My house is an exercise in patience and creativity. Replacing a '80s era light fixture in my half bath and found that it was wired by someone who laughed at code compliance and exposed the wiring. A couple of hours of work and some holes in the wall later I have working lights that pass inspection.

End of the growing season canning, pickling, and baking. Harvested the last of the tomatoes and zucchini, jarred or pickled the best of it. Turned the least tender of the zucchini into a nice sweet dessert bread and some muffins.

Finally feeling myself again. Lungs are still clearing out, but I can exercise and jog with my dog a little. Plus it was time to prep the house for winter. Put the heat on, put down rodent repellent, brought in potted plants, and harvested the last vegetables of the season.

The smoke alarms installed by the previous owners of my home are impressive, almost anything sets them off, dust, a gentle breeze, incoming rain storm, or being in a deep sleep. Most were replaced, and at 4:30am we found which one wasn’t, I’m a little tired today 😆

This chromebook’s touch pad was no longer working due to a loose ribbon cable, but thanks to a spare piece of plastic (from a gum package, no less) it’s once again functional and ready for action!!

The third evening of our drop-in repair event in partnership with the FabVille makerspace at Somerville Highschool this week has us diagnosing a Yamaha DX27 synthesizer!!

The amazing @polpo.org came across a Packard Bell Legend 610 with a nasty power supply and thought of me. I thought that was a compliment, but on second thought, I'm not so sure! In any case, let's open it up and see if we can get signs of life. Friday afternoon 2:30 EDT. youtube.com/live/yqqyvRE...

Can we get signs of life from a Packard Bell Legend 610 with a supposedly nasty power supply?

I got a message from the amazing @ianpolpo on Discord essentially s...

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The non-profit I helped start @spflddot.bsky.social really needs help. Most of us are putting in 100+ hour weeks to keep things going. Our health is suffering, but we can’t afford to stop, the work we’re doing is too important. Donate if you can, or at least please share the link.

springfield.community@spflddot.bsky.social · 3w ago

We need your help. Please donate or share and help us continue our mission of providing essential digital access to Springfield, Massachusetts residents in need www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

Last night we started Repair Week at Fabville in Boston! Here we cleaned up and repaired a MacBook Pro. There was a noise inside it, and one of the standoffs had broken off. We cleaned it with a duster, and its running without problems now! #repair #rightToRepair

This is my day job, we do good work, and I love it. Currently laying down recovering from a car accident, but needed to share this. We *can* reach so many people, and provide the means to better so many lives, and the amount needed isn't that much.

springfield.community@spflddot.bsky.social · 3w ago

We need your help. Please donate or share and help us continue our mission of providing essential digital access to Springfield, Massachusetts residents in need www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

Made a lot of progress. About 20 trace repairs and many chips resoldered/replaced. But stuck with a scream instead of a chime, slow intermittent mouse, and never get a question mark.

Mac Addict January 1997 #retrocomputing #AppleMac

Macintosh b&w art, random pick from my collection day 16

What I thought was an upper respiratory infection is a lower respiratory infection (COVID negative) that has my asthma acting up. Recovering, fever continues to drop, but slower than I was hoping for. Looking forward to feeling better and getting back to projects.

I was extremely lucky to be able to talk to Warren Robinett about helping create the edutainment market for early microcomputers. Just a brilliant mind and a deeply interesting conversation! youtu.be/oWuLlbVesxg Sure, he helped popularize easter eggs, but there's so much more to this man's story!

Let's Chat with Warren Robinett - Cofounder of The Learning Company and author of Rocky's Boots!

YouTube video by Ron's Computer Videos

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"...the occasional moaning and sighing is the worst part, but if the ominous error dialogs and expressions of terror at being shut down don't put you off, you'd do worse than this very well priced bundle. In some markets, Apple are paying customers to take Brundlemacs" - MacWorld, September 1997.

According to MIT News, Margaret Hamilton died at the age of 90. "A profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program". This famous photo 🔽 inspired the For All Mankind character Margo Madison.

bryan newbold@bnewbold.net · 2w ago

ah damn, RIP Margaret Hamilton. she took safety-critical software engineering seriously, and got people to the moon and back. news.mit.edu/2026/margare...

EAT BRAINZ

Macintosh b&w art, random pick from my collection day 05

We need your help. Please donate or share and help us continue our mission of providing essential digital access to Springfield, Massachusetts residents in need www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

Donate to Springfield.community, organized by Springfield.community

Living in the modern world requires access to technology: a computer or phone … Springfield.community needs your support for Donate to Springfield.community

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Sick again!😤 Caught another upper respiratory infection. Not quite as bad as the other illnesses I’ve had this year, not as weak, as foggy, or as feverish, but still too sick to get much done besides day job. Back to resting 😴

The brave little toaster moment: Muuuuch better 😁. I decided to fix it

Time to take a look at this poor sad Macintosh classic. Probably not repairable but, would make a good test harness for boards

#MODtober Day 4: Remember those 3 weeks when games used tracker tunes for soundtracks? "Dimension 2012" by Necros. A Fasttracker (not FT2) tune using 8 channels. Used in the 1995 game "Crusader: No Remorse" from Origin but also in Digital Psychosis musicdisk. Played in TrackMeister

Final case design for the GS-DVI just dropped, from our good friend Jason Merrill. Digital video for your Apple IIgs, coming soon. jcm-1.com/product/gs...

EGA just has something special.. you can have too many colours I guess.

Repair Cafe in full swing today. I also fixed a lamp. Very productive morning for all.

The master at work, ladies, gentlemen and other entities.

Ian Scott@polpo.org · 4w ago

"The PicoIDE will never work on the B&W G3" - Ian Scott, September 25, 2026 "The PicoIDE works fine on the B&W G3 with an OpenFirmware workaround" - Ian Scott, September 26, 2026

Our incredible Abbie Gonzalez was just awarded a brand new Hyundai Tuscon in recognition of her unwavering service of our community!! HUGE THANKS to Gary Rome Hyundai for giving her the recognition she so greatly deserves! www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tV...

Springfield nonprofit head wins 2026 Hyundai giveaway

Abbie Gonzalez, executive director of a Springfield non-profit that refurbishes computers for people in need, was awarded a new white 2026 Hyundai Tucson in West Springfield at the Big E. Stay…

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