Nostr notes by HP van Braam

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@arrrg/116382687954646971 Worse? Are ...

2026-04-11T15:18:37Z

RE: https://kolektiva.social/@arrrg/116382687954646971

Worse? Are they getting uncanceled?

What?!

quoting
note18tt…dwwk

oh no ... not the data centers ....

sure, the "problem" is that At the low end pricing ...

2026-04-09T12:15:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…zg8j
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sure, the "problem" is that At the low end pricing between FPGAs becomes almost meaningless.

The price difference between something that could host 1 core vs 4 is maybe 20 cents. There's just no point in going smaller.

like if we have enough physical pins to do it that wouldn't ...

2026-04-09T12:13:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…dlef
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like if we have enough physical pins to do it that wouldn't be that difficult at all.

Ultimately this is all a matter of the price ceiling probably. We could do almost anything now.

technically the IDE emulator is a RiscV core running at 60MHz ...

2026-04-09T12:12:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…0zls
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technically the IDE emulator is a RiscV core running at 60MHz with an on-fabric PATA PHY and a microcoded DMA engine. Being able to achieve ATA/100 speeds.

So for this project it would be a matter of rearranging the pins a bit, getting rid of the SDRAM controller, and adding some more control signals.

The bitstreams are pretty small, it might be feasible to have a jumper block to select between (DDR) sdram or dram, SRAM, or something else right on the pcb.

that is very achievable! And I know how to do it. It's really ...

2026-04-09T12:05:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…6978
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that is very achievable! And I know how to do it. It's really a bean counting problem then I think.

When my IDE emulator is done I'll have enough context to be very specific about pricing.

This CPU project would be, hardware wise, kind of a subset of that project.

My own, personal, long term goal is to build a system capable of running CDE "from scratch" in a way that's ultimately affordable to actually make and hack on.

I feel our goals are largely aligned!

okay! I'll have a look at the cost of the various parts and ...

2026-04-09T11:57:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…jcnl
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okay! I'll have a look at the cost of the various parts and do some testing.

With such a modest requirement it might be possible to do it for less than I originally said. The problem is going to be volume, probably, but if we can somehow buy them in blocks of 200(or more) a dual or quad core RiscV at 60-100 MHz could probably be done for ~$20

Iess if we use BGA parts and get more at a time. (Bga x-ray setup cost gets you every time at low volume)

sorry, I didn't mean to lecture. I think I'm qualified to ...

2026-04-09T11:33:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…gv7s
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sorry, I didn't mean to lecture.

I think I'm qualified to build such a thing. Maybe I actually should!

What do you think would be required, io wise, on such a thing? Memory map all the things? A PCI and/or ISA like interface?

Native memory controller or just address/data busses?

It's all programmable but there's some electrical things to consider.

Also, north bridge interface or integrated peripherals? Things like that will matter.

I think the ez80 not being capable of supporting an MMU, and the ...

2026-04-09T11:26:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…n7tc
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I think the ez80 not being capable of supporting an MMU, and the 8bit maths (some ways to do wider math for pointers and such) makes it not really viable.

Maybe I'm moving the goalposts! Maybe this just isn't your vision! I think that a 16MB address space isn't big enough, and I think the crippling performance penalty for trying to do wider math on an ez80 is also pretty fatal.

Like, a 32 bit multiplication on an e80 is a stupid number of cycles!

with the xc7 and ECP5 there's open tooling to do it, and the ...

2026-04-09T09:26:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…f3l2
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with the xc7 and ECP5 there's open tooling to do it, and the ECP5 exists in tqfp-144 which is achievable at home with a heat gun, solder paste, and patience (or is VERY cheap to have placed by a fab, no x-ray necessary!)

But the i960 has the same problem.

Only the 68k doesn't, but then you're limited to 16mb of ram. The "full fat" 68ks are unaffordable (and largely UNAVAILABLE for any price)

Plus they'll run out.

So I think that leaves i960 or fgpa.

I think FPGAs are the only way; You're going through the 5 ...

2026-04-09T09:22:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…mqeu
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I think FPGAs are the only way;

You're going through the 5 stages of "no CPUs with external memory busses grief" that I've gone through.

Based on my research the only vaguely viable options of parts for which a lot of NOS exists is

* I960
* 68k (with 24 bit memory bus)

Based on my research (and I really did spend months looking at options) those are the only available chips with external memory busses and capable of supporting an MMU.

