Zipit Z2 on BBS-week

So this is a Zipit Z2. It was introduced back in 2007 as a low cost messaging device, primary aimed at MSN. This was before the smartphone boom, so an inexpensive wifi-capable messaging device made a lot of sense, first because it really was low cost for only $50 and no contract or data plan required (any by 2009 you could get one for $15 in a bargain bin), second because these were still the iPod days and it would play back MP3 songs, so it could be a sort of multimedia center for you accompaniing your Nokia. The specs are nothing spectacular, it has a2.8” QVGA TFT display, a backlit qwerty keyboard, 312MHz ARM CPU, only 32 MB of RAM and a measly 8MB of ROM. This ROM held a custom linux image that took care of the GUI, WiFi, messaging and multimedia services. My unit however runs OpenZipit, which means that the 8MB storage has been overwritten with a custom bootloader that uses the miniSD slot for the real image. From the 2GB SD card I can boot a custom Debian linux. Since I have no touchscreen or mouse the D-pad has been utilized to move a mouse-cursor and you can toggle between mouse and d-pad moded with the press of a button. There are many other shortcuts to quickly change between windows, launch a terminal or access a menu for WiFi configuration. It also has the graphical Dillo browser that can display a limited set of CSS and graphics, and a text-mode links browser. Of course it plays DOOM. And obviously we are here for the telnet, since we want to access the retrobattlestations BBS. So, here we go!