iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 16/09/2026

Random educational content: How the BAM (Black Availability Map) encodes block allocation for each track on a Commodore floppy disk. (Some drives with larger tracks add another byte.) If you keep in mind that bits are usually numbered right to left (from the LSB to the MSB), it makes sense.

Per-track block allocation encoding as found on the BAM (Block Availability Map) of Commodore floppy disk drives.
4 bytes per track: 1st byte = count of remaining free blocks, 3 bytes as bit-vectors marking individual blocks.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 15/09/2026

Dear Apple, it has come to the point that I'm kind of annoyed by these all-American naming schemes for things that are concerning more than just the US, maybe the entire world. Maybe, you could do a reverse Trump and come up with a different naming scheme for your OS versions?

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 13/09/2026

Also YouTube: Hovering over a thumbnail, the auto-playing video revealed this great closed caption (YT auto-generated). And I was told that STT (speech-to-text) was pretty much a closed case several years ago. Behold, "Panza 3, the workhorse of the Vermach."

Screenshot (YouTube auto-generated closed caption for a video by the Bovington Tank Museum), "Panza 3, the workhorse of the Vermach."

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 13/09/2026

So some of us (me included) had to witness this incredible act of plagiarism today. Just as a reminder, here's the orginal by YouTube (screenshot as of just yet):

Once again, the YouTube website somehow losing its connection to the mothership and blaming users in order to console them over this great loss.

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 31/08/2026

BTW, I think posting AI-videos of wars is (quite literally) the killer-app of gen-AI. Those who are into the war efforts will be still satisfied, while we can skip the actual war, killing, mutilating and destruction. And we can use all the money for something useful and constructive, instead.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 30/08/2026

The D71 disk image format for the double-sided disks of the Commodore 1571 drive is weird. So weird that I had, in fact, to add a section on this to the last blog post. www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/20... (There's also now support for this in the related disk image inspector.)

(Now Go Bang!) Commodore 8-Bit 5 1/4 Inch Disk Images

Presenting a new (web) tool, also a general discussion of Commodore 5¼" disk images.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 26/08/2026

Here is something, I wanted to do myself, but on a Sharp MZ-80 (yes, there is COBOL for the MZ-80): Space Invaders in COBOL on a 3270 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvLs... (video embedding is disabled byt the owner, so follow the link)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 26/08/2026

Who would have thought so? After all these years, the SID finally does some funk-jazzy things… www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS76...

youtube.com

Bonzai - Bromance - C64 Demo - Vice3.10 + USBSID-Pico v1.5 2xSIDKick2040DAC 8580

YouTube video by ExploRer C64 [Demo-Music-Games]

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 26/08/2026

Business idea: Suppose it's 2060 and Starship finally delivers payload to orbit – and we have datacenters in space! Now launch a small EMP device into orbit (current launch cost ca. 200K) and we have a potential multi-trillion dollar market! Tag line: "cryptolockers are so 2020s, this is reach." /s

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 23/08/2026

HTML/JS I finally figured out how to have document-wide drag-and-drop for files and some local UI indicator for this. Problem: the document and window objects don't have a "dragleave" event. Moreover, any scrollbars are part of the root HTML-element, which hasn't a "dragleave" event, either.

JavaScript sample code for document-wide file drag-and-drop with some local indicator for UI effects, here set und unset by some function 'setHighlightEffect(boolean:active/inactive)' external to this code.

Mind that any dragover-handler must cancel the event in order to make this element eligible as a drop target. (Compare the function 'dragOver()', where we set the effect, calling 'stopEvent()'.)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 22/08/2026

Recently, I wrote a quite extensive blog post (masswerk.at/nowgobang/2026/commodore-disk-images) containing about all I know about Commodore disk images in a comprehensive write-up. I was kind of curious what an AI summary (here Google's AI mode) would make of this:

The actual table of contents of that page. The main part was simply ignored.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 16/08/2026

Small, but effective update: I implemented my own tooltips / data hints, which is much more responsive than the generic one built-in in the browser. (i.e. point/mouse-over and see instantly what's what.) masswerk.at/pet/disk-uti...

Commodore 8-Bit Disk Image Utilities

Disk tools for Commodore 8-bit 5¼" floppy disk images (D64, D80, D82).

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 15/08/2026

It occurred to me that we hadn't a tech-bro disruption of passenger flight, yet. Of course, this is a form of mass transport, and, of course, it needs a pod! (Now, let those sweet public funding millions flow!)

