A nerd nostalgia thread of possible #RetroComputing interest:
From 1993-1994, I was a “technical assistant” in the RF Engineering department of #Comcast#Cellular. Back then, Comcast was a scrappy regional cable #TV operator making its first foray into #mobile telephony, not the multinational #telecommunications and media behemoth we know today. (1/6)
Ep.1 is about The Well and British Journalist #JamieBartlett claims that The Well was the world's first social network.
Before he was even born the Brits (and Europeans!) were running big, successful online social media sites and I think we mostly understood the potential consequences.
From an American? Fine - But come on BBC/Jamie! Do your research or get Tom Sandage to fact-check a little. Grr!
FYI, if you are taking apart a Dynalogic Hyperion, there are only six screws to worry about: two flathead captive in the handle, two Phillips on the bottom, and these sneaky Phils on the bottom-side that are SUPER easy to miss.
Don't bother trying to remove the hard-to-reach ones. #retrocomputing
Successfully dumped the #LEGO#Mindstorms#RCX' ROM. This is nothing special and has been done ~25 years ago, see http://www.mralligator.com/rcx/#Rom - but I may have been the first one doing it with bytewise with pbForth and a Python script (pyserial). Unfortunately, I stored every byte twice. :thisisfine: Of course, I also did not avoid some minor pitfalls before (e.g. trying to dump 16-bit signed(!) HEX numbers with minuses before). 🤔 🤓
I've been using computers since the early 80s, so the following makes me feel somewhat disconnected from reality: I am currently backing up a 1 terabyte drive to another 1 TB drive at several hundreds of megabytes per second.
Inner kid me who was using cassettes as storage is finding these numbers to be absurd.
Spent a bit of time early this morning to knock out the most basic vector editing features in my SCI0 pic editor. The SCI0 pic byte-code is very terse; it doesn't even have closed polygons, just lines that happen to touch each other when rendered to the frame-buffer.
I'm sure this whole UI layer will need a refactor soon, but its definitely another step in a "useful" direction. Just a few core features left before a "beta" is viable.
when @radiofreelunch extremely generously offered to send me a "couple" old Newtons, i balked. i had an old MP2100 years ago, and it was tough to get software loaded on them, even with all the correct hardware
driving home an hour later, i thought: what the hell is wrong with me, i'm turning down a free newton?! 😅
a week later, this amazingly heavy bundle of Newtons and Newton peripherals arrived. thank you good sir :D
Pictured:
Newton MessagePad (+box/software)
Newton MessagePad
Newton Message Pad 110
Newton MessagePad 120
Newton Fax Modem (battery-powered!)
there is extensive battery leak/corrosion from the AA batteries on each of them, so they'll spend the next few months getting some TLC. hopefully most survive!
✅ Download quickly
✅ Can be played with a D-pad or a joystick and a couple of buttons
✅ Are incredibly well-documented now
✅ Had their DRM stripped out decades ago, or... see point above
✅ Will run on 0.03% of your PC's capabilities
✅ Are cheap to acquire in digital form
✅ Are interesting historical artefacts
✅ Are celebrated by inclusive and collaborative online communities
Save a classic gamepad from ewaste and start playing retro games today! 🎮
v0.3 of Heffalump (a Mastodon client for PalmOS) is out now! This release (finally) adds the ability to view your own past toots, as well as replies (to both your own and others' toots).
Thank you so much to those who have signed up to support the SDF Computer Museum with a BOOTSTRAP membership. We still have gift items available to those who join and if you've not gotten yours it is going out in tomorrow mail. Looking forward to our announcement and events in late June and July!
Where the #ICQ „Uh-Oh“ sound really came from: Not Worms or Lemmings, as some are telling you. Instead Windows 3.0 MultiMedia Edition from 1991 contains the exact same sample as „ohoh.wav“. #retrocomputing#windows#1990s
In April 2018 I was having fun with the Okimate 20 thermal printer with my Commodore 64. It’s a fun printer that can use thermal fax paper so you don’t need a ribbon so you can print black as long as you have paper.
This is a PETSCII houndstooth pattern I came up with. BASIC source in the photos. I really like the built-in serif text font.
The Lucasfilm's Habitat beta footage has been released finally. Check out the post on my site for links to YouTube, as well as the raw transfers over at the Internet Archive.