Greetings Melonland :D

[ctrl-shift-esc]

Hey hey Melonland denizens, I decided to make an account here after lurking a while and finding the forum's vibe to be cool 

So I'm joining in! Yay!

Hmm to write a short intro then...

I've been surfing the superinformation highway regularly since the mid 00's, though my first experiences were in the late 90's. One of my earliest memories of the interwebz was downloading and printing out (on paper!!) cheat codes for Worms 2

I even had a personal website and a forum back in the day, though all of that is long gone. But I do have a website now again! You can find the link in my personal profile (or by clicking that globe as you surely know). It is currently very much text-based and minimalistic on purpose, I want a site that people can view on Windows 95 if they so choose  It is based on my interests in computers  and I mostly just tell stories about hardware and making use of old, underpowered and "outdated" hardware & software. (I use that word very loosely based on mainstream opinion of what an "outdated" computer is)

So I like frugality and simplicity and have a soft spot for computers like that, I grew up with MS-DOS and Win95 and the operating systems beyond that... I go by "don't fix it if it ain't broke" and "make use of what you've got" style of vibes...

I needed a forum avatar so I just drew one in MS Paint, hope y'all like it xD

Fun facts about me!
Fact #1: Favorite OS: Windows 7!!!
Fact #2: I will make a lot of typos so bear that in mind!

So yeah here I am, nice to be here

I love the MSN Messenger smileys, so many memories

[Sailor_Fabulous]

Welcome! (I say as someone who only joined a couple days ago and only lurked for a little while before that...)

I love hearing about the things people used to print off back in the day, like your cheat codes and for others it was fanfiction etc. (I printed off fanart myself, though it was in the late 2000s and I was a teenager). It's funny but very charming, and really shows what priorities children can have and I love that. Kids know how to have fun!

Anyway, this place is pretty cool from what I've seen and I'm sure you'll enjoy it here :)

[invader_gvim]

I like computers a lot too. You mentioned MS-DOS. I LOVE terminal based interfaces. I like to browse Melonland via Lynx. I edit my comments using vim (all hail the church of vim).

I have made a briefcase laptop which runs FreeDOS. Originally it ran Debian, but I was wanting to see if I could get CCommander Keene to work on Free DOS (I could not.) I'm probably going to put Debian back on it and resume using it as a type writer and Melonland browser.

The case is a record player which I found at a thrift store for $5. I tore out all of its guts and it was the perfect size. It has a raspberry pi as its brain. Its power source is one of those "plug it into a car" charge batteries which has a cool progress bar to show how long it lasts, which is practically forever because the screen is small. The screen is super glued to the case in the most makeshift way possible. This caused a lot of problems with Free DOS because I actually glued it on upside down. So it is cool how when it boots on Debian it will show upside down text before it finishes and realizes that it is supposed to flip the screen vertically.

Here it is as of right now. It is partially dissasembled as I am moving it around to make room for hard drives.

[ctrl-shift-esc]

@Sailor_Fabulous

Oh nice, it's good to see that new members are joining in 

I do remember printing complete full-page image files way back before I understood how much ink that takes; the printer ran out of ink very fast and my parents were quite puzzled, I was like hmmmmmm how could that have happened  Speaking of which I gotta get a new printer, I used to use the local library for printing and scanning but since I've moved to a more rural location my ability to access the library frequently for that purpose has taken a setback    It's been ages since I've bought a printer, so that will require some research before pulling the trigger...

---

@invader_gvim

Oh man that's so cool  I've heard of Lynx and know of vim, though I am still quite a noob when it comes to Linux. I have Debian on one of my PCs. I've been interested in FreeDOS but I haven't found a suitable system to install it on yet. That, along with Haiku and the BSDs I would like to try, but all the computers I have are either running something else for some other purpose or I just don't have the hard drives to spare  (And I'm not so much interested in virtual machines...) Maybe at some point!

As I said my website is currently very much text only -focused so that is definitely an aesthetic I like. The very first computer I used was actually a Commodore 64, but like, I didn't know anything about how to use it at the time, I just wanted it to run games 

Commander Keen mentioned    daaaamn that was my childhood right there - we used to play it on a machine that had no sound card (PC Speaker bleeps and bloops only!) and a black and white monitor. Episodes 1, 4 and 6 are what we had. So many memories yet again 

That case and the entire story of it is so epic  and

I actually glued it on upside down

    

I've been mildly interested in the Raspberry Pi for a while, but I haven't found a use case for it as of yet, as I have so many x86 PCs... 

