I write about the past, present, and future of technology across three sites. imapenguin.com explores retro computing and programming fundamentals, milkcrunch.com covers modern software development and engineering culture, and evadot.com examines commercial spaceflight and the new space movement.
Posts
RSS- This perfectly sums up what my study focus for October will be.
- Test fitting the instrument panel trays. I may have found an actual use for TheC64 Mini. #commodore
- Floppy emulator arrived today for the Apple II. Plug it in, turn it on. Works. Too easy.
- In today’s episode of “stupid races between old computery things”: Apple IIe (128k RAM) vs unexpanded VIC-20 with a boring version of the 100 doors problem. Almost identical performance since they have the same processor running a very similar clock speeds. #commodore #apple
- Here’s what the Apple II external power supply installation looks like. It’s dramatically cooler inside the case now and no Rifa caps to explode. Even still works
- Spent most of the afternoon chopping wood. Time to move to figuring out how to get this Gotek floppy emulator into my Osborne 1.
- Mead I start today will be ready in April. Always plan ahead.
- A bunch of people have asked about my future proofing of the Apple IIe. The core of my strategy is this externally power supply that replaces the troublesome internal unit completely. Not “authentic” but it will keep a ton of heat away from the rest of the machine
- Always loved a green phosphor monitor for the PET. Took a risk of tearing apart the universe by putting my MiniPET on an Apple monitor. Seems like we’re all still here so far. #apple #commodore #10Print
- Well I’m trying not to be disappointed that it works. I do enjoy fixing them. But I love that I have this in my collection now. #10print
- I was lightly scolded by @8BitShowAndTell for learning LISP on a machine with a lot of bits so this morning I've shifted back to a machine with the proper number ;-) #commodore
- This morning's "learn something new every day" I'm learning a LISP dialect... finally. I've never been cool enough to learn LISP, but I can fake being cool
- Some of my notebooks from 1993-2008 or so when I made the mistake of switching to mostly digital. 20 years from now I’ll bet you would be glad your notes/thoughts/journal today was on paper. Ask me how I know.
- 10 Minute Lunch break progress: I have this dumb idea to do a simple (insecure) blockchain as a teaching tool. My first crack at it is sorta working already ;-) #commodore
- For a long time I’ve averaged reading two books a week. It’s almost as fun figuring out what to read next as it is actually reading. This next week will be:
- Finally bottled the rest of the first batch of this winter’s mead. This is about 1/3 of the batch and will age until about November. It will mellow out a lot by then and the cloudiness will be gone. Two more 3 gallon batches are a month behind and still fermenting.
- Doing a little French Broad River Kayaking with Julie today. Not too shabby
- What kind of music do you guys like? All the kinds. Julie’s thrift store finds today fit right in
- This socket is going to have to go. This is working its way out when it gets warm. #commodore
- It’s #septandy day 15. I give up.