Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! No matter how you celebrate, I hope you have a good one!
Merry Christmas
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Happy Thanksgiving
May your Thanksgiving be full of peace, love, and joy!The year ending this past September has been a very difficult time for me. I am thankful for my family and friends who helped me get through it. I am so grateful for all of you. And pickleball! Who knew I’d be any good at a sport?! I didn’t! And it has become a great way to get out of the house, socialize, relieve stress, and exercise.
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Merry Christmas
May the new born Christ Child bring peace, love, and mercy to you and your family. Amen.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your friends at Smartphone Fanatics!
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Happy Thanksgiving
This year, I am thankful for my family and friends who are helping me through a difficult time.
I am also thankful for the many things that I have, including my healthy, and my job, and you, the reader of this blog.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
-Alan
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Happy 4th of July!
This year as you celebrate our nation’s independence, it is a good time to remember that we are all Americans regardless of religious ideology, political affiliation, or who we choose to love. Our nation is much better when we are united rather than divided over petty “Us” vs. “Them” debates. On this 4th of July, it is important that we remember that there is no “Them”. It’s just “Us”, We the People.
Happy Independence Day! Now, stop reading the Internet and go eat way too much BBQ with your family and friends!
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VCF East 2023 Recap
This past weekend was the Vintage Computer Federation‘s annual VCF East show in New Jersey.
I was a first timer to VCF and I was fairly impressed by the show that was put on. The exhibits were interesting, and the vendors had good products on sale. For me personally, I really enjoyed the speakers, and the hands-on labs – Glitchwrks XT-IDE board build and Commodore 64 BASIC programming.
VCF East was held on the InfoAge museum campus which featured early UNIVAC computers, several military artifacts, communications, and electronic warefare exhibits.
I am already thinking about next year’s trip. In the meantime, I put together a “what I saw” recap video. I hope you enjoy it.
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Happy New Year
May the New Year be filled with all the best for you and your family.
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Merry Christmas!
May the new born Christ Child bring peace, love, mercy, and tolerance toward others to our world. Amen.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your friends at Smartphone Fanatics!
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Byte Magazine Archive Available
Byte magazine Feb. 1983 Cover While doing some research into the Apple IIe (1983) and the Apple IIGS (1986), I came across a large Byte magazine archive that is available on the Internet Archive.
The magazine archive is labeled as “complete” and has issues from Sept. 1975 through Apr. 1989. And while I can’t vouch for the entire archive, the three issues that I looked at had clean and easy to read articles from the issues that I wanted to read. Here are the links to the articles I was reading earlier this week.
Feb. 1983 – Apple IIe Review by Robin Moore pg 68
Oct. 1986 – Apple IIGS Preview by Gregg Williams and Richard Greham pg 84
Apr. 1987 – Apple IIGS Review by Philip Chien pg 223
I really appreciate that these archives exist. Reading computer magazines before I started my professional IT career was a fun way that I learned about computers. A+ and inCider were two of my favorites. Once I started working in IT, I loved to read Windows NT Magazine, PCWeek/eWeek, MacWeek, and Information Week.
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Archive Your Twitter Account in Case You Get Hit with a Ban
If you are like me and have no patients for Elon Musk’s jackassery, you might be looking to move to another smaller social media community. I have opened a Mastodon account and am reconnecting with other retro computing fans.
Under Musk’s “leadership”, Twitter has gone from a stable mismanaged platform to a mismanaged platform under constant churn. Take last night’s unforced error. In a now deleted tweet, Twitter Support posted a notice that the company would begin removing accounts promoting or linking to other social networks. You can read The New York Times and CNN coverage of the latest dust up if you can stomach it.
Since I have a pinned tweet redirecting folks to my Mastodon account, I was expecting that either the tweet would be deleted, or that I would end up being banned from Twitter. So, I decided to request an archive of my account.
Here’s how to request your own archive.
Step 1: Login to your account.
Step 2: Click or tap on More > Settings and Support > Settings and Privacy
Step 3: Then, click or tap on Your Account > Download an Archive of Your Data
Step 4: Click or tap the Request Archive button.
Assuming that Twitter.com is still functioning at a basic level, within 24 hours you will receive an email with a download link to your archive download.
I’m not a prolific social media user and do not have any regrets about deleting my Facebook account years ago. As it stands now, I am fine if I get banned or suspended because I am reconnecting to other retro computing enthusiasts, as I said, on Mastodon. I am also supporting my favorite creators on Patreon. When a paid subscription also includes a Discord server, I also occasionally stop in there to hang out with other like-minded nerds. It’s nice to not be bombarded by ads and accounts that just want to cause chaos.
So, will I delete my Twitter account? I honestly don’t know. As it stands now, I probably won’t delete it yet. I am spending less time on Twitter these days. Just like discussion boards gave way to blogs which stepped aside for Twitter, I’m ready for the next thing. If Musk speeds up that transition to the next thing, so be it. Buckle up!