C:\>_

C:\>WIN_

[ms-dos5]

[techav]

Wow what a weekend!

We had well over 1500 guests and over a hundred exhibitors & vendors. There were 17 scheduled workshops & presentations, plus MDCon, a game room, consignment, and more.

I walked 20 miles inside the convention center, talked until I lost my voice, spent far more than I should have, and gave away hundreds of stickers.

I exhibited my PikaPC prototype and phase 2 board stack, as well as my Wrap030 project with some terminals.

If you couldn't make it to the show, recordings of the presentations will be posted over the coming weeks to the official VCF Southwest YouTube channel. I know I'll be watching the recorded presentations; I was so busy with my own exhibit I missed all of them!

[ms-dos5]

are you at vcfsw this year? :)

I was! Unfortunately I didn't check tumblr at like all during the show so... oops sorry for not responding sooner

[ms-dos5]

[ms-dos5]

[dinosaurspen]

[desertmarauder]

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2025

[never-obsolete]

[commodorez]

Join the Retro Dreams and Techy Things Discord Server!

Home of the Retrotech Crew. We strive to foster a friendly, close-knit community who share a love for vintage computers | 1086 members

Been awhile since I posted an invite link to the Retrotech Crew discord. It's mostly full of discussion about vintage computers, old video games, and technology in general before the year 2000, and you're welcome to come join us and hang out.

[ms-dos5]

[ms-dos5]

I just remembered this ridiculous shit that happened a couple months ago.

I was chatting with a guy at work and he said something to the effect of "ChatGPT has analyzed lots of things people have said so it can sound natural in conversation"

I responded with "Well I'd rather talk to a real person"

His response was "but ChatGPT is a real person"

no. no buddy it is not. This is the same guy who said he wanted to prioritize time with family instead of being at work all the time. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain "I like spending time with real people" to someone but I guess we're at that point now... luckily I haven't had to deal with him for like a month at this point

[ms-dos5]

Hey Microsoft what the fuck is this icon? What about this indicates that this is a word processor?

[ms-dos5]

The rest of them updated and they’re not much better. The Excel one looks baffling (why is the ‘spreadsheet’ missing cells?) and OneNote, the one I never use (dunno why I still have it installed) is the one that looks the best.

Really glad I run Office 2000 at home

[ms-dos5]

except they changed outlook to a blue that was like a shade away from word's blue for no good reason about ten years ago, when it had been yellow for way longer than that

bring back yellow outlook

[ms-dos5]

Hey Microsoft what the fuck is this icon? What about this indicates that this is a word processor?

[ms-dos5]

The rest of them updated and they’re not much better. The Excel one looks baffling (why is the ‘spreadsheet’ missing cells?) and OneNote, the one I never use (dunno why I still have it installed) is the one that looks the best.

Really glad I run Office 2000 at home

[ms-dos5]

Hey Microsoft what the fuck is this icon? What about this indicates that this is a word processor?

[desertmarauder]

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2025

[maruposting]

the way the ipad has undone literal decades of tech literacy is actually unforgiveable

[maruposting]

and I truly do mean the ipad having an effect on EVERYONE, not just kids or the elderly. the technological trend to rely on a dedicated app on a touch screen mobile device for seemingly everything has been active sabotage to your own technological freedom, perpetuated by corporations.

like do you have any idea how many people don't even know that adblockers exists? That you can download other browsers?

[maruposting]

Ever think about the active verbal campaign against Android devices? Like "haha funny,android cameras bad and android tablets are ugly!" Even among the popularity of touch screen mobile devices you have people talking about how iPhone and iPad are better than Android to the point where it has ruined Android devices. This is to close off your tech environment!!! You used to be able to sideload anything you want on Android, and pirate programs, customize the data you are willing to give out, debug mode your own device, and way way more! Now unless you have a rooted phone and some PC knowledge you're stuck in yet another closed tech environment controlled by marketplace apps riddled with ads and malicious data practices.

[maruposting]

you're right to be this upset, especially when this stems from companies making money off this kind of manufactured struggle.

If you weren't someone who knew file storage solutions imagine how easy it would be to fall victim to some silicon valley ass app advertising some garbage like

"Can't get all your files in one place educators? Try ProjectStream! Keep all your class files in a remotely accessible server with built in AI assistant! 99.99 per month or 599.99 per year!"

The obfuscation of basic computer functionality is basically a predatory market all on its own, actively hindering the lives of people everywhere in every field.

[ms-dos5]

If you're finding that this is you: just get some Windows XP or Windows 7 era shitbox machine and poke around it. Try to install Linux on something. You'll probably fail but it'll teach you a lot about the underpinnings of computers. And most important: if you don't know how something works, or if you're curious, or if you're confused, look it up. Figure out how to formulate a good search engine query and wade through the crap in the results. (Skip any AI generated result entirely: the sources will be further down in the results and it's better to get things from the source).

Just... experiment. Poke around. And, most importantly, remember it's not your fault that you don't know things. The industry is actively hostile to users.

[b-eton-loofie]

whoa, no machine with xp is a shitbox!

otherwise true

[ms-dos5]

try running XP on anything with a Transmeta Crusoe and you'll change your mind (thing takes ten minutes to log in)

[ms-dos5]

the stinky ibook g3 post reads like a musk kink post for computers

they really do smell that bad

(also please don't fuck the computer)