And they'd still need an FPGA as chipset

vexriscv would work, I think? I've been using it lately via ...

2026-04-06T19:10:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…nmfe
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vexriscv would work, I think? I've been using it lately via LiteX.

With something like an ECP5-12F you could get a hand solderable* (TQPF-144 so annoying but not bga) that can probably support 2-4 cores with DDR sdram and some external busses for ~$5 a pop (at 200+)

Running at around 60-70MHz.

Enough for Real Computing* you could have real 2d pixel acceleration as well, potentially a crypto engine for modern https etc

I think this would be closer to what I'd want than an ez80

could be a slot1/slota type of deal too. But PGA probably gives ...

2026-04-06T19:05:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…5ejd
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could be a slot1/slota type of deal too. But PGA probably gives more options.

But yeah. Ez80 would work, I've been thinking of what to do with it but it just always falls a little short of what I'd want.

Particularly I think some kind of MMU is pretty essential, and I think a 16bit Isa (or wider) would be nice. I'd think RiscV or maybe something tailor made?

That'd be fun too. A counter computing Isa. 😀

i like this idea! I'd probably want to use an FPGA for the ...

2026-04-06T18:30:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…77cm
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i like this idea! I'd probably want to use an FPGA for the main cpu if only because it means that if things were to change in the future we could adapt to other FPGAs.

I could imagine something where we'd have some kind of standard pinouts for the CPU, and some kind of standard instruction set.

Kind of like the PPC cards Apple used?

It would allow for far more memory than the ez80, almost arbitrarily much, without necessarily giving up any hackability

isn't that true for (MS-/PC-/DR-)DOS also? There's no ...

2026-04-05T22:43:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…x8lg
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isn't that true for (MS-/PC-/DR-)DOS also? There's no graphics system for it either!

Just poking at stuff via memory mapped stuff and/or the x86 I/O ports.

Is this one of those "Soundblaster or 100% compatible" ...

2026-04-04T13:41:58Z

Is this one of those "Soundblaster or 100% compatible" devices the cool kids are always talking about?

#retrocomputing #soundblaster

Kind of subtoot: I really don't want to yuk anyone's yum, ...

2026-03-28T11:26:40Z

Kind of subtoot: I really don't want to yuk anyone's yum, but why would you bother using an LLM to write the code for your #retrocomputing hobby thing.

If the point is just to "have the thing" why bother with the old computers at all. Use an emulator, or better yet, use a modern computer.

I just don't get it, for me the joy is in the discovery and learning new skills in a fun environment.

🤷‍♀️

Oh wow! Real VGA™ cables! For Video & Digital Graphics! I ...

2026-03-18T17:52:47Z

Oh wow! Real VGA™ cables!

For Video & Digital Graphics!

I wonder how they plan to do the digital part... 🤔

#retrocomputing #VGA

MPU-401AT + MT-32 playing #sierra's Thexder II (badly) ...

2026-03-17T00:25:12Z

MPU-401AT + MT-32 playing #sierra's Thexder II (badly)

Testing my capture setup and video editing rig. I'm pretty happy with it!

#retrocomputing #rolandMt32 #mpu401

where does one acquire one! Is there a webshop? Can we get one in ...

2026-03-14T15:02:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…t7er
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where does one acquire one! Is there a webshop?

Can we get one in Europe?

most programmers do not like programming. Most programmers and IT ...

2026-03-12T20:31:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…jer0
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most programmers do not like programming.

Most programmers and IT workers are very bad at their jobs because of that. They don't like their jobs.

We got loads of people into computers because it made a decent wage, and we encouraged loads of people who got fired to retrain as programmers.

That's not a value judgement against the people in question.

But that's, I think, why. There's not that many people who code for the love of it.

I bought a pile of boards from someone online thinking I was ...

2026-03-11T15:56:52Z

I bought a pile of boards from someone online thinking I was doing THEM a favor by overpaying a bit. The pictures were all terrible, I thought this was one of those dime-a-dozen PC Radio cards...

#retrocomputing

nice! What's the tool/engine you're using?

2026-03-10T21:50:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…nm55
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nice! What's the tool/engine you're using?

The exact moment software went downhill was when #mozilla changed ...

2026-03-10T17:05:26Z

The exact moment software went downhill was when #mozilla changed away from this.

#retrocomputing

ahhh! So it has some bank switching type mechanism? Or is it ...

