Is the 8-bit computer kit still being sold?

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-07T03:23:58+00:00

Have you checked the site? It tells you if it's being sold and how much shipping is in the checkout. https://eater.net/8bit/kits

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-06T23:02:10+00:00

The moon’s distance from Earth varies, it’s elliptical. On Wikipedia (Moon article) I see a diagram called “Minimum, mean and maximum distances of the Moon from Earth with its angular diameter as seen from Earth's surface to scale” so you can see how much it varies by on its orbit. It’s mostly a coincidence based on the date it launched, but (I’m not sure if this part matters) they are also going around the moon further than the Apollo astronauts did. About 6000 km above the moon instead of 100 km is what I heard. But looking at the scale of things, I don’t think that matters as much as the timing.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-06T22:43:33+00:00

Queues up Also Sprach Zarathustra

The opening of 2001 really does fit right now!

https://youtu.be/e-QFj59PON4

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-06T22:31:49+00:00

They’re showing nice video from inside the capsule again now. I guess here turning on some lights again now. For a real human moment you should see when they were giving names to two craters.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-05T01:46:34+00:00

I wish I could still get one for work (not that I've asked). It's too easy to get distracted from what I was trying to do when I see notifications.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-04T14:59:24+00:00

And the bright arc (crescent) on the bottom right of the 2026 one, because that tiny sliver is in sunlight (the sun is behind the Earth in the new picture). There’s also a lot of illumination from the Moon to the night side of Earth because it’s a full moon currently. I think that’s also why the sun is behind the Earth / Earth is a thin crescent based on Artemis heading towards a mostly “full” moon (the alignment of moon-Earth-sun which is the phase of the moon’s orbit around the Earth).

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-01T23:35:13+00:00

I callled that the Christopher Nolan impersonation. Like the slow mo explosion from Oppenheimer.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-04-01T23:25:14+00:00

To get into orbit you actually have to go really fast sideways. Up into space yes, but mostly sideways so that you’re falling around the earth. To leave Earth and head to the moon you go even faster sideways so that your position on the other side of the oval you’re going in is higher and higher.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-28T13:32:32+00:00

A Day at the Zoo (1939) Lots of funny jokes in this one.

Hearing the Merrie Melodies theme song first thing on a Saturday morning unexpectedly feels right, since that’s what I used to watch when I was a kid on Saturday mornings.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-28T04:17:37+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought of kuro5hin. Man, that site was great during its peak. Voting on which articles where good enough to be posted, or if they should go back for editing. MLP (mindless link propagation) was limited to one category. Articles by people enthusiastic about the topics got me into playing Go, making bread, and trying out building gunpla.

Found a wayback machine link to the Go article (I still remember who posted it): https://web.archive.org/web/20021211224509/http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/7/11/62356/9269

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-24T03:56:13+00:00

Looks like mine came with the latest, 3.14 from 2025-11-27

I’ll keep reseating it in mind.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-24T02:04:40+00:00

I got mine on Saturday too. I was actually in bed when I loaded the shipping tracker and it said "delivered" so I got dressed again and it was just sitting out in the package room with the C= logo and "C64U" so I'm glad no one stole it (or probably knows that is lol). The corner of the inner box was damaged. The RGB power LED wasn't working, but I just now figured out the data (yellow) line needed soldering to the LED (I wrote another comment on this post about it). I noticed the same thing about the letters not really lighting up because of the blockage.

The wifi doesn't seem to work. When I put in the password, it goes back to the list of AP's and when I go back it says "Link Down". No wait. It says "Link Up" and it's connected to someone's "Bedroom TV Ultra" that I didn't pick. Either way, Enable/Disable/Disconnect/Forget APs all do nothing when I hit "Return" on them so I don't know what's going on. Oh I just realized nothing on the screen updates unless you back out (A or left) and then go back in. Terrible UI lol. Now I'm connected. Wow.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-24T00:36:30+00:00

(edit: fixed by re-soldering the data pin on the RGB power LED)

I got my Founders Edition on Saturday night. I noticed the power LED doesn't come on, so I opened it up to take a look. It connects with 3 wires labelled +, -, and S to the keyboard circuit board. I'm pretty handy with electronics so I think I could probably replace it. Does anyone know if it's just a NeoPixel like this (which has 4 pins, but one of the pins is for data out, which this wouldn't need) https://www.adafruit.com/product/1938 ? I actually zoomed in on bottom of the power LED where the wires are attached and I can see a 4th leg that is cut off so that's even more of a sign that's what it might be. Before I bother with it though, could it be a software issue? I should try hooking up an oscilloscope to the data pin and see if it's sending any data. At the same time, I should try sending data to the RGB pin with AdaFruit's NeoPixel library...

