Robert Sundling

Also, here is Nano Banana Pro's attempt, today (2/19/2026), with the same prompt. It definitely threw away a lot of the charm:

An AI-generated font sheet, with letters similar in form to the original font but with many clear problems

It's been a minute, so I'm checking if AIs can successfully turn the logotype I made for a BBS door game 40 years ago into a font sheet with all the missing characters. I tried the same prompt today (February 19, 2026) on ChatGPT 5.2 that I tried with ChatGPT 4o last July. It's not hugely better:

12 Best-selling home computers of the 1980s

12 down in today’s (Feb 18, 2026) New York Times crossword puzzle will be of particular interest to @commodoreofficial.bsky.social. If only they’d mentioned its rebirth…!

Back in the day, they’d just use primary cells, such as four alkaline D cells or a 6V lantern battery, which would last seemingly forever. Every few years, it might be time to replace them with new ones… I still have an LED Maglite which takes four D cells that haven’t been changed in 20 years…

I feel like maybe 10% of my life is now spent charging batteries. It increases every year. It didn't used to be this way. Remember when you didn't have to charge your game controller or your mouse or your flashlight or your snowblower or your book?

I'm not sure if this is better or worse.

Removing and reseating the FPGA board made no difference. If it is uninstalled, the green LED light next to it does not turn on; with it installed, that light turns on (along with a red one near the Wi-Fi adapter) when connecting power, and then goes on by itself when the unit is powered on.

I’ve also now tried the DIN connector with a cable that works with my other Commodore 64s. No video there either.

I did. Three HDMI cables and an HDMI to VGA adapter. No luck. 😢

@commodoreofficial.bsky.social - Any tips on how I might bring it back to life?

Well, that was short lived. 😢 The second time I went to power on my Commodore 64 Ultimate, my monitor insists there‘s no HDMI signal detected. Tried multiple monitors, TVs, and a receiver; all say the same thing. Tried the Commodore+N trick while booting; no difference. Anyone have any tips?

I finally gave in and upgraded to the new Alexa so that we could turn multiple lights on or off with one command.

For some reason, after every response she now adds “Don’t worry, Bob. Everything is under control.”

It’s quite disconcerting. I’m definitely feeling that things are NOT under control.

Good ol’ Ludwig Van Missingword!

A Commodore 64 Ultimate (front center) sits near an original Commodore 64 and a C64 Maxi on a pile of Commodore 64 boxes.

Here is the Commodore 64 Ultimate compared to an original Commodore 64 (left) and a C64 Maxi (right). I’d say very well done. I like the yellow-brown function keys. They feel right.

Five Commodore 64 boxes sitting on a couch. The middle one is a new Commodore 64 Ultimate.

🎶 One of these things is not like the others… 🎶

Happy New Commodore Day, everyone!

@commodoreofficial.bsky.social

Screenshot from Mattel Intellivision game “Utopia” where the game is over. The player on the left has won (with 3665 points to 2611 points) and also has a ridiculous number of fishing boats.

My wife and I had a fun time playing Utopia on our new “Intellivision Sprint” this weekend. I hadn’t played it in almost 40 years; she hadn’t played it ever. Unlike many other Intellivision games, it really still holds up as-is! I have a feeling we’ll become evenly matched pretty soon.

Thanks. I could maybe try the 18g "pocket pack" and see how I like it before committing to a larger purchase.

Thanks. Yeah, that's very similar to my experience, where lead-free solder seemed awful but it's been so long since I tried it that maybe it or I have improved. But it's also possible that it's really only ever going to be well-suited for automated processes.

I'm considering switching to lead-free solder. Any suggestions on the best lead-free solder on the market today for hand-soldering? Mostly SMD components, but still some through-hole.

@polpo.org - Any experience with lead-free solder for prototyping?

I found it interesting that they include factors such as sales of over-the-counter COVID-19 tests in computing the index. I don’t know of anywhere else that uses that information, but using it makes a lot of sense, particularly when we don’t have many other data sources.

Walgreens Launches Enhanced Respiratory Index to Track Flu and COVID-19 Hotspots - Walgreens Corporate Site

Here is their press release about it, from November 4.

@patbiosteamist.bsky.social Did you see that Walgreens has a Respiratory Illness Index Tracker again? It says it's updated once a week. The last update was November 8. It's different from their old one. Don't know if it's useful or not. It's *something*.

Robert Langdon Robert Langdon is the main character in the Robert Langdon series, which consists of Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, Inferno and Origin. In the film adaptations, Langdon is portra...

Perhaps the DVD is specially encoded and isn't in a standard mathematical format. I would suggest calling an expert in Religious Iconology and Symbology, such as Harvard Professor Robert Langdon, to help decode its contents, one VOBU and CSS sector at a time. 😉

A beige computer front with a PicoIDE (also in beige) in the 3.5" drive bay. The PicoIDE has a OLED screen showing the PicoIDE logo, a full progress bar, and the text "Ready!" There is a LED showing a cyan color, up/down/cancel/ok buttons, a microSD slot, and a 3.5" headphone jack.

Are you ready for #PicoIDE? It seems to be telling me it's ready. Coming soon: ATAPI optical disc emulation and IDE hard drive emulation. picoide.com

From a cursory search, it seems there may not be many (or any?!) other NewtonScript bytecode disassemblers out there, even today, so hopefully this will help anyone out who is looking to either understand or fix old Newton software.

GitHub - RobertSundling/Newton-PKGDUMP: Apple Newton Package Dumper and NewtonScript Bytecode Disassembler Apple Newton Package Dumper and NewtonScript Bytecode Disassembler - RobertSundling/Newton-PKGDUMP

In 1998, I wrote a NewtonScript bytecode disassembler and package dumper for my own use, so that I could create patches for Apple Newton software.

Today, I dusted it off, built a shiny new Makefile for it for modern systems, and am releasing it as open source on GitHub. Enjoy!

Mastertapes Paul McCartney : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive MastertapesPaul McCartney joins John Wilson. Recorded in the iconic BBC Maida Vale studios, they discuss songwriting, Paul's solo career in the years...

BBC Radio 4 series ”Mastertapes” at the BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, May 11, 2016, broadcast May 28, 2016. Both Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller ask Paul questions during the recording. Listen at the Internet Archive. ✌️

It’s depressing. It also makes it that much harder for those of us making games the old fashioned way to have anyone even find them when they’re buried amongst so much AI slop. 😢

Hope you're able to get the board back online soon! ✌️

Screenshot of the New York Times Spelling Bee game. The player has tried to enter the word “MANANNAN,” referencing the wizard from King’s Quest III, but the game displays a gray box saying “Not in word list.” The honeycomb of letters shows M in the center with surrounding letters A, N, T, Y, E, and I.

Sadly, the New York Times still hasn’t updated their Spelling Bee word list to include King’s Quest III characters.

Pragmatically that’s the better way to do it. I could only fit one song on the floppy and even with ffmpeg’s most aggressive compression settings it was hard to even get that ONE song to fit!