2026-03-10T16:31:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…txzs
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ahhh! So it has some bank switching type mechanism? Or is it actually copying?

oh, I was under the apparently mistaken impression that the ...

2026-03-10T16:28:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7hd0
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oh, I was under the apparently mistaken impression that the ultimate had a mode where you got way more RAM!

Maybe I need an ultimate after all...

My current thinking is that in order to make a resolution ...

2026-03-10T16:26:53Z

My current thinking is that in order to make a resolution independent UI toolkit one must first have a resolution independent drawing library?

The things I've found on that were algorithms based on device independent pixels.

Is that still actually the state of the art?

My primary design constraint is that I want the scaling to be zero cost when there's no actual scaling happening.

Can anyone point me to some good books/posts on the subject?

#programming #uidesign #hidpi

In C64 mode? It has quite a bite more ram then, right?

2026-03-10T15:37:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…7m0u
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In C64 mode? It has quite a bite more ram then, right?

What is your current target platform?

2026-03-10T15:37:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…h7nt
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What is your current target platform?

We've always considered "reviewing and signing off code ...

2026-03-10T15:10:48Z

We've always considered "reviewing and signing off code changes" as the work of experienced, senior, developers.

When using LLMs 100% of the job is reviewing and signing off changes.

We've certainly not suddenly have a huge surplus of experienced, senior, developers reviewing code now.

It seems to me that this can only mean that software is getting worse, as less code is being reviewed.

It seems that the Amazon thing agrees with what I've been saying...

#programming

this hasn't happened with search, office software, operating ...

2026-03-10T14:05:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…h3ry
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this hasn't happened with search, office software, operating systems. And can I point to Uber as a counter example, where things just got worse and more expensive.

I think that by the time IP laws catch up with these it will become nearly impossible to match them. And they'll find some way of forcing a spotify-esque payment scheme for "knowledge used by LLMs" making it practically impossible to run one yourself.

I wish I could share your starry-eyed optimism about where is ...

2026-03-10T13:56:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…txs0
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I wish I could share your starry-eyed optimism about where is heading.

If training remains as expensive as it is (and it will probably, eventually they will change copyright law such that only the existing models can remain viable) then they'll just find some kind of way to DRM your local usage

will they tho? Google made search worse so people would have to ...

2026-03-10T13:50:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…aznp
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will they tho? Google made search worse so people would have to click more links so they spent more time on the site to see more ads.

If you pay for a service by the minute, making it worse so you spend more minutes is ALWAYS the move that capitalism will force.

That will happen there too

to an extent, yes. But LLMs have no long term future as a code ...

2026-03-10T13:46:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…smqc
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to an extent, yes. But LLMs have no long term future as a code generator really because we know you can't feed LLM generated data into an LLM and expect good results.

So eventually LLMs will have to stop writing code. Probably what that will mean is that the LLMs themselves will become the "runtime" and now you're just renting computer power again for everything.

Which is probably the end goal, making LLMs the only viable UX for just "computing".

Let me be clear with what I mean; years of agentic code has seen ...

2026-03-10T13:37:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…z98w
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Let me be clear with what I mean; years of agentic code has seen no increase in the volume or quality of code. If anything a decrease. (Steam, app Store, play Store, numbers). And proprietary software has objectively gotten worse.

So all that happened is that people who didn't like to code now don't. And nothing really changed.

How about we just let people who like doing it and are good at it do it, without spinning up new power plants, ey?

What LLMs taught us is that you could probably fire every ...

2026-03-10T13:26:59Z

What LLMs taught us is that you could probably fire every programmer who hates programming, and the total amount of software wouldn't really change.

I'm wondering whether it might be better/easier to implement ...

2026-03-06T19:11:26Z

I'm wondering whether it might be better/easier to implement something motif-like (but with a pluggable backend for Wayland/X/etc) and making sure it is utf-8 and hidpi safe and such.

I'd write it in rust with C bindings, with a similar api (but not exactly api compatible) as motif. Then maybe use it to build a more modern CDE on top of it?

Does anyone else think that sounds like a good idea? What would you like to see in such a project (if at all 😅)

#unix #retrocomputing

Well, that is very funny, and very depressing. ...

2026-02-28T20:20:04Z

Well, that is very funny, and very depressing.

https://vimeo.com/1168468796

#enshittification #internet

That is a trap. The generated commit messages are verbose, but ...

2026-02-25T17:49:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…tscz
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That is a trap. The generated commit messages are verbose, but also often wrong.

