smallsco

@smallsco@oldbytes.space

Just a 30something Canadian dude from #VancouverIsland who's into #RetroComputing (mainly old #Apple / #Mac stuff), #Programming, and general #Technology enthusiast. Also love to #Travel!

I also have a alt account at @thissa where I post about #Anime, #Gaming, and #Otaku things :)

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Mastodon, to mastodon
@Mastodon@mastodon.social avatar

New merch just dropped! Responsibly sourced cotton t-shirts, enamel pins, mugs, and vinyl stickers with cute, exclusive designs! Get them while they're hot and support the development of Mastodon!

https://freshstore.co/collections/mastodon

An enamel pin attached to a white t-shirt. The pin features an elephant riding a paper airplane.
A purple mug featuring an elephant on a green landscape. The elephant is waving.
A black t-shirt featuring an elephant riding a paper airplane among different colored planets. The Mastodon logo is visible.

smallsco,

@Mastodon Any idea when we’ll see more mugs in stock? Those sold out quick!

dansup, to random
@dansup@mastodon.social avatar

I'm at a crossroads, and have some important decisions to make regarding the news of the app UI sunset.

I have no doubt that NativeBase will still be supported beyond the next few months, so:

I can move forward with feature dev and a public app launch next month (and delay refactoring)

or

I can start refactoring the app now, and delay public release and new features until the new year

smallsco,

@dansup I can only speak for myself, but the main reason I haven’t started using Pixelfed yet is that I’m waiting for the iOS app to be released.

SinclairSpeccy, to random

Been trying to remember how I even discovered Macstodon lol.

Seems like I can’t remember that far back

smallsco,

@SinclairSpeccy I think you were there from the very beginning, or close to it!

smallsco,

@SinclairSpeccy lol yeah I jumped from around 100 to 500 followers after announcing it. My most popular toot is still the announcement of 0.3 (and even today it still gets the occasional favourite/boost, despite being many versions behind now) 😂

I want to start working on 1.1 soon, but my IIfx is missing its' power supply right now 😅 so that will probably still be a few weeks away. Would also be fun to try to make companion apps for Lemmy/kbin and Pixelfed…

smallsco,

@breadbin @SinclairSpeccy Emojis and reactions are almost certainly a no-go on Mac OS 7…considering Unicode support isn’t even there. I want to do Pixelfed, if that happens it will be PowerPC only due to MacPython’s memory leak when loading images in 1.5.2, the last 68K version.

I’ve been using kbin occasionally but I agree with you, it’s not great in terms of subreddit discovery, and I often find myself drifting back to reddit even though I deleted my account there.

Might give Lemmy a try next.

smallsco,

@breadbin @SinclairSpeccy Yeah, eventually I’ll pick up C and learn to do things the “right” way. I’ve been following the thread at TinkerDifferent and watching 1bit’s video series. 😁

It’s just a matter of time, and of motivation. I program all day for work, so I try to keep it to a minimum in my off hours. I tend to pick it up over the holidays when I'm not working - or when I'm on vacation.

And you're right, learning C does feel rather daunting. I dabbled in it a tiny bit at university and didn't really enjoy programming at such a low level, having to manually manage memory and such. Not to mention having to deal with the network stack on top of that, and then there's pointers… 😅

But I will get to it eventually. I'd like to try making a "Macstodon Lite" that runs on System 6… 😎

SinclairSpeccy, to retrocomputing

Just saw this on the Mastodon website, and #Macstodon is there along with #DOStodon!

There's a whole third-party apps category for retro computing.

Now only if I had the skill to make a client for older iOS versions like iOS 6 and below...

#Retro #RetroComputing #Mastodon #Fediverse #ThirdPartyApps #VintageTech #TechNostalgia

smallsco,

@SinclairSpeccy This is thanks to @colin_mcmillen who submitted a PR for retrocomputing clients to the Mastodon web site a while back 😁

kalleboo, to random Japanese
@kalleboo@bitbang.social avatar

My 3 feature requests for @MonaApp

  1. Option for a dialog to warn you if you’re about to post a picture with no description entered

  2. Option to make custom emoji bigger. Right now they’re tiny and I can’t make them out (are they designed for 1x PC displays and being rendered at retina scale or are they actually supposed to be this small?)

  3. Always load the whole timeline instead of having “load more” buttons. Timeline sync seems wonky for me the with inconsistent loading

smallsco,

@kalleboo @MonaApp 4) If I have multiple windows open, and exit/relaunch the app, all of those windows should be restored, not just one of them.

  1. Let me add unlimited columns to a window (and allow me to scroll horizontally between them). Right now it stops at 5 visible - I can add more columns but they’re invisible with no way to access.

But yeah, other than those small annoyances, @MonaApp is by far the best Mastodon client I’ve used.

smallsco,

@MonaApp Regarding divide views (columns), that doesn’t work for me. After opening five divide views, trying to open more results in them becoming invisible. I can also reproduce this behaviour by shrinking Mona’s window, eventually only four or three divide views will be shown. Pressing Tab only cycles through the divide views displayed on screen, and two finger swipe left/right has no effect.

