[Series] ~Showa PC Geek Chronicles~ Part 15: "The Box Under the Register" ~Encountering Junk Tablets~

Up until then, I was, if anything, a "desktop-type" PC user.
I mainly enjoyed building my own PCs.
I loved computers, but at that time, I didn't yet know that there was a "much deeper swamp" in the world of PCs.
The entrance to that world was that box.
That box under the register at Hard Off.

Hard Off is a mysterious place.
Used home appliances, musical instruments, games, and PCs.
Various items are lined up in the store, but for PC lovers, the real treasure chest is somewhere else. The junk corner.

No warranty.
Operation unconfirmed.
No returns.
To the average person, it's close to just a trash bin.
But to a PC lover, it's different.
It is filled with possibilities.

One day, I was wandering around Hard Off as usual.
Just patrolling the store as usual, searching for anything worth picking up.

In the junk corner, there are
old laptops,
old desktops,
graphics cards,
motherboards,
memory,
and so on, all in the junk box.

But there was a box that caught my eye for the first time in that store I had visited many times.
It was a junk box containing tablets, quietly placed under the register.
The moment I casually peeked inside,
"Huh?"
There, mixed in with the Android tablets, was an unfamiliar tablet.

It was black and thin. A small
tablet.

I look at the price tag.
3,300 yen
It was written even smaller:
"Touch failure"
I look at the manufacturer name.
Diginnos. It seems to be a Dospara product.
The model number is
DG-D08IWB
The price tag stated OS: Windows 10.

At the time, when I thought of tablets, I thought of the iPad.
But this was different.
A tablet that runs Windows. It seemed to run Windows 10.
In other words, this is
while being a tablet,
the inside is completely a PC.
You can use USB.
You can install software.
You can handle files.
Truly a "small PC."

I pick it up.
It's light.
It's clearly different from a laptop.
The screen is about 8 inches.
The thickness is also surprisingly thin.

The price tag said "Touch failure". I thought, "It's probably just that the driver isn't installed correctly," and before I knew it, I was already taking it to the register.
"I'll take this, please."
The clerk said in a practiced manner,
"Since it's junk, there is no warranty."
"Yes, that's fine."
This conversation is like a ritual that every junk lover goes through.

I go home and immediately try turning it on.
Then—
Windows 10 ran normally.
However, as the price tag stated, the touch didn't work. On top of that, I found out the screen didn't rotate.
Nevertheless, it was a surprise that Windows ran on something this small and thin.

At that moment, I received a powerful shock.
"What is this..."
"This is incredibly fun."

Until now, I only knew the world of
laptops
and
desktop PCs.
But this tablet is different.
Small.
Light.
Can be used anywhere.
And above all,
"there are infinite ways to play with it."

It can be used as a small PC.
It can also be a media player.
It can also be an experimental machine.
You can also install Linux.

Yes.
This one device taught me.
A PC is not something you buy as a "finished product."
It is "something to play with."

Ever since then,
whenever I go to Hard Off, I started checking the junk tablet box under the register first.
This is where the treasure sleeps.

A 3,300 yen junk tablet.
DG-D08IWB
This encounter with this small machine changed my PC life significantly.

And from this day on, things would gradually increase on my desk.
Broken tablets.
Old laptops.
PCs with issues.
Machines that I don't know if they work or not.

The world is vast.
And,
in the box under the register—
there is still a universe expanding.

Thus, I
stepped into a new swamp called tablet PCs.

🔔 Part 16 Preview
"The Tablet PC Rabbit Hole"

A small PC creates a deep rabbit hole.
Stay tuned!

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