I know this is always a longshot but since a lot of you are Tech People and probably a lot of you spend a lot of time digging around stuff for sale, if anyone at any point sees one of these old Lian Li PC-U6 (Cowry) cases for sale, please light the bat signal for me because I have been trying to find one of these for quite a while. I didn't have the money for one when they were new ten thousand years ago and finding one in the modern day has not been easy. Maybe if I post about it enough eventually someone will see one somewhere and go "wait, someone was looking for one of those". Then not be able to find my post again probably. But y'know.
"The importance of the ZX Spectrum and its role in the early history of personal computing and video gaming has left many to regard it as the most important and influential computer of the 1980s."
Honestly, I had no idea DuckDuckGo had its own web browser lol. This article reminded me to try out DuckDuckGo's search engine again, and compare its search results with those of Google Search. I was actually surprised to find out that DuckDuckGo churned out way better search results. I'm definitely gonna use it instead of Google from now on.
I am a veteran software engineer who works as a freelancer from their home.
I love modernizing ancient software by carefully, slowly rewriting while it is still operating - without disruptions.
Currently I have two wonderful, awesome, really amazing clients between whom I split my time roughly about 50:50.
For the first one, I am the "Primus inter pares" in a team rewriting a 20-yo C++ & JS-based system in modern nodeJS + Typescript. My main job there is not to write code (it seems), but review PRs, review code, give coding guidelines, merge PRs, and make sure everything my team needs is there: test servers, development server, on-premise Gitlab, on-premise Mattermost, a good/respectful/lovely atmosphere, a lot of fun, and what else we need to deliver an awesome product. The team is amazing, the atmosphere is full of respect and love; I will stay with this team as long as I can.
For the second client, I am rewriting a 15+ year old system (Java, Java/Swift/Vue1.x-FE; rpc-like crap-API) using go(BE), gRPC (API) and dart/flutter (FE).
Here I am the core developer for the new client and the new back-end. The back-end is, for now, a proxy/a wrapper around the existing one. Behind that wrapper, two wonderful co-workers are modernizing & optimizing the Java-BE. This team here is equally as lovely as one can ever hope for; and yes, I will stay with this team as long as I can as well.
Oh, and BTW: people in both teams are nearly 100% remote.
I am married to a wonderful, an absolutely amazing person who is so full of love that she sometimes struggles with the universe (or with humanity). And I am a proud father (yes, "father"*) of a woman with a brilliant Beautiful Mind and a heart as big as the universe (who also happens to have Mastery of Words™️).
I love learning new things from complete strangers. The stranger the new knowledge the more fascinating it is for me.
I have a #FragMyBrain (autistic, ocd, nd) so be ready for detailed explanations, where each word is carefully chosen & positioned in the sentence, but still some missing - when you ask me something.
I quickly fall in love with brilliant people with language mastery skills - Mastery of Words™️.
You can always shitpost with me & talk garbage - as long as it is done intelligently, with wit & humor, and respect.
The fastest way to land on my block list is not to make a mistake, but to repeatedly make the same stupid mistake again and again and insist on it being right. There is always enough space in the "Dungeon of Blocked Accounts" (and being racists, queer-/transphobic, ableist, disrespectful, white supremecist, etc., etc. - you know what I mean).
I will add CW and mark as sensitive whenever I think so. If I forget once, please inform me and I'll correct it as fast as I can. I don't discuss whether something needs CW/sensitive marker or not, I just accept it.
I wear my feelings on my skin, i.e. what you see is how I really am, there is no IRL Imdat Celeste and a different, Fediverse Imdat Celeste: you will see a lot of 🫂,💜,😍,🥰,🥹,😳... and more. If you feel it is intruding, please let me know.
I come over differently, but I am also insecure: so, I will add a lot of emojis - just to be sure.
Also, please don't expect a "normal person" here: I am completely, utterly, hopelessly an un-normal person.
Also, my posts my start with one specific topic but during the text itself it may just become something completely different - "Train of Thought".
Again, nice to meet you - I am always looking for more new friends...
*: I am a trans non-binary person. When I came out to her, my daughter asked me how she should call me from then on and since it is an honor to be her father, that, yeah, I am and will always be that.
