blakespot

@blakespot@oldbytes.space

Full-stack web developer at American University in D.C., dad, vintage computing nerd, and No Man's Sky explorer. I live in Alexandria, Virginia and my views / toots are my own. (He/him)

[Originally joined (diff instance): 08/19/2018]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

blakespot, to apple

If you own an iPhone and care to share photos with anyone, go ahead and switch off of the lamentably default HEIC image format back to JPEG, in the settings.

Thanks.

blakespot, to art

XboxAhoy's recreation of Jack Haeger's lovely "Four-Byte Burger," referenced in my earlier toot, displayed in phosphor glory on my Amiga 1000 and its 1080 CRT. (XboxAhoy linked the IFF in the post to his sub - r/XboxAhoy - on reddit).

Obviously that old 1080 doesn't like to lie on its side! Eek!

So very lovely!

image/jpeg

blakespot, to retrocomputing

KansasFest 2023, the Apple II gathering, is underway in Kansas City, MO.

I have just signed up for Virtual KFest (July 29th & 30th) for $20.

https://www.kansasfest.org

#AppleII #AppleIIForever #a24evr #KFest #KansasFest #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

blakespot, to VintageComputing

IRCing on the Apple IIe "logged in" to the Mac Studio.

blakespot, to apple

Playing No Man's Sky in bed. All setting on Ultra.

#NoMansSky #NMS #M2 #MacBookAir #Mac #AppleSilicon #MacOS #gaming #games #gamers #procgen #SciFi #Apple #tech #HelloGames

blakespot, to art

My recent toot about the iconic lost Amiga work of pixelart from 1985, Jack Haeger's "Four-Byte Burger," received by far more reactions than any of my others.

YouTuber "Ahoy" has just posted a video in which he sleuths rather deeply and manages to recreate this wonderful piece, pixel by pixel, with apparently great accuracy.

It's an incredible process not to be missed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4EFkspO5p4

blakespot, to random

Degaussing.

blakespot, to random

The source code for NeXTSTEP has been leaked and is on Github.

https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=4690.0

blakespot, to random

Hmm.

blakespot, to internet

Those out there who use a VPN as common practice, what service do you recommend? Is latency in any way an issue? What are you paying out for it?

Thanks.

blakespot, to VintageComputing

Funny, when some spring chicken makes a vintage computing post on Fb.

blakespot, to random

I was BBSing last night on the Atari 520ST. It's not one of my main go-tos for that kind of thing, but it's nice to login on the ST once in a while.

The ST has an interesting terminal program called TAZ that achieves 16 colors for ANSI emulation in its 4-color medium resolution mode (640x200) by way of a trick. Palettes are swapped in an out in alternating frames, so you get effectively a 30Hz, 16-color display by way of what one might call "temporal dithering." (And, yes -- the flickering is quite noticeable.)

When the ST was my main driver long ago, I bought this paint program called Quantum Paint that achieved 4096 colors onscreen thanks to a similar technique. It wasn't the best experience, I confess.

https://bytecellar.com/2017/06/18/four-colors-into-sixteen-terminal-innovation-on-the-atari-st/

blakespot, to gaming

This morning, a new branch appeared (for the first time ever) on SteamDB for No Man's Sky, named "bejryy". It is being discussed in the Discord that a Caesar cypher decodes this string to "Orwell."

We await the macOS release of that was featured at WWDC 2022. (A forthcoming iOS version of the game was also mentioned by Apple at the event.)

The Mac was released in 1984, along with the famed, Orwellian "1984" commercial.

Apple is expected to reveal its mixed-reality AR/VR goggles at WWDC 2023 on June 5.

Apple is putting a great deal of weight behind the AR/VR goggles as a big, new product line.

No Man's Sky on PC and PS5 is considered to be one of the best VR-capable titles out there.

Could the delay of the macOS version of NMS be due to Apple and Hello Games aligning it to be a huge, day 1 outing for Apple VR?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I

blakespot, to random

What kind of person likes Miracle Whip???

blakespot, (edited ) to VintageComputing

As people are asking, here's the drill I went through to configure my Mac to allow my Apple IIe (and other vintage systems around the room) to "dial in" to it via WiFi232 or other WiFi modem devices.

https://bytecellar.com/2022/11/28/configure-your-mac-to-allow-vintage-computers-to-dial-in/

(I've just updated the post, to address a little snag I encountered, caused by a recent macOS update.)

blakespot, to random

Pretty amazing demo of 128K enhanced Apple IIe graphics/text mode switching mid-screen. I've never seen anything like this before in my 40 years with the II.

And a Mockingboard soundtrack, to boot.

http://deater.net/weave/vmwprod/mode_switch/

blakespot, to gaming

THIS is pretty cool...

blakespot, to gaming

I consider myself quite fortunate to have been just the right age at this point in time back in the "home computing" era to experience this:

https://bytecellar.com/2015/11/28/we-see-farther-a-tribute-to-the-ea-that-once-was/

#EA #SoftwareArtists #WeSeeFarther #CanAComputerMakeYouCry #retrogaming #vintagecomputing #computinghistory #games #homecomputing #1980s #floppydisks #AppleII #Atari #Commodore #DOS #TripHawkins

blakespot, to random

I see Pat Robertson has begun his afterlife.

blakespot, to random

One of my eBay saved searches alerted me to a new Commodore A1060 sidecar expansion. I would so love this to go with my Amiga 1000.

A PC hardcard in an ISA slot on the A1060 was the first official manner through which Commodore offered a hard disk expansion for the Amiga. A video card can be put in the unit to allow for dual-head usage of the Amiga 1000, one screen Amiga, one DOS PC. I'd love to get a Hercules in there, driving a side display.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175709593136

blakespot, to random

Four-Byte Burger

blakespot, to Help

Thinking of watching the Independence Day sequel.

Just how bad did it suck??

blakespot, to keyboards

Craziness. On our trip to Memphis last week, we wandered into this quaint little boutique in midtown called The Wren's Nest. My wife and daughter set about trying on French dresses and such, while I wandered about idly, trying to entertain myself.

As I poked about the shelves, I came upon a display of four extreme-level custom keyboards and I've never found such an out of place treasure, completely out of the blue!

I re-enact my surprise encounter in this short video. Enjoy. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T255z2y2en4

The owner's son put these together, apparently, including an also awesome board at the POS system on the back desk.

Amazing keyboards!

blakespot, to gaming

This feels odd to see. No Mans's Sky on the Mac. Performs quite well.

blakespot, to space

I have to say -- this all seems pretty legitimate, looking at the fact checking sources, analyses, etc. I think the news is finally here.

"Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft Of Non-Human Origin"
https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/141ch26/intelligence_officials_say_us_has_retrieved_craft/?

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