Last year I was messing with an Apple IIe from early 1984. It was one of the oldest and didn't have the 65C02 processor and BASIC commands had to be typed in uppercase. A few programs like ProTERM wouldn't run because of the age of the computer. Since the only thing needed to enhance it was a 65C02 and a few EPROMs I already had on hand, I thought why not. After putting in the 65C02 things stopped because I didn't want to fight with my EPROM burner. MiniPro TL866 on the left,...

We've been using SVN for a long time for managing web sites we develop. I built a custom web front-end to SVN called SiteMgr so that all the designers and programmers have an easy way to do updates and commits, push things to the live site, and work from multiple branches. It also includes an easy way to look at old revisions of specific files by just choosing from a pulldown list. Because we develop our websites using MVC methodology, we keep the server side program separate from the...

I mentioned on twitter I was thinking about doing a Retro Computer Week where the only computer at my desk would be something old and primitive. I already have several antiques already I could use. NeXT, Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, TI-99/4A, and an HP150. I might also be able to find a dual floppy Mac SE, an Atari 800, a Sinclair T1000, and maybe even a Heathkit H8. A Commodore 64 would be neat too, but I don't have one and don't know anyone that does. The computer at my desk would be my...

I've been on a quest to get a working NES emulator on my Raspberry Pi. By working I mean that it can run full screen and has audio that works both on the analog jack and the HDMI out. I tried out a few and while some can at least display the video, none have working audio. There have been reports of people getting MAME and MESS to work on the Raspberry Pi, but in digging into it I found out that it's AdvanceMAME and AdvanceMESS, which are over seven years old. If you're much into...

I was getting ready to do an experiment with the Raspberry Pi and see if I could get it to work with a USB device. I expected that the USB device would probably want a lot of power so I dug out a powered USB 2.0 hub. As I was hooking up the USB hub I was suddenly startled to see the Pi power up! I checked to make sure I hadn't accidentally bumped my power supply and turned it on. The power supply was still off, the power was coming from the USB hub! This seemed really strange to me...