Bitsofthepast.com status

[Dropcheck]

I realize I kind of disappeared from the scene over the last year or so.  Multiple life events occurred that swallowed whole sections of time for me.  And I kind of burnt out on top of it all. 

 

I am still planning on putting up an informational website for almost all the projects I created, or assisted with others to create.  That site will contain BOMS, pictures of completed projects, build instructions etc.  Where possible I will correct errors, substitute parts for unattainable ones and provide updated gerbers. You'll be able to have boards made by your favorite board house, but I will not be releasing schematics.   Most are fairly simple in design anyway.  

 

I had intended on that site going live the first of the year, but obviously I missed that deadline by a few months.  Life has hopefully stabilized enough now so that I can get that done in the next month or two.  It will go up in stages, and I'll add projects one by one. 

 

If you are looking for the Sparta Dos Super Cartridge pcb,  I turned that project over to Corei64.  You may need to special order that board from him as I don't see it listed on his site. 

 

Going forward, I'll mainly be tinkering.  As the spirit moves me and I have a finished project, or as finished as any of them ever get, I'll post what docs, boms, pics and gerbers I have.   But I won't be operating a web shop for purchasing and I'll not really be able to provide support. 

 

Hopefully I can still contribute, just not at the level I did.  Thanks for the memories. 🙂

[+x=usr(1536)]

No worries, glad to hear that things are calming down, and thanks for everything you've done 

[Tillek]

Thank you for everything.... Life happens.  We're here when you need us and we're grateful for anything you'll contribute in the future!

 

Don't be a stranger!

[+DrVenkman]

Thanks for the update, Lenore. We appreciate everything you do, whatever that may be.

[+Stephen]

Glad to hear things have improved for you.  Thanks for sharing (as well as initially creating) some really cool stuff.

[macsonny]

I for one want to say thank you to dropcheck. Firstly, for creating amazing products to keep our 8-bit machines alive and secondly for being such a great community contributor. I was lucky enought o get a floppt drive board from her plus get some after sales support to get the unit working. SUch a nice person.

[+slx]

Thanks for sharing and all the best! Still happy with the accessories I bought from you.

[Dropcheck]

Finally got a skeleton website built.  It's a little rough around the edges and still doesn't have all my projects yet, but it's a start.  Check it out.  If you are having problems with dl or display with a relatively modern browser let me know.  It should support browsers with Windows 10/11 at least.  Not sure about older ones.

 

BitsofthePast.com

[macsonny]

4 hours ago, Dropcheck said:

Finally got a skeleton website built.  It's a little rough around the edges and still doesn't have all my projects yet, but it's a start.  Check it out.  If you are having problems with dl or display with a relatively modern browser let me know.  It should support browsers with Windows 10/11 at least.  Not sure about older ones.

 

BitsofthePast.com

Sweet. So excited to see this site coming up. Thank you for investing the time and for being so generous to share all your hard work. I for one am really excited about a number of your (yet to be posted) projects and really appreciate all you've done for the Atari community.

[+mytek]

Nice to see your new website coming together and I especially liked the 'About' section, which gave great insight into your roots and all that occurred leading up to where you are today. Also very impressed by your educational accomplishments, and your determination to get past any earlier limitations in this regard. I still suck at math

[+Larry]

Ditto!  Always nice to see the background of our folks.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Greetings from the wilds of the OKC Metro area 

[Dropcheck]

26 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Greetings from the wilds of the OKC Metro area 

 

Greetings back.  Still remember my tornado dodging days.  I was there up in north OKC in 2013 when Moore and El Reno got plastered.    Not two nights I want to relive.  I like the quieter life here in the east.  🙂

[XL Freak]

Hey @Dropcheck!!  been trying to reach you through email to arrange the return the leftovers from the sf551 project, and i've an entire box of goodies for you. has your email changed? feel free to contact me at jgwarford at gmail . com. that's all i'll say about that here.

 

Looking forward to seeing your new site up and running. A few folks were asking about the sf551 pcb, and I think Jon (aka @flashjazzcat) is itching to make another one >wink<

 

I finally got my xe all setup with UAV, U1MB, SIDE3 and FujiNet, all sitting besides my beautiful SF551 that you and Jon so kindly put together for me. And the new keyboard makes it all so much more enjoyable! And yes, I have one for you too  

 

Cheers!

Jesse

[Havok69]

What's that hammer for on your desk? Moments of frustration?  

[Dropcheck]

10 hours ago, Havok69 said:

What's that hammer for on your desk? Moments of frustration?  

Sometimes......  But usually I just drop the board on the floor to see if that will fix the problem.  Hence my moniker Dropcheck  🙃

 

Really not sure why the hammer is sitting there.  Sometimes I'll use it to tap in tight fitting furniture parts.  I probably just forgot to put it up after the last time I used it.

