iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Those disk sleeves always bring me back to the binders upon binders of Commodore educational disks that the dealers had and would copy for schools. Mostly PET-era BASIC with character graphics that would still run on the C-64.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

TBF, when you are "number 1", what else are you going to do?

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Maybe CrossDOS could be a contender for that title... if only I had transferred all my Amiga disks of programming projects to PC-compatible format back in the day!

"In 2009, Carlos, together with Hanson singer Taylor Hanson, Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger, formed a new band, Tinted Windows." Taylor Hanson is on this season of "Dancing with the Stars", so I bet we'll hear or see Bun E. again soon...

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Cheap Trick Setlist at The Warfield, San Francisco

Another example of what I call "cultural saturation". Any entertainment tidbit intersects with your own experience or knowledge. I saw Cheap Trick in 2014 (www.setlist.fm/setlist/chea...). Did not know until today that Bun E. Carlos didn't play that show (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bun_E._...).

setlist.fm

Get the Cheap Trick Setlist of the concert at The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, USA on November 22, 2014 and other Cheap Trick Setlists for free on setlist.fm!

Treaties of Utrecht | Peace, War & European History | Britannica

"France ceded Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Hudson Bay territory, and the island of St. Kitts to Britain..." - Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It's local lore that France got various tropical islands in the Caribbean in return, but I can't see definitive proof of that. www.britannica.com/topic/treati...

britannica.com

Treaties of Utrecht, (April 1713–September 1714), a series of treaties between France and other European powers (April 11, 1713 to Sept. 7, 1714) and another series between Spain and other powers (Jul...

And yes, everyone there spoke English. But the 50% who spoke it with a strong Irish accent & dialect, you might not be able to understand. There were people with names like Tibbo who if you think about it, must have had ancestors who were French (Thibeault) but had assimilated.

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Only one Commodore dealer in Newfoundland where someone could have gotten those in the '80s. I probably handed those boxes out of the display case and rang up the purchase. In the days when if someone paid by credit card, you had to make a long-distance call and read the digits out over the phone.

Robin Zander Xander Berkeley Berklee School of Music

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Finished it with only one hint.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Commodore had such a lock in the education market in Newfoundland. This was the model in the computer lab in our high school.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I'll never get over the fact that I went to high school with Mike Jr. Thinking that Critch is a standard name for Nfld. (Lots of Crouches, Gruchys, Crumbys... why not Critches.) So when we all regaled him with "Dis is Mike Critch fer da VOCM news sarvice", I just thought the name was a coincidence.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Every now and then I need to take a local trip in Berkeley; let's say I know my car will be in the shop. And I wonder if there is a taxi service I could use instead of Lyft or Uber. Despite seeing the occasional car with cab-like decals around town, I can never locate a phone number to call to book.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Especially important today, with every recipe web page padded with bio and commentary, and every Youtube video drawn out to 16 minutes.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Also leading to a great, if unfortunate, band name that might also be familiar to Canadians. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payolas

en.wikipedia.org

Payolas - Wikipedia

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Christmas of '82, the Commodore dealer where I worked had the computers in stock but couldn't get monitors. So I had to go around to the local department stores and buy up all their monitors.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The $595 rings a bell from the earliest C-64 ads. Is it an "original batch" one, or from the first Christmas promotional sale?

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

> for a city its size, with a population over three million There's the perception problem. Incidents anywhere get conflated in people's minds. Same thing in NorCal, where violent crimes, accidents, missing persons, etc. get labelled as "East Bay" or "Peninsula" -- big multi-city regions.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I had the same experience with Tim Curry. Lips out of sync with the audio. Something to do with aftereffects of the stroke? But he's talking for a long time without any pauses or false starts. Fishy AI slop! Still, the factual details check out. "Not a substitute for reading the original text."

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I made it real smooth and reflective boss, just like you asked.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I'm saying no to the entire west end. I foresee drainage problems.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Dune vs. The Roads Must Roll with a side of Cyberiad (First Sally) ia902909.us.archive.org/view_archive...

ia902909.us.archive.org

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I've never been to Bakka after they moved to Harbord St. But when I heard that was their new location, somehow I knew exactly what building it must be. One I have fond memories of.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I find it annoying that since earliest grade school days, I would look at the Gulf of Mexico on a globe and think... that circular shape, that must be an asteroid impact crater. But in actuality the Chicxulub crater is just this tiny blip at the edge of the Caribbean.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

In high-school basketball, it was a big hassle to figure out if the refs would enforce the rule as written or make exceptions for the most showboaty players.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I accept it grammatically, but communication-wise it's almost always a bad idea. "You know that thing I just said? Forget that."

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

So many problems in life could be solved if there were sufficient balloons at the ready to attach to your person, your luggage, your furniture, your packages at the appropriate moment. (Think: hanging Xmas ornaments from your roof while balancing on a rickety ladder.)

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

OH: You aren't gonna hit my $4000 mouth... You're the only one of us that hasn't been KILLED by ORTHODONTIA!

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Wait, there was a Karmann Ghia in Newfoundland? I want to hear the story.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I was in Toronto, where one flat fare gets you unlimited subway & bus rides and transfers for a 2-hour window. No worrying about paying more because you went one subway stop further. The taxes might be an easier sell if there wasn't the feeling of being nickeled and dimed during rides.

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I hear a voice, but not mine. Wait, while I'm reading these other comments, how come I'm also hearing music and lyrics, earworm-style, from the song I was just listening to in the car? ("Swingtown", Steve Miller Band. C'mon baby let's dance. Ba-da bomp bomp bomp.)

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Does the existence of Melissophobia imply the existence of Manchesterophobia or Gilbertophobia?

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I didn't have one of these -- no way would I have forgotten a phone with a C= logo -- but I did see them in person at the Commodore dealer where I worked.

John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I want to be a student in that English class when the correct answer is "ding dang dung".

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John Russell @max-webster.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

TIL: the origin of the "Pink" and Copland defunct Apple operating system initiatives. Different-colored index cards when deciding which OS features to do in the near and long term. (The near-term features that actually shipped were on blue cards.) www.macworld.com/article/3136...

macworld.com

35 years ago, the Mac got an era-defining upgrade

System 7 is mostly forgotten today, but we're all still using many of its innovations