[invader_gvim]

@Sailor_Fabulous

Oh nice, it's good to see that new members are joining in 

I do remember printing complete full-page image files way back before I understood how much ink that takes; the printer ran out of ink very fast and my parents were quite puzzled, I was like hmmmmmm how could that have happened  Speaking of which I gotta get a new printer, I used to use the local library for printing and scanning but since I've moved to a more rural location my ability to access the library frequently for that purpose has taken a setback    It's been ages since I've bought a printer, so that will require some research before pulling the trigger...

---

@invader_gvim

Oh man that's so cool  I've heard of Lynx and know of vim, though I am still quite a noob when it comes to Linux. I have Debian on one of my PCs. I've been interested in FreeDOS but I haven't found a suitable system to install it on yet. That, along with Haiku and the BSDs I would like to try, but all the computers I have are either running something else for some other purpose or I just don't have the hard drives to spare  (And I'm not so much interested in virtual machines...) Maybe at some point!

As I said my website is currently very much text only -focused so that is definitely an aesthetic I like. The very first computer I used was actually a Commodore 64, but like, I didn't know anything about how to use it at the time, I just wanted it to run games 

Commander Keen mentioned    daaaamn that was my childhood right there - we used to play it on a machine that had no sound card (PC Speaker bleeps and bloops only!) and a black and white monitor. Episodes 1, 4 and 6 are what we had. So many memories yet again 

That case and the entire story of it is so epic  and

    

I've been mildly interested in the Raspberry Pi for a while, but I haven't found a use case for it as of yet, as I have so many x86 PCs... 

I quite like your website. My website is very much under construction, but besides a few small images I intend to keep it as just text. Honestly the way your website is formatted is good inspiration for me. I especially like THIS part. Tbh I do the exact same thing. 

It is also useful when you intend to be anonymous, as you can store your different usernames and account information on an encrypted flash drive. Some people get really scared of passwords in plain text, but with an encrypted flash drive its pretty safe, and likewise its not as if the government is after me. Its mostly about the fun of people knowing me as Invader Gvim and not Shannon (not my name).

FreeDOS is very useful to anyone who uses Linux and wants to upgrade their BIOS. I am very passionate about freeware BIOS upgrades and so my FreeDOS usb is my baby. I love her and boot from her before I ever install Linux on the machine so that I can use FreeDOS to flash a new open source BIOS or UEFI.     

[Paprika]

Hey ! Welcome to da Melonland FOrum !

Seeing this thread makes me think that I still have my big HP laptop from highschool that it still running and I should look to see if someone is willing to be paid for changing some items inside like RAM and replace HDD by a SSD and install Xubunutu or Ubuntu and use it for internet stuff since I don't play games anymore.

[invader_gvim]

Hey ! Welcome to da Melonland FOrum !

Seeing this thread makes me think that I still have my big HP laptop from highschool that it still running and I should look to see if someone is willing to be paid for changing some items inside like RAM and replace HDD by a SSD and install Xubunutu or Ubuntu and use it for internet stuff since I don't play games anymore.

I can walk you through it for a small fee if you'd like to learn how to do it yourself. Additionally if you were willing to mail the laptop to me then I would be able to do all of those things. As long as you also live in America it isn't that expensive to mail an old laptop.

  

BY THE WAY, your website is

[Paprika]

I'd love to but I'm from Europe so it would be quite the hassle to ship it overseas back and forth ! I'd love to have a guiding but I'm really bad at using my hands and I often break stuff 

[ctrl-shift-esc]

I quite like your website. My website is very much under construction, but besides a few small images I intend to keep it as just text. Honestly the way your website is formatted is good inspiration for me. I especially like THIS part. Tbh I do the exact same thing. 

It is also useful when you intend to be anonymous, as you can store your different usernames and account information on an encrypted flash drive. Some people get really scared of passwords in plain text, but with an encrypted flash drive its pretty safe, and likewise its not as if the government is after me. Its mostly about the fun of people knowing me as Invader Gvim and not Shannon (not my name).

Thanks  Recently I've been keeping my bookmarks in a .txt file though since I'm being lazy about coding HTML aside from my website    It's not such a bad thing anyway. And as you've said, I'm just a nobody so it's not like anybody cares if they find my super secret bookmark file or anything Plain text files are so comfy.

FreeDOS is very useful to anyone who uses Linux and wants to upgrade their BIOS. I am very passionate about freeware BIOS upgrades and so my FreeDOS usb is my baby. I love her and boot from her before I ever install Linux on the machine so that I can use FreeDOS to flash a new open source BIOS or UEFI.     

