iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ian Scott @polpo.org · 19h

Saw a guy wearing ESD safe birkenstocks at work today. I aspire to that level of drip

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 29/09/2026

reposting because the #my9games thing is going around again. I stand by my choices wholeheartedly

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Sophie Rose @sophierosemusic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The MacPaint manual is nice..

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 26/09/2026

"The PicoIDE will never work on the B&W G3" - Ian Scott, September 25, 2026 "The PicoIDE works fine on the B&W G3 with an OpenFirmware workaround" - Ian Scott, September 26, 2026

A Blue & White Apple Power Macintosh G3 in the classic Bondi Blue color, opened up with its guts out. Two PicoIDEs are plugged into it, one into the HDD interface, and the other one meant for the optical/ZIP drives.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 22/09/2026

I’m in this video in a couple spots! Clint caught me dropping off some Macs and a tape drive enclosure on the free pile, and later he stops by my table where my 486 with PicoIDE and PicoGUS is playing the intro to Return to Zork VERY LOUDLY

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 22/09/2026

I wish appliances with sensors would tell you what they were doing in more detail. Like "I'm extending the wash cycle by N minutes because I detect X turbidity level in the water" or "load unbalanced, restarting spin cycle, attempt N of 5".

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 19/09/2026

Post-VCF letdown: getting the retro space under control. I let things get too messy during VCF prep and brought back a lot from the show so now I need to figure out where things can go so I can see my floor again!

A cluttered basement space full of old computers and boxes of computer junk. Help, I’m drowning in it!

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 19/09/2026

Kate and Veronica’s new podcast is great! I may be biased because they interviewed me at VCF Midwest last weekend but they’re awesome people putting together something awesome!

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videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

the space tablet, print ad, imagery (1982) archive.org/details/byte...

prominent text: welcome to the third dimension
underneath: an image of a kinda george lucas-lookin' mf (wearing a black cape), using a very small space shuttle on a space table to co-ordinate the 3d image on his apple II screen in wire frame. he is looking back at you intensely (away from what he is doing), giving the whole image a twilight zone vibe.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 19/09/2026

I'll be on this stream tonight!

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 15/09/2026

An amazing thing some of you may not have seen this past weekend at #vcfmw: bytex64’s MFM drive emulator. He got it up and running on Sunday and the speaker on it for drive activity sounds great!

An early laptop in beige, with a purple PCB connected to it via a ribbon cable coming out of a drive bay on the side of the computer.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 15/09/2026

Another VCF Midwest #vcfmw highlight: taking a van load of stuff to put on the free pile on behalf of @jeremysretrobar.bsky.social. Almost everything I put on the pile was picked up within seconds of me putting it down. There’s two more layers of stuff beyond what you can see in this photo

The back hatch of a minivan with several classic Macintoshes, quite a few gray box era Dells, an IBM MDA monitor, and two flat panel Apple displays.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 14/09/2026

One of my favorite moments from #vcfmw this year was when @thegirlg33k.com let me test picoide out on her PC-9821 and do some IDE bus captures. After some shenanigans with drive geometry it booted right up off the picoide! And CD works too! Thanks again for letting me crash your table 😅

Me sitting in front of a PC-98 that is taken apart at a long table setup in a big expo hall. The table has a teal tablecloth on it

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techknight @thetechknight.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

VCF Midwest had its first christening, went off with a bang

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Inverse Phase @inversephase.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Ok I'm officially putting out the call for help, Wonderbread (my prius) is acting up and I think it's unsafe to drive it to Chicago. Looking for folks driving through Pittsburgh to #VCFMW. I will need a little bit of cargo space.

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Jeff Geerling @jeffgeerling.com · 07/09/2026

Coming to VCF Midwest? If you're like me, it's hard trying to remember where everything is, especially with VCF taking up the ENTIRE expo hall this year. So I made this tool last night: geerlingguy.github.io/vcfmw21-map/ Now it's a lot easier to find exhibitors! #vcfmw

geerlingguy.github.io

VCF Midwest 21 — interactive table guide

Interactive floor plan for Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 21. Tap any table to see who is exhibiting there, what they are showing, and where to find them.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 03/09/2026

Hey folks! #VCFMW #VCFMW2026 is in a week and a half! I'll be at table B206 showing off PicoIDE and PicoGUS on various systems and just hanging out. See ya there! And boy that is a lot of tables!

A plan of hundreds of tables arranged into 23 different pods or lines. The title says Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 21 Table Guide. A red star is over my table.

