Notices by dan 💾 (billgoats@bitbang.social), page 2

Looks like #GlobalTalk has stayed robust through the global it outage 💁 #RetroComputing

Is there a cat here, or is it just a lamp? It’s hard to tell. Maybe it’s just a lamp. 🐈⬛

Aliexpress keeps advertising this ridiculously wide monitor at me, and I'd be lying if I said I weren't tempted. Except I really have no use for it.

There's a #RetroComputing bit of silliness that I've been poking away at with little success for the past month-ish.

You might remember the ThunderScan, that lets you turn the ImageWriter dot matrix printer into a scanner? Well, @keelan gave me one to play with while I was in Canada! He documented it here: https://beefchicken.com/retro/thunderscan/

Anyway, it's old and uses usually-ignored-and-often-not-even-plumbed-in-anymore serial cable pins, so it's been a bit of a brouhaha to get it set up.

1/🧵

...just about...

The scanning head itself picks up images! But the serial cable I have is the wrong type, so the ImageWriter's parts don't move. Whomp-whomp.

BUT! If I move the head and the roller around manually while the scanner software thinks it's scanning, it picks up light and dark areas! IT WORKS! (just about)

#RetroComputing
3/🧵

The ThunderScan predates the round mini-din 8 serial ports and so has an extra adapter box for the Mac Plus and newer. I was having *no* luck with the SE and my not-quite-complete cables.

Then last night just before midnight I realised that I could ditch the adapter box and plug straight into the 512, right?

Turns out that yes, I can! And it works! (just about)
#RetroComputing

2/🧵

@thomasfuchs ALIENS!

Or maybe witchcraft.

@thomasfuchs what! say it’s not so. must have been aliens. humans just don’t have the technology required yet. must’ve been.

Really, is the USPS okay? That small package I sent a little over a month ago, it's still in transit. 📦 Over 30 tracking notes so far, and about half of those are when it spent a week bouncing back and forth between the same two depots every day for a week. And when it finally escaped that loop, it went half way across the country in the wrong direction. Lollercopters 🚁💀

This one simple hack lets you keep using photoshop without paying a monthly subscription! Silicon Valley hates her!

I feel attacked

I feel like I should probably make rhubarb jam, or something.

There's a grammatical thing I've noticed happening more frequently and from more people over the past couple of years:

Noun needs verbed.

Previously it would more likely have been one of these two:

Noun needs verbing.
Noun needs to be verbed.

Is it a language shift, or am I just being hyper-sensitive? :D

@thomasfuchs But then no logo when the battery's flat, and Apple couldn't be having that.

Floating weighted Apple logo so it's always right side up, no matter what angle the iPad is at!
https://mastodon.social/@macrumors/112513310801870510

Pleased to confirm that bringing an Apple IIgs as carry-on through airport security gets you pulled off to the side. :apple_inc:

@thomasfuchs hmm, nobody’s answering to beam me up :’(

A cute little terrible light meter :D

📸

@thomasfuchs I can't wait to see one round these parts... I'll bet they wouldn't last a week before corroding into a pile of dust in the salty wet air :D

@foone 10 PRINT “THIS!”
20 GOTO 10