obsolete.computer

Commodore 128 Analog Clock

sean — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0500

My 3yo son is obsessed with clocks, in particular he loves analog clocks. So I decided to take a stab at making one on the C128. Ahem, what I mean is, I …

I guess I'm still firmly in the "MP3 collection" camp

sean — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

I tried doing a streaming service in a way that made sense to me: Tidal for high quality FLAC streaming, via a Mopidy plugin, playing back via distributed audio and controlled with …

Quick Gamecube RTC battery fix

sean — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0500

When I recently got the Gamecube out of the basement, I didn't think too much of the small brown stain on the front. I realized what it was when I turned on …

Cashflow Master, An 80-column C128 Budgeting Program

sean — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Do you have trouble determining if you're making enough money to cover your recurring expenses? Do you have a Commodore 128 and an 80-column monitor sitting around? Well then this program listing …

A Forumla For Cash Flow Balancing

sean — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Every once in a while, I prove the old adage that "you'll never use high school math in real life" wrong, by encountering some problem that I have to bust out algebra …

Garden Rework

sean — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400

My wife & I decided it was time update & re-do a lot of our garden areas including a whole new fenced in veggie garden, new gazebo/pavilion sitting area next to the garage …

A New Rear Brake Line

sean — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0400

There's not a whole lot to say here... the rear brake line started leaking so I replaced it. It was kind of fun trying to copy the shape of the factory line …

Accessing a BBS from a Commodore 128

sean — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Two posts in the same... week? What is happening around here?

My long-dormant desire to tinker with old Commodore machines was recently awakened thanks to the Lunduke Journal forum. Bryan hosts an …

The Maze, Now Building with FreeBasic

sean — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0400

I spent a little time last week finally working the kinks out of the old DOS game I wrote in college, The Maze. I won't bother making a downloadable binary, since the …

12-Valve Manual Fuel Shutoff

sean — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0500

A common failure point on a 12-valve Cummins, the fuel shutoff solenoid finally failed on my '95 and I found myself no longer able to start the truck. Well, I could start …

A Few Truck & Garage Updates

sean — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Back in November I undercoated the truck using "Fluid Film Black". A couple of noteworthy, um, notes:

Between this being a full undercoating rather than a touch-up, and the truck being a …

A New-ish PC Build for 2024

sean — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 -0500

It was time to update my PC as I've been using the same components for nearly 5 years, and have been using the same Corsair case since 2016. I went with the …

Cardioid Subs Are Magic

sean — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0500

I spent some time this week learning about how to coax a cardioid response pattern out of PA subwoofers. It's pretty amazing how well it works. Here's the skinny:

Grab Merlijn van …

RFH and Pasamala Reunion Show

sean — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0500

I've been really wanting to start producing some live videos from the shows we put on over at Big Rail, and the reunion of a couple of bands seemed like a good …

Color All The Things, With Pywal

sean — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0500

As with many folks who like to play with desktop cusomization, inevitably my desktop config tweaking always tends to be centered around matching the colors in the wallpaper. With the help of …

Digging into Vermiculate

sean — Sun, 13 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0500

For a long time, I've wanted to highlight a program that quickly became the screensaver I would always set when building a new Linux PC: Vermiculate, part of the XScreenSaver package. It …

Autumn Pics

sean — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Thought I'd get some nice photos from around the farm while there's some color on the trees.

Trailfest 2022

sean — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Here are some pictures from Bantam Trailfest '22. I had a fun time even though I couldn't find any passengers to go this time around. I ran a couple of the typical …

Truck Transmission Swap

sean — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

I'm converting my '95 Dodge 12-valve from an automatic (47RH) to a standard (NV4500). Here's how it's going.

This is a project-in-progress, it will be updated as it nears completion.

Day 1 …

I don't think I'll ever apply for another IT job

sean — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

My personality type is that of an idealist. A lazy perfectionist. Someone who sees the potential in the world, and is without exception disappointed by the reality of it. That's why I …

Truck gets Rig'd

sean — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Something that's been on my to-do list for a long time: Adding a swing-away spare tire carrier to the Dodge. A few months ago, thanks to the excellent offroading content creator Brad …

Quick GameMode Hacks

sean — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 -0400

GameMode is a daemon that sits waiting for you to play a game on your Linux PC, and when you do it springs to action and modifies a bunch of system parameters …

Winter Pics

sean — Sat, 26 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Nothing special, just taking some pictures on a nice wintry day. Taken on a OnePlus 8 Pro w/ the OpenCamera app. (Actually the one above was taken a week ago.)