I would literally argue the opposite. A human reading the code generated by an LLM, trying to understand it, and writing correct commit messages almost sounds better.

Like, LLMs should not write tests either for the same reason (and people keep using it for that).

An LLM reading human code and trying to understand what the intent is is worse than useless in my experience.

Hard to tell. It seems that the commit messages are entirely LLM ...

2026-02-25T17:43:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…vsvh
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Hard to tell. It seems that the commit messages are entirely LLM generated.

And some of the changes touch a TON of files for what seems to be somewhat bikesheddy. As in I don't think a human would have spent the time doing it unless they could just ask an AI "why not rename demos to examples" for instance.

I think I'll stay away from that.

oh, that was a super good tip! I found a bunch more people trying ...

2026-02-25T17:24:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…zfhf
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oh, that was a super good tip! I found a bunch more people trying to maintain a Motif.

It seems like at least one is basically a sloperator, but there's two branches that seem somewhat promising!

Yeah, he clearly cares deeply. He is maintaining a viewkit ...

2026-02-25T16:45:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…g3hs
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Yeah, he clearly cares deeply. He is maintaining a viewkit implementation as well, and essentially wrote his own more modern viewkit.

I'll try to piece everything together somehow and see if he'd be interested in joining a "Motif-ng" type project.

I wonder if there's anyone else we should ask? (You saying that you're in already :))

Are there any well-known OSS projects using motif? Only XawTV comes to mind and I think that's pretty dead...

The CDE people, probably.

That is very weird. The MaxxDesktop guy has some kind of license ...

2026-02-25T16:04:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…dt72
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That is very weird. The MaxxDesktop guy has some kind of license from SGI, but he also says he didn't get any source code.

But the license talks about "legacy source code" and only allows binaries for non-unixey Linux archs.

And he's clearly distributing a modified Motif, but under what license? There's only 3 licenses. So he probably has a commercial license?

Weird...

I'm not aware of this project! I'll see if I can contact ...

2026-02-25T15:54:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…g9w8
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I'm not aware of this project! I'll see if I can contact the author about it.

Do you have a list?! That would be a great start. I also find ...

2026-02-25T15:50:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…8nlg
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Do you have a list?! That would be a great start.

I also find that almost all motif packages kind of accidentally disable some of the really cool features like the wml compiler and such, making UIL way less useful.

There's some really neat stuff we could do I think.

Also a little bit of work to make hidpi work a bit better for non-text elements.

Yeah, I have a semi-working CEF Xt widget, but it needs a lot ...

2026-02-25T15:49:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…g9w8
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Yeah, I have a semi-working CEF Xt widget, but it needs a lot more work to be truly "motif"

Maybe I'll do a motif-ng soon(ish) I'm gonna need it for OSIRUX anyway.

I've been playing around a bit with #motif and there's a ...

2026-02-25T02:14:53Z

I've been playing around a bit with #motif and there's a pile of distro patches (Fedora, Debian, etc) and there's a sourceforge page with pull requests.

No pull requests have ever been accepted, the official ICS bug tracker is offline and looks like has been since 2021.

Who maintains Motif now? Does anyone? Do we need to do an "xorg for Motif" if we want to keep it going?

#retrocomputing #unix

Not to brag, but if anthropic had paid me $20,000 and given me a ...

2026-02-12T22:24:12Z

Not to brag, but if anthropic had paid me $20,000 and given me a month I'd also have been able to write them a very shitty C compiler.

wait, is that real? You have to pay Microsoft extra money so you ...

2026-02-11T23:05:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…k3rf
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wait, is that real? You have to pay Microsoft extra money so you get to pick whether or not your PC reboots?

I haven't had a windows pc since forever, is this hyperbole?

I'VE COME TOO FAR #IBM #retrocomputing #AIX ...

2026-02-10T15:55:07Z

I'VE COME TOO FAR #IBM

#retrocomputing #AIX

It is happening! Is it still #retrocomputing if you can do it ...

2026-02-09T17:52:58Z

It is happening!

Is it still #retrocomputing if you can do it today on a modern computer?

#rustlang #motif

Xlib: connection to "192.168.1.104:10.0" refused by ...

2026-02-09T00:33:40Z

Xlib: connection to "192.168.1.104:10.0" refused by server
Xlib: Prohibited client endianess, see the Xserver man page
Error: Can't open display: 192.168.1.104:10.0
Error: Couldn't find per display information

goddamn modern computers 😭

#retrocomputing

Hey @npub13jw…j6a3 ...