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Ian Hanschen @furan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Tonight’s sicko activity: messing around with the debugger hidden in Return of the Phantom. It shows a debugger on the MDA after enabling cheats and hitting ALT+D. (Picograph handling MDA output)

two monitors, picograph MDA output on secondary

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 31/08/2026

I just learned that the pinball place near-ish me (www.lyonsclassicpinball.com) has a weekly pinball machine repair class every Monday night. I won't be able to go for a few weeks but that sounds super fun

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 27/08/2026

Got the PicoIDE and BlueSCSI installed into the SGI VW 320 to demo at VCF Midwest in a couple weeks! I love the auto opening door on this thing.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 26/08/2026

Just sayin’, you should probably visit my table at VCF Midwest if you faved this post

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 25/08/2026

Officially the dumbest/most fun thing that I've tested PicoIDE on: a controller kit that turns a CD-ROM drive into a standalone CD player

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 24/08/2026

VCF Midwest is a bit over 2 weeks away so I’m getting PicoIDE demo rigs set up for my table. One will be an SGI Visual Workstation 320 with both a BlueSCSI Ultra Wide and a PicoIDE in way-too-cool black front panel enclosures. These are 3d printed because I’ve only gotten molded samples in beige

Two 3.5” drives in very similar black plastic enclosures, one with picoIDE embossed into the front and the other saying BlueSCSI

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SDF @sdforg.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

“Why do you want to run a 36-bit PDP-10 in 2026?!” #blinkenlights #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #vintage icm.museum

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Mac84 (Steve) 🍏 @mac84.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Hey friends, I’m in need of a new job. No, YouTube doesn’t pay the bills. 😓 If you know anyone who is looking for an experienced product/app Content Designer or UX Writer, please let me know! 🤞 Feel free to DM me or email me any leads. Thanks!

static.klipy.com

Robin Hood Fox Asking for Alms

ALT: Robin Hood Fox Asking for Alms

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Julia Minamata @juliaminamata.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The Crimson Diamond BIG BOX is being planned! 🤩 If you were going to buy one, would you prefer: a) CD-ROM with printed surface b) usb stick made of maple wood with a laser-engraved logo?

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techknight @thetechknight.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Commission work: I need 16x16 to 16x24 pixel art weather icons made. 1bpp, 4bpp, 8bpp depths. Reach out to me in DMs for details

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 17/08/2026

Tower by Adam Basanta (2026) www.adambasanta.com/tower.php

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 15/08/2026

Getting together a PicoIDE demo setup for VCF Midwest and for fun I think I'll use my SGI Visual Workstation 320. Quake, Quake II, and Half-Life run great! Anyone know any other fun OpenGL games from the late 90s? The SGI graphics on this machine can't do Direct3D, which is a fun limitation.

A swoopy large tower case with the side open and its guts spilling out - ribbon cables and both a PicoIDE and a BlueSCSI connected to it. The beginning of Half-Life 1 is on the screen.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 14/08/2026

The mad lad has gone and done it: Hakko nail clippers. cc @tubetime.bsky.social

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JamHamster @jamhamster.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Well, this has been a journey. I've been trying to crack reliable tape loading since lockdown and by jove, I've actually done it! 🥳 I have four built, one's mine and the rest are going out to some people who are a force for good in the retro community. They deserve a nice toy to 'test'. ☺️

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Tube🍂Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

in honor of the IBM PC's 45th anniversary today, here is the original prototype motherboard! which side is your favorite?

a large prototyping circuit board with a grid of holes. it is covered with chips and red bypass capacitors soldered diagonally across many of the chips. you can tell it is a PC because of the 5 ISA slots and the keyboard connector.

the bottom of the board reveals a ratnest of yellow wires along with a few thicker blue and black wires, presumably for power and ground.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 09/08/2026

Had a good ol’ time at the Boulder County Fair today

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 08/08/2026

Very tempted to Frankenstein together my very own set of Hakko nail clippers with this part

