Lmst

@keyboards
A portable… precursor to laptops. There is something ‘organic’ about early personal computers which is totally lacking in modern appliances. The balance between functionality and form is somewhat skewed to the wrong side methinks.

#Design #Form #Functionality #PersonalComputing

"#MySpace pages, Media player skins, the eye searingly gaudy hot dog stand theme. These all were vectors for #selfexpression. But to offer these #freedoms, you have to trust the person operating your system, honour their agency, and respect them as a serious intellectual partner instead of a gibbering idiot to be manipulated for your own ends.
…personal computing needs to make a firm return to normative #design practises.
#TheUser is dead. Long live #PersonalComputing!"

https://www.pastagang.cc/blog/kill-the-user/

@netizenparty Welcome. I think today we're expected to live in an Internet culture, but the level of education about how the Internet works is virtually nonexistent for non-technical audiences.

Imagine a city of netizens who can't read street signs, and who allow themselves to be (mis)directed by any colorful display or printed map that floats by. The people who are maintaining this city have arrived at the idea that they installed the street signs (of course) for their own use; instructing netizens to check them is frowned upon. If you require the security of verifying who/which address you're actually traveling to, you're given the advice to "avoid all web links and use apps from the app store instead".

Consider this... Some banks now require a verified app to access their services. That means you cannot use a PC or a libre mobile OS to access them. In other cases, users assume this must be the situation because they cannot imagine non-app access to a bank anymore, despite their bank offering web access (sometimes I check this). IMO, this is a major threat to the viability of the Internet. As cultures go, it appears to be one that has passed its heyday and is now in steep decline. The richest and arguably most powerful man in the world claims that in the near future his single app 'X' will be the preferred way to access all types of online services.

#collapse #internet #www #dns #https #phishing #apps #walledgarden #personalcomputing

The pendulum is swinging back toward the edge of the global connectivity mesh we call the #Internet—a familiar cycle, much like the shift from time-shared mainframes to the PC and Mac era.

Microsoft's Phi-4 LLM running on my MacBook Pro (M1), courtesy of LM Studio.

#GenAI #Trends #PersonalComputing #AppleIntelligence

The pendulum is swinging back toward the edge of the global connectivity mesh we call the #Internet—a familiar cycle, much like the shift from time-shared mainframes to the PC and Mac era. Microsoft's Phi-4 LLM running on my MacBook Pro (M1). #GenAI #Trends #PersonalComputing #AppleIntelligence

I thought Brexit was a pretty dunderheaded self-own, but what's going on in the US is just orders of magnitude more stupid.

I've always thought that computers (#PersonalComputing, #ToolsForThought) should enable us to think better, to cooperate better, to communicate better. Instead the evidence seems to be that networking them together was a Bad Idea and has made us collectively more stupid than ever in human history. Or perhaps we were always that stupid, only now we have a light on it.

@Em0nM4stodon @smallcircles

You have little choice about using billionaires' platforms if the only terminal device you have also belongs to the billionaires.

You only have choice if your computing resources are under your own control, not Apple's or Microsoft's or Google's.

#personalComputing

And the page that triggered that thought: https://alexanderobenauer.com/think/1/

Well worth a read, even if you do have to fight past the FAT FONT.

#PersonalComputing

Further to yesterday's misadventures in Flatpak Land: The very notion of "sandboxing" "apps" in a desktop env seems to me exactly the *opposite* of the direction we want if we're to foster #PersonalComputing. A sandbox's purpose is to *prevent* software from interacting/interoperating with other bits of s/w, when what we *want* is many more much smaller components that interact promiscuously, fluidly and easily. (Yes, I know, bad actors/malware. Don't know how to solve that yet. Capabilities?)

Oh, I think we scored a good deal on the https://www.ebay.com/itm/276509348209

Ace Computer with Supermicro X8DA3 Motherboard - Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge
Motherboard: Supermicro X8DA3/X8DAi
Processor: 2x Intel X5650 @ 2.67 GHz (Two Processors/CPU)
Ram: 96 GB of Ram
Optical Drive: DVD+-RW Super Drive
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 210 / 512MB DDR3
Card: SIIG FireWire 800 3-Port (NN-830012-S2)
Card: StarTech 4 Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express Card with SATA Power PEXUSB3S4
Card: ATTO Ultra 320 Dual Channel Ultra SCSI Controller
Drive: Tableau T3458is Forensic Bridge (No cables or accessories)
Power Supply: Antec 1200 Watt Continuous Power Supply
No drives or OS 🤷

added to my watchlist
they reached out offering 160 & 50 shipping
I countered with 150 & they accepted
🤞 this is as described and all works
#computerHardware #computing #vintagehardware #personalComputing #digitalforensics #supermicro #ebayfinds
#tableau #supermicro

Loaded up for #vcfwest #vcfw this weekend - a bunch for the consignment room, and a handful for the freebie table

And a bag of goodies for pre established trades 😁

If you are at vcfw, say hello

What is VCFW you say?
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/

#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker

The pickup truck loaded up with items for VCF West

@svoisen Sounds like they, too, are talking about the mostly-wasted opportunity for #PersonalComputing... https://one.mikro2nd.net/pages/personal-computing/

(And now, upon reading the thing, Yes! They're saying many of the same things as I. Thanks for a new discovery!)

#Freecycle find - #Edirol (#Roland) PCR-M30 #midi #keyboard

Cleaned the gooey rubber off the knobs & such, now to get the drivers working

#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker

An Edirol (Roland) PCR-M30 midi keyboard on the tailgate, all knobs removed for cleaning

props to the person on #freecycle offering up some #CD media - the #BIOS update for these #ThinkPads will _only_ run/boot from CD or floppy - no joy making a boot-able #USB so I go old school. 🤷

That #DVD-RW / #CD-RW combo drive (FRU 39T2829) worked like a charm - and the random eject issue is not happening with this one.

#laptop #vintage_laptop
#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker

Scored an #ebay_find for a replacement CD/DVD drive - ended up upgrading to the #DVD-RW / #CD-RW combo drive (FRU 39T2829).

The current CD-RW has the "phantom" eject issue, where the tray ejects without any prompting. My research online indicates the eject button on the drive is messed up some way, and the easiest approach is to swap out the drive. The seller accepted my counter offer, and with shipping it was a no brainier.

Now, we wait...

#laptop #vintage_laptop
#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker
#ebay_finds

An IBM/Lenovo DVD/CD drive for their ThinkPad era notebooks/laptops, showing the label and technical details

Welp, confirmed the #t43 #ibm #thinkpad that I have will not go above 2.5GB of memory 😞

Swapped out the dead #BIOS battery though

#laptop #vintage_laptop
#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker

An IBM ThinkPad T43 laptop in partial dissemblily, in the BIOS awaiting confirmation to save configuration after updating the date & time

Success! found an "Sonnet Tempo SATA Express Card 34 with 2 eSATA Ports" over on #eBitch aka #eBay

A good seller experience - timely shipping, arrived promptly - packing could be better though, wrapped in a #walmart #wallyworld bag inside a cardboard box? 🤦‍♂️

The #Expresscard was auto-detected in #windows10 on the #lenovo #R400 as a "Silicon Image SiI 3132 #SATALink Controller", drivers were pulled from online and installed, and I was wiping an old hard drive in my #eSATA drive dock in minutes.

#computing
#vintagehardware
#hacking
#hackers
#hardware
#hardwarehacker
#hardwarehacking
#upcycling
#personalComputing
#personal_computing #vintagetech
#vintagecomputing
#geek
#hacker
#ebay_finds #BoycottWalmart #WalmartSucks