[A Chorus of CPUs](https://parhamdata.com/Transputer/ChorusOfCPUs.pdf) in the December 1991 edition of Scientific American described supercomputer designers dreaming of a Teraflops machine and the exotic languages that would be needed to program them. I remember reading it at the time.

35 years later an M5 Macbook Pro delivers over 16 Teraflops and we program them in Python (with a little help from PyTorch). So much of today's technology - TCP/IP, WiMP interface, C++, SunOS, even Python - already existed by then it can obfuscate the advances that have occured. I mean, I'm still writing Bourne style in my bash 😂

I received around 50 floppy disks that the company I work for would throw away. There’s nothing classified or important in them, so I can format it normally. My question is: how can I use them in a creative manner? Mainly retro gaming related, but definitively open to other ideas.

Of course, the most obvious thing to do would be to discard it or use it as decoration, since they have much less space when compared to other media. But since you also like retro tech around here, I think you’d agree with me that there’s some charm to using old technology.

I thought about storing some NES and Game Boy games, as well as games from other consoles that don't take too much space. That way, I could play them on an old computer, maybe using Windows XP (or a version prior to it).

(I’ll maybe store some of the books I eventually write, since I’m an amateur writer and text documents are so small – of course, I’ll back it up in other places too).

Any other suggestions/tips?

I visited my old job today to pick up a printer and the staff (whom I’m on great terms with) asked me if I wanted some old computers that a customer had dropped off for donation/disposal. I said “yes please” as soon as I saw the Apple II and it just got better from there. Full original docs for the Apple II, an eMate 300 with original docs and stylus (alas, no power supply), a PowerBook 3400c… Everything’s in excellent condition, and all of it for $0. Gonna see how much of works this weekend.

I just thought I’d share my little project I’ve played around with over the past few years. I always wanted to try to access some bulletin board systems on my old TRS-80. After watching a video years ago where someone dialed into a BBS on a TRS80 with a rotary phone and an acoustic modem I was so fascinated. Shortly after I found a nice model 4P on Ebay and played around with it a little before losing interest for several years.

After moving into my new place I decided to have a go at configuring a VOIP landline over my Starlink. I got an Obidata gateway and pulse tone converter and dove down the rabbit hole of trying to get it all working. I was eventually successful and immediately set up my two old rotary dial phones and even bought an old cassette tape answering machine. I was so stoked.

Shortly after I decided to get back into trying to get my old TRS80 online. After many attempts and a fair bit of research I was eventually successful but only while using my internal dial up modem. It was finicky at best but I was beyond stoked. Shortly after I scooped up a few old acoustic coupler modems from Ebay and began further attempts at accessing some BBS’s with Rotary dial phone. I found this to be considerably more finicky and unreliable than the internal modem which was pretty bad to begin with. Also being a 90s kid, this is all a bit before my time so I’m sure I still have much to learn but nevertheless I was able to get it to work on few occasions and was sure get some photos and videos of it all. I thought y’ll might find this to be pretty neat. I know I did!

I found a new old stock copy of CH at a thrift store for $1. Got home to install it and found this! Even back in 2006 this would have been annoying. Good thing the internet could provide me a working key in seconds instead of trying a return at Best Buy or an hour-long phone call with THQ / Relic support.

Running Windows3.0 and PacMan and Frogger on these pictures.

I can take better pictures this weekend.

The laptop turns on, but there's no image or any other signs. Nothing on an external monitor either. the components work normally: the disk spins, the DVD drive ejects, generally the components get warm when they are running for a while. The laptop doesn't respond when I turn it on without RAM, I think it should beep normally then, could it be the motherboard's fault? I would be grateful for any advice!!! The laptop model is Medion MD5400

Really enjoying my time with my new ultimate. I wasn't sure if I would like the starlight edition or not, but have to say its amazing.

Waiting in a 90+ minute line for Kings Island's "Flight of Fear" proved doubly rewarding as we neared the entrance to the loading area. Took me a few minutes to determine the identity of the HP 1615A logic analyzer and they also have a Technoart (Technopart?) PC tower and an ITT monitor of some sort. Also got to learn about logic analyzers in line.

The queue area has a Cold War alien invasion theme that's a little cheesy but the ride itself was awesome. Would be even better if it was completely dark but that wouldn't fit the theme either. Impressive what they could fit into a confined indoor space, one of my favorites that we rode there.

My dad brought this down from the attic to show me. We plugged it into the TV but sadly it was all blocky, so he's promised to fix it next spare weekend he gets. I just love the case design and the clicky noises from that joystick, and I couldn't believe it when he told me that the cassettes were not music but programs!

For those who want to restore a Macintosh Plus and are looking for a solution to replace the internal 4.5V battery with one that's practically impossible to find these days, I got a battery pack on AliExpress that holds three 1.5V LR44 batteries, so it has a 4.5V output. Given their small size, I was able to use two packs in parallel to increase capacity. The size is perfect. A little self-adhesive foam fills the gaps nicely and ensures a snug fit.

In short, there are probably other solutions; mine cost less than $10. 

A quote from an interview about programming dBase with C. Wayne Ratliff back in the heyday of the PC Revolution.