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
- Brought another vintage computer back to life from the trash bin. Some probing around with the oscilloscope narrowed it down to a bad VIC chip. Desoldered, installed a socket and replaced it and it’s back in service.
- The first spreadsheet I ever used was Practicalc. Seems appropriate to use it to hold a BOM for a new retro board build
- Sunday morning Enigma work. Because reasons… #commodore #crypto
- Quick Post: Modulus in BASIC 2 without a cartridge · imapenguin
- Six years ago today I became a licensed pilot ;-)
- Just reading this book for the first time. It’s really good. Seems like a possible candidate for an @8BitShowAndTell book club.
- Making and breaking Ciphers on the Commodore 64 Part 12 – Pontifex – Solitaire from Cryptonomicon · imapenguin
- Did you know that Bruce Schneier created a cipher for Neal Stephenson in Cryptonomicon(1999)? Uses a simple deck of cards, so naturally…Commodore 64! Should actually work on most 8 bit machines of the era with slight mods.
- I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but 3583 bytes on an unexpanded VIC-20 really isn't much. My Pontifex program doesn't fit ;-)
- I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but 3583 bytes on an unexpanded VIC-20 really isn't much. My Pontifex program doesn't fit ;-)
- Retro computer repair people problems… when you need an NTSC VIC and TWO PAL versions arrive first
- It freaking works. I can't believe this thing actually works. #commodore #c64 #crypto
- I think screenshots from my scope desktop software is better than a photo of the scope screen. I'm going to start with pinouts of a Longboard 64 NTSC and organize the github repo. This would be much easier with two people in person. One to probe, the other to record. #commodore
- I want to see scope pinouts of every pin on every chip on a VIC-20, C64 (long and short) and 128. If it doesn't exist, I may create this as a resource. Just power on and pin out, screenshot scope. Nothing running. #commodore
- I will never take list/array slicing in my day job for granted again. Doable, but so messy. #commodore #crypto
- Making and breaking Ciphers on the Commodore 64 Part 11 – One time pads on a Commodore 64, probably a bad idea · imapenguin
- Don't get impatient. Silly mistake. #commodore
- Another 128 today. I’m not sure I understand this yet, but a wonky 8563 (80 column chip) was causing an issue on the CIA at U1. Took a while to figure this one out for a friend. When did I become my local 128 repair shop? I barely know what I’m doing #commodore
- Out of all the vendors I deal with @futurewas8bit is one of the best. Consistent and great products. Penultimate+ and a 6502 this time. #commodore
- 10 min lunchtime progress: Running all rotors with 26 possible starting positions on a 3 Rotor Enigma with 5 rotors to choose from (I want this to finish in my lifetime). So 1,054,560 combinations in 71 seconds(BASIC takes 2+ hours). Not bad. #commodore #c64 #crypto #enigma