Tyler Sticka

RE: https://mastodon.social/@AltTextHealthCheck/117354273584138592 Proud of my server 😊

A family member is getting rid of some things, including some old computers. One of those is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-37 from 1999 (I think?). It’s super thin for the time, and the magnesium shell is basically pristine. I’d like to turn it into a little Win9x nostalgia machine. Except, it won’t boot because the CMOS battery is bad, and I can’t find any info online on how difficult that is to fix. Any advice from the #RetroComputing crowd?

@neatnik@social.lol Awesome!! 🙌 I know I’m a little biased because @spaceninja@hachyderm.io is a colleague and I drew the feature image for this article, but I’d love this advice even if those things weren’t true! https://cloudfour.com/thinks/write-alt-text-like-youre-talking-to-a-friend/

A+ blog post from @curiousquail@mastodon.art, absolutely no notes: https://blog.curiousquail.com/ok-everyone-shut-the-fuck-up-and-please-look-at-this-incredible-awkward-teen-bird/

Look, if snarky cartoons can’t fix web design, I’m out of ideas.

@neatnik@social.lol @db@social.lol Looks like Oregon 💚

@csilverman@mastodon.social Thanks, Chris! I guess I’d need to crack it open to find the thing. (The manual just says to contact Panasonic support. Which, to be fair, I have not tried. 🤣)

@jimniels Thanks, Jim! That one shifted quite a bit in the pencil stage

@hbons@mastodon.social I love that idea!

@NicMakesStuff@indieweb.social Time to move on to animals

@mahryekuh@hachyderm.io Awesome!! 👏

@csilverman@mastodon.social Absolutely! (I suspect I wear the ESD bracelet from my iFixit kit more often than is actually necessary. Better safe than sorry! )

@snep@y.diskcat.com This. Is. Awesome. Thank you so much!!

@fifonetworks@infosec.exchange Yeah, that’s what the paper manual says, too 😅

@anarodrigues@front-end.social Ana, thank you for sharing this 💜

@NicMakesStuff Ugh 😣 💜

@paulhebert@sunny.garden Wow!! Congrats on the milestone, Paul! 👏

@keenan What an adventure!!

@snep@y.diskcat.com Well, good news: I put it back together, turned it back on and… no more CMOS error! I don’t understand, but, uhh… cool??

@snep@y.diskcat.com Sorry to bother you with more questions! Am I missing something, or does my CF-37 lack a CMOS battery (or even a connector for it)? 🫣 Also, is the RAM missing or was that an expansion slot?

@michelle 👋

@EmilySchnall They’re honestly all wonderful, Emily, but I do personally prefer (slightly!) the last version

@ollicle @davatron5000 Thanks, Ollie! Ugly villains indeed 🫣

@fifonetworks@infosec.exchange Good advice!

@snep@y.diskcat.com Eureka!! Thank you! Was it a bear to disassemble?

@amxmln Thank you, Amadeus!

@beep @markllobrera Thanks, Ethan! ☺️

@markllobrera Aw, thanks, Mark! 🫶

@abban@mastodon.ie That looks great!!

@krishnadraws Glad you recovered some of it but bummer about the missing content. 😞 Do you have a backup strategy in place for the current iteration?

@stephaniewalter Ooh, I like other Faber-Castell pens, I like Posca pens, will have to give these a try sometime!

@philipp@mastodon.design Weird. I think I fixed it?

@matthiasott@mastodon.social *Love* this one, Matthias

@stegrainer@mastodon.social They really do!

@NicMakesStuff Thanks so much, Nic!

@neatnik@social.lol Toilet paper was robbed of a heading in this post

@grigs@front-end.social Thank you, Jason!

@philipp@mastodon.design No prob!

@binarydigit Thanks so much, Chas!

@kayserifserif Aw, thanks, katherine!

@koos Aw, thanks, Koos! If only 🥲

@paulhebert Thanks, Paul! 🫶

@snep@y.diskcat.com That would be great! The good news is that, for whatever reason, the process of taking it apart and reassembling it got me past that error and able to access the BIOS and boot menu and what-not. From there, I was able to use the original restore media to reinstall the OS, the PhoenixBIOS backup partition, drivers, etc. (Unless a mystery CMOS battery shows itself, I assume I will have to set the date most of the time I fire it up, but I can live with that if everything else works fine.) Oh, and the display is a touchscreen!

@david@theblower.au @timixretroplays@digipres.club Great info, thank you!

@neatnik@social.lol Congrats!! 🎉

@latte Thanks, anh, that means a lot!