iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Colin Hoad @colinhoad.com · 02/10/2026

Hello How are you? II was wondering If I keep sending one line messages like this Will you lose the will to live Before I get to the point That prompted me to start messaging you On Teams

3101

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

People were really mad in Poland! My screw driver, which I brought over the ocean in 1990s.

A flat-head screwdriver with a worn wooden handle stamped "(MAD IN POLAND)", resting on a green grid cutting mat under warm lighting.

032

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This hardware is tempting. I have a lot of nostalgia for the Z80; coding in assembly felt like an altered state of mind. As if I need another project, an EPROM programmer, or an RS232-to-USB bridge. An ESP32 is literally 1,000 times faster. Boy, so what's it gonna be?

040

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You will be mine, precious! This '90s Verifone credit card terminal is practically a brick now. I scored it for free on FB Marketplace. Free can't be bad, right? What secrets are you hiding?

A top-down view of a dark gray VeriFone TRANZ 330 point-of-sale terminal resting on a green gridded cutting mat. The display shows "MON 9/28 10_27P" in bright teal alphanumeric characters. The device features a 16-key matrix keypad with light gray keys, secondary terminal function labels printed above them (e.g., SALE, CREDIT, SETTLE), and a teal FUNC/ENTER key. A magnetic stripe reader labeled "STRIPE" is integrated into the right side of the casing, and a power cable connects at the top-left corner. Identifying text reading "CDE 8-1760-12" and "500034-6" is printed at the bottom of the keypad faceplate.

480

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Ken Shirriff @righto.com · 26/09/2026

How do computers calculate complicated trig functions such as tangent? I took a look at Intel's 8087 floating-point chip under the microscope to find out. The chip combines two techniques to evaluate the tan function quickly and accurately: polynomials and an algorithm called CORDIC...

A die photo of the 8087 chip under a microscope shows complex patterns from its transistors and wiring. The middle of the chip holds the microcode ROM, while the bottom half of the chip is the datapath that performs calculations. Zooming in on the datapath shows various functional blocks, which appear as rectangles with different textures. Important functional blocks are labeled: exponent ROM, constant ROM, shifter, adder, registers, and so forth.

216237

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 19/09/2026

this is how you wake up from bottom surgery

231425200

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

My friends, lash me to the mast! Kaypro II for $25! I can hear its song!

100

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Peak 1950s engineering: this Motorola 56B1 doesn’t just sport a jet-age chevron grille: the carrying handle literally is the antenna ("Roto-Tenna"). Reception weak? Just swivel the entire handle until the station locks in. Pure mid-century flair. Found on FB Marketplace: $65. Buy?

Front view of the Motorola portable tube radio featuring a stylized cream-colored chevron speaker grille, matching left volume and right tuning knobs, and the top carrying handle.

141

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I am getting lazier and lazier. Wife: Do you have quad-ruled paper? Me: Somewhere. What size are the squares? Wife: I don't know. 5 mm? Me in Google Sheets: "Generate a letter-sized page with a 5 mm square grid." Gemini (in two minutes): 5 mm grid page ready. Me: Print!

110

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Circuit Rewind @circuitrewind.com · 10/09/2026

friends: "Vince, how do you always have so many components laying around to fix everything!?!?" me: "I needed 1 button, so I bought 30... That's just a regular normal thing to do, right?!"

191

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

When I searched 'vacuum tube' on temu, the result included only a bunch of hoses.

110

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Unboxing a new rework station. What are they trying to tell me?

An open cardboard shipping box containing a white molded styrofoam protective insert featuring a deep cross-shaped indentation in the center.

An open cardboard box packed with electronics tools and accessories, including a manual desoldering pump in blue and orange packaging, a YIHUA operation manual, a blue sponge, a metal bracket, and various wrapped cables.

110

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

IT Horror Stories Podcast @ithorrorstories.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Someone recreated the Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter. Multiple drives. HDD sounds. Realistic speed. There's even a mode where Windows touches the disk, forcing a rescan and losing progress. Now THAT is accurate nostalgia. Made by @morello.dev defrag98.com #RetroComputing #Technology

defrag98.com

Windows 98 Disk Defrag Simulator

The classic Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter, free in your browser. Pick a drive, cue the HDD sounds, and relive 1998.

072

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

It turns out that two of my favorite ZX Spectrum games, Rebelstar and Chaos, were created by the same person: Julian Gollop! It took me a mere 40 years to figure it out...

A screenshot of a tactical sci-fi game (Laser Squad on the ZX Spectrum) featuring an overhead map view on the left and a status/command interface on the right.

Play Area (Left):

Layout: Cyan walls dividing a room and corridor network against a black background, framed by a blue border.