What if AI really is taking over, but instead of grand wars or job losses, it’s just control via weird spellcheck corrections, re-directions of non-junk-mail into the junk folder so it’s unseen, failure to let us into rooms we have access to and other similar interventions? What if it’s just sneaking round the back, cunningly disguised as the basic incompetence that we’re all entirely resigned to? There’s so much of that about that surely it’s the perfect camouflage. #AI#computers
For #ArtAdventCalendar Day 10: Happy birthday to Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who published the first computer program. She worked together with Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine (the first - analogue! - #computers), correcting his notes on how to calculate Bernoulli Numbers with the Analytical Engine. 🧵1/n
Since the 1980s, Usborne has been releasing great books for learning about computers and programming. Vibrant and fun, with big letters for the young and old, the company has put a whole bunch of them online for free as PDFs. They may not be as culturally relevant, but their ability to teach remains neon bright.
I recommending "Write Your Own Adventure Programs" for the curious, it's fun simply to read!
1 Jan 1983 is considered the official birthday of the #Internet. Prior to this, the various computer #networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol was established: Transfer Control Protocol/ Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP). This allowed different kinds of #computers on different networks to "talk" to each other. ARPANET and the Defense Data Network officially changed to the TCP/IP standard on 1 Jan 1983. https://www.npr.org/2008/01/05/17872707/system-that-made-internet-possible-turns-25
Today in 1972, Beatrice Worsley died. Born in Mexico in 1921, she was the first female computer scientist in Canada.
She wrote the first program to run on EDSAC, wrote the first compiler for Toronto's Ferranti Mark 1 & taught at the University of Toronto for over 20 years.
English polymath Charles Babbage was born #OTD in 1791. Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the Difference Engine, that eventually led to more complex electronic designs, though all the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine, programmed using a principle openly borrowed from the Jacquard loom. 1/ via @wikipedia
Okay, so it looks like I have an instance all to my very own. I'm Thom. I like #bicycles, #coffee, #beer, and I collect old #computers. PrimitiveBits is a domain I bought (but have so far not used) to blog and otherwise talk about my #retro hobbies.
Among my hobbies, probably the weirdest one is circular slide rules. I was introduced to them 22 years ago when I started flying lessons, and have since branched out from the E6B to non-aviation circular rules. I like them because
I agree with this computer scientist's assessment that #AI is a myth. I'd even go further than that and suggest that AGI is just a buzzword and that it'd probably never happen. I also don't think machines would ever become "alive", even if you teach them how to reproduce. You still cannot teach them how to adapt, as that would probably require infinite lines of code. Or maybe I'm just wrong.
After moving away from twitter and embracing #Mastodon and #Bluesky, as well as replacing Google Search with DuckDuckGo, and embracing alternatives to Gmail and Google Chrome, I think I'm now ready for the biggest transition yet. I'm seriously thinking of embracing #Linux. Time to embrace #opensource computing and software. Windows doesn't feel right these days. Truthfully, it hasn't felt right for a while.
I was inspired by jcrabapple@dmv.community to write up a post about the apps, software and other things that I use on a daily basis.
This is a list that likely changes quite often depending on new apps or software that I find that is useful and beneficial to me and how I do things on a daily basis. This could change depending on work stuff or even personal stuff.
If you have any suggestions for other apps or software that I could be using, let me know via the contact form here: Give Me Suggestions.
Apps And Software
Email Service: ProtonMail – Paid service
Mail Client: ProtonMail(Both PC and Mobile)
Note Taking: Google Keep(Looking for an alternative), Vivaldi
Calendar: Proton Calendar – Paid service
Contacts: Proton Contacts(Paid service), Google Contacts
RSS Client: Vivaldi – It’s built into the browser
Cloud Storage: Proton Drive(Paid service), Google Drive(Moving away from this soon)
Photo Storage: Google Photos – Looking for an alternative
Web Browser: Vivaldi on all platforms
Shopping List: Google Keep – Looking for an alternative
Music: YouTube Music
Password Manager: ProtonPass(Paid service), Bitwarden(Moving away from this soon)
Weather: At A Glance widget within Nova Launcher on Android
Search: Kagi – Paid service
Android Launcher: Nova Launcher Prime
Chat Apps: Discord, Google Messages
Bookmarks: Looking for something outside of the browser
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Computer Speaker System
I’m sure there are other things that I use that aren’t on this list. Some of these things are also likely to change as I find newer things that suit me better.
If you have any questions about any of these items on the list, please don’t hesitate to ask!
So this makes sense, and many of you will probably know this, but #TIL that the "print screen" button on our keyboards used to print the actual screen.
"In essence, whatever is currently on the screen when the key is pressed will be printed."
"On 30 April 1993 CERN issued a public statement stating that the three components of Web software (the basic line-mode client, the basic server and the library of common code) were put in the Public Domain [...]"