IBM Model M

Recently I aquired two used IBM Model M keyboards. Both were dirty but looked OK otherwise. Since I got a week off, I decided to take the time to clean them up. In order to do that I needed to buy a special 5.5mm screwdriver which cost me about 8 Euro. To be honest, that's more than what I paid for both keyboards combined :)

It took me about four hours to clean the keyboards and then it was time to test them. As it turns out, I should have tested them before cleaning because on of the keyboards is only partially functional. Luckily the other one appears to be fine. I'm left with a spare parts keyboard and a bunch of keycaps which are basically useless because all three keyboards are using different font on the keycaps. Interesting but still kind of annoying.

Flea Market Finds #4

After not seeing any old computer in months at our local flea market, I finally saw one breadbin being sold two weeks ago. Having enough Commodores as it is, I didn't buy it (but somebody else did). I did however buy another IBM Model M keyboard (this one also needs thorough cleaning) with two missing keycaps. It seems that it's nearly impossible to find a Model M with all the keycaps still in place. Anyhow, last Sunday I got lucky as I stumbled upon a boxed Atari 130XE complete with boxed cassette tape drive and a joystick. As I already have one such system, I picked this one up for a friend of mine that also collects old computers.

BBC Micro seminar

As I'm writing this, a seminar titled "The BBC Micro and its Legacy" is about to begin at the Fellows Library of the Science Museum in London. I stumbled upon the news article while browsing the BBC News website this morning. I'd be happy to attend the seminar, if I knew about it earlier. Sadly, the teleporter hasn't been invented yet so I'll have to sit this one out. The BBC Micro was an excellent machine for its time and still represents an object of desire for many collectors world-wide including me.

Flea Market Finds #3

Last morning I decided to visit the local flea market. I was hoping to find more pins for my collection as well as Nintendo Game & Watch handheld consoles. In the end, I got a few interesting pins but more importantly, I found another IBM Model M keyboard! It's pig-dirty but nothing some soap and hot water couldn't fix :) It's a newer model with a non-removable cable and a PS/2 connector. For those of you unfamiliar with the Model M, they are one of the finest keyboards ever made. Not only are they a pleasure to type on but they're also virtually indestructible and weight a hefty 2 kilos! I've been using one for the past year and sometimes I miss the Windows key but I wouldn't trade it for a dozen modern Logitech keyboards!

Codename Soyuz

Back in 2006 I completed my first mini-ITX project using a Via Epia MII10000 motherboard and a HP Apollo workstation case. Now I'm warming up for another similar project which I decided to name Soyuz. It'll be a miniature PC based on a Via Epia NL10000G nano-ITX motherboard. I still don't know what I'm going to use it for when it's finished, but building it is sure going to be fun! For those of you unfamiliar with the mentioned motherboard, it measures only 12x12 cm, features a 1 GHz low-power Eden CPU, one SO-DIMM slot (up to 1GB) and a lot of other goodies. Unfortunately onboard video is still seriously underpowered. The rest should do just fine for Linux or WinXP.

Sony PlayStation Portable

This post is a few months late but I'm writing it never the less.


After lenghty consideration I bought a PSP at the end of October last year. I bought it mainly to play LocoRoco which I paid 20€ for. Anyhow, it's a fat PSP, original firmware version 2.71, TA-82 motherboard. Turns out I was lucky as you don't need much to downgrade a 2.71 even if it's an infamous TA-82. With any new PSP, your first job will be to downgrade to firmware 1.50. I downgraded mine using TIFF exploit and it took me about half an hour to do it successfully. Afterwards you have to upgrade to a more current firmware which was 3.52 M33 in my case.

Follow these steps:
1. put your PSP to USB Mode
2. run the PSP Upgrader/Downgrader in Windows
3. exit USB Mode and go to the Game - Memory Stick menu
3. run KXploit permanent patcher
4. run 3.52 M33 CREATOR
5. run 3.52 M33 UPDATE
and that's it.

Watch the whole process in this YouTube video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kBs8-fQJwtw

Link to PSP Downgrader/Upgrader:
http://community.hackingpsp.com/forums/7965/ShowPost.aspx

Firefox Scam Alert

A few days ago I got another one of those scam e-mails supposedly sent by eBay. If you're not completely brain-dead, you will notice that the links contained within the e-mail actually do not point to eBay at all. Instead, they take you to a fake website like the one in the screenshot above. If you're silly enough to follow the link and you're using the latest Firefox, it will inform you that there is something fishy about the website. Quite a useful feature, if you ask me!

Icy Box piece of doodoo!

The sleek looking Icy Box hard drive enclosure I bought in April this year is still giving me shit and I'm just about ready to toss it out the window. The bloody thing works on EVERY other computer but my home desktop and it's driving me nuts. Maybe I should just ask Dan...

Backup your data!

A couple of days ago I rediscovered the importance of making backups. What happened? Well, I lost at least 20 dive profiles because I never bothered to check how many dive profiles can my dive computer (Uwatec Aladin Prime) actually store. All this time I assumed it was 99 hours but as it turns out it's only 25! Once you reach the limit, the computer gradually overwrites old data. Basically this means only the latest 25-30 dives are being stored at one time.



Luckily I was fiddling with TravelTrakCE last year, trying to get it to work on Jornada 7xx series. Back then I succeeded in transfering 25 dive profiles to the hand-held and then forgot about it. So all was not lost as I was able to recover the logbook and import it in the new one. To tell the truth, I did download the latest dives from the Aladin in May this year. However, because of my initial assumption, I formatted the laptop drive containing the data without making a copy of the logbook first! The result is a nice gap in my logbook, dives missing between September 2006 and May 2007.

It's a good thing I keep an old-fashioned paper logbook as well!

Flea Market Finds #2

Another flea market, another find. This time it's a Commodore LC5K3 calculator. It came with an original imitation leather sleeve, instruction booklet and warranty card. The calc itself is in excellent cosmetic condition. However, I did have to fix the on/off switch, the latches on the case cover were bent and the battery contacts needed a thorough scrubbing. It now works as good as new!