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gloriouscow.bsky.social @gloriouscow.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The following emoji are a valid DOS executable. 🐸☺️😖🐰😗😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😹😯🕳️😯🐮🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐⭐🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🐮🐰😔😬😬🗓️🍽️👁️📗🐪🗓️🧮🧯📗🐪🐮🗓️😿🧯🧯🧯🧯📗🐪🗓️🐮📗🐪🗓️🧮🧮🧯🧯👁️📗🐪🐮🗓️🧮🧯🧯🧯🧯🧯🧯📗🐪🗓️😿🧯🧯🧯🧯📗🐪🗓️😿🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🐮📗🐪🐮🗓️😯🍽️🍽️👁️📗🐪🐮🐮🐮🗓️😿🧮🧮🧮📗🐪🗓️🧮👁️👁️🍽️👁️📗🐪🐰😔🐐🐐♿🇹🇭⏪✋💕🐀🍥🐐📣🈚🌌🌋🏐🌕👻🌺🌻🍵🆙🌮🍝🌐🌋🍠🌋🐅🍜💒🌳👹🎇👹🉑🎎🉑💞🆖🌳🆎🎇👹🉑🎎🉑💞🐖👯🆖🌻🕕🌿🐐🍙👺👽🌳👹🎇💗🉑🎎🉑💞🖕🎎🌙👻🌺🌻🐻🎂🌻🌳👮🐖🐸🍤🕕🌻🐠🐻🍝🌻🌳🌷🐎🌷🍭🌌💗👻🐖🐖🌜🌛📛🍕🍓🍪🍷🌙🍘🍾🍪👻🌺🌻🌙🌘🌙🐗🌊🏐💗🎐🧯🔥🌉

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mmalex @mmalex.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

really interesting analysis of the raspberry pi PIO coprocessor from a hw designer perspective; bunnie reimplements it in FPGA to learn, decides hes curious about a more RISC approcah to the same problem space, and... implements that. awesome work & writeup. www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2026/bi...

bunniestudios.com

BIO: The Bao I/O Coprocessor « bunnie's blog

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 05/08/2026

Why get a MacTable for your Macintosh SE when you can get a Clipper CS-1 Workstation Capsule

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richard @halkyardo.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

since oscilloscope graphics are doing the rounds again, here's some photos from that time a few years ago when I built a gizmo to show dril tweets (and assorted other nonsense) on my ancient Tek 466

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mmalex @mmalex.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

eric - my latest toy has meandered from code editor to arrangement ui back to code again. the fun thing is theres no synth engine - its just raw functions called at audio rate all the way down. the clicks in this bad vid are because its my laptop's mic recording its own speakers, as I press keys

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Harry McCracken @harrymccracken.com · 29/07/2026

Also, breaking news about VCF West: If you are there on Saturday, you’ll have the opportunity to buy a (replica) Apple-1 from the Byte Shop’s Paul Terrell, for the first time since he became Apple’s original dealer 50 years ago.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 01/08/2026

If you're in the Bay Area and want to check out a prerelease PicoIDE in action, go to VCF West and check out Xodium's booth!

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davemakes🔶 @mixolumia.com · 31/07/2026

obsessed with the font on IKEA's clam chowder packaging. this is what's in the freezer on the Nostromo

Transparent bags of frozen clam chowder with black and white labels and an all-caps font not quite Eurostile but similar energy

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Tube🍂Time @tubetime.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Chip companies: you pick QFP or LCC NXP: this one is both!

bottom view of a package that has gull-wing leads and J leads

side view dimensioned mechanical drawing clearly showing both J leads and gull wing leads

a cursed footprint with two offset rows of pads on each of the 4 sides.

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Ian Scott @polpo.org · 27/07/2026

Heading back home after an amazing #Teardown2026. My talk went super well with some great Q&A at the end, I saw a lot of great talks, met a lot of people in person I’ve only talked to online, met a lot of awesome new people, and learned a lot!

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Clyde @gametank.zone · 26/07/2026

no sleep only design window manager

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BigBadBiologist @bigbadbiologist.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

On Saturday's noon EDT stream, we're going to play with @polpo.org 's latest invention: the PicoIDE (a Raspberry Pi-based IDE emulator). The goal is to add this to my wood / glass /enameled wire single board 486. Let's see how easy / hard it is to set up and use! youtube.com/live/AFylWhS...

youtube.com

Playing around with the PicoIDE to upgrade my "Single-board" wood external enameled wire ISA 486 PC

YouTube video by BigBadBench

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Xodium @xodium.net · 23/07/2026

So, it did arrive and now I can say for certain that thanks to @polpo.org being just an amazing human being and graciously letting me loan a unit pre-release…I’ll have a PicoIDE Deluxe unit on demo in my Windows 98 build for #VCFWest! Very, very stoked about this and can’t wait to get it rolling.

A PicoIDE, from the front. In a 3D printed enclosure.

A PicoIDE from the top with the PCB more visible.

A sticker is nearby it.

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