paulrickards

paulrickards, 10 months ago to genart

My first #PortfolioDay! I’m Paul and I’m an artist that uses modern code to create unique works using vintage pen plotters, which I also collect and repair as needed. My works are typically in CMY color but I also do monochrome or other specialty inks. I can do up to 36”x48”.

🚀 Boosts appreciated! Cheers!

#PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt

CMY pen plot of overlapping arcs that looks wrinkly.
Monochrome pen plot of thick black lines that meander like roots. The background is filled with outlined squares.
CMY pen plot of a circle with various hatch fills that are dominated by quadrants of green, magenta, and yellow.

paulrickards, 8 months ago to retrocomputing

Graphically visualizing the erasure of a 16kbit #EPROM with a UV source in 16 seconds!

This time lapse shows all of the bits being flipped from 0 to 1 over about a 24 minute period. The first bit flips at 8 minutes.

What's fascinating to me is the bits "twinkle" as they flip back and forth before settling.

#RetroComputing #TimeLapse

video/mp4

paulrickards, 9 months ago to random

Petition to bring back vaporwave Apple.

paulrickards, 5 months ago to retrocomputing

I’ve been #RetroComputing for a while now but I wanted to do a little #PenPlotter today since I’m participating in #ptpx this year. Here’s an idea I’ve wanted to implement for a while. Designed in Python, plotter on a HP 7550 Plus vintage plotter.

#GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt

A HP 7550 Plus pen plotter with the lid open and the Joy plot on the stage.

paulrickards, 4 months ago to retrocomputing

Remember to play Dark Castle today to see the Christmas tree in the foyer! Have a retro holiday!

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #RetroGaming

Close up of a screenshot of Dark Castle for Mac on a Mac Portable. It shows the opening foyer scene with 5 doors to choose from. In December 25, it shows a Christmas tree on a pedestal which is normally empty.
Screenshot of Dark Castle for Mac. It shows a close up shot of a Christmas tree on a pedestal which is normally empty.

paulrickards, 1 year ago to retrocomputing

Restocked a small quantity of #WiFi232 serial modems in my shop. Connect your retro computer or terminal to the world of the BBS again!

https://shop.paulrickards.com/retro-computing-pop-up-shop/

• Please confirm your shipping address!! *

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #Commodore #Amiga #MSDOS #Atari #Macintosh #VintageMac #Tandy #AppleII #AppleIIgs

A composite of photos of vintage computers showing they are connected to a WiFi232 serial modem. Computers include an Atari Portfolio, Tandy Model 100, Apple IIgs, Atari 800, and an Amiga 2000.

paulrickards, 11 months ago to random

This photo still haunts me.

paulrickards, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to retrocomputing

If you have a chance while in Washington, DC, make sure to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibit featuring the work of Susan Kare at Design your Own Icon, a hands-on exhibit where you flip black and white tiles to create your own icon on the screen. 😀

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #Smithsonian #MARCHintosh

paulrickards, 3 months ago to random

Ok, I caved and bought that $32 “instant” digital camera that prints on thermal paper.

It’s a weird and wonderful shitty camera. The printer is pretty good, using error diffusion dithering but a bit slow. It’s apparently a 12MP camera that can also do 1080p video on the included 32GB SD card. Obs targeted at kids with the built in filters but there’s something about the immediateness that’s fun about it. Wonder how hackable it is?

https://amzn.to/42DSsrS

#ShittyCameraChallenge #InstantCamera

paulrickards, 3 months ago to retrocomputing

So a post from @mejs about Tekserve in NYC included a photo of three original Macs being used a "Now Serving" digital signage. The screens do look like they're real. Does anyone know of the details on how this worked? What software was used or created? Was it loaded from floppy? How were the numbers incremented by staff? Please please tell me it was LocalTalk!!

Link to original post: https://mastodon.vladovince.com/@mejs/111854079676032487

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #LiveLaughLocalTalk

paulrickards, 9 months ago to retrocomputing

Well, I just placed orders for boards and parts to build a new Lisa 2/5 around my existing Lisa CPU card, the only part of a Lisa I’ve ever owned.

I would never have thought this was possible if it weren’t for the work of @DosFox who recently built the first new Lisa since 1986! Thanks for the inspiration!