Oh that is cool. Believe it or not I've never flashed a BIOS/UEFI. I just haven't had the pressing need to do so and when it comes to certain things I'm super scared of bricking things.  I almost bricked my old Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini trying to install a custom ROM on it - I followed everything exactly as intructed and if I didn't have a backup ROM of the original OS installation it would've become a brick  (well, it did become a brick a short while later when I dropped it on concrete but that is another story...)

Hey ! Welcome to da Melonland FOrum !

Hey hey! Thanks and happy to be here 

Seeing this thread makes me think that I still have my big HP laptop from highschool that it still running and I should look to see if someone is willing to be paid for changing some items inside like RAM and replace HDD by a SSD and install Xubunutu or Ubuntu and use it for internet stuff since I don't play games anymore.

IMO you could also think about doing it yourself Linux isn't nearly as hard to use & install as it used to be, and it is more than perfectly suitable for general computing usage. Also changing stuff inside like RAM and the hard disk, depending on your specific laptop model, can be quite easy (or if you have bad luck when it comes to the laptop model, it can be quite hard... it just depends...). It just requires mostly knowledge about what components will be compatible & good value for money, and then I mean if your laptop model is popular enough there's probably like a Youtube video tutorial for that. Otherwise it'd be scouring through some instruction manuals (if they exist  ) Though I totally get the hesitation if you don't have the experience But it's like, if you're not using the PC anyway it couldn't hurt to try 


Edit: Edited some text.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I find your page extremely cool.

I also try to reduce my environmental impact by running my systems long-term, and by generally using pre-used hardware.
We have a thread about perma-computing here!

[ctrl-shift-esc]

Nice! Glad you enjoyed it 

Thanks for the thread link, I'll check it out in detail when I have the time. Seems right up my alley.
Honestly a big part of why I do it my way is because I'm oftentimes very frugal with my money (and terribly lazy about selling and replacing my old stuff... if it works why waste energy changing it?? ) but the environmental saving effects are definitely a nice bonus effect too. Plus I don't have to take part in the ever-escalating hyperconsumerism rat-race    It just makes the most sense overall

[Sailor_Fabulous]

Thanks! I'm still learning the ways of I guess interacting on a forum such as this, but it's fun :)

I do remember printing complete full-page image files way back before I understood how much ink that takes; the printer ran out of ink very fast and my parents were quite puzzled, I was like hmmmmmm how could that have happened 

Ahahaha yeah I definitely wasted a lot of ink back in the day, especially colour ink once we got a colour printer haha
I did not understand just how expensive ink was until much later lol

Speaking of which I gotta get a new printer, I used to use the local library for printing and scanning but since I've moved to a more rural location my ability to access the library frequently for that purpose has taken a setback    It's been ages since I've bought a printer, so that will require some research before pulling the trigger...

I don't have a printer myself at current, and don't really need to print often, so whenever I do have something to print (usually TTRPG related) I go to the library, but I do miss having my own sometimes. I think when we upgrade to a house in the nebulous future, we'll get one, but it will definitely require a lot of research! Especially as I've never bought one myself before lol

I wish you luck in your printer journey though!

[ctrl-shift-esc]

@Sailor_Fabulous

I'm thinking of getting a laser printer myself, either black&white or color. I've heard that they are better for my use cases, which is just printing something occasionally. Ink printers might dry up if they're not used regularly, so I've heard!  Also laser printers don't require cartridge replacements so often, so that's nice.

I might get a scanner before I get a printer though. Thinking about an all-in-one device too... But those are quite expensive. There are many things to consider!  All in due time...

[Sailor_Fabulous]

@ctrl-shift-esc

I've definitely heard that laser printers are better in that regard, I think they might be more expensive upfront but not needing to purchase the ink cartridges all the time should make a huge difference. Also I believe the print is meant to be better quality! This is all based on a half-remembered info though, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong lol

Ah that's tough, I think the all-in-one combos are really useful, but what you'll have to consider is how much space you have! If you've got plenty of space for having a separate printer and scanner then it doesn't really matter, but if you don't have that much space then I reckon it's worth saving up a little to get a combo one!

I currently have limited space myself, so if I ever need to get a printer or scanner in the future I'll go for a combo one!

[ctrl-shift-esc]

All of that is good to keep in mind and generally true from what I've learned so far. I do have the space to spare in theory but I still think I would prefer an all-in-one machine to save space, I don't like too much clutter if I can avoid it.

We'll see! There's a lot of projects and things that need money thrown at them in my life so a printer might need to wait till next year even, remains to be seen  Maybe I will update about that here when I decide to get one