The Vintage Computer Festival is getting tons of goodies from me. This year i’ve got literally three carloads! (thanks Eric & Harry) Some is so good it’s destined for the consignment room. Don’t worry i’ve got plenty for the free table. i’ve got a box of unused 3.5″ 500GB PATA disks! spares for the xRAID. who needs 7TB of 2GB fiber SAN? Form an orderly line please.
Launched at Defcon 33 and eagerly awaited by wifi tinkerers and technologists. i finally received mine. i’m still figuring out the functionality from potential. As a handheld device, unlike the rest of the pineapple line, it is designed to be used from the device. i was looking for an always monitoring device with audio and haptic alerts. it’s handheld nature makes extracting logs a novel concept, but it is already providing insight into my wireless space. 
I love the default look with all it’s retro elements. From war games to classic MacOS, out of the box it has more retro style than it’s 90s pager reveals. it operates on 3 wifi bands! (2,5,6) and maybe bluetooth as well eventually. This is just the beginning as the firmware gets more mature and additional content is added by the users. this is with the stock hardware. Hak5 is already selling USB modules for ethernet, GPS, and LoRa for even more functionality. i’ll update as i get more capable with the gadget. currently it does eat it’s battery very enthusiastically. i don’t think i’ve gotten more than 2-3 hours of use on a charge. (but i don’t yet know what i am doing)
As the Vintage Computer Festival Socal jumps back into action, I make good on my promise to bring a car full of ancient equipment. All free to a good home. As usual there were amazing systems from every era running and in beautiful shape. I even saw a man in an SGI kimono!
UPDATE: another carload including X10 automation and lots of original software in boxes. also, a pile of network gear!
There were so many incredible computers from the 70s, 80s, and 90s! Beautiful computers that might have just been taken out of the box. I got to play with an Amiga 4000 with a Video Toaster! (My dream box from the 90s) I used a Commodore Pet that is older than i am. Some of my favorite stuff is modern boards that work with the vintage computers like micro SD floppy drives and Wi-Fi modems.
After watching the Mario movie with kids, i dropped original NES Super Mario Bros on them. They enjoyed the new (to them) gameplay, while marveling at the limitations: you cannot go back? With me remembering a surprising number of secrets, i got a bug in me to revive this ancient trick. Unfortunately, i wasn’t able to get it working correctly in the limited lives i had. Undaunted, i finally completed it just a few days later while waiting on an OS upgrade.
my favorite part was that it overflowed the numerals and became pictures when displaying the remaining lives. if you got too many extra lives, it ended the game.
It was a bit more of a pain than i remember it being back in college. After a subtle inspiration from @stroughtonsmith. I now have BeOS VM. there is an option to play connect four while installing (an unusual feature).
I’m doing experiments with UTM to create a single purpose XP system with zero network access. in this picture, i am trying to fix a damaged system while simultaneously installing a fresh one. eventually got it working like a champ, and now it’s almost as portable as an app. Huge thanks to 4PCTechs for your insights and archive of ancient drivers!
This classic from my childhood has for some reason, never worked in emulation. Until now! i am finally able to play this game again after decades. it’s more challenging than i remember.
I even managed to complete a challenge that i could NEVER beat back in the day. Continue reading “My favorite game from 1987 is fun again thanks to updated FS-UAE!”
This was actually the idea that started it all! It took me a while to finally complete it. I know that i am missing the serial mouse from the original Macintosh and 128. Despite having one, i decided to keep my 128 with all its pieces. Besides, i never touched one until after college. The mice represented here had my hands all over them most of my life. I am very happy with how it came out.
So I did not “complete” my hat until very late Friday when i finally got it to announce its link status on its new set of 14 segment displays. It performed admirably all weekend. Thanks to Paul for safely transporting it to and from Vegas. I must also thank Stephen for his late night help on Wednesday. (tacos are not enough) Without his amazing soldering, i’d still be trying to figure out what i had done wrong. Here are some pictures from that night and the con to follow. . .
