Ariel Millennium Thornton @arielmt@computerfairi.es

They're out of fresh strawberries. Guess I'll have to get the recycled strawberries instead.

box(){ t="$1xxxx";l="";c=${2:-=};i=${#t};until [ $i = 0 ]; do l="$l$c";i=$((i-1));done;printf "$l\n$c $1 $c\n$l\n"; }

# A slightly longer but more portable (& BSD-friendly) version of the bash box function in https://mastodon.social/@climagic/100792670341617316

For children who aren't ready to read "To Serve Man" yet:

Another game I've been wanting to play since the '90s is a Game Boy game called "Catrap," a puzzle platformer. It was released in Japan as "Pitman," but c'mon, "Catrap" is a cooler name.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/catrap/catrap.htm

As little-known as the game is, I'm surprised it actually has fan art: https://www.deviantart.com/horriblepencilist/art/AKA-Pitman-268812260

I'm playing it as Catgirl instead of Catboy because of course I am. :3
🐱

... Why do you go through the trouble of writing documentation fitting perfectly into the help manual system that's been around literally my whole entire life plus a few days, then just landfill it in the docs directory instead?

I took the Arcade Classics Centipede box apart enough to see what's inside it. It looks like a nintendo-on-chip board with all the interface pads directly soldered to everything else.

I couldn't lift the plastic display bracket out without risking breaking the plastic frame, & I probably broke one of the frame's plastic screw threads putting it back together.

An RPi would be a tight fit, unless it's a 0 or 0W.

Those "Arcade Classics" mini retro games (about 6" or 15cm) in the toy aisles? I should've known I wouldn't get an authentic arcade-version experience from any of them when I saw the Pac-Man one: fixed-position LED style.

I got Centipede, & all I know is it's almost but definitely *not* the arcade version. (Maybe it's the Atari 7800 version? I only had the 2600.) Yay for retro games being the in thing, but I still feel cheated.

Another review: https://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2017/08/basic-fun-for-retro-gamers-stealth.html?m=1

"Just run the power lines up from the underground junction straight up a conduit. It'll be fine."

Pictured: The last computer display on which it was appropriate to put avatars and user-interface elements in circles.

Oh, hey, the store has a better selection of new breakfasts!

New av made by a cute generator. I'm not a fan of circle avatars, so I post-edited mine. (redraft, now with 100% more picture) http://charat.me/profile/create/

Good to know I'm not imagining the unusually huge temperature swing, & maybe good to know I've got at least another 3 days of it I have to endure. I'm about halfway between those dots at the bottom that say "Datil" and "Socorro." ❄️

Attention staff:

Effective immediately, we are switching to to an Extreme Programming workflow. Please report to the new XP room to get settled in. Your workstations have already been assigned.

This #DarkPattern showed up after I emptied my shopping cart. Sneaky, Amazon...

What I'm most impressed about, positively or negatively, is that the presidential alert test actually worked even half as well as it did. Last time they tried a national test that involved actually notifying the the public, it failed miserably.

Trump's taking the blame/credit, but he did nothing.

As far as I'm concerned, "Space: 1999" jumped the shark with the very first episode of season 2. Well, YouTube suggested a season 2 episode (s2e8, specifically), this image was the thumbnail, & my first thought was "evil Burger King on the Moon."

The AC in my server room seems to be working pretty well.

It's hard to tell from the label. The icky label is the Startup (boot) disk, & the good label is the Operating disk. The mylar of the Operating disk is just as damaged. It does explain why it wouldn't boot in my XT.

You'd think that a boxed set of disks still in shrinkwrap would be best protected from damage. Nope. this is the underside of a DOS 3.3 boot disk that sat unused & protected in a tyvek sleeve, in a special pocket, in a 3-ring binder, in a box, under shrinkwrap for 31 years. Look at the mylar disc visible through the oval access hole.