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Commodore Z's Mindhouse

@commodorez / commodorez.tumblr.com

A mental coredump of vintage computers, electronic projects, space history, & historical telephony.
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General pieces of advice for 2025:

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Ignorance is not a sin -- don't be afraid to say "I don't know", despite what academia might have taught you

Engage in good-faith discussions with your fellow user, you might find a new friend

Ask questions. Most of the time, the worst case scenario the answer is "I don't know"

Reblog stuff you enjoy for others to enjoy. Likes don't mean much here on tumblr (think of them as bookmarks), but a reblog may make someone's day -- especially artists!

Cite your sources on images and try to tag things accurately where you can. Some folks will enjoy knowing where you found something so they can learn more. The breadcrumbs you drop may lead to someone else's inspiration

Forgive yourself

Take pictures of the mundane, like your house. You never know when you will need to look back on that again for posterity/prosperity or more likely utility

Friendships made beyond school are forged through showing up regularly to the same space

Wear your face mask. Yes. Still. You want a KN95 or better, make sure it's a good seal. And keep up to date with your covid boosters. Not only do you not want to get sick, you don't want to be the reason someone else gets sick. It sucks, but getting long covid sucks more. Each time you catch it, your chances of developing long covid increase because the damage is cumulative

Install an adblocker: ublock origin, pi-hole, whatever's new and beautiful

Don't feed the generative AI. Draw it shitty or hire an artist.

Go to a Vintage Computer Festival

Take the old batteries out of your vintage computers and electronics so you don't have to deal with a corrosion-fest. Varta meltdowns suck

Check if your headlights are on. DRLs are not enough, and some cars don't automatically turn them on. If you headlights are on, that will turn your tail lights on. Other drivers need to be able to see you on the road

Turn off "best stuff first" on your tumblr dashboard controls. It's your dashboard, curate it! Otherwise, you miss out on the really niche stuff

Remember that progress is not always linear

Take a moment to enjoy silence in your space. Mr. Rogers put it best, we live in a noisy world

Help your mom out with doing the dishes, or however that proverb best applies to you and your situation

Thank folks around you for things that they do that nobody thinks to show appreciation for. It goes a long way when people are seen for the effort they put in

Be good to each other

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reblogged
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text-mode

Stoned is the name of a boot sector computer virus created in 1987. When an infected computer started, there was a one in eight probability that the screen would declare:

Your PC is now Stoned!
Source: text-mode
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Do you know the best way to get a hold of a F-104 Starfighter back in the day? Buy a patch of land in West Germany and wait for one to crash into it.

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You’d think it’s a joke

But nope, with 298 out of 916 Starfighters in German service crashing throughout all of its service, with 8 pilots actually having to eject TWICE, it was actually a pretty common occurrence for German farmers to suddenly be the temporary owners of a recently burned fighter jet.

And so were the Belgians, for that matter.

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reblogged

I sped this gif up considerably to make it fit, but know that the bouncing ball animation is going slow as hell.

neat!

I retimed it back down to about the original speed, ended up about 6.6 fps, and I think it might still be a little fast

here's my reference btw, same screen animation, but a different model, note how the hinge was (re)designed to fit the dual floppies.

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Remembered that I once visited museum of old tech, I know many of you would really enjoy those💙

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krjpalmer

ROM January 1978

Microprocessors from Motorola and Intel ride in harmony (although the Intel 8080 was more associated with the "S-100 bus" than the Motorola 6800, and anyway both of them were beginning to be displaced in the attention of many by the Zilog Z80 and MOS 6502) on the cover of this issue. Ted Nelson's column looked at "the computer screen," mentioning the certain capabilities of the Commodore PET, Radio Shack TRS-80, S-100 boards, and Compucolor, but not the Apple II. An article offering "A look at what's coming" in home computers described the PET, TRS-80, and Ohio Scientific Challenger, but not the Apple II. However, those who make a big point of the Apple II starting out very small might yet have to consider an article about computer graphics that did mention "the Apple machine," even if the author hadn't "had a chance to look at it that carefully."

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(via X) Anyone else deeply nostalgic about OS8?

Source: x.com
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A mockup of a 12-man “Big G” spacecraft at McDonnell Douglas in 1969.

"Big Gemini (or "Big G") was proposed to NASA by McDonnell Douglas in August 1969 as an advanced version of the Gemini spacecraft system. It was intended to provide large-capacity, all-purpose access to space, including missions that ultimately used Apollo or the Space Shuttle."

"Two baseline spacecraft were defined: a nine-man minimum modification version of the Gemini B called Min-Mod Big G and a 12-man advanced concept, having the same exterior geometry but with new, state-of-the-art subsystems, called Advanced Big G."

"Three launch vehicles-Saturn IB, Titan IIIM, and Saturn INT-20 (S-IC/S-IVB) were investigated for use with the spacecraft. The Saturn IB was discarded late in the study."

"The study was performed to generate a preliminary definition of a logistic spacecraft derived from Gemini that would be used to resupply an orbiting space station. Land-landing at a preselected site and refurbishment and reuse were design requirements."

"Big Gemini would land on dry lake beds or airstrips on skids, as were used on the X-15 and were planned for the X-20 and basic Gemini. A parasail would allow the pilot to manoeuvre to a pinpoint landing."

"The concept was given serious consideration. In 1971, faced with budget cuts which rendered the development of a fully-reusable space shuttle infeasible, NASA administrator George Low lamented that shuttle development might have to be delayed until the 1980s, with 'something like a 'big G' approach and a cheap space station' filling in as an interim. The Office of Management and Budget was much more favorable to the idea than NASA, concluding in a staff paper that Big Gemini launched aboard an uprated Titan III would be a more cost-effective option than any shuttle design. Ultimately OMB Deputy Director Caspar Weinberger helped to broker a compromise where Big G was taken off the table and NASA was given the greenlight for immediate development of a partially-reusable thrust-assisted orbiter shuttle."

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