RetroViator

@RetroViator@bitbang.social

Classic Computer Enthusiast

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RetroViator, to random

I think I got to this one just in the nick of time!

image/jpeg

RetroViator,

I might have been a bit too optimistic.

About a dozen traces are in bad shape under the Varta. Several are completely gone, but it’s likely salvageable.

RetroViator, to retrocomputing

(1/2) I went to my local e-waste for the first time this week. I’d been avoiding it because I assumed it would simple dumpster, but I was surprised to find a staffed drive-thru building with stacks of gear being prepped for recycling.

I asked the guys working there if they ever see any old computers come through, and I was disappointed to hear that a pallet of boxed Apple IIs, with CRTs, has been there the week before, but were gone now.


RetroViator,

(2/2) I spotted a Mac Pro sitting off to the side and asked what I should do if I wanted to take it home. The guy said matter-of-factly, “put it in your car.” I did just that!

I also spotted a particularly cute mini tower at the bottom of a pallet of non-descript late model Dells and Compaqs. They graciously allowed me to restack the pallet and bring a sweet 386 home too.

Needless to say, I’ll be going back!


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

after watching doug block's Home Page (1999) documentary a half-dozen times over the past year, i realized how much i missed having a personal home page.

not an itch.io page. not a github repo. not an imgur album.

an actual personal home page full of links to interesting places and people, and a little blog area to write personal stuff in. i haven't had a personal blog since the early 2000s.

i wanted to have some fun, so I hauled my dusty ol' iMac G5 out of storage and installed Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks. i hadn't used any of them in almost 20 years.

i thought it might take me a week to build a home page...

... it took me a year 😅

so this is my little attempt at rebuilding what we lost in the 90s. let me know if you've got a little homepage i can link back to in my hyperlinks area.

http://www.dialup.cafe/~vga256

#smallWeb #worldWideWeb #homePage #indieWeb

RetroViator,

@vga256 Lovely! The look and feel is impressive—better than the’90s for sure, but the aesthetic is spot on.

RetroViator, to random

Now I just need a an early Pentium INTERGRAPH workstation to go with this unique keyboard.

RetroViator,

@thomasfuchs Testing is required. Intergraph made high-end graphic workstations, so their stuff is a bit unusual.

RetroViator,

@thomasfuchs I purchased this to go with a system I saw online, but once I won the bid on the keyboard, the computer was already sold. Dumb on my part.

I am interested in digging into the history of Intergraph.

RetroViator, to random

It’s a small thing, but this is the vintage Apple keyboard I’ve been missing. Now to clean it up and use it with my Mac SE.

RetroViator,

Somehow, cleaning a keyboard feels right on a cold wet November day.

RetroViator,

I’ve learned it’s a good idea to reflow the ADB ports on vintage Macintosh keyboards as they sometimes have cracked joints.

RetroViator,

I know the Apple Extended Keyboard II gets a lot of love, but this might be my favorite size to use regularly due to its smaller size (though some keys, including the arrow keys, are not great).

RetroViator,

@thomasfuchs The original Extended is hard to find!

vga256, to random
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

so this was a new one for me after 30+ years of networking

for the past 3 weeks, my mac pro decided to fall off the network randomly, every 5-45 minutes.

suspected a bad ethernet port, so i switched to the secondary port. no dice.

suspected software weirdness, so i reinstalled adguard and anything that might be hijacking my connection no dice.

suspected a bad ethernet cable, so i swapped that out too. green lights on my pro, and on the switch. no dice.

yesterday I noticed that my doorbell cam had been mysteriously offline for some time - probably weeks. i traced it back to its ethernet cable, which was only partially inserted. the locking tab had snapped off.

oddly enough, i noticed that it neighboured the mac pro's port on the switch.

i replaced the bad doorbell cam cable. suddenly, i've got rock solid ethernet on the pro again. 😖

i assume this means there are electrical relationships between neighbouring ports on this $9 switch, probably to save money. sigh.

RetroViator,

@vga256 Talk about a needle in a haystack! I guess that’s a reminder to all of us to isolate when troubleshooting, but still, who’d have imagined that.

RetroViator, to random

This workhorse followed me home today. This was peak performance in 1994. I’m thinking about a sweet Windows NT build.

RetroViator,

@vga256 Awesome! I was in college when this was new, and this was our IT group’s first serious PC server (we were a Mac shop). It ran Windows NT and we learned a lot using it.

vwestlife, to random
@vwestlife@mastodon.social avatar

Did you know that cassette-based computer networking existed in the early 1980s? It allowed up to 16 client computers to load a program or data sent by a host machine, using audio signals sent through the cassette port: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMOMH-SXcVk

RetroViator,

@vwestlife Very cool! My middle school computer lab was full of TRS-80 Model IIIs, and the teacher used this to load up Lemonade Stand and other educational games. I’ve not seen one in real life since.

pixel, to random
@pixel@social.pixels.pizza avatar

Fun fact I learned: you know the little tracking sticker they put on your luggage? At least for United, they recycle those tracking numbers about every 7 days. So if a bag gets lost, and you end up with the same number as that lost bag, they’ll send your bag to the person that lost their bag a week ago.

My wife’s luggage is in New York, in someone’s apartment building.

RetroViator,

@pixel That’s lousy! It feels like this is getting worse. The airline has lost my bag two out of the last three times I’ve flown.

ActionRetro, to random
@ActionRetro@bitbang.social avatar

That's no ordinary iMac G3!

https://youtu.be/rvkaAqCaduE

RetroViator,

@ActionRetro @breadbin I heard Mark Joziatis of MacEffects fame was thinking about a replacement inner bezel a few years ago but backed away. I was able to acquire a replacement for my slot loader damaged in shipment, but I’m embarrassed to admit how much I paid.

RetroFox, to random
@RetroFox@bitbang.social avatar

Today at the flea I spotted the monitor (labeled Gateway 2000) that went with the Gateway 2000 486 I picked up recently, same vendor I bought the pc from. He wasn’t there, stuff was covered - I’ll check tomorrow but at the same time, don’t want to lug a crt monitor home. Tough decision since it is a matching piece that I know was with that computer. :p

RetroViator,

@RetroFox Good choice. I believe the CrystalScans are rebadged Sony Trinitrons.

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