Blog · corpus.blog/blogs/michaeldoornbos.com/posts
michaeldoornbos.com
michaeldoornbos.com
2021
A bunch of people have asked about my future proofing of the Apple IIe. The core of my strategy is this externally power supply that replaces the troublesome internal unit completely. Not “authentic” but it will keep a ton of heat away from the rest of the machineoriginal ↗
25 Sept 2021
Always loved a green phosphor monitor for the PET. Took a risk of tearing apart the universe by putting my MiniPET on an Apple monitor. Seems like we’re all still here so far. #apple #commodore #10Printoriginal ↗
24 Sept 2021
Well I’m trying not to be disappointed that it works. I do enjoy fixing them. But I love that I have this in my collection now. #10printoriginal ↗
23 Sept 2021
I was lightly scolded by @8BitShowAndTell for learning LISP on a machine with a lot of bits so this morning I've shifted back to a machine with the proper number ;-) #commodoreoriginal ↗
23 Sept 2021
This morning's "learn something new every day" I'm learning a LISP dialect... finally. I've never been cool enough to learn LISP, but I can fake being cooloriginal ↗
22 Sept 2021
Some of my notebooks from 1993-2008 or so when I made the mistake of switching to mostly digital. 20 years from now I’ll bet you would be glad your notes/thoughts/journal today was on paper. Ask me how I know.original ↗
20 Sept 2021
10 Minute Lunch break progress: I have this dumb idea to do a simple (insecure) blockchain as a teaching tool. My first crack at it is sorta working already ;-) #commodoreoriginal ↗
20 Sept 2021
For a long time I’ve averaged reading two books a week. It’s almost as fun figuring out what to read next as it is actually reading. This next week will be:original ↗
18 Sept 2021
Finally bottled the rest of the first batch of this winter’s mead. This is about 1/3 of the batch and will age until about November. It will mellow out a lot by then and the cloudiness will be gone. Two more 3 gallon batches are a month behind and still fermenting.original ↗
18 Sept 2021
What kind of music do you guys like? All the kinds. Julie’s thrift store finds today fit right inoriginal ↗
16 Sept 2021
This socket is going to have to go. This is working its way out when it gets warm. #commodoreoriginal ↗
15 Sept 2021
15 Sept 2021
This keyboard layout is the recipient of a lot of criticism. If you use it for a while a lot of it actually makes perfect sense. #commodoreoriginal ↗
14 Sept 2021
Is it #Septandy day 14 or only 16 more days with Tandy machines? I'm trying to like them… they are like a, uh, warm blanket. Yeah, that's it.original ↗
14 Sept 2021
It’s #septandy day 13… wondering a little if I can do this for 17 more days. The blue and white are pretty okay, why aren’t those the default colors? #mysteriesoftheuniverseoriginal ↗
13 Sept 2021
On #Septandy day 12 I’m trying unsuccessfully to tweak the video to make it more readable. Toxic green just doesn’t work that well.original ↗
12 Sept 2021
11 Sept 2021
Playing around with colors for the Zenith and at the moment leaning towards an Army Jeep Greenoriginal ↗
11 Sept 2021
The actual building is gone now, but I was in my office on the 10th floor facing south in the red circle on the phone with my wife.original ↗
11 Sept 2021
We had a very late frost so our favorite orchard only had a 25% yield this year. We went out to support them and with much standing on our toes found more than a few.original ↗
10 Sept 2021
It's #Septandy day 10. Today's program is a "timebomb" (with sound effects). Feels pretty timely for some reason.original ↗
10 Sept 2021
Super speedy delivery from Alissa at Viking Aircraft. They just started making these instrument mounting trays and saved me a ton of time getting them pre made from them. Excellent quality as always from them.original ↗
9 Sept 2021
One of my first "real" programs was a blackjack game I made in BASIC on a Sharp 9300 calculator to impress my Adv. Algebra teacher. Since it's #septandy day 9, here's a slot machine on a "Tandy" PC-4original ↗
9 Sept 2021
For #septandy day 8, learning GET and PUT in Coco BASIC which I'm not too familiar with. This is better than some of the generative art I've seen for many dollars on the NFT sites. If I do dumb things and "secure it" as "one of a kind" with a blockchain am I doing it right?original ↗
8 Sept 2021
7 Sept 2021
For #Septandy day 6: I'll bet there's an untapped market for abstract art with an #nft on 8-bit computers. Not that the Coco would be my first choice for this, but since I'm keeping with the #Septandy theme…original ↗
6 Sept 2021
Starting to have that fall feel in here. Early morning wing root section work. The answer to when will the plane be done: when there are no more things left on the todo list.original ↗
5 Sept 2021
So many great resources for learning how to do more with retro computers. My #Septandy day 5 choicesoriginal ↗
