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#retrotech

36 posts31 participants3 posts today

After bringing self-hosted IRC server to life, I went and built a suite of IRC bots under the MansionNET project.

From real-time trivia and weather, to AI chat and private search, these bots are designed to make IRC a bit more modern (while keeping its charm intact).

Everything’s open source and up on GitHub:

github.com/MansionNET

Do take a look — contributions and feedback are more than welcome! 😊

MansionNET has 6 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
GitHubMansionNETMansionNET has 6 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

Todays #Telecoms #RetroTech

Look-a-likely Tree, Orange Phone Mast
The first in Sussex, Balcombe
Site WSS0121

Pics taken during construction, probably ’99/‘00 ish

When I left, it was on permanent generator, as power was long way from site

Coverage in the area was desperately needed at the time.

This gave 2G 1800MHz GSM Signal
It also supported HSCSD - High Speed Circuit Switched Data
Each Time Slot offered 14.4 kbps, you could use up to 4 Slots - giving 57.6 kbps

Yes kids -that’s kbps!!

Another one from my self hosting adventures - ended up setting up my own IRC server a while back, with UnrealIRCd6 and Anope, plus a bunch of custom python bots handling trivia (AI based), weather, search...

Took some work to get everything running smoothly (ports, proxies, SSL headaches), but it’s all humming now 😊

If you're into classic chat, testing cool bots, or just want to drop by and hang out, let me know — happy to share the server.

I've moved apartments multiple times now while taking a 12 year-old flat screen TV that I never even bother plugging in. I could save myself the effort and sell it, but it's become a piece of precious retro tech to me, since it has absolutely no embedded internet connectivity. I'm loath to replace it with a "smart" TV, so it gets to come along with the 40 year-old IBM PC that currently sees more use.

I found an ancient calculator (a Commodore "Minuteman ⭐ 6" -- yes, that Commodore) that I used when I was in elementary school. It belonged to my dad. The calculator was first sold in 1974.

The power leads from the battery snapped off from the main board decades ago, but now I have a Hakko desoldering tool, so I was able to clear out the through-hole solder points and reattach the wires from the battery. It has a 7-segment red LED display and minimal operations.

And...it works! Sort of. I seem to have gotten it into a sort of self-test mode that displays a scrolling 0, until I power cycle it, then it displays EEFEEE until I hit the Clear button. And some of the segments don't illuminate. But it hasn't felt electrons surging through it since the 20th century, so I'll cut it some slack.

Welcome to the future, time traveler!

calculator-museum.nl/calculato