Gareth Halfacree
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ghalfacree.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Gareth Halfacree
@ghalfacree.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
#Technology, #science, and #computing #journalist and #photojournalist. #Author, #Microbit & #RaspberryPi User Guides. Custom PC columnist. Bylines Hackster.io […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mastodon.social/@ghalfacree, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
My full review will be going up on #hackster later in the day, and it's a big 'un - written, because as I've said before I will always commit to the bit, on the Commodore 64 Ultimate itself, in Mini Office II. Got to admit, I haven't used that in a few years […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 15, 2025 at 9:51 AM
And... yeah, it works. The only thing that gave it even the slightest pause was the Sound Expander, and only because I had to manually disable the internal virtual "cartridge" to route the signals properly - a quick flip in the settings menu, no more than […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 15, 2025 at 9:49 AM
And when I say "hands-on," I mean putting the thing through the wringer. You want to tell me it's "99% compatible" with existing hardware? Okay, let's try it...

#technology #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #commodore #fpga
December 15, 2025 at 9:44 AM
It's a rainy Monday here in Bradford, but a happy one - despite the fact I was working all weekend.

Why? Because I was working on something fun: going hands-on with the #commodore 64 Ultimate, an FPGA-powered recreation of the world's best-selling home […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 15, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Pulling the last of the things I need from storage, including a Commodore Communications Modem. Only to discover... another Commodore Communications Modem.

I have no memory of ever getting a second.
December 11, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This was actually announced a few days back, but I've been waiting to have one in-hand: the sixth edition of my Official Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide is now out!

It's freshly expanded for the latest Trixie-based Raspberry Pi OS and for the Raspberry Pi 5 […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 10, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Digging out some Commodore stuff I haven't touched in a while, for Reasons.

There's a bee in my Simons' BASIC cartridge.
December 9, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Getting some interesting messages from Newswise this morning...
December 3, 2025 at 10:12 AM
That's okay, cat, I didn't need to breathe right now...
December 2, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Found another great use for that old original-model Microsoft Surface Pro I threw Linux on: my e-book reader doesn't do Adobe Digital Editions, but Borrowbox - the service my library uses for e-books - works perfectly in Firefox. I don't have to squint at my […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
December 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Got kicked out of the office so my eldest could co-opt the desktop to play some seizure-inducing twitch shooter thing, so I've been on the laptop for the last bit of the day - with a couple of accessories to try to make it feel a bit less cramped!
November 26, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Getting real deja-vu from the news that Valve's launching a mini-PC dubbed the Steam Machine... having done a group-test of the *original* Steam Machines for Linux User & Developer back in 2016.

(They weren't great. Hopefully the new one's better!)

#valve #steammachine #linux #gaming
November 12, 2025 at 9:11 PM
I've had a #gemini capsule - as part of my Tilde Club account - for ages now, and never did anything with it.

It will sit empty no longer! Instead, it'll serve as a home for text-only article copies - ad-free, graphics-free, HTML-free. No cookies, no […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
November 9, 2025 at 8:29 PM
It's pretty good for reading stuff from @internetarchive too - or it was, until the battery ran out...
November 9, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Found a long-forgotten Surface Pro in the corner of the office. Despite being a Microsoft in-house design, it doesn't support Windows 11(!)... so it's now running Ubuntu.

Battery life isn't fantastic after all these years, but it'll make a great reader for […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
November 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Had a trip to the local #library to renew my card, and snagged this '90s wonder from the withdrawn stock shelves for a donation.

That's going in the office, that is!
November 5, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Well, it's official: it's too hot to work.
August 15, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Hah, it does *real* ASCII art too. Neat!
August 4, 2025 at 10:39 AM
I've been using Music on Console (MOC) for years now, but have been tempted to try something else for background playback while I work: kew.

https://github.com/ravachol/kew

Advantages over MOC: neat live visualisation, ASCII-rendered cover art (or actual […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
August 4, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Now the web is full to the brim with #ai slop, I'm turning to... other, more reliable information sources.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Mind Maze awaits.

#vintagecomputing #encarta #microsoftmultimedia
June 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
What the actual...

We all know the tricks with the "serving suggestion" photos on #food packaging, right? Same ingredients, but prepared by a professional chef - and then often coated in something to make 'em shiny, cotton pad dipped in boiling water for […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
June 17, 2025 at 10:01 AM
I now have a workflow to produce PostScript or PDF presentations from Lotus Freelance Graphics 2.1 on Windows for Workgroups, for export to and use on more modern machines.

...now if I could only remember why I wanted that.

#vintagecomputing #retrocomputing
June 14, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Honestly, sometimes I marvel at the things I get paid to do...

#retrocomputing #z80 #programming
March 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
That should speed up the scanning stage (fewer rescans due to misfeeds, faster scanning) and the processing stage (no, or at least less, manual deskewing).

But what about the cutting stage? That's a very manual process right now, involving a Stanley knife […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
March 16, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Right, after the disappointment of that last scanner arriving broken (and filthy), it's time to get serious.

I've found a more reputable seller and ordered a Fujitsu Fi-7160. No flatbed, but I'll keep my current SP-1425 for that, but it's got intelligent […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
March 16, 2025 at 10:33 AM