Happy Valentine's Day, Macintosh fans!

A message from your ZX Spectrum.

In Anaheim over Valentine’s Day weekend? Come by VCF SoCal at the Hotel Fera for the latest iteration of my “Mac Hacks” exhibit, and play with some very early Mac software that hasn’t seen the light of day in over 40 years. www.vcfsocal.com Here’s a little teaser:

Composition with floppies, using two different kind of fills: cross hatching and BenDay dots. CMYK on 11”x15” watercolor paper using a vintage HP 7585B pen plotter generated and controlled with Python. Available in my shop: shop.paulrickards.com/floppy/ #PenPlotter #Art #ArtForSale

Just another reminder that it's a horrible idea for any retro or hobbyist project to use Discord as their sole repository for documentation, updates or troubleshooting docs. 🙃

This is how #filmstrips are saved: slowly, one frame at a time. Our scanner continues to run. We'll save as many as we can. Watch each frame come off the scanner today before they're uploaded to @archive.org. Twitch: twitch.tv/uncommonephe... YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF4L...

This is designed to tug on you heartstrings because it's about dogs but Amazon is fully admitting they have a private, nationwide security network that can look for people using AI pattern recognition and the reason they present it like this is to desensitize you to it. This is dystopian as shit.

#BlueSCSI v2026.02.08 - HUGE release * 16-bit Ultra Wide SCSI * CD audio S/PDIF/I2S * Fragmented images are fast now! * SCA drive bay * 11.5x BlueSCSI Toolbox speed boost * SCSI bus timing fixes * 520-byte sector imaging * No Arduino deps * 2287 unit test assertions & more github.com/BlueSCSI/Blu...

A short message from me about the documentary, why I want to make it, and how you can help it get made.

Since it was never blessed with the big box release - I MADE ONE! Many thanks to @leepetty.bsky.social, @timoflegend.bsky.social, and @doublefine.com for a fun and funny game and Happy 15th Birthday to "Stacking"!

I stopped by Micro Center last night for the first time since mid 2024… it’s probably a good thing there isn’t a store closer to me, because there were so many tempting things! 👀 I always enjoy wandering the isles and thinking of potential projects, etc. 💡which of course can be very dangerous. 😅

Big Cheese Key https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/big-cheese-key-0 A CDEV that pulls up a business looking screen of your design to bring up with a Hot key when your boss walks into the room and you are working on something fun instead of a spreadsheet! […] [Original post on bitbang.social]

We're live right now! #VCF #Montreal youtube.com/live/gpiIED8...

I could have given the binary of the SpectraGen to Claude, asked it to disassemble, then write scripts to interface to it. But, I chose to learn. I asked people for help, dug in deep, & now I'm someone who understands this thing & has documented what it can do.

Finally, aluminum electrolytic capacitors for women.

Using AI as a substitute for searching and absorbing information yourself is like asking your Mum to tell you the plot of that movie you wanted to watch.

I just uploaded 4 different sets of QuicKeys software to the Macintosh Garden. This software lets you automate tasks via keyboard shortcuts and macros, neat! 💾 macintoshgarden.org/apps/quickey...

Did you attend Vintage Computer Festival Montréal? Non? Let's chat with Nicolas Maillouski and friends about this new VCF event in Canada! www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpiI...

LIVE NOW: Looking for endangered and #lostmedia on #VHS tapes we can upload to @archive.org! twitch.tv/uncommonephe...

Have a listen of it here! 👇 youtu.be/gcDJKhOjFC4

I got up at 5 AM to record with the TWiR crew… totally worth it! It was really fun getting to chat retro with them. What a great bunch!

Less than 24 hours after launching on Crowd Supply, PicoIDE has doubled its goal. I’m overwhelmed (in a good way) by the response! Thank you so much to everyone that has backed the project so far. www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...

“.. Macintosh’s with extremely cursed IDE” hahaa you don’t say? 😁 #PicoIDE

Let's do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9...

