It’s somewhat easy finding modern software able to read ancient data formats (note, "somewhat"). It’s often more difficult finding the opposite - conversion from modern formats to older ones. When I’ve wanted to edit graphics using modern software (GIMP) and convert it to Atari ST I’ve so far used the excellent Netpbm package. The steps have involved converting my image in GIMP to use a colormap of suitable size, save the image as a .
Atari · Code · English · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute
3D printers for making repairs
-You’re getting a 3D printer? Why - what will you use it for? -Oh you know, it’s handy to have around when stuff around the house breaks down. Making spare parts, repairs, stuff like that. I’ve seen it lots of times. I’ve said it more than a few times leading up to when I purchased my own 3D printer. And finally it came true. Well, almost. Apparently when me and my sister, with families, visited our parents recently they felt the coffee machine needed a good cleaning.
3D Printer · 3dprinting · English · Uncategorized
2 minutes
It’s retro computing time again! As part of my quite extensive rebuild of one of my Atari STE machines I want to have both an HxC SD floppy emulator as well as the original floppy disk drive mounted internally in the machine at the same time. While that in itself is just a question of making a cable that supports both, another problem quickly arises. In most cases you would want the machine to boot off the HxC (drive A:) and the internal floppy would then be drive B:.
Atari · English · Retro · Uncategorized
4 minutes
picoPSU Atari ST replacement guide
I just did a writeup on how to replace the original PSU in an Atari ST/E with a modern picoPSU. I’m quite satisfied with how it came out - click the link for some pretty pictures ;)
Atari · Picopsu · Retro · Uncategorized
1 minute
One of the first components to show symptoms of age in an old computer is the power supply unit. This might show up as unstable video output, frequent crashes, problems reading disks or even worse - other components giving up. One option is to take care of existing PSUs - exxos has an excellent guide as to what components might need replacing after 25 years - another is to get rid of the internal PSU altogether.
4 minutes
How to run Mavericks on too old hardware
Why my Mac Mini from 2008 (model 2,1) went from Snow Leopard to Lion to Mavericks in the last 24 hours. I like my Mac Mini. It’s the first Mac I ever bought, on a whim, and it’s served me well both as a workstation and lately more of a combined NAS, Minecraft and darknet server. I populated it with 4 (3.3 usable) GB RAM from the outset, and a few years ago I switched out its 5,400 rpm hard drive for an SSD.
Apple · English · Macmini · Mavericks · Sfott · Uncategorized
3 minutes
Use an HP Compaq L2311c with Mac
The L2311c monitor is a "desktop hot-swappable" monitor to which you connect USB devices and ethernet, where you’re supposed to only then have to connect it to your computer via a single USB cable to access all of its functionality. On Windows. Out of the box, the integrated webcam as well as USB keyboards and mice connected to its port work fine. The USB Ethernet (LAN7500) as well as USB Graphics (UFX7000) does not work however.
Apple · English · Uncategorized
2 minutes
This page describes how a still produced little piece of hardware can add real time clock (RTC) functionality to our old favourite computer systems. In this case it’s an Atari STE, but any ST with ROM sockets will work. Why? I can’t speak for everyone, but personally I’ve become quite accustomed to being able to look at file creation dates to see when I worked on what. It’s not something that bothered me too much 25 years ago when I used my Ataris extensively - although I did acquire a TimeKey cartridge a little while later.
5 minutes
Seasonal Affective Disorder - SAD. wikipedia also known as winter depression, winter blues […] or seasonal depression, was considered a mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter […] I’ve known for years the difference in how happy I am during the warm nice summer, short as it is in Sweden, and the slightly more introvert and quiet me during the long dark winter months.
English · SAD · Science · SSRI · Transhumanism · Uncategorized
3 minutes
Bitcoin - pulling the curtains on computer security
All software contain bugs. All complex software contain numerous bugs. Some of those bugs are security holes. When you hear that a software vendor has found and fixed a security problem that means that somehow that specific bug came up on someone’s radar. People who find these holes for a living, and there are quite a few, sell them to others who then exploit them to create massive botnets, extract credit card information from unsuspecting users or in some cases try to attack online banking accounts.
Bitcoin · English · Internet · Security · Uncategorized
3 minutes