Not surprised, but disappointed

FaxZero, my internet fax service, delivered 1.11 million faxes in 2025! The top elected officials reached via my free Fax Your Reps service were: Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin, and Tammy Duckworth, all Democrats. faxzero.com/fax_congress...

Here's my annual letter taking stock of the computer history archiving work I've done over the past year. Kay's 2025 Wrapped: three interviews, thousands of artifacts, and a surprising amount of computer history rescued one disk, page, and binder at a time. www.patreon.com/posts/kays-2...

I've avoided the Y2K bug 27 years in a row! Whew.

In 2016 I wrote an article for Pro(c) magazine (RIP) about the process I went through to find Randy Glover, creator of the best game for the best computer (Jumpman on the Atari 8-bit). I'm not sure they ever published it. Here is Finding Randy, online for the first time. archive.org/details/save...

Getting my recent-ish articles online, continued: my review of John Romero's DOOM Guy: Life in First Person archive.org/details/save...

Getting my recent-ish articles online, continued: my review of The Trail To Oregon by Jeff Blim, performed at Oregon's Chapel Theater in 2024. archive.org/details/save...

Continuing my effort to get my recent written work online for the first time, here's a fun piece I wrote last year: "Chasing the Dragon — In Search of the Tic Tac Dough Dragon". Featuring a popular game show, nine Apple IIs, Bob Bishop, and a scary animated dragon. archive.org/details/save...

I've been working to get some articles that I've written in the last few years online for the first time. Here's the first, which I'm proud of—an interview with Ron Jaenisch, a Universal Life minister who used an Apple II computer called "Reverend Apple" to marry people. archive.org/details/save...

Zork I, II, and III are now open source. Microsoft has released the classic Infocom text adventures under the MIT license! opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11...

Chris lent me the APX Dragon Quest disk and I was able to flux image it. Is it now preserved!

ANTIC — The Atari 8-bit podcast episode 122 is available ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episod... and also on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-L6... I talk about my latest computer history archiving efforts.

Never change, New York

There’s a retrocomputing newsletter that I want to like. On the most recent issue cover, there is an AI generated Atari computer that’s just so terrible. If you have a hobby, do the hobby. Don’t let an LLM create it for you. I’d rather see a 3 year-old’s crayon drawing over this monstrosity.

When someone is trying to hack my Facebook account I'm secretly rooting for them. Please take away the misery

This issue is notable for an Atari BASIC program, written by Tom Hudson, that displays 3D graphics. Two years later, Hudson would release Cyber Studio CAD-3D for Atari ST, and a few years after that, it was reborn as 3D Studio for DOS, and finally, the ubiquitous 3DS MAX.

New episode of ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast just dropped! Find out the latest news in the world of 8-bit Atari computers! Hear me say "dongle" in a way that makes my co-hosts uncomfortable! ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episod...

Harry Stewart (ex-Atari employee who programmed PILOT, WSFN, and other stuff) has died. His daughter sent me his Atari documents. Some of these I scanned years ago when he lent them to me. Others seem to be unpreserved.

In 1984 someone had their Atari 800 repoed 😭 (Also, what's a Vector 2600?)

Microsoft open-sources its 6502 BASIC from 1976 www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m...

ATARI in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

My automated searches for Atari 800 turn up weird things sometimes. Uploaded to @archive.org yesterday: Le Journal De Mickey - Album N°130 #1858 (2 février 1988) archive.org/details/jour... (translation in alt text)

It followed me home, mom, can I keep it? I promise to feed and play with it every day.

Anxious boy

My newspapers.com search for "Atari 800" turns up weird stuff from time to time

Look at these beautiful photos, recently digitized from slides, of the 1981 communications exhibit at the Capital Children’s Museum. (Featuring many photos of kids using Atari 8-bit computers!) archive.org/details/ccm-...

It annoys and/or amuses me every week when I get my TidBITS newsletter in email, when Google warns me to be cAreFuL with this newsletter — which has existed years longer than Google. Of the two entities, TidBITS is more trustworthy by far. @adamengst.bsky.social

ATARI in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

Atari in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

Caroline contemplates @paulrickards.bsky.social plotter art.

Another trip to the PO Box; another pile of scam invoices from Domain Networks

@scalzi.com I’m enjoying Moon! The pickiest of nits: I don’t think anyone who works at SNL would ever, ever call one of their bits a “skit”. They’re “sketches”.

Some guy is launching a new retrocomputing magazine called… COMPUTE!’s Gazette. The original magazine of that name was devoted to C64 only, but apparently this one will cover other platforms too 🤷🏻‍♀️ markets.financialcontent.com/stocks/artic...

Here's my new interview with Bill and David Lappen, founders of Buy-Phone. Launched 1982, it may be the first online yellow pages. It provided business listings, movie times, and personal ads in the Los Angeles area, for free to callers at up to 1200 bits per second. youtu.be/jUXe_HN9SYE

New interview published on ANTIC Podcast: ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interv...

I created this site years ago. Free, printable versions of the founding documents of the USA, including the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and other rights laid out by America's founders. No ads, no tracking. www.printableconstitution.com

Useful tonight for Americans (with command line skiilz): yt-dlp -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s" tiktok.com/@username #tiktok

🌐 Love HAM radio? Explore the fascinating world of amateur radio & emergency communications with this talk by Kay Savetz (K6KJN, @savetz.bsky.social), on the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications, a project of the Internet Archive. 📻 Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=egjd...

This program does not exist, and yet here we are

Mail’s here

Mail’s here

Hot off the podcast press Atari 8-bit goodness ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episod...

I've posted my annual letter summarizing my computer history work in the past year. It’s an opportunity to take stock, reflect on accomplishments, and make a plan for the new year. It's my longest-ever "Wrapped" letter, signifying a productive year! www.patreon.com/posts/kays-2...

Avoided the Y2K bug for the 26th year in a row!

My 15th and final Atari 8-bit interview for 2024 is published! Daniel Serpell is the creator of FastBasic, a modern implementation of the BASIC programming language for the Atari 8-bit computers. He released the GPL-licensed language in 2017. youtu.be/JLy4PiTMoFE

Using Applesauce to make images of Lee Pappas’ old Atari disks. How’s your Sunday going?

Christmas morning 40 years ago, I got an Apple //c

For our _next_ episode of Eaten By A Grue, @carringtonvanston.bsky.social and I will play Fish! by Magnetic Scrolls. Play along with us, if you like! msmemorial.if-legends.org/games.htm/fi...

Finally, a new episode of Eaten By A Grue is out! In which @carringtonvanston.bsky.social and I play Scott Adams' first text adventure, Adventureland. monsterfeet.com/grue/notes/56

Just put my last two Atari interviews in the can, which will be published before the end of the year. 15 interviews in 2024 goal, complete 💥