5 Sept 2021
For #septandy day 4, I did the beloved 10 PRINT program. The Color Computer’s slash and backslash characters are a 5 × 7 region in a larger box of 8 × 12. It’s not a great character set to demonstrate this as a random “maze” or even really a clear connected pattern. Still fun.original ↗
4 Sept 2021
In today's episode of "Stupid races between old computery things", we have a #Septandy day 3 duo of a Coco2 with and without extended BASIC vs a VIC-20. Curiously Color BASIC is missing the exponent function so we had to implement it. Will #commodore win?original ↗
3 Sept 2021
The PC-4 is a neat little handheld, but it isn't going to win any speed competitions. Simple "benchmark" on my Coco2 takes 39 seconds. Exact same code on the PC-4 took 3:35. But BASIC in your pocket is pretty nifty! #Septandyoriginal ↗
2 Sept 2021
Well, thanks to @8BitShowAndTell this is on my VIC-20 today. Follow him on the YouTubes for Gorf goodness in a couple days (or on Patreon for sooner). All the cool kids are doing it.original ↗
31 Aug 2021
This evening I’m exploring the first CAD software I ever used seriously. Where’s a light pen when you need it?original ↗
30 Aug 2021
Time to up my game. I own a nice collection of various knives but not a proper bowie knife. Never leave home without it.original ↗
28 Aug 2021
Spent time dodging thunderstorms today. This was the one clearing that was long enough to get a shot of.original ↗
26 Aug 2021
Interesting that @VansAircraft and @SonexAircraft are working on high wing models. Apparently I missed some industry trend memo somewhere.original ↗
24 Aug 2021
23 Aug 2021
Haven’t been flying much but we kicked off the rust for a couple minutes this morning after almost finishing the flaps on the zenith. Was nice to have my buddy Simon help with the building this morning.original ↗
22 Aug 2021
I’m short a transistor to do a composite MOD on this Atari VCS/2600 so it’s the ol route the RF through a VCR trick for now #atarioriginal ↗
20 Aug 2021
Since I only eat once a day now, I had time to recap and heat sync an Atari 800 during lunch. Working like a champoriginal ↗
20 Aug 2021
The Selectric II restoration was a snap. About an hour, and it’s working like a champ. It’s built like a tank and probably has 100 years of life left in it. It’ll take me a little bit to get fast on it, but that sound is just so satisfying.original ↗
18 Aug 2021
Lunchtime fun "for science". I was playing with Atari Turbo-BASIC XL the 800XL and couldn't resist doing the same tests on a VIC-20.original ↗
18 Aug 2021
When someone asks why you are doing so and so thing... the answer is ALWAYS "for science".original ↗
17 Aug 2021
My next restoration project isn’t a vintage computer, but it counts as vintage. Always wanted a Selectric. Mechanical pencil for scale. It’s huge.original ↗
17 Aug 2021
17 Aug 2021
The other book I finished last week was Howard Scott Warshaw's. He contends that most people who say that E.T. is "The Worst Game of All Time" have probably not even played it. I have it, have played it, AND I don't think it's even close to the worst game of "All time".original ↗
16 Aug 2021
Really enjoyed the 10PRINT book this past weekend. Who knew there were at least a couple hundred pages of things to talk about from just one line of code? For fun, during lunch today, I looked at many of the variations of it.original ↗
16 Aug 2021
For the most part I’ve been sticking pretty close to the plans. Today’s deviation was to add some stiffening L angles to these pulleys. Once this section is riveted they’ll be hard to access and I didn’t like the amount of skin flex I was seeing.original ↗
15 Aug 2021
While waiting on my date I worked on the next part of Nick Hampshire's VIC Graphics book. Multi Colored "fan".original ↗
14 Aug 2021
I didn’t go to Blackhat this year. A friend brought this back with her for me. If I had known this sort of thing would be there I definitely would have made the trip :)original ↗
14 Aug 2021
This morning's quick "learn something new every day": Been going through Nick Hampshire's VIC-20 books. 2nd books is on graphics. #commodoreoriginal ↗
13 Aug 2021
Lunch shenanigans: Now I'm on a quest to find the slowest machine I have that will run this "benchmark" (I call it the @NoelsRetroLab benchmark). The PC-4 is the current leader.original ↗
12 Aug 2021
Installed BreakIntoProg's BBC BASIC Port to the CERBERUS 2080. On the Z80 at 8Mhz it runs this quick benchmark in around 11 seconds. Pretty neat.original ↗
11 Aug 2021
Trying something different on my Atari 800XL this week. The keyboard on the top has switches instead of a membrane. First time all of my keys have reliably worked :) #atarioriginal ↗
11 Aug 2021
Finished the 100 door problem on a bunch of systems. Atari 800XL, Cerberus 2080, VIC-20, PET, Color Maximiteoriginal ↗
