iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

ICYMI, you have until Oct. 25 in Charlotte.

Poster announcing a Caravaggio exhibit at the Mint Museum in Uptown Charlotte, NC through Oct. 25.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

As an Atari Age-reading lad I was ABSOLUTELY convinced that this vaporware would be my first computer.

Atari Age Magazine article:
SNEAK PEEKS (Special Report)

Keyboard will turn Atari VCS into powerful home computer

Fall introduction planned for revolutionary device

Atari has unveiled an extraordinary addition to their Video Computer System— an easy to install keyboard module that transforms the game system instantly into a sophisticated multi-purpose home computer. Current plans call for introduction of this breakthrough product in fall 1983. A complete line of game and computer software titles will also be available, beginning with the introduction of the keyboard and growing rapidly in the following months.

The unit features a full raised 56-key typewriter-style keyboard. It attaches quickly to the VCS unit, snapping directly into the game cartridge slot.

The new unit will serve VCS owners in three basic areas: gameplaying, learning to program, and performing practical home computer functions. Atari is currently working on games designed to take advantage of the greatly expanded memory provided by the keyboard unit. The company plans a number of new titles designed specifically for the unit, including adaptations of several hit arcade games never available in home versions before.

The line of software currently and development for the new keyboard. Unit covers the full range of home computer applications, from education and personal improvement to budgeting and record-keeping.

Lots of people are looking for an inexpensive way to get into computer programming, and the new keyboard is ideal for this purpose. It comes complete with a full 8K bytes of random access memory (RAM)— more than any other low-priced home computer on the market. The popular Microsoft basic programming language is also built into the unit. Combine this capability with exciting new software packages, teaching programming for adults, for children, and even how to program your own arcade-style games, and you have a complete introductory computing system.

The new unit can be expanded easily for more advanced programming and home computer applications. Memory can grow to 32K with connected add-on modules. Program storage will be available with an ordinary, cassette tape recorder, or with an optional data drive. Atari plans a full line of low cost, peripherals, including a printer, and a modem, which will let users communicate computer-to-computer over telephone lines. The modem will also enable users to tap into the popular on-line information services such as CompuServe Information Service and The Source, America’s Information Utility, which provide a variety of news and reference materials, electronic bulletin, boards, and user-to-user communication, computer games, and more.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Date yourself with a snap of your first ever computer.

The beige original Commodore 64 against a white background without cords or peripherals

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Without saying your age, what is your favorite movie that came out when you were 20 years old?

Liam Neeson having an angry moment in Darkman

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Pride of place for the #LetsGoCanes at the NHL Store in Manhattan. (And a Canes/Isles game is playing on NHL Network here and I just heard @wademinter.com's one-minute warning.)

Display window outside the NHL Store in Manhattan including two Stanley Cup championship T-shirts and a Canes red jersey on mannequins, and more Canes jerseys on racks.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I have no place for this in the house but kind of want it

Me in a black polo, in a little shop in front of a brick wall, pointing at a vintage medical sign, lit, reading “X-Ray On”

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Dumb, dumb, dumb www.cnn.com/2026/07/02/us/pet...

Excerpt from a CNN story:
Thiel also discussed Palantir's name, which was inspired by the magical seeing stones in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Critics have noted that characters who try to use the powers of the palantír end up being manipulated by the story's archvillain, Sauron.
Thiel argued that those people
misunderstand Tolkien's story. "Toward the end, it gets used by the good guys," Thiel said. The hero and king-to-be, Aragorn, uses a palantír to confront Sauron, showing him he now possesses the reforged sword of his ancestors.
(Sauron then misinterprets this intelligence, leading him to make a fatal strategic blunder.)
"Anybody who tells you a different story of Tolkien," Thiel said, "doesn't even know what they're talking about, on the level of literature."

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

For what it's worth, I was wearing my Canes Pride T-shirt today (as an ally) at the #CanesParade, and at least one person from the Foundation, one member of the coaching staff, and one player made eye contact and approving gestures. Given recent events, that's not nothing. #SoundTheSiren

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Bull McCabe’s, Durham, NC: 30 seconds remaining #SoundTheSiren

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

@stevedangle20.bsky.social Found at a used bookstore in Mebane, NC, about an hour west of “The Lenny” (god, I hate that fans made it a thing)

An action figure trapped in ancient, yellowed plastic of former Leafs centre and current executive Mats Sundin

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Is this bad, #SoundTheSiren fam? (Picture of a miserable queue for the Game 6 watch party at the Lenny as of 1:45 pm Friday.)

