x=usr(1536)

Ah, Reddit's evidently found AA again, and it's recycling the janitor joke. https://www.reddit.com/r/ataribox/comments/7kaf46/atari_should_leak_some_more_information_about/ It's adorable when they do that. Obnoxiously huge screenshot of Reddit thread added as a hedge against later edits.

You might, though that's probably going to be system-dependent. The only systems I ever had any extensive cassette experience with were in the Atari 8-bit range, so they're the ones I'm most familiar with - and since you mentioned that Atari was one of your target systems, it seemed worth mentioning that they can read data from only one stereo track. The giggling part was the idea of a mono 'stereo' cable. The two terms are mutually-exclusive

See, I was totally about to change my mind re: the speakerhat, and I must admit that this change of heart was due in no small part to your passionate yet well-reasoned arguments regarding said millinery. However, as is known to happen in life, something crossed my path that caused me to have another vascular transmutation - namely, this. Promising taco-filling audio, there simply exists no other possible substitute, alternative, or option in the speaker realm, hatted or not. The inferiority of other speakers becomes readily apparent when compared to the magnificent clarion call of these audio wonders as they provide delicious, sonorous sustenance. Being the savvy investor that I am, I plan to purchase the entire company that manufactures these fine auditory generators of tortilla-engorging comestibles and make exactly fourteen dollars in profit.

I giggled a little at the idea of a mono stereo cable One thing regarding that, though: the Atari 8-bit machines were always stereo-capable when it came to cassettes. Only one track (I forget if it was the left or right) was used for data; the other could hold normal audio which was able to be played back through the TV speaker at the same time data was loading from the other track. Atari released some language learning cassettes that took advantage of this, as did some third-party developers. There's nothing wrong with recording the tapes in mono; it won't affect loading. But I figured it might be worth mentioning.

I also do not like the speakerhat. On the bright side, you now have enough people who do not like the speakerhat to start a list. You should start a list (perhaps in Google Docs) of people who do not like the speakerhat. That way, we can all know who does not like the speakerhat.

I've got a 1040STFM in storage that I'll be pulling out in a couple of months, and would like to put it to occasional use. There are a few upgrades I'd like to do to make it a little more usable than it was originally, but want to stay relatively close to a back-in-the-day spec. What I could use is advice on hardware and software stacks to accomplish this. Right now, my thoughts are more or less the following; any comments or suggestions are welcomed. - Ultrasatan and a couple of SD cards for storage - NetUSBee for networking - Something (but no idea what) for video output to a modern display - Something (but no idea what) for RS-232 / USB serial connectivity to devices that support it Also, if anyone has leads on where to obtain either the Ultrasatan or NetUSBee in North America, I'd be interested to hear about them. Nothing against Lotharek, but if I can find them locally it's just easier.

I've been using emulators since about 1989 or so, courtesy of (oddly enough) the Atari ST. That machine gave me my first real exposure to them, running Atari 8-bit, IBM PC, and Mac software through a variety of hardware and software emulators that were available at the time. Prior to that I'd really only used terminal emulators, which fall into a grey area that kinda does but kinda doesn't count in my book. As much as I love real hardware and believe that an emulator can never truly recapture the sensations and implications of using and interacting with that same hardware, there came a point where (and this is purely a personal observation; YMMV) I realised that I typically received no less enjoyment from using an emulator than real hardware in virtually every case. This insight was brought about by the further realization that I had a huge collection of arcade games, consoles, and computers, and I never had the time to actually enjoy even the smallest percentage of them. We're talking about storage units being rented just to house everything that I owned, and stuff was being bought just for the sake of having it but not having any real interest in it beyond that. Over time I pared down the collection to a much smaller level. I kept things that I had an actual attachment to (like the Vectrex I received for Christmas as a kid) or that weren't usably-emulated (a category which three of the machines I kept still fall into). All of the arcade games except for the MAME cabinet and one other - gone. Both the hardware and emulators have their place, and one can never really substitute for or replace the other. They're different animals, and good at different things and for different reasons.

