Notes

Today I opened my iMac G5 (it hasn’t been opened since 2004, except for when I upgraded the RAM and HDD), so I decided to remove everything, clean it up and re-paste the CPU/GPU/U3 chipset. Took me about one hour to do that, luckily I have the iMac G5 model that’s sooooo easy to open up (unlike the older versions, ALS and iSight). I haven’t noticed any difference in temperatures (CPU idles at 60 degrees and in full load goes to 70 degrees with a max peak of 72) but the old thermal paste was more like thermal flakes. My iMac wasn’t really noisy before, but I think it might be even less now. The Nvidia GPU had a thermal pad on it, which I also replaced with Noctua’s NT-H2 paste that I’ve been using on my iBook G4. The paste on the U3 chipset was looking way better than the CPU one, I guess the temperatures there aren’t as extreme.

For a 21-years-old machine, it just works and does its job perfectly, providing me with hardware and software so I can write on my website, work on various projects (like the Café, my forks of Firefox, Thunderbird, Alkor, etc), and play the games I love. What more can you ask?

Currently the iMac is upgrading Macports and dependencies (without the dreaded gcc15). I’ll be working on an article about Apple’s iMac G5 and it’ll go next to the iBook G4.

What if the Smoke Monster was the good guy all along?

Some free/open source softwares, libraries, codes created/modified by me. These projects have no affiliation with any upstream community code sources or organizations. Serpent/NewMoon/IceDove/IceApe UXP builds for Windows XP

This article is just what the headline promises: an introduction to the CP/M operating system. No previous knowledge of 1970s and early ’80s operating systems is required. However, some familiarity with Linux or a BSD-style operating system is assumed, as the setup process suggested here involves using a package manager and command-line tools. But why explore CP/M in the 2020s? There are (at least) two good reasons: 1) historical education 2) gaining a better understanding of how computers actually work. A gentle introduction to CP/M

Hacking in 2025 is going to “Hacker” News and reading what The Atlantic propaganda tells you about the things you should care about.

The scene - incorporating the cracking scene of the 1980s and early 1990s - has been declared dead several times over since the late 1980s. Some claimed the Amiga would kill it, others that the PC would destroy its soul or that the Internet would rob it of its essence. This is to be expected: In a subculture - which is what the scene is - there’s typically going to be elders lamenting the changing of the old ways, and newcomers eager to bring their own ideas into the mix.

Except… That last part might no longer apply to the scene. Examine photos from a late 1980s rave party and they’ll show a bunch of young people partying hard. Fast forward in time and look at photos from a 2025 rave party, and the concept remains basically the same, but there’s now a different bunch of young people partying hard. When performing the same experiment on the scene, there’s close to zero teenagers among 2025 demo party attendants. Look closer and it becomes evident that many of the 2025 attendants are in fact the very same persons as the teenagers and twenty-somethings appearing in party photos from 1989. The Demo Scene is Dying, But That’s Alright

Liberal modernity implicitly specifies that you should come up with your own reasons and purposes. You’re supposed to find things to care about or to motivate you, or simply dedicate your time to self-enrichment. If you don’t take action to resolve the issue of how to apply yourself, then distraction, consumption and dead-end work are the only things that will fill the void. And you’re filling the void with more void, and the result is skyrocketing levels of depression.

The average person only makes horrible decision when given freedom.