Minimalist Media Server

sean — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Here is a tiny little Compaq Atom netbook that's been sitting around for a long time doing nothing. (The Compaq name alone should give you an indication of its age.) With a …

New Lungs For The TJ

sean — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0500

Here's a good example of why I've grown to hate rodents. For a long time, I thought they were cute fuzzy friends. Not any more. Some tiny devil decided to build their …

Sweet Boiler Mods

sean — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0500

A.K.A. The Most Complicated Home Heating Solution Ever.

In our house where we've lived for two years now (a Civil-War-era brick farmhouse in the middle of nowhere -- note the cool …

An Awesome Awesome Config

sean — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 00:00:00 -0400

For about 5 years now, I've been using the Awesome window manager, which is a tiling window manager that you configure using Lua scripts. What I always wanted out of it, though …

Nightly YouTube & Odysee Download Script

sean — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

Since my internet provider is so terrible, I struggle to watch videos directly on the web. Occasionally it works, but my patience grows thin every time I try. So, of course I …

Zen and the Art of Linux Maintenance

sean — Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0400

Though it's been on my "recommended books" list, I have to admit that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance sat on my shelf half-read for a long time until this past …

Jeep Fest 2021

sean — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0400

This past weekend was Bantam Jeep Fest 2021. I guess I don't really have a category for "Here's a thing that was fun" so the Garage category will have to do.

Beth …

New Tires, Old Rims

sean — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

I finally bumped the Dodge up to 33s. I'm not looking for a "monster truck" appearance (though I've had people call it that more than once), but the stock 31" tires always …

Recording in the Land of the Wolves

sean — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

Back in the Autumn of 2020, Josh contacted Bill and myself about recording some new tunes he'd been working on. The man puts out songs like the rest of us put out …

Pelican: The Story So Far

sean — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

I've used Wordpress (.org, not .com) for many, many years... and in fact developed PHP sites and WP plugins/themes full time for 2 years. It's a pretty decent, though certainly quirky …

The universe is, quite literally, made of music.

sean — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -0400

In the beginning, God said "let there be light." And the n-dimensional sound of his voice resonated forth into the nothingness, sounding as a hypercello being stroked by a jet engine. It …

Theft, a poem (sort of)

sean — Tue, 05 May 2020 00:00:00 -0400

taxation
regulation
prohibition
gun control
price controls
asset forfeiture
mass surveillance
the federal reserve
intellectual property
fractional reserve lending
occupational licensing
the minimum wage
eminent domain
net neutrality
imperialism
sanctions
socialism
fascism …

Goodbye, Little One.

sean — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0500

I think there are a couple of good reasons that it's so hard to say goodbye to our animals. First, they are innocent. There is no moral dimension to them, rather they …

The Solution to Mass Corporate Censorship is Software Freedom

sean — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 13:46:00 -0400

"They're a private company, they can do what they want."

"These companies need to stop censoring free speech. We need an Internet Bill of Rights."

How do we reconcile these two seemingly …

Restoring a 2nd Gen Dodge Truck

sean — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0400

I wish I could take credit for the work done here, but this is something that's simply far outside of my skill level. Still, I thought I'd share the process here because …

Freedom From The Capital G.

sean — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 20:34:00 -0400

There are many kinds of freedom. This is one of them.

Here's how I did it.

I remember way back when Google first acquired YouTube and how much I wanted them to …

GOTY 2017 - Hollow Knight

sean — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Since I know Hex is going to pick Zelda (and because I haven’t put nearly enough time into it yet), I decided to throw everyone for a huge loop this year …

The Veggie-Oil Powered Truck Project

sean — Thu, 28 Sep 2017 13:04:00 -0400

This is my old Dodge truck--- a 1995 Ram 2500 with the 5.9L Cummins diesel engine. What's so special about it? Well aside from the fact that this truck made me …

Hands On with the Owlboy Demo

sean — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0400

Discaimer: A preview copy of the game demo was provided.

