This year I finally attended the Vintage Computer Festival West at Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

My own computing roots are in the Atari 8-bit, which during my childhood was the most popular machine in Poland. Today my vintage interests revolve around nostalgia and working on small hardware/software projects recreating some of the 8-bit feel.

#computers #diy

Microsoft Windows 10 will be unsupported as of October 2025. The upgrade requirements will effectively obsolete a lot of older still performant machines OR expose their users to security vulnerabilities.

While the upgrade from Windows 10 to 11 is free, Microsoft is forcing unreasonable requirements. I go over the important ones and work around others to upgrade my living room SteamPowered gaming computer.

#diy #computers

#fbi #cisa #calea programs admitted to be some of the vectors for #salttyphoon compromise of US telecommunications infrastructure. FBI is advising people to use encrypted messengers for text and voice communications!! Same FBI (+other three letter agencies) which forever advocated for backdoors, now admit this compromise is in part their doing!!! #signal and others for the win! #security https://www.virtru.com/blog/file-encryption/salt-typhoon-fbi-cisa

#politics #computers #masto2hugo

Interesting introduction of bluesky “decentralized” approach and feasibility of self hosting for individual users. #federated #activitypub #bluesky #selfhosting https://anderegg.ca/2024/11/15/maybe-bluesky-has-won?utm_source=tldrnewsletter

#computers #socialmedia #masto2hugo

I had an itch to do some retro computing 😀 My roots are Atari800, then some #286 and finally my own #486. With popularity of #retrocomputing , highish prices, space requirements and need to recap old hw, I looked for emulation. #Dosbox was ok, #dosbox -x was better, but still paravirtualizes OS and IO, and had compatibility issues. Finally tried #86box 4.2! I went with late 286-20 with 4MiB, VGA and SB2.0, but modern FreeDos 1.3. Here is a little demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9RO-RDrUFw

#computers #video #masto2hugo

I’ve long been critical of social media, corporate heavy handed oversight and centralized power and influence. With FB and Instagram randomly blocking and unblocking my access due to their ineptitude (as I don’t post anything there so shouldn’t get blocked), I decided I can’t rely on their convenient services even for keeping in touch. Back to email (+PGP), phone calls, open web and federated services (ie. all of the above).

#computers #socialmedia #masto2hugo