[reifsnyderb]

22 minutes ago, Dropcheck said:

Sometimes......  But usually I just drop the board on the floor to see if that will fix the problem.

Reminds me of how we got hard drives working again at my first IT job.  Somebody would put in a ticket that their computer wouldn't boot.  So, we'd drop by their desk and, sure enough, it didn't boot.  The hard disk didn't even spin up.  So, when nobody was looking, we would pick up the whole PC and drop it an inch or two.  The hard drive would usually spin up and we'd recover the data.   🙂

 

[+DrVenkman]

I’m not sure it’s still being actively produced, but several years ago I listened to the occasionally-recorded “Drop Three Inches” podcast which is/was devoted to the Apple ///. Apparently that was an Apple-recommended first step for balky Apple ///‘s. 😛 

[Dropcheck]

It was actually a proscribed first action in the troubleshooting steps for a couple old, old electronics boxs I worked on in the Navy back in early 90s.  They had backplanes that cards would loosen up in and without even opening up the boxs you could fix the problem by turning them just so, raise them a inch or so in your hands then drop them on the countertop.   The other common first troubleshooting tip was to tap the box.   Same premise.   I do the same thing with my house thermostat when the heater won't go on or the AC won't turn off when the set temp is reached or exceeded.   Gotta love electronics......🙂

Edited June 9, 2023 by Dropcheck

[+x=usr(1536)]

29 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I’m not sure it’s still being actively produced, but several years ago I listened to the occasionally-recorded “Drop Three Inches” podcast which is/was devoted to the Apple ///. Apparently that was an Apple-recommended first step for balky Apple ///‘s. 😛 

I can confirm having been in the presence of a relative who received this piece of advice from Apple and, after performing the task for the third time, decided that a //e would be a better bet.

[Tillek]

40 minutes ago, reifsnyderb said:

Reminds me of how we got hard drives working again at my first IT job.  Somebody would put in a ticket that their computer wouldn't boot.  So, we'd drop by their desk and, sure enough, it didn't boot.  The hard disk didn't even spin up.  So, when nobody was looking, we would pick up the whole PC and drop it an inch or two.  The hard drive would usually spin up and we'd recover the data.   🙂

 

Ah... usually for us the solution was to take the disk out of the floppy drive.

 

[reifsnyderb]

17 minutes ago, Tillek said:

Ah... usually for us the solution was to take the disk out of the floppy drive.

 

lol   Yeah, there were some other incidents like that. 

 

There was this ticket I got complaining about a black band around the screen.  So, I went to the guy's office.  It was huge, on the top floor of the building, and he had a huge "ego wall" full of degrees and certificates.  He wasn't around but his secretary was.  Of course, she had no idea what the problem was.  So, I sat down at his desk and looked at his computer.  I noticed there was a small "margin" around the edge of the screen.  This monitor also had all of the controls nicely labeled on the front, in plain view.  The labels made it extremely obvious as to how to adjust the monitor.  So, I made a couple adjustments and got rid of the margin.  Finally, the guy arrived.  After I asked him what the problem was, he looked at his monitor and told me it was gone.   🙂

 

We should probably have an IT stories thread.  That could get fun.  🙂

 

[ivop]

On 6/6/2023 at 4:03 PM, mytek said:

Nice to see your new website coming together and I especially liked the 'About' section, which gave great insight into your roots and all that occurred leading up to where you are today. Also very impressed by your educational accomplishments, and your determination to get past any earlier limitations in this regard. I still suck at math

Yes, that was an interesting read! To think it's been almost 18 years since my then-GF and I were rooting for Carrie Underwood. One of the few times I followed a the talent shows. The early days of torrenting, which was a huge improvement over IRC. Time flies.

[Overange]

1 hour ago, reifsnyderb said:

 

 

We should probably have an IT stories thread.  That could get fun.  🙂

 

Yeah, that would be a fun one to do.

I also have so many amazing stories from back then.

 

 

[Tillek]

6 hours ago, reifsnyderb said:

lol   Yeah, there were some other incidents like that. 

 

There was this ticket I got complaining about a black band around the screen.  So, I went to the guy's office.  It was huge, on the top floor of the building, and he had a huge "ego wall" full of degrees and certificates.  He wasn't around but his secretary was.  Of course, she had no idea what the problem was.  So, I sat down at his desk and looked at his computer.  I noticed there was a small "margin" around the edge of the screen.  This monitor also had all of the controls nicely labeled on the front, in plain view.  The labels made it extremely obvious as to how to adjust the monitor.  So, I made a couple adjustments and got rid of the margin.  Finally, the guy arrived.  After I asked him what the problem was, he looked at his monitor and told me it was gone.   🙂

 

We should probably have an IT stories thread.  That could get fun.  🙂

 

We could have a good contest about who has the best story about an "auto-retracting cup-holder failure".