I’ll continue this thread as parts roll in. I may ask (beg) if folks have some parts in your bins! 😀

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #AppleLisa #AppleLisaClone

paulrickards, 9 months ago to python

Noodling around today with some #Python and drew this abstract plot on 13x19 paper with the Roland DPX-2000 #PenPlotter. What do you see?

#RolandDPX2000

Detail of a pen plot of lines converging into the center of a circle.
A Roland DPX-2000 pen plotter with 13x19 paper on the print bed with a pen plot of lines converging into the center of a circle.

paulrickards, 11 months ago to art

It's the most wonderful time of the year: #525FloppyDay! I love using floppy disks as a medium to plot on as well as a subject of my pen plots.

Here's a selection of 5.25" floppy disk plots available in my shop =)

https://shop.paulrickards.com/floppy/

#RetroComputing #VintageComputing #PenPlotter #GenerativeArt #CreativeCoding #MastoArt #Art #Artist #ArtForSale #FloppyDisk #525Floppy

A portrait orientation #PenPlot of a 3 x 4 grid of 5.25" floppy disks shaded in a CMY rainbow scheme with the density of the shading darker at the top and lightening towards the bottom.
A #PenPlot on top of a 5.25" black floppy disk of a vanishing point grid drawn in thick gold ink.
A picture of a #PenPlotter in action drawing on a white 5.25" floppy disk an abstract asteroid made up of triangles that is being disintegrated by a small triangular ship drawn in the left corner that is reminiscent of Asteroids the video game.

paulrickards, 6 months ago to random

Anyone familair with the MacIPGW project know how to setup TCP/IP port forwarding to the Apple IP Gateway side of things? I think it involves a specific incantation of iptables and possibly route..

If you've never heard of MacIPGW, it's a (among other things) a VM for RaspPi that gives your vintage Macs access to the modern world (AppleShare, IP over AppleTalk, etc.) and is pretty cool!

https://www.macip.net/macipgg-vm-3-0/

#ClassicMac #RetroComputing

paulrickards, 4 months ago to retrocomputing

My New Year’s resolution this year is 640x400x1 🥳

Say Hello, World! to the new-to-me Macintosh Portable. This is the fancy backlit version (M5126). More luggable than laptop weighing in at 16 lbs. It’s just such a beast of a machine.

It comes with this even larger travel case with room for lots of extra gear.

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MacintoshPortable

Mac Portable case standing upright.
Mac portable case laying flat, handle facing you.
Mac Portable inside the case with the case lid opened.

paulrickards, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to retrocomputing

We're Zoning out! We've now got three different sites connected via Apple Internet Router!

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MARCHintosh #GlobalTalk #LiveLaughLocalTalk

paulrickards, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Are there any hacks to modern MacOS 14 that forces windows to have an actual title bar at the top of them? You know, an area that contains the application title or document title and allows you to move is easily?

For instance, with Firefox and lots of tabs open, the window itself has no tittle bar at the top. Moving the window is difficult and only possible on the far left or right of the top of the window. It also doesn't identify itself.

Update: see replies!

paulrickards, 25 days ago (edited 25 days ago) to RaspberryPi

I’ve been rebuilding a #RaspberryPi installation that supports my classic Mac habit 😄

I used to use the awesome #MacIPGW image which includes a ton of pre-configured software like #netatalk. But it hasn’t been updated in a while so I used it as excuse to start from scratch.

I used this Pi Zero W as my starting point. HDMI video stopped working on it for unknown reasons. I added an Ethernet/USB hub hat and a #TashTalk 2 hat for #LocalTalk devices.

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac

paulrickards, 2 months ago to random

Stop using Twitter.

paulrickards, 4 months ago to random

Trading the pen for the laser: I'm going to try some of my #PenPlotter designs on a laser cutter soon. I think something like differential growth would work well since it's a single path and should provide a very interesting positive and negative in the material.

Here's an animation of how I build (err, growth) them.

#Maker

An animation of a circle that grows so quickly that it distorts into arms that stretch out, folding over and branching into new arms. It ends when the arms reach a hidden circular boundary and begin to wiggle in place as if behind held by an invisible force.