It's July again! Soon, anyway. And this means two things: Heat waves (hate it) and computer shenanigans thanks to the Old Computer Challenge (love it). This is what I started this blog with three years ago, and I've participated every year since. Last year the community was a bit meh, and for a while it looked like nobody was interested this time, but Tekk came up with a nice concept and updated the website accordingly. This year's challenge is again not strictly defined, but I like the topic: Make something yourself, to combat the onslaught of AI slop we're being subjected to. I think that's a great idea, and I'm sure I'll come up with something and I hope some of you will, too.
Articles
- What Have We Dumped On The Moon? | Hackaday
Wherever humans go, they leave their trash behind. Not just on Earth, but also on the moon. Did you know the Apollo astronauts dumped theirpoop bagsdefecation collection devices on the moon? (Btw: the bags were transparent...) - In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words - The Old New Thing
Raymond Chen remembers the man who invented the squiggly lines under misspelled words. Once upon a time, Microsoft actually invented useful things... - I Left Port 22 Open for 54 Days: An SSH Honeypot Study
What happens when you connect a seemingly unsecured machine to the internet and just wait? (via Lazy Reading)
Software/Services
- GitHub - chubin/wttr.in: :partly_sunny: The right way to check the weather · GitHub
Check the weather forecast in the terminal with a simple curl command. It works in the browser too. (found in an old Gopher post from Matto)
Videos
- I Revived MSN Messenger and Its Forgotten Companion Gadget! - YouTube
Here's something I've never seen before... a plastic toy shaped like the MSN messenger icon, and when a message arrives it blinks and wiggles it's wings. It's cheap and plasticky and pointless, but it looks like fun. Remember when tech was fun? - 5 Monitors on a Commodore 128! - YouTube
Connecting 5 monitors to a Commodore 128 and driving them all independently. Sounds impossible, but by splitting up the individual colour channels to different screens it can be done. - Dear AI Companies: Stop the “Doom Trolling” - YouTube
Cal Newport makes the argument that either the AI company CEOs are truthful in saying that their invention will destroy the world, in which case they're awful humans for continuing to develop it, or they know that that's not true and they're lying through their teeth to keep the interest in their product high, in which case they're awful humans for lying out of nothing but sheer greed. Either way... awful.
Around the Small Web
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - The Wallflower Digest
Alice wrote a very thorough and interesting review of the Philip K. Dick novel which served as the inspration for the movie Blade Runner. I haven't read it in ages, and I wonder where my copy of it is... - Lazy Reading for 2026/06/21 – DragonFly BSD Digest
Like me, Justin publishes a weekly link roundup he calls Lazy Reading, and I regularly steal links from him for my own posts. So if you like what's happening here, there's more of it over there. - The Great Commodore Brand Heist - Nostalgia Nerd
Nostalgia Nerd takes a look at the history of the Commodore brand name since the company went bankrupt. The article is a bit older and doesn't include the latest shenanigans surrounding the brand, but it's a fascinating read nevertheless. - Internet works best in small dosages
You know what, I think Michał might be onto something here...
Misc
- MAGAZINE, HEFTE
German again, sorry... but sometimes these links are also for me to remember. This is an archive of old computer magazines from the 80s and early 90s, focusing on the home computers of the era.