Ticketmaster: You are now in line. 2029 people in front of you.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The amazing thing about being out here to watch another flag go up is that for so many years it seemed like it was only aspirational. Two chances for one more win. #SoundTheSiren

Exterior of Lenovo Center and the Stanley Cup Playoffs flag display. They are about to place the 15th.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

This is a cat check point. Relinquish your most recent cat picture on your phone

A fluffy brown tabby hangs his chin and paw over the edge of a cat tree platform.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Merch alert: Rally Point on Franklin St., Chapel Hill #SoundTheSiren

A woman holding to the camera a Carolina Hurricanes-red T-shirt with the text, “Just here for the beer skate.”

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Spouse and I are walking through Artists' Alley at #Animazement and people are constantly stopping me when they see my #SoundTheSiren polo. Everyone wants to talk about their hopes for Game 2 and their Game 1 PTSD.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

That moment when you suddenly realize that, in the #Babylon5 spinoff Crusade, Captain Gideon’s Apocalypse Box (which feeds him useful information but sometimes lies) was a perfect metaphor for chatbot LLMs, but only like five people worldwide would get the reference.

Gary Cole, as Captain Gideon in the Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade, talking to his Apocalypse Box

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Missing most of tonight’s #SoundTheSiren game to take my wife to Stars on Ice. Where are the stanchions? Where is the GLASS? WHERE ARE THE NETS? What if I get hit by…something…?

The interior of First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, set up as an ice rink WITHOUT HOCKEY SAFETY FEATURES for figure skating

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Was reading an ’80s comic @graemeburk.bsky.social gave me and discovered this CBG fan award poll. I got to tell you this in person at Politics&Prose years ago, @idislikestephen.bsky.social: your parents’ custody of Comics Buyer’s Guide made my teens and 20s significantly happier.

An interior page of an old newsprint comic with a mail-in ballot for the Comics Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards for 1984.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Tonight the role of the Seth Jarvis cam will be played by my cat #CarolinaCulture

The silhouette of an annoying fluffy tabby blocking the lower right of a Canes game on TV

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Missing #CanesAfterDark for Carbon Leaf at Cat’s Cradle. I’d regret it if I didn’t unreservedly love this band. #IWantToBeLeaf

An empty stage at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, NC ahead of a concert by Carbon Lead. The stage is dark except for the blue glow emitted by three triangles on the back wall. A vintage flying saucer hovers above them.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

With respect to my acquaintances who are involved in Worldcon organizing, and my talented friends who have won multiple Hugos, [this piece](miribaker.com/2025/08/22/o...) is spot-on. The distributed culture means no accountability for making the NEXT con less embarrassing.

Even with all the problems above, I had a fantastic time at Worldcon 2025 in Seattle. I saw and hugged people I only ever get to chat with online, I met and shared panels with incredibly eloquent and talented artists, I got to talk at great length about my passion for costuming and the effort-to-effect ratio because someone foolishly gave me a microphone five separate times. Even when World-con is bad, it collects my people in one place, and there are things to love. Even people who hate Worldcon have fun at Worldcon.

So imagine a world where Worldcon was good.

Where we treated it with the respect we pretend to afford it as the site of one of our major awards, honoring the fact that it might be the most important weekend of someone's life to date. Where announcers and organizers understood the power they wield, and pledged to wield it responsibly. Where we held ourselves and our successors to a higher standard.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

No cheating, post the last pic of your pet.

The upside-down head of a two-year-old, long-haired tabby named Aries looks to the camera from a top a messy bed.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

Best Star Trek crew. Wrong answers only.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

I have failed this city and must atone

Aries, the longhair brown tabby, completely lying on his back with his head toward the camera, cocked and displaying no brain activity whatsoever, while his front legs are curled in front of him and his hind legs are splayed out into the distance.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

My sister-in-law races vintage cars and we’re celebrating her birthday and I think I’ve seen this meme before.

A birthday cake with a black “racetrack” of icing. On the track is a plastic race car driven by a figure of Elmo from Sesame Street, smiling, with arms raised in triumph. The burning birthday candles behind Elmo make him look uncommonly like the meme-GIF of Elmo in Hell except for the smile.

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That Chip Guy @thatchipguy.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

I’m on board with this take; it’s not cope. AND I was right there watching last night’s disaster with my son, looking down at Freddie’s first and Pyotr’s net. I was bathed in its futility and endorsed the “shoot the puck” chants. But… (1/6) #RaiseUp