Userlandia

Userlandia episodes:

• 05.06.2024

  VCF East 2024 Review

  Vintage Computer Festival East is back for 2024 with more to see than ever before. After a banner crowd in 2023 the show needed to make some adjustments in 2024 to account for more people. Were those changes a success?...

  
• 04.08.2024

  An American Visits British Computer Museums

  Computer museums are a great place to check out the coolest of vintage tech. I’ve been to my share in America, but what about the rest of the world? Join me as I fly across the pond to check out...

  
• 02.14.2024

  Garmin iQue 3600: How A Palm OS PDA with GPS Predicted The Future

  Garmin iQue 3600   We take for granted that we can pull out a phone and get directions to almost anywhere on Earth. But years before Apple and Google gave us the tools to navigate our lives a GPS maker...

  
• 01.08.2024

  IBM's 386 Tower of Power: The PS/2 Model 80

  IBM was late to the 386 PC party, but when they finally arrived they made a statement about what they thought the future of computing would be. With a 32-bit Micro Channel bus and room for six drives IBM aimed...

  
• 11.15.2023

  IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 - Computers of Significant History

  What was the first retro or vintage computer you collected? I saved an obsolete PS/2 Model 30 286 from the scrap heap back in 1997. This machine was a footsoldier in IBM’s war to reclaim their ownership of the PC...

  
• 10.02.2023

  The Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2023 Report

  I’m back at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest for another convention of old and obsolete technology. With tons of retro computers and video games it’s a celebration of old technology and the people that made them. VCF is bigger than...

  
• 08.17.2023

  Sun, Surf, and Street Fighter: The World of East Coast Beach Arcades

  Any self-respecting beach town in the United States has an arcade. But there's a certain variety that lives along the northeast Atlantic coast. When kids of all ages tire of the sand and surf, they can hop on to the...

  
• 06.08.2023

  The Macintosh SE/30 - Computer Hall of Fame

  The SE/30 is a Macintosh that’s larger than life. It's hailed as one of the greatest Macs ever. So when I had the chance to pick one up, complete in box, for free, I couldn’t pass it up. But was...

  
• 04.26.2023

  The Vintage Computer Festival East 2023 Report

  Spring has sprung and that means old computers have migrated north once again! Join me for a review of the 2023 Vintage Computer Festival East. What’s changed from prior events? What’s for sale? And what cool stuff could you see?...

  
• 03.02.2023

  Which SimCity is the Greatest SimCity?

  Will Wright's SimCity is one of gaming's all-time hits. The classic original SimCity started on the Commodore 64 and topped out on PCs and Macs. With ports to over a dozen platforms, you can play it on pretty much anything....

  
• 11.23.2022

  What’s Inside A NeXT Computer Accessory Kit?

  Steve Jobs thought he would user in the NeXT generation of computing, but his little black cube of darkness flopped. When you bought a $10,000 computer, what did you get in the box? There’s books, disks, tools, and stickers too....

  
• 11.02.2022

  Adobe and Pantone's Color Apocalypse

  What happens when two companies don’t get along? Their customers lose. Adobe has let their license for Pantone colors lapse, with the hues disappearing from their apps. Pantone wants you to pay them for digital color libraries with, what else,...

  
• 10.10.2022

  A Visit to the Apple Mothership

  Here, in Userlandia, be very quiet. We’re hunting dogcows. Disney has Disneyland. Boeing’s 747 megafactory is the world’s largest building. Apple has infinite loops and spaceships. Join me as I visit both of Apple’s corporate campuses, explore their history, and...

  
• 09.21.2022

  2022 Vintage Computer Festival Midwest Report

  Here, in Userlandia, my Windows color scheme is Portillo’s Hot Dog. Want to see some of the coolest old computers out there? Take a trip to the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest just outside of Chicago! I visited VCFMW this year...

