The full cat ownership workflow: input, processor and output. #cats #catsofmastodon
Remote
Aaron Mahler
@halfpress@mastodon.halfpress.com
mastodon 4.7.3Former Encoding Engineer @ / Network Guy / Photographer / 3D Modeling, CAD & Printing Nerd / Retro Collector / Emulation Enthusiast / Restorer of 80s Arcades / Microcontroller Tinkerer / EV Driver / Past Academic CTO / All Around Geek
Pre-migration mastodon.social posts: @halfpress@mastodon.social
237 Followers
286 Following
26 Posts
Joined February 04, 2026
website:
500px gallery:
Replying to
And finally, the first looks at the motherboard.
It is shockingly pristine and a gorgeous emerald color. Aside from dust, cobwebs and desiccated bug parts I've blown out, I see no signs of corrosion or other damage (so far).
It looks like someone installed a brand new motherboard inside of a 175 year old filthy computer case.
I should probably remove it and check the back side before I power it up.
Shown here with the drive tray and cables and fully exposed.
#retrocomputing #amiga3000t
Is anyone aware of an existing KVM-type switch that would support sharing a single non-ADB keyboard/mouse between a #NeXT Cube (‘040 w/Dimension Board) and a NeXT Turbo slab?
I have one of each on my desk and already have a mechanical VGA switcher for the display side of things, but I’d love to use a single NeXT keyboard/mouse from a desk space perspective (and not have to unplug/replug it between the machines).
I guess I need to factor in the SoundBox as well.
#retrocomputing #kvm
Yesterday Dolly, today Tim Curry. How depressing. :(
Tonight I'm going to have to watch that director's cut BluRay of Legend that I recently purchased.
Replying to
To my surprise, I found a bin full of Amiga manuals and binders from every system I owned as a kid. Some of them are stiff and the pages stuck together, I assume from humidity since there are no stains from water damage.
The 3000T manual - aside from being dusty - is actually in really good shape.
Also, inside and under the front cover (and copious dust) is the sticker for my CommodoreExpress Gold Service. I don't recall ever utilizing it.
Replying to
The two hard drives I had in this beast were still there, but not screwed down or attached to what looks to be a roughly 200 ft long SCSI cable.
The drives are looking pretty filthy. Fortunately, I know why they are detached. Probably 25 or more years ago, I removed them, attached them to one of my Linux PCs with an Adaptec card and imaged the drives. I've had them bootable in emulators ever since. BlueSCSI will end up hosting those images soon.
Replying to
One liability - not for the computer, but any surface that matters to me - are the long-rusted four, dome-shaped feet on the bottom of the machine. They appear to be made of metal - like every other square inch of this 55+ lb machine - and are now akin to very rough sandpaper.
I need to do something about these if I can figure out their means of removal.
Also, I had forgotten they pre-install a second floppy drive cover, but hide it behind a blank.
Replying to
The back of the machine looks... decent. I seem to be missing the front and back screws for the main side panel.
Current me has a lot of reasons today to kick past me square in the crotch. See my prior post about my A500 mysteries.
There are two missing slot covers. One I know is from the Picasso II board I regret "loaning" to someone 20+ years ago. The other empty slot is a mystery right now. Nothing I can recall would be missing.
Note the ancient ethernet card.
Niles is skeptical.
Replying to
I found the original 3000T mouse which looks as filthy and stinkbug-pooped-upon as the rest of the system.
In the process, I also found four more mice of the era. Two of them are original Amiga mice. One of them is an early three button optical mouse I had that required this annoying shiny grid pad. One of the Amiga-style mice is, I do believe, a Commodore 64/128 model 1350 mouse... but I need to inspect it more closedly to confirm that.
Replying to
@BasicAppleGuy I have four of these in the basement, at least two of which are reserved for the bench wooden design for years now. Getting closer and closer on my to-do list.
Spent a good bit of Friday and some of yesterday diving headlong into #FreeCAD using my #Gridfinity customized tool bins (tracing, etc) as momentum. Went down a few dead ends and lots of Kagi searches translating Fusion 360 knowledge and workflow.
I got to a functional bin in pretty short order once I really started the process, but I stumbled a lot on making the separate liner that I generate as a projection of the shape scaled to 0.99 in Fusion. I get the gist, but need to revisit. 1/2
All in all, there’s a lot in #FreeCAD I like. I see how it makes you more reliant on good parametric structure at the sketch phase vs. Fusion… so I’m needing to build those habits vs. being sloppier (but currently faster) in Fusion. It’s going to take me a while to get used to some of that and reach a similar result as quickly.
I’m in 1.1 rc3 right now and did hit some crashes and oddities for sure, but I accept that. I am a little surprised how few Fusion -> #Freecad 1.x tutorials exist. 2/2
Replying to
@lcamtuf Ordered! Starting in on the PDF shortly… :)
Replying to
@GrantMeStrength@hachyderm.io This is fantastic!
Replying to
@vga256 @aaronareed Absolutely stellar book!
Replying to
@vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net I'm in. :)
Replying to
@siracusa@mastodon.social Thanks for bringing this one back - probably my favorite and one I had asked about previously. Grabbed the long sleeve version this time to go with my original tee (which I happen to be wearing now despite it tottering its way into typical t-shirt fadedom).
Perhaps I should order spares to store, vacuum sealed, in the attic. :)
Replying to
@kocienda@mastodon.social The CHM is one of my favorite places. I’m not living in Cali anymore, but am happily still a monthly (albeit small) donor. Such a wonderfully curated place and I can lose myself there for hours.
First update on my Mastodon instance since bringing it online (4.5.5 -> 4.57). Quick pre-update ProxMox snapshot (on top of full backups that happen nightly anyway), followed the release note instructions and all seems well. #mastoadmin
Dammit, @tankgrrl@hachyderm.io, with your mention of Booklore. Day two of untangling years of poorly stored eBooks and PDFs in various formats. There are so many other unimportant projects I could be doing right now. :)
My wife and I watched How to Get to Heaven from Belfast over a couple of evenings and enjoyed the hell out of it. Great mix of offbeat humor, drama and mystery. Apparently from the creator of Derry Girls, which I've yet to watch but will put on the list now.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast | Official Trailer | Netflix
Replying to
@yschaeff@fosstodon.org reminds me of the time (a couple years ago) that I etched a portrait of our cat into a piece of Japanese milk bread on my old laser cutter. I vacuum sealed it and it’s still totally intact. ;)
Boosted by @kagihq@mastodon.social
Replying to on hachyderm.io
@tankgrrl@hachyderm.io Kagi is about the best $10 a month I spend on anything digital right now.
Replying to
@siracusa@mastodon.social I wonder if this design would translate suitably - in embroidered fashion - to one of the Dad hats...
Replying to
@xkcdbot@me.ns.ci My favorite is running into an ancient post about an obscure problem from years prior, looking closely and realizing I was the one who posted the question the first time and was just now running into it again. No replies in intervening years, of course.