BedroomLAN

Well, Hello There

This site has existed continuously since 1994 and has gone through more redesigns and reincarnations than something that's undergone slightly fewer redesigns and reincarnations. All code is vehemently unsupported, all information chronically obsolete, all opinions doggedly idiotic and all artistic merit highly dubious. Stick around, we have more adverbs and we're not afraid to use them.

The CFT Project

The CFT is my home-designed, home-built mini-computer made from scratch. I've designed and built the instruction set, data path, processor, computer, software stack, cross-assembler, emulator, software toolchain and even some of the tools needed to do this. You can call this a ‘fantasy mini’. I'm in the process of testing the processor and building peripherals and the ROM, while trying to document the whole thing.

2013

Ελληνική Πληκτρολόγηση

Πού θα βρείτε στο πληκτρολόγιό σας το ελληνικό ερωτηματικό, διπλή τελεία, άνω τελεία, ελληνικά εισαγωγικά, τόνους με διαλυτικά και άλλους δύστροπους χαρακτήρες, με οδηγίες πληκτρολόγησης για χρήστες Linux, Mac και Windows.

2011

Greek

greek

Vincula's Guide to Greek Sexuality

Id est, a Sarcastic Bastard's Dictionary of Esoteric Sexual Practices, Paraphernalia & Diverse Arcana.

Also Known As, It's not Confusing—You're Just Stupid. Or Gay. Or Both. Probably Both.

2005

humour

Park of Souls

June

I've known about the Raspberry Pi since it first came out, but I'm now the slightly underwhelmed owner of my first, very own Pi. To be fair, though, I bought it to drive my brand new PiDP-11.

May

retrocomputing

Discs

May

graphics

New Backplane Render

May

The Easter Notes

Using KiCad, sweeping and much needed changes to the CFT are finally possible. These notes discuss most of them.

April

A Safer Power Supply for Old Computers

Preliminary design document for a modular power supply meant for old computers and capable of powering up as much of my collection (and accessories) as possible.

April

hardware

Dæmons Behaving Badly

Sometimes you encounter weird problems, and drilling down reveals something weird and interesting which of course makes sense in retrospect. This is an account of one of them. It's a simple problem with an easy diagnosis and an easier fix, but all three demonstrate how important it can be to understand at least the basics of Unix, not just stringing commands together until something works.

March

Linux

Rock Pool

March

BASIC Graphics

February

retrocomputing

Apricot PC

Altairduino

February

retrocomputing

I'm toying with the idea of making The Machine Room available again, as an essentially static site. First step: getting a Python parser and renderer for the XML format used for the entries.

January

retrocomputing

First Record this Century

January

Started trying to migrate my electronics workflows from Eagle (the subscription model isn't for me) to Kicad. I didn't like previous versions of Kicad, but I'm an instant convert now! All those features and unlimited board area to play with? Count me in! Now to get my own libraries somehow converted.

January

hardware

Apples

Last December

Pelion Ⅲ

Last December

Pelion Ⅱ

Last December

Pelion Ⅰ

Last December

I'm trying to reorganise the CFT Project documentation into something that's less than 400 pages and more informative. My biggest hurdle so far is how to describe this project in a concise way that still makes sense, and still keep all the information!

Last November

hardware

You know you're into obsolete programming languages when even Postscript manuals come in PDF now.

Last November

Saying ‘No’ to yes

Finally, it's good to be negative. Especially when you inadvertently fire off dozens of yes processes and you're connected via SSH. A solution to the problem Nietzsche himself would have been proud of. (spoiler: no chance)

Last September

Linux