Apple Lisas are rare now. Here's a rather cheaper way to build your own – and in theory, it can even use original floppy drives. LisaFPGA does what it says on the GitHub repo: "The Apple Lisa computer implemented inside an FPGA!" It's an open source project that recreates a complete Apple Lisa on an FPGA board. It's not entirely complete yet, but hardware went on sale in May and you might still be able to buy one – or download the bitstream of the model and build your own. The Apple Lisa was a very strange computer, in part because it was pioneering new design territory. Apple started the project before the famous visits to Xerox PARC to see what became the Alto – also a radical machine, as The Reg FOSS desk tried to describe in 2023 for the machine's 50th anniversary. After those visits (for which Apple paid Xerox in shares, which the photocopier giant promptly sold), Apple changed course. Now the Lisa would be the first mass-market computer with a GUI. (The "mass market" bit didn't work out, and 2,700 unsold Lisas ended up as landfill in 1989.) Even so, it was a very important and influential machine: The Register celebrated its 30th birthday and indeed took another look back in 2019. So it's quite hard to find an Apple Lisa today, and if you manage to do so, it will probably (a) cost you quite a lot of money and (b) not be in working condition. That's a shame because Apple released the source to Lisa OS for the machine's 40th birthday in 2023. The enterprising developer behind LisaFPGA is Alex Anderson-McLeod, and he built his knowledge of the Lisa and its implementation from an earlier project. Last year, he managed to work out how to compile and build Lisa OS from Apple's source code. This was a particularly difficult effort, and he documents the process of Lisa OS Source Code Compilation at length. We've read the account closely and we think it's fair to say the build process is deeply arcane. (Sadly, the repo does not contain the source code itself, as the very strange "Apple Academic License Agreement" allows recompilation and study, but it forbids redistribution. To get the code, you'll have to agree to the license on the Computer History Museum.) Anderson-McLeod learned a great deal about how the Lisa works while rebuilding the OS, and he's applied that knowledge to designing and building LisaFPGA. It is not completely finished – under "Features," the Introduction section of the README states: "Onboard ESP32-based floppy drive emulation (NOTE: THIS DOESN'T WORK YET)." And a few lines down: "Supports Twiggy drives with an optional breakout board. Note that this is CURRENTLY UNTESTED as I don't have a set of Twiggy drives." Even so, we are impressed by the effort, and it sounds like a very entertaining bit of kit. The first batch has already sold out, but finished boards were on sale from two official outlets: MacEffects for £264.89, and from Joe's Computer Museum for $350. Both will take your info and contact you when the next batch is ready. If you can't wait, there is Ray Arachelian's Lisa Emulator Project. The history section is particularly interesting, starting with So, Ray, how come you care about ancient, obsolete machines? The LisaEm source code is on GitHub, but sadly, Arachelian died of cancer in 2023, which is why version 1.2.7 never got past Release Candidate 4. We feel it would be a good tribute for someone to pick it up and produce a finished release. In the meantime, we wrote about the remarkable LisaGUI website last year, which recreates the machine's user interface inside your browser. ®