  
• 08.23.2022

  The Compaq ProLinea 4/33 - Computers of Significant History, Part 3

  Here, in Userlandia, I think I’m a clone now… Compaq was in a crisis in the early 90s. Upstarts were undercutting them just as they had undercut IBM. Facing their first loss, massive layoffs, and the departure of their founder,...

  
• 07.20.2022

  The New Computer Desk Workshop

  From the desk of Userlandia… What does it take to build a custom computer desk? Sure, people on Reddit say “throw some wood on some cabinets,” but what does that mean, exactly? Join me as I build a battlestation in...

  
• 05.30.2022

  The Rise and Fall of Lian Li Aluminum PC Cases - Nifty Thrifties

  Here in Userlandia, it’s the case of the Lian Li Aluminum PC Case. Back in the year 2000, Aluminum was the hot new metal for crafting PC cases. Strong, lightweight, and stylish, it took the LAN party world by storm....

  
• 03.09.2022

  The Mac Studio Report: X Marks the Mac

  It's time for an off-the-cuff post-event podcast! With Apple's announcement of the new Mac Studio, has the mythical xMac finally come to pass? Will working pros and enthusiast users be satisfied? Or is it just a Cube all over again?...

  
• 02.21.2022

  The Apple IIe - Computers of Significant History, Part 2

  When you think of an Apple II, odds are you think of the Apple IIe. Overshadowed by both the Apple III and Lisa, the humble IIe was Apple’s unlikely savior in its time of need. How did it become the...

  
• 01.18.2022

  Dropbox Drops the Ball

  Dropbox has grown from a small indie file sync utility to a giant of cloud storage. During that time many users fell in love with its simplicity and reliability. But with rising prices and difficult software dependencies, it’s hard to...

  
• 01.10.2022

  Happy Twentieth Birthday, iMac G4

  It's been twenty years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first flat panel iMac: the iMac G4. Whether you call it Luxo, iLamp, or Sunflower, it's one of Apple's most distinctive designs ever. He thought it would redefine desktop computing for...

  
• 12.28.2021

  Aldus PageMaker 4.0 for Windows - Nifty Thrifties

  Before computers, page layout was the domain of wax, scissors, cameras, and tape. And maybe some hot lead type. Aldus Corporation’s PageMaker helped kick off the desktop publishing revolution, and I recently discovered a copy at a local thrift store....

  
• 12.07.2021

  The Toshiba Satellite Pro 460CDT - Nifty Thrifties

  On a quiet August day, I found two lonely Toshiba Satellite Pro 460CDT laptops in a New Hampshire thrift store. Between missing power supplies, BIOS passwords, and other maladies, they needed more than a little work. Join me as I...

  
• 11.16.2021

  The Mystery of Mac OS’ Mangled Image Interpolation Implementation

  -=- Here in Userlandia, I’m talking rainbows, I’m talking pixels. -=- What is a bug? A miserable little pile of code... or something more? Today we look at a curious quirk in how Mac OS displays images in PDFs. The...

  
• 11.02.2021

  The 2021 MacBook Pro Review

  -=- Here in Userlandia, the Power’s back in the ‘Book. -=- After years of broken keyboard dreams and disappointing trips to Dongle Land, Apple believes their notebook act is back together. The new MacBook Pro promises maximum power from minimum...

  
• 10.12.2021

  The Vintage Computer Festival East 2021 Report

  -=- You’ll never find a more fascinating hive of geeks and nerdery. -=- On October 9 and 10 I was at the 2021 Vintage Computer Festival East in New Jersey. I saw lots of neat old computers, bought a few...

  
• 10.03.2021

  The Commodore 64 - Computers of Significant History, Part 1

  -=- The Computer for the Masses, not the Classes -=- Over the course of four decades I’ve owned many computers, used many more. Most of them are ordinary. Some of them are legendary! These are Computers of Significant History. The...

  
• 10.03.2021

  Welcome to Userlandia

  Userlandia is a place for technology from today and yesterday. If you’re an enthusiast user with a curious nature, then you’ll be right at home. Here's a trailer to get you acclimated. I discuss computers new and old, tech policy...