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Non-Byte Tinney Covers

Robert Tinney was in great demand to do covers for companies other than Byte. Here are the ones I have.

The Utah Teapot In Crystal

I had the famous Utah teapot engraved in crystal.

Byte Magazine’s “Software” Cover Re-created As a Photograph

I’ve been re-creating Robert Tinney’s Byte magazine paintings as photographs. My latest work is “Software”. There are a few interesting stories to go with this one.

Converting KiCad Schematics to Verilog

I wrote a KiCad plugin to generate Verilog code from a schematic.

Byte Magazine’s “CPU Architectures” Cover Re-created As a Photograph

I’ve been re-creating Robert Tinney’s Byte magazine paintings as photographs. My latest work is “CPU Architectures”.

The Other Star Trek Game

If you’ve used computers from the 70s and early 80s, you’re probably familiar with the classic Star Trek game. What very few people know, is that there was another, very different Star Trek game at the same time. It was script-based, and it gave you a feeling of actually being in an episode of Star Trek. I’ve been looking for this game for over 40 years, and it appeared as if had ceased to exist. Until now. A copy – possibly the only one in the world – has been found. So let’s take a look … at the other…

A PWC Dashboard App for Android

I’ve published my first app on the Google Play Store – a dashboard for personal watercraft, like Jet Skis.

A Handy Tester for Trailer Lights

‘Tis the season for using my boat trailer. But first, I need to test whether the lights work.

Star Trek and the Evolution of a BASIC Programmer

  I re-created the classic Star Trek game for the VT52. And it demonstrated how much I’ve changed as a programmer in 42 years.

A Nixie Clock Radio

The Internet doesn’t need another description of a Nixie clock. So, as with my previous Nixie clock, I’ll just talk about what’s unique.

SYM-1 Expansion Board Documentation

If you have one of the SYM-1 Expansion Boards I’ve made, here’s some useful information I’ve gathered for it.

The Logic Meter

I’ve made a test instrument that does tasks you’d commonly need when testing a microcontroller-based project, and makes them as quick and easy as a multimeter. I call it a Logic Meter.

The SYM-1 Star Trek Station

With tech from the 2020s, I dragged a SYM-1 kicking and screaming into the 1980s so that it could play a game from the 1970s.

The Best CAPTCHA Ever

I just got an e-mail from someone saying that my homegrown CAPTCHA was “stupid”. On the contrary, it’s far more effective than Google’s.

ASR-33 Snoopy

There’s a guy on Etsy with a working ASR-33 Teletype, and he’ll make printouts and punched paper tape strips for you. (In Soviet Union, paper tape punches you!)

Byte Magazine’s “Inside IBM” Cover Re-created As a Photograph

I’ve been re-creating Robert Tinney’s Byte magazine paintings as photographs. My latest work is “Inside IBM”.

A Modern Electronic Package for the Wang 300 Series Calculator

I brought a Wang 360 calculator console back to life with a modern “Electronic Package”. Not only does it emulate the original Wang calculator’s behavior, but it can operate as a nixie clock or as a Reverse Polish Notation calculator.

Potentially Life Saving Burner Alarm

Over the last year, my wife and I have left our gas stove on twice. Once, the burner was not lit, so we woke up to a kitchen full of gas. Not good.

My Albany Covered Bridge Picture

The Albany Covered Bridge is a much-photographed attraction along the beautiful Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire.

SpaceX Does the Preposterous

SpaceX has done what everyone assumed was preposterous.

Birch Log Bookcase

I needed more storage space, and my neighbor’s birch tree was blown over in a storm.

IMSAI 8080 In Fused Glass

My daughter and I went to a class in making fused glass art. I made an IMSAI 8080. Everyone else was making landscapes and animals. Are they weird or what?

My Nubble Lighthouse Picture

We had some guests from out of town, and while showing them around, I discovered the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine.

Nixie Clock: Lessons Learned

There are zillions of nixie clocks on the web, so I’ll just discuss the atypical features and problems I encountered.

Recreating Another Byte Magazine Cover as a Photograph

What if the beautiful, surreal paintings that graced the covers of Byte magazine were not merely figments of Robert Tinney’s imagination, but existed in real life? And what if someone photographed them?

My Stephen Hawking Story

Years ago, I mentioned that I have a story about Stephen Hawking. Now that he has passed away, I might as well tell the tale.

HP Logic Analyzer PC

This is not a Hewlett-Packard logic analyzer. It’s a Core i5 Windows PC.

Upgrading a Vectrex to 32 Bits

The Vectrex was a unique home arcade game with a vector graphics display. It came with an 8 bit processor. I wanted to upgrade it to 32 bits.