5 Aug 2021
Last of the 10 machines in the 100 door demo is CERBERUS. Is unfinished. Last because it's the hardest to do (for me). It's WAY too fast for the visual demo. Wasting a couple million clock cycles. Needs the result output and custom characters to be finished. Happy with progressoriginal ↗
3 Aug 2021
Taking a break from the cipher series for a bit. This weeks article will be on the 100 door problem done on 10 different systems. Wouldn’t be complete without a calculator in the mix would it? (PS, the VIC-20 is my favorite solution set so far). Also, TI-84’s BASIC is really fastoriginal ↗
3 Aug 2021
Old computers make good teaching tools in part because you see huge efficiency gains when changing your approach. Reducing your execution time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes is more satisfying than .003 seconds to .0003 seconds a modern system.original ↗
3 Aug 2021
Took months of patience but I finally picked up a copy of this book for a price that wasn’t highway robberyoriginal ↗
2 Aug 2021
10 minute lunchtime noodle: Taking a quick initial swing at @somacdivad's challenge this week on a VIC-20. Looks like I'll have to do the extra credit part now.original ↗
2 Aug 2021
Since we seem to be on an early 80s book kick, my favorite from this time period is “Once Upon Atari”. Fascinating story and better writing than most small run books, most which could REALLY use an editors red pen.original ↗
1 Aug 2021
Installing the elevator pulleys this morning. It’s a measure twice cut once kinda deal. Really not something I want to have misaligned. It was more like a measure 2^8 and cut once kinda deal. The other one is inside and upside down and required some gymnastics on my part.original ↗
1 Aug 2021
Waiting for my date to be ready gave me a few minutes on the PET. If you take two @8BitShowAndTell videos and mash them together... (this is Robin's game, not mine)original ↗
31 Jul 2021
Finished @BilHerd’s book in one sitting. Very cool to see many of these stories in one place.original ↗
31 Jul 2021
30 Jul 2021
Turns out direct sunlight works. This is before and after on the Plus/4 Keyboard after 4 hours. AirPods for color comparison with an actual white.original ↗
29 Jul 2021
On the left is a flawed but decent product I’ve used every day for three years. On the right is the worst product “upgrade” I’ve ever purchased. I can’t believe how they made it so dramatically worse in every way.original ↗
29 Jul 2021
I have bitten off more than I can chew with this Maze article I've been working on for a week. It's stopped being fun which means it's time to shelve it. This morning, it's a blank slate for me.original ↗
28 Jul 2021
Ported the Maze code to the CERBERUS 2080. Just like the Commodore Assembly version the maze is created instantly and the ball is too fast to see. Have to waste some cycles for the final article on this so we can see it. No SID here, so had to do an LFSR for random numbers ;-)original ↗
27 Jul 2021
Ported the maze program to assembly this morning (you know, learn something every day). It's slightly faster, as in the screen capture device isn't even picking up the ball flying around ;-)original ↗
27 Jul 2021
On today's episode of "Stupid races between old computery things" we have a Commodore PET vs an Atari 400 doing the maze program from Compute! December 1981. The program was written for these machines, so it's a fair "fight".original ↗
26 Jul 2021
I’m channeling my inner @8BitShowAndTell and fixing a bug in a listing in Compute! from Dec 1981. Atari version does not work as listed in the mag. My fix is on line 1020 hereoriginal ↗
25 Jul 2021
The MiniPET does pretty well with the screen capture. I originally wrote this for the VIC-20 because you know, VIC cipher on a VIC... but I like using my own software for testing. A lot of people ask about the "chicklet" keyboard and I actually kinda like itoriginal ↗
24 Jul 2021
When you don’t have a spare DIN connector to test out a board sometimes improvisation is more fun.original ↗
21 Jul 2021
New to me Atari 800XL. It was listed "untested", which to me means "cheap and almost certainly repairable".original ↗
21 Jul 2021
Steak and eggs for dinner, killer workout, and recapped/reassembled the Atari 400. Not too shabby.original ↗
20 Jul 2021
I created a brute force version on a Commodore that's truly horrible, but it does work. Had to change the states to integers and borders to letters because of my system limitations. I'll get it in Github tonightishoriginal ↗
19 Jul 2021
I can walk to trout streams and do often. First cast. He's a little too small so he's going back to grow up.original ↗
19 Jul 2021
Well I was shooting for completing it in a week. Or less than 24 hours. One of those. Works great @futurewas8bit #commodoreoriginal ↗
17 Jul 2021