I ranted back here about how awful the 8-track cartridge was. I’m happy to report that I’ve finally found a good use for it as a mortal insult to tape as a data storage medium. I’ve always hated tape backup. My first experience with it was a Reveal brand device that piggy-backed somehow onto the […]
At least one person was interested in converting an existing SPI-based Linux framebuffer driver to stereoscopic after I posted the View-Master Video Player. Here’s a quick write-up on how it works.
I needed to take a little break from the endless tracing of point-to-point wiring and replacement of sticky lumps of toxic goo for modern capacitors, so I picked up a project I’d left half-finished and spent the whole weekend engrossed in it. This is an idea I had rattling around in my head for a […]
I’m continuing to work on repairing my antique television, which I began documenting here. There are a few good resources for television repair, such as Notes on the Troubleshooting and Repair of Television Sets. The wonderful thing about televisions is that they’re basically big oscilloscopes, so you can frequently use what’s on the screen as […]
I’ve cornered myself in my office amidst heaps of large, unfinished projects and it seems that whenever I try to get somewhere with one of them another 5 will throw themselves at me. I’ve got a broken B&W TV to fix, a monstrosity of a T6600 laptop to modernize, a few broken 8-tracks to tinker […]
I have a thing for old televisions and cabinet stereos, and by a narrow margin, old televisions are the lesser of two evils. With evil, in this case, being measured in square feet. Perhaps that’s why I have two old televisions and try to remain content with only one cabinet stereo.
Microwaves are funny things. People are terribly superstitious about them, probably because of the word “radiation” or because they act insivibly on food and people find that creepy. I have friends who won’t stand in front of a microwave while it’s running. The urban legends aren’t all false, though: at least two people have been […]
Coathangers breed in closets. In drawers, it’s chopsticks. In pockets, at least until recently, pennies. Presumably the universe avoids breaking the laws of physics through some complicated system involving lost socks. These mysteries have yet to be solved. When you deal with computers, it’s mice and wall warts. They fill boxes and desks and spill […]
Ingo (a friend) and I have been batting around ideas for Freudian crosswords. The original idea was this… …but the story of the 1996 American Presidential election crossword stuck in my mind. This led me to a second formulation of the Freudian crossword puzzle. It’s admittedly nowhere near as clever as the New York Times, […]
I have long been meaning to work on some 8-track related projects. At long last intention grew to overpower inertia and I went looking for some raw materials. I was met with some surprises. First, in the hiatus since I last went looking for old gear, many of my usual haunts have ceased to exist: […]