The as ground-breaking as disruptive rethinking of passenger flight by the means of pods.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 12/08/2026

New blog post: an exciting new web tool that should excite everybody who is excited by any of the classic Commodore 8-bits. (Oh, the excitement! Are you properly excited?) And a general discussion of Commodore floppy disk images and what’s on and in them. www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/20...

(Now Go Bang!) Commodore 8-Bit 5 1/4 Inch Disk Images

Presenting a new (web) tool, also a general discussion of Commodore 5¼" disk images.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 07/08/2026

Well, I promised, so here you are: Commodore 8-bit Disk Image Utilities. These tools will be part of a future relase of the PET 2001 emulator. Since these may be of broader interest, you may already play around with them in a stand-alone version. Also, no AI involved. masswerk.at/pet/disk-uti...

Commodore 8-Bit Disk Image Utilities

Disk tools for Commodore 8-bit 5¼" floppy disk images (D64, D80, D82).

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 07/08/2026

Nice system and a nice video! Finally, a video game to computer expansion that does the job. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTfS...

youtube.com

Sega forgotten computer: SEGA SK-1100

YouTube video by Olipix Retrotech

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 04/08/2026

I just discovered a curious bug in both Firefox and Webkit/Safari on MacOS (didn't check blink/Chrome): if you write (in JS) an innerHTML-string of length > 67,238, the engine throws a line break into the textContent. – ??? – 1/3

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 04/08/2026

So while playing around with my disk image inspector, I found that there's quite a number of old PET disk images (e.g., at Bo Zimmerman's site) with files starting at $400 and a trailing extra byte of $24 after the actual end of program – all the hallmarks of files written by the BASIC 1 ROM. 1/3

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 03/08/2026

Having fun with my new D64 disk image composer. (I think, I may do a "single release" on a "Commodore disk utilities" page, together with the disk image inspector [A side and B side! 😀], both currently tools inside the upcoming version of the PET 2001 emulator.)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 30/07/2026

PET 2001 emulator: some improvements on disk images (yay, a disk inspector), coming soon to the public version. Workbench video (strictly no AI involved):

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 27/07/2026

Oh my, what's gone wrong here? 😀

Screenshot of a somewhat disturbed Commodore PET.

Another screenshot, black on white background, maybe more familiar…

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 24/07/2026

Update on PET 2001 disk loading procedures and FILE NOT FOUND As we've already established, a ?FILE NOT FOND ERROR isn't a thing with the BASIC 2.0 ROM and IEEE-488 devices like disk drives. Having studied the 2.0 ROMs, the PET only checks the timeout state *after* it has written the first byte.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 24/07/2026

A Tale of "AI" Recently, I assisted my elderly father on a way to the bank. From home, we took a taxi, of course called via an AI phone system. This worked fine. When it was time to go home again, after a few more ways done, my father became tired, so, time for yet another taxi. As no taxi was 1/4

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 19/07/2026

Statement on "AI" It takes us human beings about 10 years to come up with a world model, to find out how this relates to us and to others, how language relates to this, and how our position on and in this relates to others and vice versa. 1/3

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 19/07/2026

Preliminary report on the PET 2001 + BASIC 2.0 + FDD "FILE NOT FOUND" mystery: So, the BASIC 2.0 ROM has the identical routines for fetching a byte from the IEEE bus than the BASIC 4.0 ROM, including how it sets and checks the timeout. (Fun fact, the only IEEE signal coming from the device,… 1/6

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 18/07/2026

PET 2001 disk emu regression update: This should't be possible, but I lost FILE NOT FOUND, for ROM 2.0 that is. This is ridiculous. I'm convinced, I had this working, but now I've lost it. ROM 4.0 is easy: just time out on the first data read. But ROM 2.0? It keeps asking… No EOI or similar helps.

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 16/07/2026

Idea: We're living in the true Dark Ages. With so many AI-generated fake facts out there (fantasy historical facts, entirely wrong concepts of how things are or how they have become), there will be no other option than eventually wiping any documents produced since 2024. Nothing will be left.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 16/07/2026

Fun detail of Commodore disk drives: Any block on a drive starts with a link to the next track, by track and sector in the first two bytes. If there is no next track (and this is the end of the chain), this is set to track 0 and the sector is set to the last valid byte in the block. (continues)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 15/07/2026

PET 2001 progress update: I played around with the disk image utility, so there will be things like a BAM view, and a tool to compose D64 images. Now, I've just to connect those things (e.g., come up with a disk wizard). Also, I've still to implement the command/error channel (#15) for the FDD.

Prototype of a detailed info of a loaded disk image.

