Any private investment firms preferring to remain anonymous are welcome to monitor our posts and contact us when they are ready.

I’ve also opened couple of e-mails inquiring about employment. We are not in a position to pay hired help yet, but we do welcome comments and suggestions on what we are doing. We will continue to update the site as we go.

On that note, a recent phone conversation gave me an idea. If anyone is willing to help on certain areas of our endeavor, let us know. Like I said above, we can’t pay yet, but when it comes time to hire, we’ll look at those who’ve proven themselves valuable assets first. (Thank you, Joe!)

I’ve had some requests for a higher-res image of the cube we found. I hope this will do.  If anyone has any ideas about what this does or how to make it work, please let us know.

We’re still moving in. Setup is fun, but we keep getting distracted by that cube. We found the schematics and thought we might be able to hook the cube to a laptop. We’ve been trying but, unfortunately, nothing seems to work.

The schematics are based on old school, 8-bit MOS 6502 technology which isn’t entirely compatible with the USB or Firewire ports available on the laptop. I’ve tried using an RS-232 serial-to-USB adapter, but the system clock is off and nothing works. I’m concerned that we will burn out the cube trying too many different things to get it functioning with contemporary hardware. Bertram and I both agree that it would be safer (and just simpler!) to just go “shopping” for technology from the same era.

We’re looking for a place to get an old Apple II. I posted a request on Craig’s List yesterday but I’m impatient and want to figure this thing out ASAP.  Two people responded, so I’ll contact them and see where they are tomorrow. One was UK based, which tells me it would be a while before the computer got here. The other sounded local, so that’s promising.

If we can’t get together on that computer, I may have to try and build something from parts. Let’s hope we can get together. I’d rather work on the EI2 than build some old junker, but I just know that if this cube is any kind of storage device, it could change the way we design our computer. We’ll post what we find.

While unpacking and going through some of the boxes we came across some old schematics. That’s not unusual, since we are unpacking the work of what appears to be four engineers (myself, Bertram, my father and the last tenant), but this schematic shows my father’s cube. Again, not too strange until the source of the paper comes up. This schematic came from a box that was inside the closet of the new space when we moved it. It’s not my dad’s, it belongs to that Brandon guy.

We found this in one of the boxes in the closet. Some of the marks match that cube thing we found the other day.

Now I’m wondering, did Brandon know my father? What would Dad have been doing here? It’s all so strange. Walt Disney was right, it is a small world.

Anyway, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation on how all this came together. For now, I’m really interested in following the plan we found to see what that cube does. From what we can see, it looks like the cube connects to a computer, but we don’t have one that old. I’ll try hooking it to my laptop, but if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I’m posting pictures of the cube and the schematics, as well as scanning the schematics in for legibility. B thinks I’ve lost it, but I’m really excited about this. If this little cube actually works with a computer, imagine how streamlined, not to mention child sized, we might be able to make the EI2. Now I’m just dreaming, but that’s all I can do until we find out exactly what the cube does.

OK, so it’s not really treasure by most standards, but it’s pretty cool. There’s this little metal box I assume came from Dad’s lab. The sucker was so dusty we almost mistook it for a paperweight, but I cleaned the dust off while B was playing with the video he shot and found shiny metal underneath. The cube is small, and could still be a paperweight, but little spots of gold stand out in the silver. And when I cleaned it off I saw MMCLXIX on one side. I’ve checked Google and get unrelated items. I don’t know what this is, but the gold dots almost look like they could be part of a circuit board. (Who saw all those boring days building boards coming in handy, huh?) We haven’t seen anything else that matches this, what should we call it? This “cube.” I’ll keep my eyes open for anything it may have fallen out of. If anyone has seen this before, please let me know. I’d love to know what it does.

We found this in all the stuff. A good scrubbing revealed connections and engraving on the sides.

Moving in was a chore. Bertram thinks I have too much stuff, but I think it’ll be just enough to get us moving. We have enough old stuff to cannibalize as needed until we can start bringing in clients. My mother is helping us out as much as possible, but I’d really like to limit her help if I can. She’s great, don’t get me wrong, but she has her own life and this is really our, B’s and my, baby.

We’ll probably be unpacking forever. It’s hard to explain, but even though my body is exhausted, I feel like I could run a marathon right now. I’m so hyped. It’s all coming together.

Oh – I’ve also decided to start collecting video footage of the company’s progress. Obviously, we won’t post everything we do, that would be pretty boring, Bertram has (hesitantly) agreed to film our days and post whatever we think is interesting for the record. It will be good to have something to look back on when we are the biggest children’s computer manufacturers on the planet.

In the spirit of transparency I’m posting a snippet of move in day (above). Oh the boxes, they stack so tall!

After going through one of the closets, I’m starting to feel like a character in a Danielewski novel. The “closet” was more like an old butler’s pantry doubling as a hidden workstation. And, just like the Navidsons, I wandered right in and started exploring. Obviously, my office is not bigger on the inside than the outside, but it does seem to hold more stuff than I bargained for.

My mother also donated some things to my cause. Aside from the funding, of course. She gave me free reign of what used to be in dad’s lab. I’ve yet to go through all of the boxes I scavenged, but he was a tinkerer as well, so I’m sure I’ll find some great stuff.

Lab might be a misleading word. It’s more like a workstation in the back of mom’s house, but I’ve not seen some of this technology before. And it spans forever. We actually found spare vacuum tubes sitting next to DVD players. It’s like a spare parts museum in there, no joke. We’ll get everything organized and decide what we can use and what we should give back to the 50s and 60s. Some of this stuff is just ancient.