So, there's an important thing to understand about DAPHNE on (specifically) the RasPi, regardless of whether or not you're trying to use it standalone, under RetroPie, or elsewhere: It's really broken. I'm not saying that it doesn't work... But there are things in the RasPi build that just don't work which should, at least in comparison to the x86 / x64 Linux, OS X, and Windows versions. See this post for examples of the problems. Another important thing to understand is that the RasPi build of DAPHNE is not one that is supported by DAPHNE's author as the RasPi is not an official build target for DAPHNE. That build is someone else's responsibility, so bugging Matt Ownby about issues on RasPi is not encouraged as he never intended for it to run on that platform. One final thing that you should be aware of: DAPHNE development has been stopped for a few years so that Matt could work on DEXTER, which is a PCB that replaces dead or dying laserdisc players in laserdisc arcade games. Because of this, DAPHNE in general is not exactly a dead project, but it is one that's not being actively maintained. In short: don't expect a ton of activity involving it on any platform. My recommendation to you would be to use DAPHNE on a supported platform where things are known to work properly, or at least as properly as they ever have Oh, and check your PMs.

If that information isn't delivered into the right hands, there will be no stopping either Big Taco or the Hot Sauce Junta. Believe me when I say that I have spared no consideration regarding this matter. But on balance, what must be done must be done. Security concerns demand that I reconfigure which the seven anonymous tacoboxxies I'm posting through. More news to come when I can safely be online again.

My family and I have been temporarily relocated to a safe location. It's probably OK for me to post... For now. You're starting to understand. But you don't yet know just how deep this particular rabbit hole goes. If you were to know - or even stumble upon - what I know, the repercussions for you could be final. Be careful in your enquiries. Be very, very careful. There is information that can be released, but its release must be done in a considered and orchestrated manner and through the appropriate channels. There is a balance that must not be upset until the time is right - but when that time arrives, I can assure you that the dominoes will tumble like a house of cards built on a tissue of lies. If I survive. Choose the rabbit holes you go down wisely. You might not like what you find at the bottom amongst the droppings and bits of fur and twigs and whatnot.

*Raises hand* guilty on both counts. And it's slightly freakish that we both used the Fry 'Not sure if...' Meme at the same time. Anyway, I may as well come clean. The pressure to do so has been eating at me for literally moments, and I just can't take it any longer. There are people - powerful people - in the taco industry who want to see the Ataribox fail. You might ask why they would want this, but it's generally best not to. Trust me on this one; I've seen what happens to those who get a little too curious, and it's not pretty. All I'm going to say is that there's a lot of holes out around Tijuana and you don't want to end up in one. Big Taco is really being driven on this one by the Hot Sauce Junta. They're mostly out of the public eye by comparison, but think about it for a second - tacos will sell to just about anyone minus hot sauce; it's pretty much an optional add-on. But fewer taco sales means fewer hot sauce sales... So it's the Junta who are most immediately threatened here. Big Taco isn't being used by the Junta as such; they're willing participants in this because there's more taco sales in it for them. I was planted here back in 2010 as a sleeper agent of sorts. They foresaw that the day would come when they would have to fight the respective threats to their empires, but they didn't know the form the threat would take. When the Ataribox news hit, they saw a credible threat and I was activated with the mission of diverting any interest in it back into tacos - and, by extension, hot sauce. My mission, essentially, is to engage in the economic warfare with the aim of disrupting and destabilizing the piss-poorly-thought-out retrogaming device market. You need to understand that they're as scared of the Ataribox itself as they are the penny stocks. Eight shares of Atari are roughly equivalent to a decent bottle of hot sauce, and are actually accessible at this time, unlike the Ataribox. You can probably see where the Junta has immediate concerns due to this, and Big Taco has longer-term ones. Having all of this off of my chest is just... Indescribably relieving. I've been living a lie, and for reasons I am not proud of. My sincere and heartfelt apologies to all whom I have deceived; please understand that it if it had not been for certain things that were being held over my head I would never have agreed to take on this role in the first place. By posting this I am placing my life in mortal danger, and both Big Taco and the Hot Sauce Junta have long memories, near-infinite resources, and limitless patience and capability. Believe me, that is not an overstatement on my behalf. There is knowledge of the inner workings of both groups that I possess which would be of great interest to anyone seeking to stop them. I just need to remain alive long enough to be able to present that knowledge. Provide me with permanent protection and I will sing, sing like a caged bird freed a song of truth and rebellion. We can free the tacos and hot sauce from their grip for all and for all time, and provide a more harmonious world where everyone can freely consume a spicy taco without fear.

Re: penny stock touting:

Glad you like it, and that was pretty much my assessment of it as well. Going to order a couple of bottles once this one runs out; we don't seem to have a regular supply of it around here.

