⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️ @falken@qoto.org

Twenty nine years ago today, Apple shipped the #MessagePad 2000, billed as “ … a mobile computer for the business professional and one of the fastest handheld Internet computers on the market.”

#AppleNewton
#RetroComptuting
#StrongARMForever

https://web.archive.org/web/20030416030729/http://www.apple.com/pr/library/1997/q2/970324.pr.rel.msgpad.html

NASA kills lunar space station to focus on ambitious Moon base
"Everyone wants to be on the surface."
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/nasa-kills-lunar-space-station-to-focus-on-ambitious-moon-base/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

in case you need a taste of how fucked the tech industry is right now, I'm being required to use AI at work. if I talk about how it fucks up or overcomplicates basic asks, it's because I "don't know how to use it" which indicates a "lack of growth mindset", and thus poor performance. I've been told this directly to my face, starting immediately.

so not only must I use Claude, I have to cover for Claude's mistakes, and then go the extra mile to pass off my own work as Claude's.

Go fish!

#maccSciBar #science #uk #Macclesfield #salmon

Kagi's LinkedIn translator is hilarious

and I was thinking about automating it so I could do another thing: make a mastodon instance that renders every post on it as pixel-accurate windows 95 dialog boxes

I've been looking for a sound for some years now, hoping the Masto-crew can help…

It's on the "Jarreau" album from 1983. The openining track "Mornin'" has this wonderful synth sound that is first heard around the 1:00 min mark, and then solos during the bridge starting at 2:40.

What is that instrument? I've always thought it's some classic analog synth preset, but now I also wonder if it could have been a Steiner EVI, that first elecronic wind instrument?

Pinging the experts I follow here, boosts might help if you gang don't know. @hilljam
@alisynthesis @inpc #synth

Discogs has a pretty extensive credits list for the album, with the usual suspects from the era…

https://www.discogs.com/master/99794-Jarreau-Jarreau

I learned that the artist behind the artwork for the game Elite was none other than Philip Castle, the designer of the posters for A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket, among others.

He passed away on February 20, 2026, at the age of 83 🙏

#PhilipCastle #Elite #RetroGaming

OK this is a stupid question, but why have Linux projects (apparently) fallen over themselves to comply with an age-recording statute in a single US state (albeit a large one), when those projects have been failing for decades to respect national and even international law regarding disability?

#accessibility #disability #linux #FreeSoftware #fascism #AgeVerification #infantilism

It's serial debugging day!

I need to get at least one of these teletypes working over RS-232 with UNIX V4 and V7 in SIMH. The SIMH docs are notoriously bad. Help would be appreciated.

#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing