If Clive Sinclair’s genius in consumer electronics was in using ingenious hacks to make cheaper parts do greater things, then his Amstrad competitor Alan Sugar’s was in selling decade-old technology to consumers as new and exciting. His PCW series of computers are a great example, 1970s CP/M machines smartly marketed for late 1980s home offices. […]
[Georges Gagnerot] has been trying to emulate iOS and run iPhone software in a virtual environment. There were a few choices, and qemu-t8030 had a number of interesting features that you can check out in his post. The project requires a patched QEMU, and [Georges] did some basic jailbreaking techniques. The real problem, of course, […]
It’s been 30 years since Windows 95 launched. [Ms-Dos5] and [Commodore Z] are celebrating with an epic exhibit at VCF East 2025. They had no fewer than nine computers — all period-correct machines running versions of Windows 95. The pictures don’t do it justice, so if you are near Wall, NJ, on Sunday, April 5, […]
The F-number of a photographic lens is a measure of its light-gathering ability, and is expressed as its aperture diameter divided by its focal length. Lenses with low F-numbers are prized by photographers for their properties, but are usually expensive because making a good one can be something of a challenge. Nevertheless [Rulof] is giving […]
[Ben Eater]’s breadboard 6502 computer is no stranger to these parts, so it was a bit of a surprise that when [Mark] wrote in asking us if we’d covered [Ben]’s getting MS BASIC running on the breadboard, that our answer was “no”. Well, that changes today! This is a three-part video series, documenting how [Ben […]
If you think of records as platters, you are of a certain age. If you don’t remember records at all, you are even younger. But there was a time when audio records were not flat — they were drums, which was how the original Edison phonograph worked. [Our Own Devices] did a video earlier showing […]
If you’re living your life right, you probably know what as MOSFET is. But do you know the MESFET? They are like the faster, uninsulated, Schottky version of a MOSFET, and they used to rule the roost in radio-frequency (RF) silicon. But if you’re like us, and you have never heard of a MESFET, then […]
Meet the little board that could: [alcor6502]’s tiny USB relay controller, now evolved into a multifunction marvel. Originally built as a simple USB relay to probe the boundaries of JLCPCB’s production chops, it has become a compact utility belt for any hacker’s desk drawer. Not only has [alcor6502] actually built the thing, he even provided […]