I guess I should stop doomscrolling, the cookie demands it! 🥠

The PicoIDE Crowd Supply campaign is now live! Back the project to be among the first to get yours! PicoIDE is an open IDE/ATAPI drive emulator for retro systems. www.crowdsupply.com/polpotronics...

@polpo.org joins us this week to talk optical media fragility, "cursed IDE controllers," & more, as ATAPI CD-ROM / IDE fixed hard drive replacement PicoIDE is ready for production. The campaign launches today, see picoide.com for details, and watch this Saturday on This Week in Retro episode 253!

Men in tech treating women in tech like idiots, property, out of place or anything other than an equal or superior: take heed. You need to "fix your hearts, or die" as stated by David Lynch. If I see you in person being condescending, I'm going to call you out on it.

🤣

Pay attention to this. Do not let up on the pressure, demand accountability and change until the root cause has been resolved. Anything short of that means failure.

✊🏼

🎶 do you want to build a Mac Man 🎵 www.youtube.com/live/hUyRYm4...

We had fun over at Ron’s. You’re invited. Bring your favorite pizza, soda pop and adventure game.

Did you know I was featured in @archive.org's Vanishing Culture Report? 1,300 filmstrips preserved. 3,000 more waiting. Hitting our GoFundMe goal for 2026 would buy 12 months of full-time work on this. We're currently only at $254. uncommonephemera.org/donate

FYI, I'm doing a supporter exclusive live stream in ~10 min. If you're a Patron or a YT member check your appropriate feeds to watch! 📺 If you aren't a member you can join for as little as $1 a month via Patreon or YouTube to help keep my tinkering antics going! 💾 www.patreon.com/posts/suppor...

It’s too cold out today, so stay inside and warm up with @gutbomb.net ‘s latest hot video featuring my SGI Indigo 2! youtu.be/BzAGCK_Thnw?...

1,300 filmstrips preserved and on @archive.org. 3,000 to go. Our 2026 GoFundMe is only at $254 of $30K. Hitting our goal means saving them full-time instead of doing DoorDash, and prevent thousands of films from becoming #lostmedia. uncommonephemera.org/donate

Attention everyone in the North East! Did you know a Vintage Computer Festival is happening this coming weekend outside of Montreal? Go experience some vintage tech love at one of these events. It's a real blast! vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/

I found a Bose Wave radio heading out for recycling a while back. Let’s crack it open, see how it works, and discover why it was disposed of to begin with! youtu.be/cE-Ic-q5cpo

Anyone wanna try cracking a password protected .sit archive? 👀 This came from a "Apple Software Updates" folder inside a "Special" folder from a 1994 education CD Apple made. "Capone" was the code name for System 7.5, although it's possible this file is unrelated? drive.google.com/drive/folder...

My happy place… ☺️

Thank you to everyone that re-watched last weekend’s stream! It was probably the best performing video on my channel. If anyone can find evidence of this machine being used in the wild, I’d love to see it. It would have been at a trade show likely late 1992-mid 1993.

It's freezing cold out... So let's drive 4+ hours away to geek out with retro computers! ☃️ youtu.be/ORbsZHp8X6U

Flux and Solder Paster Dispenser Looks Good While Doing It

Woo-hoo, the channel has reached 25,000 YouTube subscribers! 🥳 Huge thanks to YOU! ...to all my subscribers, friends, and any of you kind folks who've shared my links and stories over the years. Here's to 25k more! 🎉 📺 www.youtube.com/Mac84 ...not subscribed yet? ☝️😅

Another Maxell Massacre. A good reminder of why we GET THE BATTERIES OUT. #retrocomputing

Happy 40th birthday to the Macintosh Plus! 🥳 Here’s a video I made a while back of me unboxing a Mac Plus I picked up, which was in excellent condition! youtu.be/RqGyCjMdYk8?...

My game "Heartreasure" was sold on Steam without permission as “Heart Finder.” I released the official version last December, but it’s not well known outside Japan yet. Please help spread the word about the official Heartreasure! store.steampowered.com/app/3530160 #Indiegame #indiedev

Will this push me over the edge to 25k YouTube subscribers? 😅 lol