I was going to spare y'all the details of how I got the V6 iopener, but since you asked 
...
I live in Austin, TX, home of the late Netpliance, Inc. I don't know if this has any impact on the number of iopeners I've found up till now, but the very first one I found might have been a test unit -- it was missing some components and still had the default root password, way after Netpliance had stopped building them. I didn't even know what it was when I found it at a junk store.
I fixed the hardware and learned how to hack the software.
I built this great little fixture which allows me to connect a real-live 16MB compact flash to the IDE chain, obviating the need to mess around with drive geometries. I can hack a (regular, old V1-V5) iopener in less than 45 minutes. I once scored 25 of them and hacked them all in a production-line fashion, bringing the per-unit time down even more. I have found at least 15 more indivual units. I have sold all of them, cheap, to friends to use as digital picture frames.
I don't find many anymore and I have a backlog of 7 orders, so I turned to eBay.
There were a few listings from someone in Austin claiming to have prototype units from the manufacturer. It turns out he is one of the co-founders, Ken K., and ultimately I met him in person and bought all the iopeners he had on hand, saving the shipping costs . Some of them were painted wacky colors and they ranged from very old to very new.
The V6 unit in question was complete, in the classic blue box with a handle, and it had been registered and used by an end user. Probably a return. I'll see Ken again next year to talk about any remaining stock and I'll get more of the story on this V6 unit. I'll find out how many of these V6 units shipped if possible.
Kerry
