bradgrier.com

Category: Lifestyle Technology

  • TS1000 upgrade – log entry 4 — Oh the memories we’ll make with 16k!

    Part four already? Memory -- that thing where the more you've got, the better things are for your computer? Yeah, that stuff. We'll be upgrading this vintage computer using a bit more modern tech to get it up to a whopping 16K. Oh, and there's a bit of gold in this story too...

  • The Mood Mosaic

    The Mood Mosa­ic albums are a series of com­pil­a­tion albums that fea­ture a col­lec­tion of eclect­ic and diverse music from vari­ous genres and eras, often arranged around a cent­ral theme or mood. The first album in the series, titled “The Mood Mosa­ic — A Touch of Vel­vet, A Sting of Brass”, was released in 1996 […]

  • Space Debris Precautions for Launch — Considerations for a Safe Mission

    Precautions have been implemented to ensure safe space launches amidst the growing threat of space debris. These measures include advanced detection and avoidance technology, enhanced launch vehicle design, precise launch windows, orbital cleanup, and emergency protocols. By implementing these measures, we can mitigate the risks associated with the Kessler Syndrome and protect valuable assets in orbit.

  • Lastpass security breach blog post — AI summarised

    LastPass suffered a security breach, but there's been no activity since October 2022. The company has enhanced security measures, and we've got the details in this AI-summarized blog post. Find out what happened, what LastPass has done, and how you can protect yourself.

  • Don’t want to install employer’s Multi-Function Authentication app on your phone? Five reasons to support your position.

    In case you are looking for a few reasons beyond 'I just don't want to', which is fine, and a valid reason on its own. Here's more.

  • TS1000 upgrade – log entry 3 — On The Big Screen!

    If you’ve been following along, you may recollect that this journey to modernizing my vintage Timex Sinclair began when I watched this four-part video series by The Byte Attic, and decided ‘yeah, that looks like something I could do’. If you’re jumping in at this point, well, I’ve done things and have more things to do. This post will look at converting the video output of the computer from an RF signal to a more modern composite video signal with a simple hardware modification.

  • I’m don’t have the knowledge, but ChatGPT does…

    I’m work­ing on a web­site, build­ing pages that have ran­dom pull-quotes on them. And I’m mak­ing mockup / place­hold­er pages. Many mockups. This gets old pretty quickly so I’m think­ing to myself, “Self? Let’s see if we can have some fun with these quotes”. But, rather than just do a search for quotes, I thought I’d […]

  • Made a thing: Compact Benchtop Power Control Switch Box

    What do you do when your benchtop power sup­ply does­n’t have a switch to ener­gize/de-ener­gize the cir­cuit, just a mas­ter power switch? You make one: https://www.printables.com/model/387401-compact-benchtop-power-control-with-this-switch-bo

  • TS1000 upgrade – log entry 2 — More Power!

    As I'd mentioned in my previous post in this series, I've been poking around my TS1000 a bit and doing some online digging.  I found this series about refurbishing and upgrading a Sinclair ZX81. And since I wrapped up my last post testing the that unit is still alive and kicking (I think. Video is still a thing to verify with the MK One eyeballs, though it looks good in the multimeter), it's best to jump on to the next stage. Upgrading the power converter.

  • Rogue One: A Masterpiece of Star Wars Storytelling

    Star Wars is a uni­verse of myths and legends, a place where the impossible becomes pos­sible, where dreams are made real, and where her­oes rise from humble begin­nings. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story con­tin­ues this tra­di­tion, weav­ing a new tale of hope, sac­ri­fice and cour­age into the fab­ric of the Star Wars universe. The […]

  • TS1000 upgrade – log entry 1

    #retrocomputing has been taking up more of my attention recently. Specifically, I found this series about refurbishing and upgrading a Sinclair ZX81. Since the Timex Sinclair 1000 is essentially a ZX81 that jumped the pond (and doubled it’s native RAM in the process), I’ve got one. And it’s been sitting in a box for 20ish years, used heavily previous to that. Time to rectify (ha!) that situation.

  • A Virtual Parallel Printer for a Vintage Computer

    One of the neat things about using vin­tage com­put­ing equip­ment is fig­ur­ing out mod­ern ways to work with the older technology. Why virtual printing? Recently, I wanted to explore prin­ted out­put from my NEC PC-8201a. For one thing, work­ing ‘on the hard­ware’ in this case has a dis­play lim­it of eight lines of forty char­ac­ters […]