When You Piss Off a Telemarketer

Rachel from Card Services is mad at me, and I’m suffering the consequences.

Re-creating a Byte Magazine Cover as a Photograph

The cover of the July 1977 issue of Byte magazine showed a train chugging around a printed circuit board (PCB). When I started making PCBs as part of my electronics hobby, I got the idea of re-creating this image as a photograph of a real circuit board with a model train on it. This was a challenging project that involved several different photographic techniques, attention to geometry, model-building, wiring, and more.

A Kindle Weather Display, the Easy Way

I’m not the first person to turn a Kindle e-reader into a weather display, but I believe I’ve found an easier way to do it.

A Bicycle Inclinometer and Altimeter

It was so easy to add a inclinometer to my bike using off-the-shelf hardware that I’m almost embarrassed to post about it here.

Interview with a Scammer

I had a refreshingly honest discussion with a “Windows tech support” phone scammer who admitted to me he was a criminal and tried to justify himself.

Blueprintf – A Bluetooth Serial Monitor

One way of debugging microcontroller-based projects is to send messages out the UART serial port. Then, a UART-to-USB interface can feed the messages into your PC for display. But I wanted a small, portable device for viewing serial data without a PC, and I wanted it to use my cell phone or tablet for its display.

Triple-Sensor Mailbox Alert

I built a triple-sensor mailbox alert to tell me when there is mail in my mailbox for me.

Punch Card Printing Plate Pencil Holder

40 years ago, everyone hated “IBM cards”. I remember folding, spindling, and mutilating them out of spite. Now, they’re an object of nostalgia. When I got my hands on one of the actual printing plates that was used to print the cards, I had to treat it with the respect and dignity it deserved. So I made it into a pencil holder. And I have some extras so I’m selling them.

My Brother’s Math Calendar

My brother, a longtime math enthusiast (I’ve even seen him calculate logarithms in his head) has created an interesting math calendar for 2015 and is selling it on Amazon.

MultiSIM BLUE Review

  I was excited when I saw that Mouser was coming out with an apparently unlimited PCB CAD program. I’m not excited anymore. Check out my review at my other site, PCBShopper.

Phaser on a smartphone

A UI Parable: The Smartphone Phaser

Last night, I had a dream that I had the latest Starfleet-issue phaser – and it was integrated with my smartphone. The result was truly a nightmare.

Finding the Cheapest PCB Manufacturer

I’ve built a website, PCBShopper.com, that lets you quickly and easily compare prices from several different printed circuit board manufacturers.

Hacking a Heating Pad

My wife and I have a heating pad on our bed. In the winter, we turn it on an hour before we go to bed. When we get into bed, we leave it on until we warm up. But if we fall asleep before we turn it down, we’ll wake up a couple of hours later, overheated. Clearly, we need a technological solution.

Heathkit Hack #3: Improving the ET-3300 Breadboard

I use a Heathkit ET-3300 powered breadboard for my prototyping. But setting it up has always been a chore in itself. I need to run wires from the power supplies to the power buses, which is messy (though admittedly not nearly as messy as the rest of the circuit will be) and often add voltage regulators, since the Heathkit’s power supplies of +12V, -12V and +5V are more appropriate to the 1970s than the 2010s. So I made a power distribution board that addresses these problems.

Heathkit Hack #2: Hacking a Heathkit GC-1107 Clock

One of my most precious possessions is a Heathkit GC-1107 clock I assembled as a kid. But it has some shortcomings: it loses the time and alarm setting if the power is interrupted, and adjusting it for Daylight Saving Time is a pain. So I decided to retrofit it with a GPS receiver to get the correct time.

Vintage Mainframe Hard Disk Clock

Many people are turning old hard disks into clocks. They disassemble old disk drives and put a clock mechanism behind the mirrored disc platter. They’re using 3½” disks, so they end up with itty bitty little clocks. I wanted something big enough to hang on the wall and retro enough to satisfy my nostalgia for the computers of my youth.

Why Star Trek Into Darkness Sucked

The latest Star Trek movie wasn’t as monumentally stupid as the last one, but it was still pretty bad.

Cooking the Perfect Steak

A sous vide cooker allows you to cook a perfect steak every time. You can buy one in the stores, but I wanted to make my own.

Extinguishing Charcoal

I barbeque exclusively with charcoal. I used to have a Weber kettle grill, but we wanted something bigger and got a Blue Rhino Uniflame grill. It’s nice, but when you’re done grilling and close all the vents, it doesn’t smother the coals. There are just too many holes and gaps in the shell.

My Brother’s New Business

My brother Steve got tired of working in the computer business, so he opened an indoor playground with a difference – this one’s for babies and toddlers.