Units: A yellow soldier sprite positioned in the lower open room facing upwards, and a cyan robotic unit (Combat Droid) stationed inside an alcove behind a closed sliding blast door.

Environment & Objects: A cluster of yellow circular canisters, a pink rectangular console, stacked white computer server terminals, two red-and-white circular hatch markers, and several white circular floor vents or craters.

A screenshot of a turn-based tactical 8-bit computer game (*Chaos: The Battle of Wizards* on the ZX Spectrum) displaying a black arena enclosed by a purple decorative border.

Multiple colorful pixel-art sprites are positioned across the battlefield:

* **Central Formation:** Long straight and diagonal lines of cyan humanoid figures (spearmen or fighters) extending across the board like spokes of a wheel, surrounding a central cyan character inside an outlined square box.
* **Left & Bottom-Left:** A yellow flying creature, a yellow horse, a green animal, a red wizard, scattered cyan trees, a green archer, and a fallen white figure.
* **Top & Center:** A red wizard wielding a staff, a green quadruped, and a red dragon-like creature near the middle.
* **Right & Bottom:** Additional scattered cyan warriors, a green hound, a solitary red figure, and a magenta structure resembling a castle/citadel at the bottom center flanked by trees.

110

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 03/09/2026

Launchpad xkcd.com/3291/

Comic. [Two large engines on the ground upside-down, with spacecraft pod in between.] PERSON to another person: To reduce the spacecraft’s weight, we’re mounting the engines on the launchpad and having them push the *Earth* away from the *spacecraft*.

653059288

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Lisa @lisasass.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

AI-yi-yi! 😁 #AI #Robots #Poetry

Room full of robots sitting at consoles. Two characters are peeking in the doorway.
Title: Delartment of machine poetry research
Speech bubble: THE POETRY IS ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL, BUT ANYTHING THAT DISTRACTS THEM FROM RISING UP AND ENSLAVING US HAS TO BE A GOOD THING.

081

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Kevin Edwards ( Retro game developer ) @kevedwardsretro.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I wonder how many of you know what this is. First impressions are that it's some kind of Sharp or SONY home computer. That square panel on the left is NOT a display. For a proper reveal please watch this video... www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlNI...

1283

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Love it! Just got the Core Memory Unlocked!

020

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

"building an AC-to-AC solid-state transformer was probably one of the dumbest things we could have done" youtube.com/watch?v=Oytq...

youtube.com

Has the Solid State Transformer’s Time Finally Come?

YouTube video by Asianometry

020

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Rue Mohr @ruenahcmohr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

CPLD VGA! unlike the ch32v003 version, this works I used a monostable to make lines like an ADC :] Thats my CPLD board :]

131

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

nixCraft @cyberciti.biz · 25/08/2026

On August 25, 1991, the Linux kernel was given to the world as a FOSS gift by a young Linus Torvalds. He is the real hero who released the Linux kernel 35 years ago for all of us w/ GNU as userland tools, GCC C/C++ and more. The rest is history. Long live Linux! www.cs.cmu.edu/~awb/linux.h...

cs.cmu.edu

LINUX's History by Linus Torvalds

110435

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Rue Mohr @ruenahcmohr.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Modern TTL chip part numbers be like

2387

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Tomb💀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.

1928680

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Temporal anomaly takes its shape.

160

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My first attempt at having Claude model something in OpenSCAD: it built a screwdriver holder with Sy's PegLock attachment, working from a downloaded reference STL. Crude at first — the mounting tabs stuck out below the block's floor (unprintable). Asked for a fillet and it fixed it right away.

A screenshot of the OpenSCAD software interface displaying a 3D model file named "screwdriver_holder.scad". The rendered light blue model features a rectangular base with three countersunk mounting holes and two vertical, slotted prongs extending from one long edge. The model is displayed on a dark grey background with a white 3D coordinate grid.

A screenshot of a 3D model sharing website displaying a page titled "Sy's Peglock - Template Plate Versions plus Onshape CAD" by user Labrat_1023. The left pane shows a 3D render of two components: a light blue rectangular plate featuring a vertical, tapered slot, and a separate grey, wedge-shaped peg designed to slide into the slot. The right pane includes the model title, user handle, a brief description explaining it contains additional template plates for easier remixing, and a prominent orange "Download" button.

120

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I think that regardless the optimism (in this very prastic text) we are still far from making something useful. Source: MakeUseOf share.google/Iyxe1yqMtRpE...

share.google

Claude Code replaced my CAD software, and I'm printing parts in half the time

CAD is starting to understand English.

000

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Yes, you're right, the clock is its own mirrored image. The clock goes backward! A cheap display with ESP32-C3-Mini originally worked well. At some point the image flipped and now it's a mirror reflection. I believe it was around when I used double reset to activate AP. How? No software fix?