Export (into a text editor) of the mapped BAM (Block Availability Map). Here a D64 image (as suitable not only for the 1450/51, but also for the more PET-typical 2031 and 4040.) This also supports various 40-track extension formats (Dolphin-DOS, SpeedDOS, even PrologicDOS 40-track, which moves some things around in the header, like disk name, disk ID and the "DOS Type Version"-ID.)

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Reposted by Norbert Landsteiner

C.W. Reeve @cwreeve.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

A woodcut showing a rain of frogs in Scandanavia. From 'Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon,' one of the first modern books about strange phenomenon, published in 1557. #WyrdWednesday

A black and white woodcut shows stylised frogs falling from the heavens.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 08/07/2026

With the power of Unicode, we can save the planet and maybe society! All, we need is an emoji with meaning "says something very intelligent and well-informed, in a beautiful and effective manner". There's probably not much what the use of "AI" can achieve in communications that this emoji doesn't.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 04/07/2026

Major achievement: I have been wrestling with implementing the IEEE-488 / GPIB protocol for the PET 2001 emulator. While the book (archive.org/details/PET_...) suggests that this is a state transition model, "CATALOG" of BASIC 4.0 is practically impossible to get working with this. But…

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 04/07/2026

So, according to the news, Washington is breaking under the heat wave of 102°F, which is 38°C. Interestingly, when Europeans were moaning under 45°C (113°F) it was only for the lack of blanket coverage by AC, as we were taught by a well-meaning US. What may now be the reason for heat being hot? 😉

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 03/07/2026

Image loading is *really* slow on Bluesky today. Is it just for me?

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 03/07/2026

I really love this: "Little Egypt" by Trici Venola, late 1980s, Color MacPaint / Studio 8. Source and related info: www.tricivenola.com/about-the-di...

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 02/07/2026

Can we vibe-NFT? Is there a multi-trillion dollar valuation IPO in this? (If you are a venture capitalist, a national welfare trusts, or a digital investment bank, contact me! 😉)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 02/07/2026

First they came for the books, then they came for the very lives…

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 02/07/2026

This, my friends, is what home computers were really for. 😀 (Oh, all those intro screens to never written programs!)

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 29/06/2026

So Net Neutrality has fallen under the onslaught of "AI". E.g., cpuworld.com blocks me because I'm supposedly in a data center range, while I'm connected via Vienna's prevalent cable provider. (They are blocking an entire capital city because of some actor.) Something has do be done about this.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 28/06/2026

There's an interesting aspect to the directory entries as composed by the Commodore disk drives: There's a variable indentation to the 7th print position. It must be variable, because block-sizes come at varying character lengths.

(Partial) screenshot of a directory listing on a Commodore PET.
Below, a structured disassembly of the byte stream as sent by the DOS on the drive for the first file entry.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 26/06/2026

Meanwhile, I'm trying to make my way through the IEEE-488 / GBIP protocol, esp. the sequence for OPEN with regard to Commodore BASIC, for the umpteen time. I've read this a few times and every time I'm ready to implement it, I already forgot some details… archive.org/details/PET_...

archive.org

PET and the IEEE 488 Bus (GPIB) : Fisher, E. R. (Eugene Ralph), 1940- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

PET and the IEEE488 Bus

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 25/06/2026

So, YouTube defaults to a lot of settings, you don't want, like Stable Volume for sound distortion, Ambient Mode for eating into your battery life, Closed Captions to mess with the image, auto-play for the annoying next suggestion, etc.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 24/06/2026

To be very clear about this: I don't want any lightsabers™ in my UI. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 23/06/2026

There may be temptation to block A.I. related scrapers via IP addresses. (They are really a mess and produce lots of traffic, consuming available bandwidth to the detriment of the scraped sites.) AKA, "deny [IP-address]" in the host configuration. Please, don't do this, it doesn't work that way!

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 22/06/2026

That's kind of funny: Louis Rossmann reacts to a Swiss Newspaper (Watson) reacting to him reacting to a blue-screening SSB display. And it gets a bit nasty regarding "technical ignorance", and how an exe may blue-screen on Windows over a memory leak, particularly applications in kiosk mode.

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Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 21/06/2026

Ok, I've done something terrible, UI-wise: the keyboard remapping dialog of the PET emulator now beeps at you, as it rejects an attempt to add a faulty or empty key definition. ( Compare: masswerk.at/pet )

Norbert Landsteiner @handle.invalid · 20/06/2026

New feature for the PET 2001 emulator – and a new blog post: user-definable keyboard (re)mapping! www.masswerk.at/nowgobang/20...