You might not have heard anything about Owlboy... in fact it might have flown (heh) right under your radar. I’ve had …

I've Been Using My SteamOS Box To Play... Uh... Nintendo Games.

sean — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 14:39:00 -0400

I've ranted before about how non-open SteamOS is in practice, even though it's built on an open-source OS. Well, fortunately, some clever hackers have found ways to customize the gaming-centric operating system …

PC Preview: Axiom Verge

sean — Wed, 13 May 2015 00:00:00 -0400

I should come clean about something up front. I never beat Metroid. Or Super Metroid. I’m so sorry. I will say, however, that I have enough experience with the Metroid series …

GOTY 2015 - Shovel Knight

sean — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:00:00 -0500

For the pixelsexuals of the world, the year of our Lord twenty-fourteen gave us a wide array of opportunities to express our unnatural affinity for tiny squares. Highest on my list of …

Guard Your Heart - Old Haunts

sean — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:00:00 -0400

Here's an album I recorded for my friends Brendan and Matt, for their band Guard Your Heart. Sorry for the iframe embed.

Old Haunts …

Platformin' Norman

sean — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0400

Here's a song in the "retro chiptune" vein, written in Renoise.

The "A" section is a catchy little melody in its own right. You can kind of imagine some kind of character …

Red Hands - There's No Growth If There's No Rest

sean — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400

Editor's note, June of 2021: In an effort to document projects I've been involved with, here is a #laterBlog for a 5-song EP I recorded at the house for the guys in …

Jordan Nichols - Songs For Leaving

sean — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Here's an album I helped record for my friend Jordan Nichols. Sorry for the iframe embed.

Songs for Leaving by Jordan Nichols

Amplifiers - Everything Obsolete

sean — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Here's an album I helped record (just the tracking on a few of the songs, I didn't mix it) for my friends Si, Jon, Tim, and Andrew of the band Amplifiers. Sorry …

Nutritional Journey

sean — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

I’m no nutrition expert, but the Paleo approach works pretty well for me. About a year and a half ago I wanted to try to eat healther and more naturally, and …

The Journey of a Linux Gamer

sean — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:48:00 -0400

Hey there kids, sit down with your grampa and get comfortable because it's story time. With the beta of Steam's Linux client about to change the game industry forever, I'm going to …

Getting Started in Audio Production

sean — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:00:00 -0400

The other day someone contacted me, asking for some tips for someone getting started in audio. This particular person is planning to go to an audio engineering program. I'm certainly no expert …

Why I use Linux And Will Always Choose Software Freedom

sean — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0400

People probably wonder why on earth I would choose Linux for my daily computing needs rather than an “easier” platform, like Windows or Mac OS. Considering all the major software developers push …

Miscellaneous project updates

sean — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:08:00 -0400

Sorry for the recent silence here folks. I have to say that I haven't had a lot of nerdy stuff going on lately, at least nothing terribly interesting. But I figured I'd …

On the Demarcation Problem

sean — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The Demarcation Problem is a formalized name for the problem of how to draw a line around science. That is, what separates science from studies of philosophy, history, economics, mathematics, religion, and …

Getting Into Trackers

sean — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:15:00 -0400

I've been wanting to get back into writing music more regularly, and to that end I'm exploring a particular type of music composition tool called a tracker. It's about as close as …

A winding road to a tasty signal chain

sean — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:01:00 -0400

Amplifiers has been working on tracking at my place over the last few days, and last night we did some vocals. Ultimately, the signal chain was one I've wanted to try for …

Where

sean — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

A song! Been a while since I wrote one of these. It's pretty short and simple. I don't really know how to write long songs. Too impatient I guess?