2026-02-05T08:14:52Z

Hey Thom :linux: :a_openbsd: (npub13jw…j6a3)

What if I want to order from the same burrito place for the third ...

2026-01-21T23:53:28Z

What if I want to order from the same burrito place for the third day in a row...

is there a reason beyond aesthetics to do it this way? I'd ...

2026-01-01T01:33:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ukr
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is there a reason beyond aesthetics to do it this way? I'd probably have used an eeprom or something for this!

Not that you need more reason! Just curious! Not trying to imply in any way you should be doing something else.

I saw a kid instantly use the gnome "about" to figure out ...

2025-12-30T23:04:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…wyzr
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I saw a kid instantly use the gnome "about" to figure out the memory/cpu of a laptop like they would have used the windows hardware info.

Nvidia isn't Enron YET. ...

2025-12-15T18:48:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…h8dd
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Nvidia isn't Enron YET.

Yeah, it does, but I think making sure that things work across ...

2025-12-07T21:50:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…8upf
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Yeah, it does, but I think making sure that things work across different resolutions and such seems worth the hassle of using something other than Motif.

Maybe one day I'll retry porting Motif to Wayland. But basically that means porting Xt to Wayland.

as much as I love Motif, I'd probably do FLTK or EFL ... ...

2025-12-07T21:47:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…d608
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as much as I love Motif, I'd probably do FLTK or EFL ... Motif is really very intrinsically tied to X. (I investigated porting it to Wayland for reasons)

But yeah, some nice lightweight toolkit would be nice for some tools.

Do you ever get a #retrocomputing intrusive thought? This is ...

2025-11-26T21:40:47Z

Do you ever get a #retrocomputing intrusive thought?

This is #wordperfect 7 (ish, all from 1996 and 1997)

* Native #solaris #unix version (bottom left)
* Native 32bit windows in SunPCi (bottom right)
* #macintosh system 7 in MAE (top left)
* Windows 3.1 (16bit) in #wabi (top right)

All of this was supported by at least one vendor at the time!

And you can actually copy/paste between all of them, and it just works!

have you seen Usagi's videos on his vacuum tube recreation of ...

2025-11-26T16:40:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…4mxr
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have you seen Usagi's videos on his vacuum tube recreation of the MC14500B!

yeah, building a cpu out of 50's or 60's style logic ...

2025-11-25T16:11:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…e92c
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yeah, building a cpu out of 50's or 60's style logic cards with a huge backplane is something I want to do some day.

The thing mostly stopping me is just the stupendous amount of current a design like that needs.

Am I #retrocomputing yet? ...

2025-11-24T23:55:56Z

Am I #retrocomputing yet?

Ahhh, that makes more sense! Thanks for explaining! The FPGA here ...

2025-11-14T01:01:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…6jkf
_________________________

Ahhh, that makes more sense! Thanks for explaining!

The FPGA here is the Vera? Or do you have more custom FPGA cores in this!

What is the SPI multiplexer for if you're only going to ...

2025-11-14T00:55:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ksc
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What is the SPI multiplexer for if you're only going to attach an SD card slot to it?

Are you using the multiplexer to go from 4 wire to 2 wire at a higher speed or something like that?

Regardless, it looks like a cool and practical machine! :D

Wow, after installing #solaris 2.5.1 on my #sun ultra 10, I can ...

2025-11-10T21:21:51Z

Wow, after installing #solaris 2.5.1 on my #sun ultra 10, I can really see why people loved these old #Unix workstations.

It's so easy to develop some software on this!

#retrocomputing #visualbasic

I really quite strongly feel that macOS's UX is significantly ...

2025-11-06T16:28:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…n5ta
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I really quite strongly feel that macOS's UX is significantly worse than Gnome 49. And I think that Gnome surpassed macOS's UX many years ago.

Maybe in the Gnome 2.x days this could maybe have been true to an extent, but Gnome's current interface paradigm is now 16 years old.

At this point I really don't think that the merits (or lack thereof) of Objective C have anything to do with it.

of course it can, it will look at the vast knowledge on SElinux ...

2025-10-30T13:35:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…q5s2
_________________________

of course it can, it will look at the vast knowledge on SElinux on Reddit and run "setenforce 0" and lie about having fixed it.

This person is ... hard to believe ... "Hi, I’ve just seen ...