Cutting the Black Knight board

The Black Knight Development Platform

I wanted to switch to a microcontroller that I could program in C++, prototype with on a breadboard, had every peripheral I would ever need (including USB), would cost less than $10, and would keep working even after I hacked it to pieces. The result is the Black Knight board.

Pizza-Inspired Printer Stand

I needed more room at my desk. A pizza restaurant gave me the inspiration I needed.

An Oscilloscope from the Trash

My neighbor put a working Heathkit oscilloscope out in his trash. Naturally, I rescued it. Time to make another clock!

Sexy Computer Calendar 2012

It’s that time of year again: time to make a calender that appeals to geeks as nothing in the stores can!

A Deadly Toxic Souvenier

My mother is selling my childhood home. I knew the one souvenir I wanted to keep. The only problem was, it could kill me.

Web Data on an LED Display

I built an alphanumeric LED display that connects via USB to my PC and can display RSS feeds, the weather (like wind chill, above), the time, or just about anything.

Congenital Tremor vs. SMD

See that little rectangle the size of Lincoln’s nose? That’s an electronic component – a smaller version of the big red thing in the picture. I have a congenital tremor in my hands, so I assumed that I would never be able to work with components that small. Turns out I was wrong.

The Formation of the Galaxy

So where’s the art? Why is Galactic Studios a studio? Here’s the movie that (re-)started it all.

Sexy Computer Calendar 2011

According to Google, the search term “sexy calendar” frequently resulted in hits for galacticstudios.org. So to satisfy all you vintage computer pr0n fiends out there, here’s 12 more lovelies for 2011. And you can print them out to make your own calendar!

Really Easy Calendar Printer

Every year I make a calendar with pictures of my daughter. None of the available programs or services had the features I wanted so, as with my envelope program, I wrote my own. In the spirit of the season (New Year’s, not Christmas) I’m making it available free for downloading.

A Homemade Spectroscope

Scientists use spectroscopes to identify chemicals – even in stars billions of light years away. They also use spectroscopes to find planets orbiting other stars. With about an hour of effort, I was able to build my own and show my daughter how scientists do it.

Really Easy Envelope Printer

Grandma needed a really easy envelope printing program. I wrote one, and it’s so convenient, I use it myself. Download it here and try it yourself.

Bye, Bye, Birdies

The bird house launched a brood of babies on their way. Now’s the time to catch up on what happened.

Today’s Clueless Kids

It’s been observed that each generation thinks it invented sex. Likewise, each generation thinks its video games are classics. Sometimes, you just have to smack these kids upside the head.

Bob’s Bird Blog in 3D

Three years ago, I put a web cam in a birdhouse and filmed wrens building a nest, laying eggs, and feeding the young. This year, I’m doing again. Except now I have two web cams in the birdhouse, set up to give me a 3D view. Watch out, James Cameron!

Mini Altair 8800 PC

When I was a teenager, I wanted to get an Altair 8800 computer, but I couldn’t afford it. Now, I can. But I wanted something smaller, quieter, and about a million times faster. So I made it. I consider this the crowning achievement of my mid-life crisis nostalgia kick.

Rotation Station for Hole Creation and Wood Ablation

It’s a cross between a workbench and a wheelbarrow, and it’s a great place for a drill press and router table in a cramped workspace.

My Hollywood Bigwig Buddy

I just bought a new computer. As I was configuring it, I was reminded of this old story of how some software I wrote led to an unexpected payoff.

Sexy Computer Calendar

I needed a new calendar for work. The store had calendars with pictures of seascapes and mountain ranges, Elvis and Marilyn, doggies and dragons, airplanes and starships. Isn’t there anything for software engineers?

Fun with Fungus

Captain Kirk once told Mr. Spock that he should be squatting on a mushroom. If it’s good enough for Spock, it’s good enough for mighty Dungeons and Dragons warriors. So my daughter and I used fungus to make these shelves for her D&D figurines.

Homemade Digital Clock

I wanted to design a clock from scratch. I ended up with a expensive, over-engineered, multiprocessing monstrosity. But it was fun.

Video Game Arcade

  Perhaps I’m a luddite, but I just don’t care for the modern video games. Gimme Lunar Lander or Zaxxon and you can keep your fancy graphics. I built an arcade so I can play the classic games anytime I want.

Crooked Wood Lamp

I never really liked my old lamp. I really love the new one I built.

Wooden Super Probe

When my old Radio Shack logic probe broke, I built a new Super Probe – and enclosed it in exotic wood.

Bob’s Bird Blog

I put a webcam in a birdhouse. See my videos of birds building a nest, laying eggs, and feeding their young.

Building the Bird House

Here’s how I built a birdhouse with a webcam inside.