Where
/ Download …

Suitcase PC, finally done after 2 years

sean — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:43:00 -0500

The lovely community of folks over at KBMOD.com have a regular feature in which they describe their Bro Caves, which are the dark, comfy rooms they set up their gaming PCs …

Atari 2600 Guitar Stompbox

sean — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:33:00 -0500

So here's one of those projects that sort of randomly materializes while rummaging through old stuff in the attic. I was looking for an enclosure to build a sort of "multi FX …

The Maze

sean — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:00:00 -0500

Reading a recent article on Kotaku about the amazing programmer Tim Sweeny made me start reminiscing about some of the games I wrote on the Commodore 64 in my younger days. It …

The real reason Christians have trouble embracing Darwinism (and why Atheists should, too)

sean — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

I was thinking about this today, and I think I came up with a pretty straightforward way to explain why Christians have trouble embracing Darwinism. Put simply, it’s because Darwinism has …

New Projects on the Horizon, Anterior and Posterior

sean — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:15:00 -0500

I haven't written a personal-ish post in a while, and I've had more and more glimmers of inspiration lately (offset by deeper dives into senility), so I thought I might blog about …

Streaming Music to an Android Phone

sean — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:08:00 -0400

I finally got around to setting up a streaming audio server at home so I could listen to my music collection on my phone from anywhere. Here's the basic gist of how …

Modern(ish) Game Highlight: Cave Story

sean — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:36:00 -0400

This is super old news, but you know, that's what I'm into. A while ago as I was looking for games that run on Linux, and I came across Cave Story, a …

A Christian’s case for libertarian society

sean — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

I hate politics with a passion, but I realized a few years ago that if the politically apathetic don’t start thinking, caring, and voting, then those who wish to gain power …

Planting a Garden

sean — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:40:00 -0400

This is a new type of "project" for me: planting a garden. I've been wanting to do this for a while now since I have a bit of land of my own …

Retro Game Highlight: Time Tunnel

sean — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:05:00 -0400

I need to write more about old games that I love. So here's an attempt to that end.

As I've mentioned before, ~~when I was young I had~~ I have a collection …

Alive In The North Woods: Technical Details

sean — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:05:00 -0400

Yellow Lady Slipper recently released their (our) new live disc, called Alive In The North Woods. For those interested, here are some technical details about what went into producing it.

First, some …

Yellow Lady Slipper - Alive In The North Woods

sean — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0400

This album was recorded live, from two different shows, in 2011. More details on the production are here.

The Songs

Wagugh
/ Download
No Escape
/ Download
My Weakness
/ Download
Habit …

Free Software Highlight: GnuCash

sean — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0400

Not everyone likes doing double-entry accounting... including me. But I do it anyway, because after squeaking by my accounting classes in college, I now know that there's no better way to get …

Sump pump installation

sean — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:31:00 -0400

To combat the mostly-minor water accumulation trouble in the basement where the studio is being built, we decided to put in a sump pump. This wasn't a minor undertaking by any stretch …

More studio construction fun

sean — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:43:00 -0500

Finally after a several-month-long break, we got a little more studio work done. Some of the glass block windows are in, the inter-room double-pane window is installed, the insulation is up, a …

Actually Obsolete Audio: Fun with an Otari 8-Track Reel-to-Reel

sean — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:31:00 -0500

A lovely piece of aging technology, the Otari MX-5050 MKIII-8 is a 1/2-inch 8-track analog tape machine. It's not as huge and glorious as some other models that are out there …

A Quick(ish) Christian Logic Lesson

sean — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

One thing that irks me is when people think that religion, specifically Christianity, is illogical or unwarranted. Here are some thoughts on that notion, take them or leave them.

To start off …

Little Bit Of Real Studio Progress

sean — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:49:00 -0500

So after a period of relative inactivity on the sound production front, a new studio is finally in the works. With the help of the rest of the YLS crew and input …

Quick and dirty guide to (slightly) better Internet security

sean — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:21:00 -0500

After offering some advice to friends about security pitfalls of Internet browsing, I decided to write up a list of steps to take to make being on the Internet a little bit …

Tube Screamer clone kit from BYOC

sean — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:24:00 -0500

I recently built a clone of Ibanez's Tube Screamer overdrive pedal, from a kit made by Build Your Own Clone. I also did a tremolo pedal kit, but I didn't take any …

iLok FAIL

sean — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:36:00 -0400

A few years ago, I purchased a Muse Receptor for use with my band. I'd consider myself somewhat of an early atopter.. I was fortunate enough to have an idea for the …

