# New year, apathy, retro computing
2022-03-03
Happy new year, a tad bit too late. I've been pretty busy, even though I
have been very bad at updating both this log and my photo projects at
158.nu. Let's do an update.
I've been busy with some maintenance and categorization tasks relating
to personal photo-projects. I tend to buffer exposed color negatives, so
that I can get the most out of a C-41-kit from Tetenal. I wait until I
have like 10+ rolls exposed, buy the kit and run them through it. This
is because the working solution that you mix from the kit has a pretty
short shelf-life, and also limited number of films that can run through
it before it is exhausted. An old friend of mine gave me all of his
rolls of unexposed color film. He does not do film photography anymore,
and he figured I could get better use of the film than he. In exchange,
I agreed to develop and scan his old exposed rolls that he has been
keeping for several years. I also had some exposed rolls of my own that
dates back to my latest trip to Japan in 2019. It has taken some time,
and occupied almost all my time in the darkroom, but soon it will be
done. Sadly, none of this work will go up for show on my project site
158.nu, because it is more personal pictures and does not fit into the
kind of photo project that I want to share there. I do share some on
(federated) social media though. Check our
[email protected] if you
are interested.
Work has been busy as usual. We are having some major re-organizations
internally, and it has been a strain on me and my colleagues. There is
always so much to do, and too few people to do it. It's a constant
source of frustration that we never seem to be able to recruit new
people. Hopefully we will come out on top this time as well though. I
really like the actual work, but workplace politics and organizational
bullshit is never fun.
I've also been spending some more time using old computers. Mainly my
old Atari STe and my C64c. I have my Atari set up in the small office I
rent to use as a darkroom and where I do film-scans and prints. The
scanning takes some time usually, and that time I have spent playing
some games on the Atari. Crystal Castles is a pretty fun one. Pinball
Obsession is also great, and as much as I hate the music, I have to
admin that I kinda like Bomb Jack's gameplay. Rick Dangerous and Rodland
are also regularly running. Sometimes I also play a game of Joust. The
Atari I'm using is hooked up to a Ultrastan which is a
harddrive-emulator using SD-cards as storage medium. Given the Atari
uses a FAT-based filesystem, you can easily mount it and move files to
and from it with any semi-modern computer which is convenient. I also
have a Gotek-device that emulates a floppy-drive, which is also very
nice to use. Recently I also completed the setup with a null-modem cable
that I've hooked up to the computer where I do my scan-work from. This
both makes it possible to use the Atari as a serial terminal to that
computer, but also to transfer files using Z-modem between the two
computers (even if it is painfully slow). The C64c is located in my
apartment beside my regular computer, and I use a 1541 Ultimate
II-device to load games from a USB-device. It really makes it a breeze
to fill a USB-stick with disk-images and run through them. I really
enjoy some new homebrew games, and I have even bought some that I
thought were interesting. Sams Journey is a cool platformer that I play
a lot. I also play Fix It Felix Jr. It's exciting that these old
machines are still so entertaining.
I recently discovered the Lagrange gemini-client. It's pretty good, I
have to say. I was reluctant to try a GUI-client, but it actually works
well, has some nice text-rendering, in-line image and media
rendering/playback and nice handling of tabs and bookmarks. It also
works on the platforms I use; OpenBSD and Linux.
I think that will be it for this time. Hopefully it won't take four
months for me to update again.
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