Jonathan Pallant
@thejpster.org.uk
Rust Trainer and Developer, retrocomputing enthusiast
Was PowerPC ultimately a failure?
Asianometry makes a compelling argument for Yes.
youtu.be/Tld91M_bcEI
Asianometry makes a compelling argument for Yes.
youtu.be/Tld91M_bcEI
Why the Original Apple Silicon Failed
YouTube video by Asianometry
youtu.be
November 11, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Was PowerPC ultimately a failure?
Asianometry makes a compelling argument for Yes.
youtu.be/Tld91M_bcEI
Asianometry makes a compelling argument for Yes.
youtu.be/Tld91M_bcEI
Did you know that before Sega bought the rights, Columns was a demo bundled with HP's UNIX?
I have it running on a 68030 based HP 9000. But it's doing it by booting over the network from a PA-RISC machine, and they share the same root filesystem. How?! Well.
thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-20...
I have it running on a 68030 based HP 9000. But it's doing it by booting over the network from a PA-RISC machine, and they share the same root filesystem. How?! Well.
thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-20...
JP's Website
thejpster.org.uk
November 9, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Did you know that before Sega bought the rights, Columns was a demo bundled with HP's UNIX?
I have it running on a 68030 based HP 9000. But it's doing it by booting over the network from a PA-RISC machine, and they share the same root filesystem. How?! Well.
thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-20...
I have it running on a 68030 based HP 9000. But it's doing it by booting over the network from a PA-RISC machine, and they share the same root filesystem. How?! Well.
thejpster.org.uk/blog/blog-20...
I will be there, with a collection of incredibly expensive 90's UNIX workstations that you were absolutely not supposed to be gaming on ... but we're going to anyway.
Oh wow, this time next we'll be in full swing! Tickets for the Saturday are close to selling out - www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/74558/Re... - alternatively, Sunday will be quieter, but still the same wonderful exhibitors - www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/74909/re... - see you all next weekend!
November 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I will be there, with a collection of incredibly expensive 90's UNIX workstations that you were absolutely not supposed to be gaming on ... but we're going to anyway.
Reposted by Jonathan Pallant
Next week many of us will all be at CFCH in Cambridge, looking forwards to seeing lots of you there. Apparently however they are almost out of tickets, so if you don't have one yet and you fancy going it might be a good to buy one.
Oh wow, this time next we'll be in full swing! Tickets for the Saturday are close to selling out - www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/74558/Re... - alternatively, Sunday will be quieter, but still the same wonderful exhibitors - www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/74909/re... - see you all next weekend!
November 9, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Next week many of us will all be at CFCH in Cambridge, looking forwards to seeing lots of you there. Apparently however they are almost out of tickets, so if you don't have one yet and you fancy going it might be a good to buy one.
November 8, 2025 at 3:42 PM
eBay isn't always bad. I won a 24-port 10baseT hub (with BNC and AUI ports!!) from user dominio11 and for £6 in shipping costs I got the hub's original box, wrapped in many square metres of bubble wrap, wrapped in a tough outer corrugated cardboard box, and then an awful lot of parcel tape.
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
eBay isn't always bad. I won a 24-port 10baseT hub (with BNC and AUI ports!!) from user dominio11 and for £6 in shipping costs I got the hub's original box, wrapped in many square metres of bubble wrap, wrapped in a tough outer corrugated cardboard box, and then an awful lot of parcel tape.
Watched Fantastic 4: First Steps yesterday. I did not like it.
November 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Watched Fantastic 4: First Steps yesterday. I did not like it.
I inserted Disk 3 of 3 but I did not press Enter because I was not ready to continue.
November 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I inserted Disk 3 of 3 but I did not press Enter because I was not ready to continue.
I see the Debian mailing list hasn’t progressed beyond: taking past each other, taking issue with things they imagined the other person has said, and generally being terrified that Rust signals the end of days.
November 4, 2025 at 8:59 AM
I see the Debian mailing list hasn’t progressed beyond: taking past each other, taking issue with things they imagined the other person has said, and generally being terrified that Rust signals the end of days.
The Raspberry Pi 500+ has a network-enabled OS flashing tool built into ROM (or at least the ROM can get on the network, download it and then boot it). This is very useful and all computers should have it. It even flashes as it downloads, to save time.
November 1, 2025 at 11:17 AM
The Raspberry Pi 500+ has a network-enabled OS flashing tool built into ROM (or at least the ROM can get on the network, download it and then boot it). This is very useful and all computers should have it. It even flashes as it downloads, to save time.
Fascinating to hear the early history of the Acorn RISC Machine from the key players (but note, not “the” designer - Sophie insists the instruction set was co-designed by her and Steve Furber together)
youtu.be/t8MWXdEbDeI
youtu.be/t8MWXdEbDeI
"There were no assemblers..." - Sophie Wilson and Robert Catherall - ARM at 40 anniversary, Talk 3
YouTube video by The Centre for Computing History
youtu.be
November 1, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Fascinating to hear the early history of the Acorn RISC Machine from the key players (but note, not “the” designer - Sophie insists the instruction set was co-designed by her and Steve Furber together)
youtu.be/t8MWXdEbDeI
youtu.be/t8MWXdEbDeI
Bought a new (old) hard disk off eBay. A proper spinning platters IDE drive.
It was shipped wrapped in a plastic bag. That’s it. No ESD bag. No padding of any kind. Just in a plastic bag, with an address label.
What is wrong with people?
It was shipped wrapped in a plastic bag. That’s it. No ESD bag. No padding of any kind. Just in a plastic bag, with an address label.
What is wrong with people?
October 31, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Bought a new (old) hard disk off eBay. A proper spinning platters IDE drive.