Environmental groups want the FCC to slam the brakes on orbital datacenters, arguing the agency shouldn't approve constellations they say would total more than a million satellites before taking a hard look at their environmental impact. Earthjustice, acting on behalf of DarkSky International, Environment America, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), filed a petition this week urging the regulator to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before approving any of the pending applications. The filing doesn't target any single company. Instead, it asks the regulator to put the entire emerging orbital datacenter sector on hold while it assesses the cumulative effects of proposals from SpaceX, Starcloud, Blue Origin, Cowboy Space, and any similar applications that follow. According to the petition, those proposals collectively seek "well over a million datacenter satellites" in low Earth orbit. "The FCC is currently considering multiple requests for licensing extraordinary numbers of satellite-based datacenters to be placed into low-earth orbit over the next decade," the petition states. "Collectively, the proposals seek to place well over a million datacenter satellites into orbit, increasing the existing volume of satellites in low-earth orbit by multiple orders of magnitude." The groups argue that the FCC is trying to apply licensing rules written for much smaller satellite constellations to an entirely new class of infrastructure. "If ever a situation warranted a PEIS, it is this one," the petition says. It argues that a single review would allow the agency to examine "the risks, alternatives, needs, costs, and impacts of this sudden transformation of Earth's exosphere" before deciding whether any of the projects are in the public interest. The petition raises concerns about rocket launch emissions, pollutants released as satellites burn up during atmospheric reentry, depletion of the ozone layer, orbital debris, light pollution, impacts on wildlife, and interference with astronomy. It also argues that the combined effects of these constellations cannot be understood by evaluating applications one at a time. "It is difficult to imagine a better example of multiple projects presenting essentially identical impacts and risks that compound synergistically and cumulatively than the present proposals for orbital datacenter constellations," the petition argues. "The FCC's default position that such projects 'individually and cumulatively' have no environmental impact is plainly inapplicable here." The groups also criticize the applicants, saying they make expansive claims about the benefits of orbital computing while offering little detail about its environmental consequences. "The proponents of these proposals describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms," the petition states. "But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self-claimed epochal technology on the environment, science, economy, or other values." The petition arrives as the FCC reconsiders its environmental review rules for satellites, acknowledging that rapid growth in the space industry has raised new questions about how to apply its existing framework. The petition argues that the FCC's current approach, which generally treats satellite licenses as categorically excluded from detailed environmental review, is no longer fit for proposals measured not in dozens or thousands of spacecraft but in hundreds of thousands and, potentially, millions. If the FCC agrees, orbital datacenter operators will have a mountain of paperwork to clear before sending their hardware skyward. ®

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - posted a photo:

A Uguisudani la strada tiene insieme funzioni diverse senza fare troppo rumore: centri massaggi, love hotel, izakaya, piccoli locali, persone che passano. Non è una Tokyo nascosta perché sia difficile da trovare. È nascosta perché molti la attraversano senza guardarla davvero. Anche qui la vita quotidiana continua, tra insegne accese, entrate strette e soste brevi.

鶯谷では、いろいろな場所が同じ通りに並んでいる。マッサージ店、ラブホテル、居酒屋、小さな飲食店、そして通り過ぎる人たち。見つけにくいから隠れている東京ではない。多くの人が見ないまま通り過ぎるから、隠れているように見える。明かりのついた看板、狭い入口、短い立ち寄りの中で、ここでも日常は続いている。

In Uguisudani, the street holds different functions together without making much noise: massage shops, love hotels, izakaya, small places to eat, people passing through. This is not a hidden Tokyo because it is hard to find. It is hidden because many people cross it without really looking. Daily life continues here too, among lit signs, narrow entrances, and short stops.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Prahok ktiss: pork belly slowly simmered in coconut milk, fragrant kroeung, prahok, palm sugar, chilies. served with crunch seasonal vegetables An essetial dip for every Cambodian meal.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

A Train Sim Created By Just One Person Is Being Called The Best Ever Made (SLKotaku)

I'm not exactly a train enthusiast, nor indeed particularly au fait with the range of train sim games previously available, but in Running Train I've found something absolutely captivating. And most bizarrely, I've found that quality not by actually playing it, but rather by letting it play itself. While the game encourages you to master the reasonably simple controls of its range of perfectly crafted engines, you can also just set it to play itself and then take over the free camera as it does. Doing so has brought me so much pleasure.

The lively flora and fauna of a tiny Filipino island commingle with harrowing memories of California prisons in the surreal works of Gil Batle. Entirely self-taught, Batle honed his skills while incarcerated over the course of 25 years, drawing and eventually tattooing in a clandestine practice. Today, he’s immigrated to his parents’ native country, where he continues to reflect on the decades he spent in confinement.

Batle’s Double Life is a new body of work that explores these dual experiences. On white porcelain plates, the artist renders strange, unsettling compositions in which violence and a desire for freedom pervade every inch. Bird cages—common symbols for incarceration— are aplenty, while chains, barbs, and shivs haunt the scenes.

Utilizing such a commonplace, fragile, and even prized material, Batle sets a poignant backdrop for considering his blue acrylic paintings. The delicate porcelain both nods to the precarity and breakable nature of life, while also symbolizing traditional ideas of civility and propriety. Juxtaposing these domestic objects with scenes rife with struggle and brutality offers uncanny insight into one of humanity’s continually barbarous acts.

Double Life is on view through August 21 at New York’s Ricco/Maresca, a contemporary gallery representing outsider, self-taught, and folk artists.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article The Longtail of Incarceration Unfolds in Gil Batle’s Surreal Narratives appeared first on Colossal.