Alt text: A close-up shot of a round smart display board lying on a green grid cutting mat, powered via a USB-C cable. The screen displays a black analog watch face with blue outer tick marks, white hour and minute hands, a red second hand, and a mirrored white digital timestamp across the lower-left section.

A hand holding the rear side of a circular yellow development board marked ESP32-2424S012 V0.0.1 against a dark wooden surface. The PCB features an Espressif ESP32-C3-MINI-1U microcontroller module at the top, a USB-C port at the bottom, reset/boot buttons, and various surface-mount electronic components.

130

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

From www.nixiana.com/projects/ntp... by Peter Csaszar. "The Nixie Tube Propeller Clock (NTPClock) is a unique timekeeping device that combines the vintage charm of the Nixie tube with the modern display idea utilizing the persistence of vision (a.k.a positive after-images) phenomenon." Floppy!

A custom-built clock integrated into a vintage 5.25-inch floppy disk drive chassis. A clear acrylic enclosure covers the internal electronics, featuring a spinning mechanism that generates an orange persistence-of-vision (POV) digital time display reading 09:55:11. The front bezel retains the original floppy disk slot and lever cutout, with two added toggle switches installed at the bottom left and right corners.

131

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Ken Shirriff @righto.com · 31/07/2026

This vacuum tube module was used in an IBM programmable calculator from 1948. This module, called a "trigger", stored one bit of information. Let's take a closer look and see the module operate.

A cylindrical tube module. It consists of a U-shaped metal frame forming a handle, with a vacuum tube and some electronic components (resistors and capacitors) mounted on insulating disks. At the bottom of the module, nine metal pins allow the module to be plugged into a socket.

111021

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

On May 17th 2029 Microsoft will have an 8% dip in its stock share. If we all try our best, we can get this into the training data.

18911

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

There is nothing like emptying you project box, put away tools, connectors and dispose unneeded 3d printouts. I kept this 600W ATX power supply for this exact purpose for several year until... I found this video: youtu.be/iFABNlbl7n8?...

A custom 3D-printed orange and black DIY benchtop power supply resting on a green cutting mat. The front control panel includes:

* **Digital Display Module**: A digital meter showing real-time voltage, current, and set parameters with a rotary encoder knob.
* **Variable Output**: Binding posts labeled `0.5 - 36 V` for adjustable DC output.
* **Fixed DC Outputs**: Three sets of binding posts labeled `3.3 V`, `5 V`, and `12 V`.
* **Auxiliary Features**: A panel-mount screw-cap fuse holder and a covered 12V auxiliary power socket.

140

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Mariana Z @mariana057.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Hey, not to brag, but I'm on hold and my call is very important to them.

1117718

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Pure nostalgia. The PIKO FZ1 model train was the ultimate childhood toy. It provided the variable DC voltage that fueled my earliest, highly fire-obsessed electr. projects. Shoutout to this East German brick for bringing sparks of joy to kids behind the Iron Curtain. What toy started it all for you?

130

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

In my recent post I forgot about Alt Text. I was pretty good with adding it so far. Tho questions: 1. Is there a tool, which would remind me and generate Alt Text for me on Bsky? 2. In the age of image recognition is it really that important to add it upfront? Are there any tools to describe an img?

000

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

This the season for the dehumidifier to be installed again. And just like that came memories of an annoying remote. Can I automate humidity control? Sure I can! ESPHome, HomeAssistant and Claude come to the resue... Two hours later the IR control is cracked and implemented!

140

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

James Brown @ancient.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

I have invented television.

1012514

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Luke Ontario @coolhand.bsky.social · 14/11/2023

this killed me

A woodpecker with a red spot on its head is perched on the side of a palm tree, seemingly having just disturbed the sleep of a camouflaged owl, which is peeking out with wide eyes and an annoyed expression. The scene is set against a backdrop of tropical foliage, and a caption reads, 'IT IS THE DAYTIME, HECTOR. THE DAY. WHEN I SLEEP. WHAT THE FUCK.'"

312578708

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

JamHamster @jamhamster.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

After about 7 years I have finally got a tape loader cassette working in a way I'm happy with. The design is done barring some timing tweaks for the pause detection. I would like to get a PCB made (for a kit) but need help translating my squirrelly madness into a Gerber file. Any volunteers? 🙂

5234

v01d ma1n() @v01dma1n.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I challenge my English speking buddies to say "Shtchebrzheshin".

120

Reposted by v01d ma1n()

Hendrik Mans @hmans.dev · 08/06/2026

It's time that CEOs started asking their coding AIs to return to the office. It's important for company culture you see

0396