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  • zxm 14 hours ago | parent | on: 'You just can't recreate that glow': The people wh...
    what i liked about crt's was the toughness. you could slap, punch or hit the glass tube and the screen would be fine. there were so many pics of screens destroyed by nintendo wii controllers that would have bounced off a crt. even pointing out numbers on a spreadsheet can cause a modern screen to be damaged if it's not done carefully. and of course all the cats miss the warm shelf they could sleep on while they watched their human work. :-)
    reply
    • bmonkey325 11 hours ago
      CRTS definitely react positively to percussive maintenance.
      reply
  • zxm 58 days ago | parent | on: The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next Issue 3
    same, i'd love one but just don't have the space for another computer in a tiny space. will just have to stick with speccy emulators. but as soon as i have the space i'll get one in a heartbeat.
  • zxm 60 days ago | parent | on: A Tale of Two Red-Bearded Visionaries
    as a speccy user all things clive sinclair were to be oooohed and aaaaahed over in the 80s. even things like the c5 and micro drives which weren't successful they still showed an early attempt at things we take for granted now like usb sticks and tiny electrical vehicles which surround us.

    some of the ideas that didn't make it off the drawing board were his transputer to get back into the computer market and his later ebikes which never took off as he hoped.

    will just have to rewatch micro men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM to remember someone who helped put computers into the hands of everyone by making them so very cheap.

  • zxm 72 days ago | parent | on: The Pivot - George Morrow - IBM luggable
    it's good to know that the luggable class still exists. :-)

    https://liliputing.com/a-xp-portable-threadripper-workstatio.../

  • zxm 78 days ago | parent | on: Restoring a ZX Spectrum+ Toastrack
    the original zx80 had 1k of ram so it was a way to save a lot of space for code.

    i had a zx +2 and wrote code on it in basic. the extra commands the 128k basic had allowed you to swap data in and out of the extra ram. it was still an antiquated basic compared to basics like the bbc or the amstrad cpc's which where around at the same time. but it was cheaper and had a massive user base. so much more software available.

  • zxm 80 days ago | parent | on: Restoring a ZX Spectrum+ Toastrack
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_BASIC#48_BASIC
  • zxm 86 days ago | parent | on: I Convinced HP's Board to Buy Palm for $1.2B. Then...
    if i could buy a brand new palm now i'd buy one in heartbeat. preferably with mini-sd slot for storage. bt for syncing instead of a cable. and b&w instead of colour so i can use it outdoors in bright light which the colour ones were awful at. even modern phones in an irish summer can be hard to read.
  • zxm 88 days ago | parent | on: Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate: A Cultural Histo...
    of course if you want to store about 200k per a4 page then try http://ronja.twibright.com/optar/
  • zxm 112 days ago | parent | on: DR DOS: Revenge of CP/M
    we used dr-dos into the 90s. aside from being a great dos with lots of ram. >720k it also had netwars which whiled away a few hours when you were waiting for someone to get back to you.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30Fwd-gisI

  • zxm 116 days ago | parent | on: Lo8: Resurrecting 8-track as a data storage medium
    with the end of 3.5 disks and the rise of retro machines usage i do feel there is a place for some standard device that would fit in a 3.5" slot that would replace it. some sort of 'super floppy'. whether it writes to mini-sd, sd, compact flash or usb wouldn't matter much. just a way to easily transfer from modern compute to retro computer. something that will be around for the next 20 years.
    • bmonkey325 115 days ago
      For 8 bits - Fuji net. Basically gives you mass storage access over a network. Atari, apple, coco , Adam and I saw some prelim work for IBM PC.

      https://fujinet.online/

      • ddingus 110 days ago
        Artifacts are visuals that come from contrived abuses. Or that appear despite the intent for them not to appear.

        On the Apple, Woz leaned into NTSC and employed it to what I consider pretty great effect.

        Dithers are contrived uses, not abuses!

        The difference is one can dither on any display system and achieve visuals that convey greater color depth or more intensity granularity than the system design intent would allow for.

        Again, on the Apple, artists would combine artifact colors, as well as the lack of color, say black and white, in ways that suggest other colors not intended.

        The dot patterns can suggest various intensities and hues one cannot just ask for jn a COLOR = statement.

        Does that help?

        I will try and find an image or two to link a bit later.

      • ddingus 111 days ago
        Hey I missed you linking a sample image generated on the color system I was musing about.

        https://twostopbits.com/item?id=5863

        https://hackaday.io/project/164212/gallery#0f87e94323e101952...

        I do not think it matches up. Too bad! But maybe the author will share details. I really wanted to know what they did.

        Also, after I get past this appointment, maybe we can chat about dither vs artifact.

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