2025-09-21T12:38:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…dnfu
_________________________

This person is ... hard to believe ...

"Hi, I’ve just seen your feedback regarding this item and I want to sincerely apologize for any confusion caused. This software was not from a pirate source—it’s a long-discontinued title. Once I realized it wasn’t GNU, I immediately delisted it from my shop. It’s no longer for sale, and I’d really appreciate it if you could kindly consider revising your feedback."

What a piece of work. Incredible.

#scammer #ebay #retrocomputing

yeah, I did that, I also reported the seller's entire ...

2025-09-20T13:36:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…wksl
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yeah, I did that, I also reported the seller's entire profile.

A PSA about the #ebay seller "digistoremarket" they ...

2025-09-20T13:27:28Z

A PSA about the #ebay seller "digistoremarket" they purport to sell #vintage #software like #os2 and such, but they just send you a CDR with pirated floppy images.

The listing does not make this clear at all, I ended up getting a full refund from ebay, so they handled it well, but the seller is still on the site selling the same scam software.

#retrocomputing #retrogaming #scammer

I'm designing a sort of "fantasy #UNIX workstation" ...

2025-09-13T12:18:25Z

I'm designing a sort of "fantasy #UNIX workstation" with parts available today in some sensible manner. 68020 based and an accelerated framebuffer for X.

The design uses ASICs where possible, the "chipset" will be FPGA based (probably a combination of iCE40s and one big ECP5, it will have PCI.

The goal is to support at least 2, maybe 4 68020 CPUs. Would you buy one for €300-500?

No commitment! Just wondering where to go! The most expensive chips have a minimum order of 25.

#retrocomputing

Using a #nintendo #wii as a wifi dongle for a #dreamcast. Yes/no? ...

2025-09-05T14:03:02Z

Using a #nintendo #wii as a wifi dongle for a #dreamcast. Yes/no?

#retrogaming #retrocomputing

I will write up an actual blog post about it! It's a fun ...

2025-09-02T20:59:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…mmrm
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I will write up an actual blog post about it! It's a fun little romp I think.

I had to use MSVC 1.52 for reasons that will become apparent ...

2025-09-02T20:41:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…afvf
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I had to use MSVC 1.52 for reasons that will become apparent later (it's a secrit).

But I used the resource compiler from openwatcom because Microsoft's RC.EXE is a dos program it doesn't work so great in wine.

I use NMAKE.EXE from wine, as well as CL.EXE and LINK.EXE! So it's all period appropriate tools but... Not the terrible editor/ide 😄

I can do that! The main pain in the ass was really setting up a ...

2025-09-02T20:30:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…um75
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I can do that! The main pain in the ass was really setting up a development environment that didn't involve actually having to use Windows 3.1 or Visual Studio from the era.

I was in the end able to do all of it on wine, and have it "just work" on windows 3.11.

That involved manually writing nmake files, and switching rc.exe with open watcom wrc.exe.

But the result is that it can now build on Linux with a bash script, and on windows 3.1 with nmake.

Finally I can ditch my tired old Sparc station, and switch to ...

2025-08-29T20:15:33Z

Finally I can ditch my tired old Sparc station, and switch to #Windows like everyone else!

Introducing SSH2WIN a port of SSH2DOS to #16bit Windows. No win32s here!

This was both harder and easier than I thought it would be.

Official release coming soon, once I clean up some details.

#retrocomputing

it is kind of a bad design. I'm not sure how you'd do ...

2025-08-26T19:09:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…xkl2
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it is kind of a bad design. I'm not sure how you'd do better, but maybe slot loaders are just a terrible idea! 😄

I've found several: * The rubber roller is not grippy enough ...

2025-08-26T18:46:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…0264
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I've found several:

* The rubber roller is not grippy enough anymore so it slips on the axle
* The drive belt to the roller is old and slips when there's too much friction, say a CD is inserted 😄
* The roller is super gross and too sticky
* The chassis is bent and won't press the roller against the CD anymore. I don't know how this happens but I've seen two.

Most likely cleaning the roller and replacing the belt will fix the drive

Success! Between 3 slot loaders I was able to make one working ...

2025-08-26T17:19:42Z

Success! Between 3 slot loaders I was able to make one working drive!

#retrocomputer

Me too slot loading cdrom drive, me too. #retrocomputing ...

2025-08-26T15:18:53Z

Me too slot loading cdrom drive, me too.

#retrocomputing

one of the drives is a writer!