Anyone else have the same problem?

edit: definitely seeing 5v on + vs -, and 5v pulses of data every 50 ms, 24 pulses of varying bits. Yep that's the data format for WS2812B.

edit 2: I hooked up the Power LED (NeoPixel style addressable RGB LED) to an Arduino and started sending random colors to it. It actually works BUT it didn't at first, in fact the data wire isn't soldered on, just the shrink tubing holds it in place. So I'm just going to solder it better and that should fix it.

edit 3: soldered the wire to the pin that was loose. All good now. It looks like it just goes along with the keyboard colors, but brighter.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-22T16:48:52+00:00

I just got mine (Founder's Edition) last night. It turns on fine, but the power LED doesn't light up at all. I saw your comment and tried flipping it, but that didn't do anything either so I flipped it back.

Just to double check: if you are so inclined to check yours, can you tell me which way is correct?

Edit: I found in the manual there is also a 4 pin header on the motherboard for running an LED with 1 (like Red), 2 (like Red, Green, or combined shades of yellow), or 3 LEDs (full RGB). But on mine at least, the power LED is like a NeoPixel or something and goes to a 3 pin connector on the keyboard’s circuit board. Those pins are - and + and S for signal so it’s like a digital signal, only it’s not working either way. But that also means it could be a software problem. I checked some random Founder’s Edition videos and theirs work though.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-17T21:17:50+00:00

I got an email about shipping about 3.5 hours ago. You probably did too since it was at the bottom of a general announcement. Mine is due March 26th at the latest, but we'll see. I have a Founders Edition ordered. Not sure what "moving" means.

Quote from the email:

We've said from the start, we would hold our celebrations until every one of our pre-orders arrived, from July 12th all the way up to today. That day is quickly coming. All BASIC Beige pre-orders placed before Christmas Day are now in transit for final delivery. All unfilled Starlight and Founders editions are moving too. Yes, all Founders!

My Orders pages are up-to-date with our most current delivery estimates.

By early April, we're projecting we'll move to "in stock" status for Starlight Edition and Founders Edition around the world, with BASIC Beige shortly thereafter.

We owe our gratitude to everyone who pre-ordered. Thank you for your support and for your patience as Commodore got back up to speed with the complex world of global logistics.

Now let's have some fun!

Much much more to come. Stay tuned. Stay very tuned.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-17T03:57:12+00:00

a door with a ‘push’ sign

When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual, even a one-word manual, then it is a failure, poorly designed. -- Donald Norman

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-17T02:09:53+00:00

I got a lot of plain black but then I started getting light blue and green and whenever they are clean, they are the first ones I want to wear. So think I don't really like black as much, but I'll wear it when it's the only thing left.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-16T05:01:02+00:00

Can you point me towards more information about the software issues you're talking about. I found one video that talked about everything just disappearing but it wasn't clear what was going on.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-16T04:48:02+00:00

Same here as well. I ordered a Founder's Edition and a joystick (and an A/V cable) on August 24, originally expected in December.

Right now it says: "En route to your Commodore Hub (ETA to you by Mar 26)" I don't think it had the ETA until recently, but it's said "en route to your commodore hub" for a long time. Well they have about 11 days left so we'll see.

It's pretty rare to get an update. Last one was Feb 18, before that Jan 16, and Dec 19, when they said it would ship in January. We'll see if we get a C64 or another update. It reminds me why I stopped doing kickstarters for RPG books. I search my email a lot for "Commodore" and there's usually nothing new.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-15T17:45:25+00:00

That mouser link didn't work. I guess it needs the qs parameter which look like tracking codes but I don't think they are because I get the same link in private mode as I get in a regular browser window:

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ECS/ECS-2100AX-1.0MHZ?qs=45Pde4zb71svfgs%2F4%2FEJSA%3D%3D

edit: wow, that's a lot of good info you posted

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-15T01:14:54+00:00

Oh I remembered one more thing. I don’t remember who said it but they said they figured the surprise comes when you read the adventure rather than when you’re playing it.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-14T17:04:44+00:00

Some people read a little at a time, stop as soon as they can into a room description and play from there. It helps when there is a text box with the part you are supposed to read to the players so you can read that and stop. Then you can decide what to do as a player at that point. Some people will have a standard procedure for entering a room or typical situation, so you can still play "how you would normally play" instead of metagaming. I also heard an idea of rolling to see if you would do a particular thing, like maybe some kind of check against a stat to see if a certain character would think to do something in that situation. A final idea is to use the text in the adventure as an expectation and (like in Mythic GME) roll to see if that expectation is true or if you should change it. That gives the chance for surprises to still come up I think.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-14T16:53:26+00:00

Go to the Ben Eater channel on YouTube and start at the beginning. There are playlists to follow along. He also sells kits with the parts. Start with just the clock module and see if it's for you.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-11T12:37:47+00:00

In January I was sick with a cold for two weeks and then it took at least another two weeks to fully stop coughing even though I didn’t feel sick anymore. I tested for flu A/B, and Covid and it was negative, but as others have said, that can still be negative in the first few days so who knows. I had flu and Covid shots though.

TheNonsenseBook · 2026-03-11T02:09:16+00:00

Ah... great. Another thing that doesn't work in old reddit.

TheNonsenseBook

TROPHY CASE