However, using CMD-Shift-D does close the “invisible” divide views.

This is on Mac OS 13.5 and Mona 5.7.1.

smallsco,

@MonaApp Well, when in doubt, just reboot! Simply exiting and relaunching the app didn’t work for me, but after a reboot now I can cycle through the hidden divide views with tab and shift-tab 😁

It would be nice if the two-finger swipe worked on Mac as well, maybe in a future version?

Also, I turned off the "Close windows when quitting an application" preference, and now my windows are being correctly restored as well.

Thanks so much for all the help!

smallsco, to random

I used to be this guy.

In my early university years (20ish years ago) I started my morning with a couple triple-shot espressos, knocked back a couple cans of Rockstar after lunch, and when I got home in the evening I would often make myself a milkshake infused with several Warp Hyper Energy Mints (https://whatidrinkatwork.blogspot.com/2010/11/warp-hyper-charged-energy-mints.html)

I gave up caffeinated beverages (mostly) after driving a friend home from university, and almost getting into an accident. My friend asked me to pull over and switch with him because my hands were shaking so bad on the wheel and it was obvious I was having trouble focusing because I was so jittery. He said he was worried about what I was doing to myself with all the energy drinks day after day. So I stopped, cold turkey, and suffered awful withdrawal headaches for a week. But it was worth it.

Nowadays I stick to two cups of decaf in the morning, and once in a blue moon I’ll enjoy a glass of Dr. Pepper. But that’s it. https://fedi.fazbear.lol/notes/9hxdp66blpolbfnu

smallsco, to retrocomputing

TIL: Steve Chamberlin of Big Mess O’ Wires (Floppy Emu, ADB Wombat, Mac ROM-inator II) is the same Steve Chamberlin who wrote Tetris Max and Columns Max back in the day.

https://www.bigmessowires.com/2023/07/28/tetris-max-2-9-1-and-macintosh-system-6-0-8-bugs/

#RetroComputing #VintageMac

SinclairSpeccy, to random

Being a staff member for a flash game community made me realise that somehow a flash game from several years ago has the most toxic community

smallsco,

@SinclairSpeccy More toxic than mastodon.art? Surely you jest 😂

smallsco,

@SinclairSpeccy Every time I see fedi drama they always seem to be at the centre of it lol

kboyd, to random
@kboyd@phpc.social avatar

Sometimes it seems like my keyboard needs a bit of caffeine to wake up in the morning.

Apparently the first thing I typed on today was "ctrl-c" to copy a URL for a news article. But because it hadn't yet woken up, and because bluetooth, it ate the keypress in the wakeup cycle. So I ended up pasting a URL to API documentation, instead of to the news article I was trying to paste.

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/shoe-with-suspected-human-remains-inside-found-at-gonzales-beach-7331073

There we go, now it works.

smallsco,

@kboyd Ah yes, time for the yearly “foot in shoe washes up on beach” event 😂

smallsco, to random

Last week was a bit tough.

We had a second round of layoffs at work, only a couple months after the last one. I’m not affected, but my team has been absolutely decimated and morale is low.

I had a previously planned vacation at the end of the week, which I took. I felt a bit guilty about not being there for what was left of my team at work, but I needed the mental break. I was able to connect with some extended family that I hadn’t seen in years, and take a technology and social media break at the same time.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all roses, the family member that was supposed to come with me fell seriously ill, and so I was worried about them the entirety of the vacation and constantly checking in with them on the phone.

Got back home on Monday, and decided to extend the tech/socmed break while I dealt with more important things. Fortunately, the family member is on the mend, and the situation at work has improved…so I’m back now.

But I already feel like I need another vacation.

smallsco, to random

Exciting news! is now featured on joinmastodon.org’s Apps directory, under a new “Retro computing” category! Thanks to @colin_mcmillen for getting this set up.

Check it out here, along with some other amazing clients for vintage computers!
https://joinmastodon.org/apps

(Guess I should start working on v1.1 soon, I’ve had a pretty long break!)

smallsco,

@vga256 GitHub doesn’t understand CR line endings by itself - however if you pull up any file and use the “Raw” button, then it should work.

The auth code is here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/smallsco/macstodon/main/AuthWindows.py

I’m not really doing anything special - I pop the user’s browser so that they can log in and get their token. They then paste that token into a dialog in Macstodon, and after that it’s just a series of POST requests. I save the token in the preferences file so that it can be re-used without having to re-auth.

smallsco, to random

#Macstodon is in the media again, with some great company!

Check out this roundup of Mastodon clients for vintage computers, written by @deadsuperhero for @wedistribute ! https://mastodon.social/@wedistribute/110731450552019567

smallsco, to random

Hey @MonaApp ,

Is there any way to change the “Refresh” options on a per-timeline basis, as opposed to globally?

