Old Computer Challenge, Day 1
It is Day 1 of the fourth Old Computer Challenge, although having checked just over a month back and not seen a date I would've missed it if it weren't for seeing fediverse posts about it.
This year Solene's announcement suggests a kind of do-your-own choose-your-own adventure approach. I read that Solene originally suggested 1 hour per day of computer use, which may or may not be accurate. While 1 hour per day overall sounds unsustainable to me I can commit to 1 hour per day on OCC-specific activity and structure tasks around it.
Going Newer Than Normal
In previous challenges I've tried to go older and older, mostly with Amigas. I had hoped to dig out a CP/M system this year but never got round to finding it. Instead I'm going to go newer, and use gasp Windows.
I recently acquired a Panasonic CF-U1. These fascinating ruggedized UMPC devices won't set performance records but could make great portable amateur radio devices. I can even leave them out overnight and not worry about rain. The built-in Microdrives die off over time. Mine has an SSD mod but it's not getting enough power. Thankfully the mod creator posted a video with tips for getting more power but I f'd up the mod and think I've taken a pad off the board. Needless to say the CF-U1 isn't taking part in any challenge till it's fixed:
My Panasonic CF-U1 in parts not exactly ready for OCC 2024.
I do have another old computer... Ok, I have many old computers. But my IBM Thinkpad model T42 is possibly the peak of IBM's laptop line. It's the last officially Windows 98 compatible IBM Thinkpad with 1GB of RAM and a 120Gb SSD. So far I've set up DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, and Windows 98. Next up will be Windows XP and then OS/2, maybe even Solaris or BeOS.
This is the ideal laptop body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.
I use the T42 to play 90s and 2000s games I never finished that are otherwise unplayable on my MiSTer. This is mostly Pentium 2-3 era Windows 9x games to early XP. I also thought I'd put DOS and Win3.11 on there as I don't have a physical 16-bit Windows machine and there are games I'd like to 100% at some point.
The T42's specs are wild for a 16-bit machine. It has 1Gb of RAM (which required some patching to support at all), a 1.5Ghz Pentium M and an ATI Radeon graphics card. This is insanely powerful even for Windows 98. I made the deliberate choice to not use the on-board networking. This computer is strictly offline only.
OCC2024 Goals
Last year my main OCC task was to edit photos taken with my Kodak DC210 digital camera using an emulated Amiga running Kickstart 1.3. This year I have some specific tasks in mind:
- Write articles in Office 4.3 (or Office 97 on Windows 98) for a zine I'm working on with friends.
- Stretch Goal: Do the cover
- Figure out a way to convert output to PDF for the zine.
- Stretch Goal: Set up VistaPro for DOS/Windows to compare to the Amiga versions I've used.
- Find a screenshot tool so I can export screenshots over USB for posting updates.
- Document the week using my Sony Mavica FD-200 Camera
- See if I can mount Memory Sticks via USB over DOS. If not, see if I can get my USB floppy drive working, and use Floppy disks on the Mavica.
Instead of trying to shoehorn an hour into today (as I'm busy) I'll spend two hours tomorrow and limit myself to one OCC-specific hour per day after that. Of course, I might sneak a bit of extra time in to play some CIV II :)
What I Hope To Get From OCC2024
For me, a big part of OCC2024 is discovering all the people exploring unusual (to them) models of computing. I'm not particularly active in communities but I do lurk around and the influx of new blog sites to my RSS reader is always gratefully received.
As well as getting some usage from tools I haven't used in a while and learning new ones, I'm hoping to illustrate that modern bloated software is overkill for most things. You might be able to wait at a higher clock speed with a shiny new ARM Macbook but is the difference in cost and landfill really worth it over a well-conditioned 20-year old Thinkpad? Let's find out.