Antique Radio Computer Build

sean — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:46:00 -0400

Over the course of the past six months or so, I've been working on rebuilding an antique stand-up radio console as a gift for my girlfriend. Here's a quick rundown of the …

Amplifiers. EP.

sean — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:13:00 -0400

Si, Jon, and Andrew of Amplifiers have released the 3-song EP I recorded for them this past winter/spring, which you can check out below. Be sure to also check out their …

COMPUTE!

sean — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:27:00 -0400

When I was in 3rd grade or so, my parents let me use the family computer: a Commodore 64. This little brown box was probably the coolest thing I ever received (though …

Crawling in the Dungeon

sean — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:03:00 -0400

Note: this was edited from an e-mail I sent to my brother-in-law, which I thought deserved some space on the blog since I haven't talked about games much on here yet.

I've …

Suitcase computer build

sean — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:28:00 -0400

A few months ago, I built a computer into an old suitcase from a thrift store. My documentation of the process is a bit sketchy, but here is what I could piece …

Some classical guitar tunes

sean — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:21:00 -0400

Here are some songs I recorded for Beth's birthday a few years ago. (This is pretty much the only remaining evidence that I ever studied classical guitar...)

Bouree (J.S Bach)

Photos from Blacktown Sound Labs

sean — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:50:00 -0400

Since the old Blacktown Sound Labs web site featured pictures of the studio prominently, I never posted a blog with those pictures. But now they don't have a home on this site …

Yellow Lady Slipper - (Self-Titled)

sean — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

This album was recorded at The Farmhouse and originally released by Josh Milligan as "A Road From This to You" in 2007, and later re-released as YLS's self-titled album when Josh, Bill …

What's the haps, chaps?

sean — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:55:00 -0500

So I thought I'd let everyone (all 5 of you) know what's officially going on around here.

First, some background. Some of you may know that two of my good friends, Josh …

R.I.P., Studio computer -- 2003-2009.

sean — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:09:00 -0500

The recording computer is officially dead. It seems I took her home too late -- the string of devastatingly cold nights in early December caused the liquid cooling system to rupture, which fried …

Edhochuli - Lost Self-Titled

sean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Editor's note, circa 2021: Found that this recording, which I mentioned previously, was on Bandcamp... so here's the full embed of it. Not sure when they actually released it so the date …

Recent Recording Shenanigans

sean — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:06:00 -0400

It's been a while since I updated the blog with news of what's been actually going on here. So here goes:

We recently finished up a 6-song EP with some friends in …

Reverse, a one-night electronical diddy

sean — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:05:00 -0400

Here's a little 1-minute tune that I wrote in an evening, originally for a friend who wanted something for a film soundtrack. He asked for it to be just over 3 minutes …

Ardour feature sponsorship

sean — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:05:00 -0400

So here's a good example of the flexibility of open source software. I sponsored an Ardour feature request (see here ) last week. It is now implemented in the 3.0 branch (which …

Thoughts about owning a studio.

sean — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:16:00 -0400

Lately I've been a bit discouraged about the studio. It's becoming increasingly obvious to me that being commercially successful is a bit of a pipe dream. I say this not just because …

Put these Fingers in your ears

sean — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:55:00 -0400

I just got done mixing a five-song demo with Righteous Fingers of Harmony this evening. I'm pleased with how everything came out; It was the first time I had used the AKG …

Paint and rearranging: Before

sean — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:14:00 -0400

I took these last week to update the blog with some recent pictures, but they're already out of date! The new paint job went into the control room over the weekend. These …

Analog

sean — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

My favorite music: that which has not been converted to ones and zeroes.

I should elaborate. I realize digital signals are far superior in their ability to be "generationless" when duplicated. However …

Jescalator

sean — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

This is a song written in 9/8, somewhat in the spirit of a tune called "Vix 9" by Victor Wooten...well, only in that it's got a similar 9/8 feel …

Idiosympathy - Overachiever In Love

sean — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0400

This album was recorded at The Farmhouse, mixed at the Homestead, mastered at Treelady Studios, and released on July 28, 2007.

The Songs

We Live In Cages
/ Download
Dead Ghost