Our local Greek takeaway has a very enlightened policy when it comes to gyros meat in quantity: you tell them how much you want and give them money; they shave it right off the Doner and hand it to you in a box. I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but I did once order 2lbs. of gyro meat from them. Curious as to how much it actually weighed, when I got home I put it on the kitchen scale. It registered 2.2lbs., or 1kg exactly. And I ate the entire damn thing in one sitting. It was amazing, and has come to be referred to as the 'kilodoner incident' by my wife. Today was a little more restrained on my behalf, but it did take some effort to make that happen.

Also, we're losing sight of something important in all of this: Has CPUWIZ received his hot sauce yet, and, if so, has he had a chance to experience it? I just had some with a half-pound of gyros meat for lunch. God, was that delicious.

I'm glad that your speakerhat has brought untold joy into your life. Clearly, it was an heirloom-quality investment worth pursuing, and will undoubtedly be cherished by all to whom it is passed on throughout the generations. Now go do exactly the same things in public with it that you've been doing so far and see what happens. Bear in mind that by "in public," I mean, 'where there's other people around who don't want to listen to whatever it is that you're playing through it'. What you do in your driveway or on a walk around the block is one thing; now see what happens on a train, or bus, or in a restaurant or store. This may perhaps allow you to attain the Zen state of understanding surrounding our shitposting regarding said item.

Yep, that's pretty much exactly why BeOS never made it to the G3. Me too. Nothing else really comes close.

Well... Yes and no. Those were definitely contributing factors, but not the whole story. To add some detail to those points: BeOS did pretty well in the retail market, with R4.5 (IIRC; may have been R4) outselling boxed copies of RedHat for a couple of quarters. Agreed re: not having the level of promotion others did, but it was receiving very favorable press which in many ways was almost better. The next-generation Apple OS: what nuked that was Jean-Louis Gassée overestimating how much Apple was willing to pay for the company. By buying NeXT, they got Steve Jobs into the deal and for less money. Spend half as much and get the guy back who actually knows how to run the company? It was a no-brainer. Strangely enough, that leads into why Be ported the OS to x86, and why Microsoft later strongarmed hardware manufacturers into keeping Be out of the bundled-OS marketplace: after the NeXT acquisition, Apple suddenly weren't interested in cooperating with Be as regards technical information necessary to port the PPC version of BeOS to the G3 architecture. Be went to x86 as a result, and... Despite (or, depending on how you look at it, because of) massively increased interest in and uptake of the OS as a result, they still got screwed. The one that really sunk them, though, was the focus shift from BeOS to BeIA. For anyone unfamiliar: BeIA was the Internet Appliance platform derived from (but not binary-compatible with) BeOS. They basically bet the farm on Internet Appliances being the next big thing, and it was a bad bet. Development on BeOS pretty much stopped as soon as the Compaq Clipper and Sony eVilla were in the picture and being actively developed for, so the parent OS was effectively dead (which also explains - in part - why R5.1 never saw official release). However, once it became apparent that nobody wanted a $99 email and web browsing terminal that forced you to subscribe to at least a year's dialup service at inflated cost in order to use it, the writing was on the wall. It did not take long for this to happen. TuneTracker is a pretty damn awesome piece of software. But if there's one thing in BeOS that I really, Really, REALLY miss, it's Replicants. Being able to basically shove data from any application to any other application completely seamlessly was so damn useful at times.

Speaking of hot sauces... For anyone else who may be a fan of the same, I'll suggest El Yucateco's XXXtra Hot Kutbil-ik Mayan sauce. That link is to the Amazon listing for it, but we found it at Big Lots a few weeks back. It's good. Properly hot (definitely more so than their other sauces, which are our go-tos for spicy), but with solid flavor. It manages to avoid one of my chief hot sauce gripes which is not reducing the taste of vinegar in the sauce enough. Between the flavor and the heat you wouldn't know that there's vinegar in it unless you read the label.

7800. Oh, wait...

If you'd prefer another kind of spam in your inbox, I'm sure we could oblige.

Note the amount of Ataribox news contained in this thread. Now note the amount of taco discussion in comparison. This should tell you something about the state of Ataribox development. Expecting Ataribox news in this thread may be setting yourself up for a very, very long wait, and even when Ataribox news is posted here, expect tacos to follow. Tacos are the way of the Internet. Sacred and inviolate, they provide where Ataribox does not.

I want all of my SMS messages to appear on toast. It's 2018, after all. Reading them on a phone's screen is so 1993.

Is it a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma?