#zinestation — Public Fediverse posts

You can see some of my experiments in that space on my blog ( https://ajroach42.com/blogging-at-19200-baud/ ) and under the hashtag #zinestation or #zinestation486

What you'll find is that I mostly talk about these things when they're just barely working, and once I have them working well I mostly forget to talk about them anymore.

If you really go digging, you might be able to find some blogposts I wrote about doing a similar thing with the Tandy 100 or 102. I know I wrote about it somewhere, but I can't seem to find the posts. (Probably they were on my blog on my old tilde. RIP)

And if you *Really* dig, you might find some blog posts I did about a similar thing on the HP 200LX back when I was still using blogspot.

If you're curious, when I have the luxury of using wired headphones I tend to use a par of Grado sr80s. For about a decade this is what I wore out, whether I was listening to my cellphone or a cassette deck or a CD player (this is also when I was primarily using my #zinestation HP Omnibook as my main laptop when I wasn't at work, I carried a chunky bag) but I found their wireless cans to be too big for my current portable rig, so these days I keep two pairs of Koss Portapros on me, one wired and the other wireless. They came with little carrying cases that make the two about the same size as my old Grados.

I keep the wired ones with my omnibook and my cassette deck in a bag that almost never leaves my house, and the wireless ones with my gamedad and laptop in my Space Patrol backpack.

Anyone have a favorite desktop publishing app for DOS or win31 with inline jpg support?

A word processor with inline jpg support is also acceptable. Especially if it saves RTF natively.

I'm trying to make the #zinestation a little more of a standalone publishing rig.

I've been spending a lot more time away from my home lately (and I'm several years removed from my last full time Computer-Touching gig) and I now feel like it's time to Omnibook once more.

The #zinestation lives.

For a long time, it was my primary "not at the house" machine.

I wrote nearly every episode of #expeditionSasquatch on my #zinestation, I produced a few dozen zines, too.

I've never been happier with a computer.

Okay, that's out of the way.

Issue one has three articles: one about my HP Omnibook (#zinestation) one about my DIY replacement for the Sony Portapak, and one about DIY Convertible Computing hardware.

I published this one a few years ago. I intended to do a followup, but last year was not a good year for me.

This year is a better year, it's time to write a followup.

But ... well, I haven't done much wacky computer bullshit in the last year beyond #NewEllijayTelevision and the things that Sundog and I are working on.

And I haven't written much about computers in the last year.

So uhhhhhhhhh now I need to figure out what the next issue is going to be about.

@stooovie I don't have photos handy, but I'm sure you can find some if you can find a way to view that hashtag ( #zinestation ) on this server.

There are certain kinds of creation, consumption, and communication that are wholly modern, that only work in a fully graphical environment with low latency, high bandwidth broadband.

I can't really edit photos on my #zinestation because it's a 386 (or occasionally a 486) with a monochrome screen and 4MB or 8MB of RAM.

Video production is right out! The thing doesn't even have a sound card, for me to attempt working with audio.

On the other hand, I use it to write nearly every episode of Expedition Sasquatch. I send most of my personal emails from that box, and I have (through various tricks) gotten it on the fediverse. I don't post much from the zinestation anymore, but I used to read and post from it and my palm pilots often enough (with tricks! It's all tricks! We'll get there.)

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't talked about Jupiter's Ghost recently enough for even people who know me well to know what the hell I am talking about so

It's time to talk about my pet project.

Not #newellijaytelevision

Not #expeditionsasquatch

Not the #zinestation or the #zinestation486

and not the #spacelarpcafe (although very nearly the space larp cafe)

Today, right now, and for the foreseeable future, I'm talking about #jupitersghost or #jg, what it is, what I want it to be, and how you can get involved.

(Yes, I own a computer that runs windows.

Three, actually. Well, no. Five.

One for printers and other Windows Only hardware at the maker space.

One for Win98.

One is my #zinestation running win31.

One is my wife's old laptop that we keep around in case I need old documents or whatever, that got pulled in to double duty as our media server.

And the last one is a GPD WIN 3 that I use for playing games.

I love the zinestation, and the GPD Win (although I'll probably install SteamOS on it, because Windows is pretty shit Outside of Steam on that formfactor), but otherwise, I am physically repulsed every time I have to touch one of these boxes.

Nothing works. Everything is broken and hidden and unfixable.

I think during the next show, we'll do a radio show read in front of the stage while the bands are tearing down between sets.

Something in the style of The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Which means I need to write that, and also Flo's monolog.

I guess I'll be dusting off the #zinestation tomorrow.

I use my Omnibook as a wordprocessor, or specifically as a #zinestation connected to a dot matrix printer.

I use my mac plus as a development box in hypercard, I was previously using it as an email box.

I've used my c64 to connect to BBSs.

I have an amiga that I'm hoping to use as part of a video editing rig.

Do you design stickers? Do your friends?

I need a few dozen very small, weird, bizarre, artistic, or otherwise interesting stickers.

I was at an art show this weekend, and I got a bunch of stickers, but I need more.

I have too many pristine gadgets that I use on a daily or weekly basis. My #zinestation needs stickers. My Palm #m500 needs stickers.

It's time to sticker up the world.

Not having a real laptop with me is indeed frustrating. I have little palm top, and I think the #zinestation is here. Maybe I'll telnet in to the little box from the zinestation. Maybe I'll do something else entirely.

Personally, there's another facet to all of this:

I use and maintain computers professionally, and recreationaly.

Sometimes, I want to do something that doesn't feel or look like my day job. Unfortunately, most of my hobbies feel and look a lot like my day job.

To that end, I have some weird old computers that I keep around because they're useful and also because they're Vastly Different than the computers I use at work.

My #zinestation, mac plus, and palm pilots fall in this camp.

@bamfic this might be a slight exaggeration. Let me enumerate.

Functional: 15
I have 3 omnibooks, two other DOS laptops, two thinkpads, two macbooks, a pinebook, another Linux laptop, three Chromebooks, and my sole windows laptop.

One Mac is for work. One is for my wife. The Chromebooks are loaners for guests/children. One Thinkpad is my daily driver, one omnibook is my #zinestation.

Broken: 4
Non-laptop portable computers: at least 14, more depending on definition.

@greenjon but the #zinestation is pretty ram constrained.

So I'm seriously considering ... Converting all the pictures I want to use to bitmaps and doing the layout on my #zinestation

but the zinestation *really* sucks for working with images, and I don't love Publisher on Win31, but it outperforms the other options by a Wide Margin, and I also don't know how I/if I could migrate the files from whatever DTP I use on the zinestation to something more modern for print.

If it's not on that list, I'm probably not thinking about it right now.

I mean, except for my #zinestation, I'm always thinking about that.

And #fakedTV, I'm thinking about that too. But I can't make any progress on either of those until I get some other stuff off my plate.

@ajroach42 the mouse on this one is a lot more reliable than the mouse on my #zinestation, which will make using Windows 3.1 apps easier.

Now to find the best windows 3.1 apps that'll run in a low ram environment.

Suggestions welcome!

@ajroach42 the mouse on this one is a lot more reliable than the mouse on my #zinestation, which will make using Windows 3.1 apps easier.

Now to find the best windows 3.1 apps that'll run in a low ram environment.

Suggestions welcome!

Alright, I wanna talk about my current projects for a second, so that I can keep a record of what I'm working on, and update anyone who's been following along.

Threaded for my ease of referencing. I'll try to keep it short.

Current projects:
#MountainTownToys
#JupitersGhost
#ZineStation (and accompanying omnibook work)
#ExpeditionSasquatch`
#fakedTV
Everything else

A friend found another omnibook, the same as the one I use in my #zinestation and is sending it to me.

Normally, I would not need a spare and I would give it away to someone else, but in this case I am keeping it for a few reasons: 1) It has some cosmetic and physical flaws which mean that I'm going to have to do some work on it, and once I've done that work I know I'm going to want to keep it. 2) It's a gift from someone I don't see much.

So I'm going to have a spare HP Omnibook 300. (thread)

@kelbot @djsundog It feels like we're about 80% of the way to me being able to me being able to replace my #zinestation with a hacked down pi 3 + the existing 9.7" waveshare or the 6" inkplate + a terminal emulator that'll support the screen + a mechanical keyboard.

If I can come up with a decent system for also enabling HDMI out, an okay looking case, and a simple way to make the headphone out a little cleaner, then ... I mean, that's it. Right? The perfect machine to replace my omnibook?

Anyone have any leads on a version of SSH2DOS that supports modern encryption methods?

Or tips for any other way to make a secure internet connection from my #zinestation to home server? (I guess I could run a Tor proxy hotspot on my phone...)

I've noticed that I tend to take a lot of pictures and make a lot of posts during the early exploratory phases of a project, and not as many during the final implementation.

This is largely unintentional. It's just the way my brain works.

I haven't, for example, talked about the #ZineStation in a while (although I use it just about every day, it's what I write on at the coffee shop, and I print pamphlets and newsletters with it regularly.)