It was shipped wrapped in a plastic bag. That’s it. No ESD bag. No padding of any kind. Just in a plastic bag, with an address label.
What is wrong with people?
It was shipped wrapped in a plastic bag. That’s it. No ESD bag. No padding of any kind. Just in a plastic bag, with an address label.
What is wrong with people?
www.instagram.com/richardbrans...
I’ve taken Eurostar to Paris, Brussels and Rotterdam - many times. The whole process is miserable and I’m really hoping Virgin can make it better.
I’ve taken Eurostar to Paris, Brussels and Rotterdam - many times. The whole process is miserable and I’m really hoping Virgin can make it better.
Richard Branson on Instagram: "@Virgin is bringing the magic to St Pancras today! Today, Virgin got the green light to launch a new train service through the Channel Tunnel, and break up a 30-year mon...
1,356 likes, 66 comments - richardbranson on October 30, 2025: "@Virgin is bringing the magic to St Pancras today! Today, Virgin got the green light to launch a new train service through the Channel T...
www.instagram.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
www.instagram.com/richardbrans...
I’ve taken Eurostar to Paris, Brussels and Rotterdam - many times. The whole process is miserable and I’m really hoping Virgin can make it better.
I’ve taken Eurostar to Paris, Brussels and Rotterdam - many times. The whole process is miserable and I’m really hoping Virgin can make it better.
Espressif hired a bunch of Rust devs years ago and they have been quietly doing great work supporting Rust on their chips ever since. Still haven’t seen any other chip companies get close.
developer.espressif.com/blog/2025/10...
developer.espressif.com/blog/2025/10...
esp-hal 1.0.0 release announcement
Announcing esp-hal 1.0, the first Rust SDK for embedded devices.
developer.espressif.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Espressif hired a bunch of Rust devs years ago and they have been quietly doing great work supporting Rust on their chips ever since. Still haven’t seen any other chip companies get close.
developer.espressif.com/blog/2025/10...
developer.espressif.com/blog/2025/10...
It has been zero days since I compiled LLVM from source.
October 26, 2025 at 6:48 PM
It has been zero days since I compiled LLVM from source.
EJAE - In Another World (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by EJAE
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Jonathan Pallant
people when it comes to Rust: "I won't use it because there's not multiple implementations"
people when it comes to coreutils in Rust: "How dare someone write a second implementation"
people when it comes to coreutils in Rust: "How dare someone write a second implementation"
October 24, 2025 at 1:14 PM
people when it comes to Rust: "I won't use it because there's not multiple implementations"
people when it comes to coreutils in Rust: "How dare someone write a second implementation"
people when it comes to coreutils in Rust: "How dare someone write a second implementation"
Reposted by Jonathan Pallant
Windows 7 (2009) is now as old as Windows NT (1993) was when Windows 7 was released.
October 22, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Windows 7 (2009) is now as old as Windows NT (1993) was when Windows 7 was released.
Next time AWS senses sneezes and you can’t get any work done, you could just read my blog to kill time. It lives on a user account on a server at @beasts@social.mythic-beasts.com and it’s survived the front page on HN multiple times.
You don’t have to over-complicate things.
You don’t have to over-complicate things.
October 22, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Next time AWS senses sneezes and you can’t get any work done, you could just read my blog to kill time. It lives on a user account on a server at @beasts@social.mythic-beasts.com and it’s survived the front page on HN multiple times.
You don’t have to over-complicate things.
You don’t have to over-complicate things.
Wanted: Something like an RC2014, but the CPU is RISC-V and there's a 32-bit address bus and a 16-bit data bus, and the bus runs at 3.3V.
I'd use an ICE40HX for the CPU card (£6), and a few IS66WVE PSRAMs for the RAM card, plus an EEPROM, a Clock/Reset and an RP2350 as a universal I/O device.
I'd use an ICE40HX for the CPU card (£6), and a few IS66WVE PSRAMs for the RAM card, plus an EEPROM, a Clock/Reset and an RP2350 as a universal I/O device.
October 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Wanted: Something like an RC2014, but the CPU is RISC-V and there's a 32-bit address bus and a 16-bit data bus, and the bus runs at 3.3V.
I'd use an ICE40HX for the CPU card (£6), and a few IS66WVE PSRAMs for the RAM card, plus an EEPROM, a Clock/Reset and an RP2350 as a universal I/O device.
I'd use an ICE40HX for the CPU card (£6), and a few IS66WVE PSRAMs for the RAM card, plus an EEPROM, a Clock/Reset and an RP2350 as a universal I/O device.
Doing a restore of IRIX 6.2, from a backup I made, onto a new hard disk I've just formatted.
Will it work?
Will it work?
October 19, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Doing a restore of IRIX 6.2, from a backup I made, onto a new hard disk I've just formatted.
Will it work?
Will it work?
If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, don’t buy Club - because it’s now a chocolate flavour palm oil mix.
October 18, 2025 at 9:05 AM
If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, don’t buy Club - because it’s now a chocolate flavour palm oil mix.
Currently installing HP-UX 8 (1991) onto an HP 9000 / Apollo Model 705 PA-RISC Workstation (1992) so it can be a remote boot server for an HP 9000 Model 340 (1989) 68020 Workstation. This was only possible because I found a compatible hard disk in a random SPARCstation 2 I had.
October 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Currently installing HP-UX 8 (1991) onto an HP 9000 / Apollo Model 705 PA-RISC Workstation (1992) so it can be a remote boot server for an HP 9000 Model 340 (1989) 68020 Workstation. This was only possible because I found a compatible hard disk in a random SPARCstation 2 I had.