Keeping yesterday's computers ticking takes more than nostalgia
REG AD googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('labrador/thereg/article/desktop/b'); }); My biggest frustration with sourcing parts are counterfeit chips. You will confidently order a big bag of 74LS logic ICs to find they are in fact not 74LS. Worse, most IC testers will say 'oh yes it's a 00 IC and works fine' but it's had the label sanded off and re‑etched, it's a different family of logic chips and won't work in your computer Earie Salmon In the early 1980s, his brother had a ZX81 and Commodore VIC 20.
- ▪REG AD googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('labrador/thereg/article/desktop/b'); }); My biggest frustration with sourcing parts are counterfeit chips.
- ▪You will confidently order a big bag of 74LS logic ICs to find they are in fact not 74LS.
- ▪Worse, most IC testers will say 'oh yes it's a 00 IC and works fine' but it's had the label sanded off and re‑etched, it's a different family of logic chips and won't work in your computer Earie Salmon In the early 1980s, his brother had a
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| Original publisher | The Register |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/08/05/keeping-yesterdays-computers-ticking-takes-more-than-nostalgia/5282729 |
| Publication time | Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:02:00 +0200 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-05T10:05:43.520Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-05T10:05:43.520Z |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
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| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
(function() { let windowUrl = window.location.href; windowUrl = windowUrl.substring(windowUrl.indexOf('?') + 1); let messageElement = document.querySelector('.shareableMessage'); if (windowUrl && windowUrl.includes('code') && windowUrl.includes('expires')) { messageElement.style.display = 'block'; } })(); offbeat Keeping yesterday's computers ticking takes more than nostalgia Earie Salmon explains why soldering skills are only the start Richard Speed Richard Speed MICROSOFT ECOSYSTEM REPORTER Published wed 5 Aug 2026 // 11:02 UTC ARCHAEOLOGIC Repairing and restoring vintage computer hardware has grown increasingly popular, but keeping decades-old machines alive presents different challenges from fixing modern kit.Earie Salmon, of the YouTube channel Earie's 8-Bit Workshop, is one of many…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Register.
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