2025-08-24T20:06:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…j3qv
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one of the drives is a writer!

I just want a working IDE DVD ROM drive! I have like 5, and they ...

2025-08-24T19:35:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…yhpz
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I just want a working IDE DVD ROM drive! I have like 5, and they are all broken in different ways. Very frustrating!

Protip! If you have a DVD rom drive that will read pressed DVDs ...

2025-08-24T18:13:35Z

Protip! If you have a DVD rom drive that will read pressed DVDs but not burnt ones, you can adjust some pot meters and then it won't read pressed DVDs anymore either!

Follow me for more pro tips

#retrocomputing

It worked! I have a Myst CD now! I also forgot that Myst is ...

2025-04-23T17:18:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…py5t
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It worked! I have a Myst CD now!

I also forgot that Myst is Windows 3.1 and not DOS so it's not very useful.

But it reads, and works! :D

I'm using FreeDOS, I have 623KB free, at least that's ...

2025-04-23T15:43:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…275x
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I'm using FreeDOS, I have 623KB free, at least that's enough. 😅

real burn! Will it work? Place your bets! ...

2025-04-23T15:29:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…v2xm
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real burn! Will it work?

Place your bets!

well, I'll be damned... ...

2025-04-23T15:26:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…c2fu
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well, I'll be damned...

oh yeah, I meant just a 50 pin as in, no 64pin scsi2 connector!

2025-04-23T15:24:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…whhw
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oh yeah, I meant just a 50 pin as in, no 64pin scsi2 connector!

Nostr event nevent1qqsqetqm5xafhq38u6t09suq5k6yzaggw3n42ftdklzl72mfktl98vqzypewefyahmf5cnm3jdaz4uvl3vc8sqn4tr78mzvfx58xdgfezmjq72zlye9

2025-04-23T15:14:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…nak5
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promising...

There's also a cdrecord port for DOS. I'll be trying that ...

2025-04-23T14:37:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…tka8
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There's also a cdrecord port for DOS. I'll be trying that later today I think.

The most pointless exercise ever: Take the CF card out of my machine, put an iso on it and the cdrecord software, burn a CD.

I see no flaws with this plan.

Well, this exists, apparently! ...

2025-04-23T14:31:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…da55
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Well, this exists, apparently!

http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=5182&view=min

Maybe I'll give it a go later! :)

I have so many Adaptec scsi cards I'm not entirely sure what ...

2025-04-23T14:03:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…ynnl
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I have so many Adaptec scsi cards I'm not entirely sure what was and wasn't high end.

This one only has a 50 pin connector so I assumed it wasn't much to write home about. 😅

Didn't want to pop a 7980 in just for a CD drive.

yeah, the slightly more reasonable ones could terminate by ...

2025-04-23T13:18:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…g8yr
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yeah, the slightly more reasonable ones could terminate by toggling a bios option!

I'm using a 2940, and it "just works" 😄

there's nothing really stopping that from working I think, if ...

2025-04-23T12:45:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…843y
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there's nothing really stopping that from working I think, if it can talk to DOS ASPI drivers? Might try to see if wodim can be built with djgpp...

I've not yet tried to burn a CD with it. It's in my ...

2025-04-23T12:25:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…g7xp
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I've not yet tried to burn a CD with it. It's in my FreeDOS box, I'm not sure if I even CAN write CDs from DOS, I don't think I've ever tried.

I mostly picked this drive because it works, I had 4 broken IDE CD and DVD drives as it turned out. 😅😅😅

Added a SCSI CDROM to my Pentium II. I never had one at the time ...

2025-04-23T06:35:05Z

Added a SCSI CDROM to my Pentium II. I never had one at the time (I had a Philips LMS interface CDROM and then IDE)

I didn't realize how much faster a SCSI CDROM would have been! Even in DOS!

#retrogaming #scsi

Whatever this one is! 😄 ...

2025-03-03T01:39:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…hmmv
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Whatever this one is! 😄

Xft yes, but colors?! CDE teal or bust!

2025-03-03T01:35:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…q8n0
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Xft yes, but colors?! CDE teal or bust!

oh, it might be worth noting that I started this based on a toot ...

2025-03-03T01:24:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…ya6h
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oh, it might be worth noting that I started this based on a toot by Thom. 😅

I'll setup an IRC server or something as well, why not. ...

2025-03-03T01:04:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…snzx
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I'll setup an IRC server or something as well, why not. It'll be authentic. 😄