when you dared to suggest anything remotely "fun" or "quality-of-life improving" on the mastodon github
This is a Raspberry Pi Pico, and it's better than your CH341A.
Much better.
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/spi.html#raspberry-pi-pico
Today, I am experimenting a bit with the original IBM mouse driver, version 1.0 from 1987. It's still working quite well with MS-DOS 6, but Windows 3 doesn't like it at all. I could even find an old article from Microsoft's knowledge base explaining the issue. Oh, well.. I guess I will need to find that version 1.1!
#RetroComputing #Microsoft #IBM #Mouse #Driver #Windows #MSDOS
Online age verification methods don’t each fit somewhere on a spectrum of 'more safe' and 'less safe,' or 'more accurate' and 'less accurate.' Rather, they each fall on a spectrum of 'dangerous in one way' to 'dangerous in a different way.’ Learn more: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/eff-new-york-age-verification-threatens-everyones-speech-and-privacy
After bringing bagels to my dad I think I've gotten all the adventure logs updated over here!
https://eli.li/december-adventure
There are so many! Don't hesitate to send me more throughout the month -- you can start whenever.
Also, to all my new followers, hello, hi, welcome, but also brace yourself for me probably posting a lot more about birds and Jane Austen than I do about rust or whatever. 
Happy #DecemberAdventure ya'll!
Framasoft the company behind Peertube which is a free and open source YouTube alternative is looking for donations to reach their budget for 2025.
Please donate if you can! 
https://soutenir.framasoft.org/en/
#tech #technology #OpenSource #DonateNow #Peertube #degoogle #framasoft
And that is my Christmas box sorted... My better half has got me an Extreme Kits Pico RomWBW Z80 CPM Computer.
Of course, it is going to arrive in the next week or so and I am not going to be allowed to open it, or touch it, or build it, or anything 😭
spent quite a bit of time researching microcomputer era video, and i concluded that a late 70s-early 80s design for the @permacomputer project is horrendously complicated, if not prohibitively expensive.
take the MC6845 for instance. all it does is set up the display memory timing and its addressing. you need even more circuitry after that to actually generate the pixels.
the 6847 is a chip for a complete video solution, if you can tolerate its meagre 32 column text mode.
the further i got through don lancaster's cheap video cookbook the further my stomach dropped: quite often these chips are so slow compared to TV signal frequencies that you have to trade off features to get a decent resolution.
-*-
one particular method i had considered in the past was not to directly integrate video into the 8 bit computer design, but use a cheap microcontroller as a video terminal, and have the computer use its ACIA chip to communicate with it via serial comms.
there are a great number of these microcontroller video terminal projects. i have a list of them and will be publishing it under the permacomputer project.
please find attached a schematic from an incredible, yet bitrotted website. using two very cheap microcontrollers makes for a beautiful solution.
and 80x25 text mode!
i do not think using these microcontrollers contradicts the spirit of permacomputing.
using microcontrollers removes the need to sacrifice system memory for VRAM. it also makes the permacomputer modular--if one part of the system fails, you can still use the other half.
it is also a very cheap solution, and that is good for making the permacomputer easier to produce and access.
here we are, living in a world with absurdly fast communications between so many of us, kept so absurdly busy that we rarely find the time to sit and visit with the people around us and speak about the things that weigh on our minds and the things that bring our minds lightness. it's almost like those who perpetuate the structures of control in our society do not want the masses to be too contemplative. wonder why that is...
finished rebel moon 1, and the director's cut of 2
if you're looking for a really, really fun modern take on space operas, these are your movies
great character development, but fairly standard hollywood morality plot
Woolworths is going to use scab labor to reopen one of its picketed distribution centres. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/01/woolworths-to-reopen-distribution-centre-to-get-essential-items-on-shelves-amid-ongoing-strike
Anyone in Aus want a Free PC?
It's in Sydney
There is no storage device, BYO
Update: this pc is now spoken for
