Recent content by TH2002

$220? For somewhere in the $50-$75 range a system like this might be a fun oddity, but at their current price point? Not a chance. Sadly, you know people are gonna buy these because they're targeting the same eBay customer base that will happily pay $500 for anything a seller slaps the word...

Are you referring to the Z100USB as the one that doesn't work with Windows 10? As much as I'd love to just use Windows XP or 7 as my day-to-day OS, such becomes more impractical with each passing day and even W10 will be out of support by the end of next year - I'll probably hold on to it for a...

(Apologies if someone has asked this before, I looked and could not find a thread in this vein) In another trip to the thrift store this past Saturday I picked up a couple Zip 100 drives, figuring they would be a great way to transfer data between my vintage and modern computers. One of the...

** That's exactly why I seeked out a 1311, I was previously using an awful CX-40 ripoff controller that I swear takes 47 million tons of force on the stick to register inputs. To be honest, I like the 1311. I do find it to be comfortable to use and it's very responsive. You'll likely have to...

It'll be all over when the IRS and other federal agencies start replacing their phone agents with AI. Dealing with them is a headache enough NOW, but imagine having to be on the phone with the IRS for 2 hours because someone used your SSN to file a 2032 tax return, and the only responses you can...

One thing I notice about ChatGPT is it takes the dates and locations of historical events, throws them into a blender and presents them as fact. Or mixing up locations that happen to have the same or similar names. Here's my best impression: On November 15, 1989, US President George H.W. Bush...

Another update... So, working on the aforementioned Gemstik was equally baffling as it was incredibly frustrating. The contacts would cut in and out seemingly at random - sometimes all four directions would work, sometimes only up and right, sometimes only down, so on so forth... its behavior...

So... the Gemstiks I bought started to have issues after a day or so of using them. The contact system is virtually identical to the 1311 I repaired, so here's how I fixed both of them: [DISCLAIMER that you don't have to follow this word for word, I'm just telling you what worked for me...

FWIW, I pulled the RAM out and tested it in a PC with Memtest86. No errors. But I'll report back what the Apple diagnostics say.

Decided to ignore my own advice and NOT take a few day break from this. Anyhow, no issues with the RAM. Burned another copy of the OS X 10.3 Install Disk 1 using an identical noname CD-R as the kernel panic one, and, what do you know? Kernel panic! Tried again with a Memorex CD-RW I had lying...

Hey, the Commodore Clan are the real losers here. Do remember that the C64 eats up half of its memory just by being turned on ;) On a serious note, I do think the Mini Gemstiks are likely broken. They seem fragile based how cheap they feel, so no surprise there. Maybe I'll get around to taking...

I'm pretty convinced the HDD isn't the issue since all is well according to Disk Utility. How do I go about testing the RAM on these older Macs?

So... I ended up buying a lot of five joysticks on eBay that included two "Gemstik" controllers, two "Gemstik Mini" controllers and the dreaded Commodore 1311. The Gemstik is probably my favorite controller of the lot. Feels a bit cheap and plasticy, but is perfectly responsive, comfortable to...

Yeah, the copy of OS X 10.2 that successfully installed was burned with ImgBurn. Currently at 10.2.8, because trying to boot a 10.3 retail install CD (a new copy that burned without any error messages in ImgBurn!) gave me another kernel panic. So, I guess I'll make do with 10.2.8 for now...

I'm starting to think my problem this entire time has been a bunch of faulty install disks. All this time I've been using CDBurnerXP to burn the ISO's, but since I downloaded one from the Internet Archive that was in BIN-CUE format, I had to use ImgBurn. Aaaand what do you know, I get a...