I’d like my Home timeline to maintain the current reading position, but for certain lists, I’d rather use the “Scroll to latest post” option (or alternately, disable auto-refresh entirely for those lists and only those lists).

kboyd, to random
@kboyd@phpc.social avatar

Blech, it feels like the humidity doubled in the past hour. Anyone else notice that, or is it just me? #yyj

smallsco,

@kboyd I felt it rise quite a bit last night, had to sleep with a fan on. Haven’t noticed a raise in humidity today, it’s just been straight up humid all day.

smallsco, to random

So now that the latest version of Mastodon (at least the Glitch-soc fork) has exclusive lists, what’s everyone’s listing strategies?

I’ve been constantly ~3000 toots behind on my home timeline all week, and it’s only getting worse. So I’m curious how everyone else is making use of lists - particularly exclusive lists, in order to keep their timeline under control.

The idea I’m thinking of is to create several lists, some for topics/users that I want to keep up with daily (i.e. retro computing, news), others that I’m still interested in following but it doesn’t matter so much if I fall behind, and some that I can just look at whenever for a laugh without caring about the time at all (i.e. memes, cat pictures, shitposts, jokes). And then one more for people who boost so much that they need to be in their own timeline 😂

(Also, do lists come with you if you move instances?)

smallsco,

@kboyd Yeah, that’s fair. For me it depends on the person, most accounts I don’t mind if I miss some posts, but for others I’d really like to be able to see what I missed easily.

vga256, (edited ) to random
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

TIL: someone has been rebuilding Eudora 7 from source, with QoL (and modern SSL) improvements for the past few years... and plans eventually release final builds for Win/Mac.

has anyone had a chance to try HERMES 8 e-Mail? the only thing i can find on the web is an early Windows alpha here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/hermesmail/files/

Update: it turns out Eudora was open sourced a few years ago! The original Eudora 7 Win/Mac source available here, even for commercial use:

https://computerhistory.org/blogs/the-eudora-email-client-source-code-license-agreement/

smallsco,

@vga256 Now that I think of it… I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the internet with Windows 3.1 - going to have to try that on a VM one day… or maybe on real hardware if I can get some, just for the fun of it 😛

smallsco, to random

Finally got some time to start working on my next project - the Mac SE! My plan of attack is as follows:

  1. Disassemble everything and give it a good cleaning
  2. Recap the analogue board
  3. Replace the squirrel-cage fan with a new fan
  4. Recap the power supply
  5. Recap the logic board
  6. Service the floppy drive to the best of my ability
  7. Install a BlueSCSI!

Credit where credit is due - I’m not doing this alone, I’m doing it under the supervision of my dad who is an experienced electronics engineer and is making sure I don’t do anything really dumb (especially when working around high voltage stuff)

I did the first three steps this afternoon! The case is clean, the analogue board has been recapped (using this kit: https://console5.com/store/macintosh-se-se-30-analog-pcb-cap-kit-630-0147-c.html ) and the fan has been replaced with a Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX. In order to fit the new fan, I used this bracket: https://github.com/alxlab-zone66x/Macintosh_SE_Fan_Bracket_805-0936-A and had it 3D printed using MakeXYZ.

The SE analogue board before being cleaned, recapped and having the fan replaced. Check out that dirty, ugly squirrel cage fan!
The SE chassis with the logic and analogue boards removed, with the CRT and the rest of the chassis having been cleaned with rubbing alcohol and windex!
The SE analogue board after being cleaned, recapped and having the fan replaced with a Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX! So shiny! So quiet!

smallsco,

The Mac SE is booting again! Since the last update, we serviced the floppy drive and replaced the original internal hard drive with the #BlueSCSI V1 that used to live in my IIfx. I’m looking forward to using this machine for old games that won’t even run on the IIfx, and getting into more system-6-era #RetroProgramming with some online tutorials!

The floppy drive is better than it was. We gave it a good cleaning with compressed air, followed by some rubbing alcohol and DeoxIT. When the drive is out of the case, there’s no problem with physically inserting and ejecting disks. But when the drive is installed in the case, while there’s no problems any more with inserting or reading disks, they refuse to eject (and the drive makes a terrible whining noise when trying to do so). However, I’m not too upset about the floppy drive, since I have a Floppy Emu and want to ultimately replace the 800K drive with a 1.44MB FDHD unit anyway 🙂

#RetroComputing #VintageMac #68K #Apple #Mac #ClassicMac

smallsco,

@3rz So I was originally going to lubricate the gears (using grease rather than oil - not sure if it matters?), but given that the drive seemed to be working just fine when outside of the case, I figured it wasn’t actually required. It wasn’t until the machine was fully assembled that it stopped working.

I’m not convinced that the problem isn’t some subtle alignment issue… but like I said before I can live without the drive working as I have very few DD disks to actually use with it.

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