Wizball is so good. Nearly forty years after I first discovered it in the 1980s, I'm playing it all over again - this time the superb Retrospec Windows remake, running perfectly under Linux using Wine and the WineCharm front-end. Back in the day, I played the DOS version (click to play in your browser) on my trusty 8088 PC with a CGA graphics card. It managed just four … [Read more...] about Wizball (Retrospec) – I Didn’t Expect to Get Addicted Again… but It’s Excellent!
Technology
Before the Internet: How a Band of FidoNet Amateurs Connected South Africa to the World
The People of FidoNet Long before South Africa had Internet access, long before Google or your web-browser, a small band of enthusiasts were quietly building the country’s first digital gateways - with little more than modems, home PCs and sheer ingenuity. This article is inspired by How a few tech mavericks started the Internet in South Africa. That article describes a … [Read more...] about Before the Internet: How a Band of FidoNet Amateurs Connected South Africa to the World
IBM x3650 M4 IPMI Quadratic Fan-Control (Quiet!)
I acquired a secondhand IBM x3650 M4 server. Despite being old, this is still a very powerful machine with dual Xeon processors and 384GB of RAM. But it was extremely noisy! The CPU fans sound similar to a vacuum-cleaner. For simplicity and readability, I will assume that you are using a Debian Linux-based distribution such as Ubuntu or Mint. But with small changes to … [Read more...] about IBM x3650 M4 IPMI Quadratic Fan-Control (Quiet!)
Host Your Own Website/Blog (for Free!)
This article walks you through the best method I've found for hosting your own website from home. It works over any standard Internet connection, doesn't require a static IP address, and best of all — it costs nothing. You don't even need a dedicated server. You could run this off the same PC you're using right now. That's exactly what I'm doing! Normally, if you wanted to … [Read more...] about Host Your Own Website/Blog (for Free!)
