Martin Fitzpatrick @makingmicro@oldbytes.space

How to start a water plane on land.

Here's a fun, non-Chronicles blog post I wrote for the folks at Zip2Tax. #Apple had a bug in its retail POS software. This led to a sales tax dispute with the State of New York. Apple was clearly in the wrong but rather than admit error it spent 10 years litigating the issue--and lost at every single stage.

https://www.zip2tax.com/blogs/sales-tax-news-blog/apple-inc-to-pay-nys-back-sales-tax-for-10-yr-old-promotion

Here's a Woz portrait that came out great and I really love the image but it didn't work in the layout so I won't be using it. It's too nice not to share.

A gentleman over on the comment section of Youtube reminded me that SCART, a French acronym (Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs), is called Péritel in France and SCART literally everywhere else 😄​

I've yet to make a proper introduction here, but while that simmers a little longer I'd love to share this project of mine with you.

I've collected 18 episodes of the 1983 television show, Whiz Kids, in English and Italian, 13 in French, and 7 in Japanese, and made them available for everyone on the Internet Archive. Some of the English episodes were sourced from a partial PAL DVD release and may be in better quality than you've ever seen them. Please enjoy and share with your friends and associates. It's not too late to become a fan of this very cool but short-lived show that inspired a lot of young people in its day, and continues to inspire me.

https://archive.org/details/@whiz_kids_preservation_project

It is with sadness that we note the passing of John Birkett, proprietor of the legendary eponymous surplus radio and electronics store on an unassuming street in the British city of Lincoln, at the age of 93.

https://hackaday.com/2022/05/20/rip-john-birkett-parts-vendor-extraordinaire/ #RIP

He has been a fantastic source of esoteric parts and electronic assemblies for many decades, and electronics enthusiasts from the UK will have unwittingly seen parts which passed through his hands.

Dry #retrobrighting surprise this morning.
up front - this #c128 case was quite yellow all over.
Left: top case after ~4h in the chamber yesterday afternoon - meh.
Right: bottom case that i put into the chamber around 7pm yesterday and left it there over night. It looks... good.

I have no explanation for this.

Highly recommend following @chronrevisited and their blog. Great insight into what is now an important source of computing history.

In particular, their recent review of a 1985 prophetic episode about computers in politics is really worth some contemplation.

https://smoliva.blog/post/computer-chronicles-revisited-049-solon-bob-carr-ed-zschau-f-15-strike-eagle/

Been a while, drawing I've done this week, going to colour it and use it in the background on the page of a book. Also this is one of my favourite games. #bubblebobble #arcade #retro #retrogaming #dragons #arcadegame #art #MastoArt

This is (going to be) fun. "Some" bodge wires are needed to bring this one back to life! #Amiga #Amiga4000 #Repair #Restoration #BatteryLeakage #VartaDestroyerOfWorlds

Progress this morning before the day job kicks in: I have an externally clocked VIC-20! Internal timing being driven my an ICE40 FPGA. It’s a couple cycles slow but getting there. Now to start on video signals. The math makes my brain hurt. More coffee #commodore #vicsrevenge

Trying out some games on the Miyoo Mini!

A few pics I took from the Computer Museum of America in Roswell, Georgia. This was part of my birthday trip recently, so I'll have some more to share later as well!

The #SEGA Master System is a massively underrated system with some interesting peripherals

https://youtu.be/4mQGalpDyrY