iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Grrr apparently I can't upload videos because I won't confirm my email address:

Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

But who remembers the Pogo? British smartphone launched in 2001. Pretty much an iPhone - five years before the iPhone! Mine:

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sadly predictable stickers here. Jealous you have a Tadpole to sticker! 😆

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Where did we go wrong, as a species?

Screenshot of a Bluesky post showing a user has been logged-out of their toothbrush.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

No human in Google actually made this decision though. Automated. In the USA, they get feature names direct from the ?USGS? index. If that changes, the name changes, for the USA. Rest of the world, accords with local databases same way. Still Ontario here in Aotearoa New Zealand, so Google here:

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I appear to be on the right road!

New Zealand road sign with a large exclamation mark, and the text "Volcanic hazard ahead"

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Oh they were quite nice - I had one for a good time as the host for my Microchannel P/390 system. Desk also gives scale!

IBM Server 320 under a desk. Machine contains a Microchannel P/390 board running VM/ESA & OS/390

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Obligatory geohazard analyst in front of geohazard (Sakurajima) selfie. Hot as balls it is too!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Been rampaging 'Hard Off' stores in Japan - saw this and for some reason thought of you @starkitty.gay

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Kilauea going a bit bonkers ATT: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKu...

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

What's Sakurajima up to? Its normal style is vertical eruptions, but right now it seems to be pumping stuff out sideways, right at Kagoshima...

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Useful trick: when I'm doing satellite observations on our submarine volcanoes (Monowai here) I always try the chlorophyll L2 filter. It makes suspended eruptive products, barely visible to the naked eye, really pop!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Oh I have one of those... unfortunately it also has a problem that needs fixing...

IBM POWERstation 320 - first generation RS/6000

Chip with damaged legs inside the POWERstation 320

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Been checking out the Bismarck Sea eruption during night shift. Some lovely imagery from the 12th/13th - cloud interfering on more recent images. With and without use of chlorophyll L2 filter:

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Might be an idea to try the L2 chlorophyl filter on images from around that time - from my own observations I find that very helpful in making faint underwater 'plumes' of eruptive products much more visible. Here's a Monowai eruption with and without the filter:

Satellite images of a submarine eruption. Without the L2 filter, eruption is just visible as a faint ambiguous smudge; with the filter, it glows bright green.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

post your coolest computer :3 [Game over]

Two of my CM-2 supercomputers; black cubes of cubes on shipping pallets.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Getting there! What I was thinking of was a photo of the actual set - might even have been a frame from a movie - with this graphic next to the actual switch...

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

JFC. Did *no-one* commenting here actually read the title of the graph?! They did NOT predict where we would be now; they forecast was likely to happen *IF certain conditions, which they clearly state, came to pass*. It's a perfectly good *conditional* forecast, as it stands.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Well it got as letting me select the disks for initialising and formatting at the start of the LIC install... after 30 seconds it threw an SRC... at least it's a new and interesting SRC if not that informative!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Just a glorious early autumn Sunday afternoon in Aotearoa New Zealand - on the balcony outside the Corestore hacking den:

View over an expansive harbour, the sun getting a bit low in the sky. Foreground partially blocked by trees and tree ferns.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Eh use the right hardware and you could spend five weeks figuring out how to configure the RAIDs (and I did)

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Oh I have one of those! It works too! If Bang & Olufsen had ever got into the computer business, this is what it would have looked like.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Canada got that long ago; when I was in Canada last year, the attitude towards their southern neighbours was unmistakable in the liquor stores:

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Here you go - a couple of System/3s!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

@bluescsi.com AS/400 business is in hand... also have met @yyzkevin.com on Discord

A BlueSCSI Ultra Wide SCSI disk emulator being shoehorned into an AS/400 drive carrier; the SCSI cable is connected, the power cable is a work in progress

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Sakurajima is busy doing Sakurajima things, right now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeEl...

Screenshot from a webcam of Sakurajima volcano. A large plume hangs over the volcano, casting visible shadows on the ground.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

The Apricot cordless mouse/trackball is a remarkable thing. Looks more like it came out of Cupertino in 2008 than Birmingham in 1984...

Apricot cordless mouse/trackball from 1984. Communicated via IR, you roll the trackball, or lean it forward and the trackball rolls on the desk like a conventional mouse.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Yep that worked. Coming from NZ, shows correct price in USD now:

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

If we're going weird keys, what do you reckon this one does?

Closeup of a keyboard with a key marked 'REPTRY'

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Well you're right! Thanks for the tip. On digging into 'more payment options' it tells me they've silently and without advertising the fact changed the pricing to NZD rather than USD! Fair enough, but make it clear it's in NZD on the front page please!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Hey @bluescsi.com what's the deal here? According to your website, Ultra Wide 68-pin is supposed to retail for $75. And that's the price on the JCM site you link. So why is your other linked reseller, totsrc.com, selling them for $133?! Are we being ripped off???

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

A post office where the service dashboard allows you track your current number of 'destroyed parcels'?! I don't know if I should be terrified, or awestruck by the honesty in marketing here! 😆

Screenshot of dashboard for the NZ Post 'YouShop' service, with the tracker for 'number of destroyed parcels' highlighted.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

First time I've seen anything priced over one million Yen at a Hard Off store!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Daddy & daughter holiday in Japan and encountering some *serious* snow!

View of train tracks in Aomori, Japan showing deep snowdrifts.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

A rare clear view of Fuji today - you can practically *feel* the geohazards!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I'll be there on Monday! Dammit they have drawers full of *valves*! And some pretty great pricing... how many original Playstations would you like?

Mamiya RB67 camera in great condition for sale in Hard Off store. 38,500 Yen / $248USD

Multiple original Playstations on sale in Hard Off store, plus a Nintendo Super Famicon

Assorted thermionic valves for sale in Hard Off store.

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

There are many great things about Japan, and you have listed a few of them - but missed the greatest: Hard Off stores. Lots of them, everywhere, with aisle after aisle after aisle of pre-loved electronics, games, musical instruments, cameras... amazing. I fill a suitcase every trip!

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Mike Ross @eruptionchaser.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

They're polite, for now. If push comes to shove, they will be the opposite of 'polite'; people have forgotten HOW Canada fights. The unofficial motto of their armed forces? "It's not illegal the first time!" This sums it up well:

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