The Blog

Retrobright vs. Banksia Modem

Nix McRetro // 21st December 2021 // Categories: Hacks, Modems, Repairs

Lots of people I know like retrobright. I’ve never really liked it. Seems too much hassle for too little return. Above is a before shot of the modem. Note that at this stage the modem had some extensive accidental damage to the PCB, so the risk of losing this case... Continue reading

Let's Encrypt Certbot Domain Listing Order

Nix McRetro // 29th November 2021 // Categories: Linux, News, Raspberry Pi

Let's Encrypt Certbot Domain Listing Order

Honestly, I didn’t realise this, but after rejiggering the domain order there was mcretro.net, displayed proudly in Safari’s certificate viewer. That display is separate from Certbot’s internal certificate name, which defaults to the first -d domain unless I specify --cert-name or reuse an existing certificate. All the requested domains are... Continue reading

Multimeter, MiSTer and GeoCities

Nix McRetro // 27th November 2021 // Categories: IBM PC, Repairs, YouTube

This video dates back to mid-July 2021. We were in the middle of a pandemic, with the Delta variant doing the rounds. Just today I was surprised to learn that the virus did what viruses do: it mutated some more. As I write this in late November, WHO has just... Continue reading

Netscape 1.0 in Windows 11

Nix McRetro // 21st November 2021 // Categories: IBM PC, Linux, Microsoft

Well that was unexpected. Netscape 1.0 had made it as far as its welcome page inside my Windows 11 virtual machine. That’s pretty impressive! Alright, maybe “working” is a little subjective, but good on Microsoft for keeping legacy code around forever. Not always a bad thing. Sirius Technologies Modem Diagnostic... Continue reading

Multimeter Mayhem

Nix McRetro // 5th November 2021 // Categories: Repairs

Look at what can be achieved if you believe in yourself. This multimeter was a disaster zone before and now it turns on again! That OL reading is the over-range indication, which is what I’d expect with an open circuit in resistance mode. This particular multimeter, an AideTek.com VC97+, had... Continue reading