Purple Paws

Isolating a Windows 98/2000 Network (While Still Using SMB Shares)

I gave myself an interesting problem to solve. How do I allow access to file shares from Windows 98 while still securing the rest of my network? My Synology NAS has the ability to serve files via SMB (or CIFS - for the purpose of this post, these are the

Featured

Site Migration In Progess

Sometime in the last couple months, the ilovepa.ws blog became corrupted...All the content is still intact, so it is being migrated to this new installation of Ghost.

Disable Game Controllers Controlling Windows

I'm not exactly sure when it started happening, but with modern versions of Windows, it seems some parts that aren't games are controllable with a gamepad, such as the Start menu. I don't care for this behavior, or any other means of controlling my computer's boring functions via gamepad, so

Working Around Sound Blaster 16/32/AWE32 MPU-401 Bugs

If you've been working on PCs that have an ISA slot populared by a Sound Blaster, and you're either a MIDI module enthusiast (like me) or using a WaveBlaster add-on, you may have run into issues with the MPU-401 interface. There's ways to work around some of the bugs. The

Security Updates

Welcome to the new site! I migrated from a years-old versions of Ghost. Earlier this year, I noticed some strange log entries and all the system's previously-allowed SSH keys were no longer allowed. This prevented me from gaining access to the system. Thankfully, DigitalOcean provided a backup measure in case

Retro Computing

CompactFlash and Retro PCs

CompactFlash is a pin-for-pin IDE compatible technology that can be used in retro PC setups. However, CF cards are not all the same. In this article, find out more about the application of CF to MS-DOS and older Windows gaming setups.

Windows 98 SE Setup Part 1 - Installation

There's an elaborate setup that I use whenever I am starting fresh on my KT133A based machines, on which I will be using Windows 98 Second Edition.

Server Upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04

This server's software updates were falling a bit behind for some time. Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic Beaver" was released in April 2018. That means we've not been on the latest release for 15 whole months. Whoops! The Server This site's web server is hosted on a virtual machine provided by

C#

Making Your Library Friendly for Dependency Injection in C#

There's an agnostic method to make it easier for DI users without making DI itself mandatory.

Gaming

Bio Menace Speedrun Routing

1-1: City Center 1-2: High Rise 1-3: City Park 1-4: South Side 1-5: Sewer 1-6: Cave 1-7: Skull Man 1-8: Elevator 1-9: No Man's Land 1-10: Lab Entrance 1-11: Computer Core 1-12: Mangle's Last Stand 2-01: Outer Woods 2-02: Main Corridor 2-03: Ant Caves 2-04: Ant Town 2-05: The Queen

Retro Computing

The Retro LAN Party Cart

There's a kind of fascination I can't seem to explain about running games on the real thing, a kind of captivation that comes from assembling a capable machine with my own hands.

Retro Computing Featured

Tiido's KickÄss Yamaha Based Sound Card (T-04YBSC-x)

In late 2018, Tiido Priimägi released a Yamaha OPL3-SAx based sound card. We've had sound cards based on this chip since the late 90's, but this sound card takes things to a new level.

GeForce 2 and 3: DOS and Windows 98 Powerhouses

In 2000, NVIDIA released the GeForce 2 series of dedicated graphics cards. In 2001, the GeForce 3 series was released. In this article, I'll discuss why these graphics cards are excellent for a hybrid DOS/Windows machine, and go over some tips when buying these cards. Advances in Graphics Processing

Electrum Malleus: The Last Music I Was Supposed to Write

Electrum Malleus is probably one of my favorite albums. It is a 19 track beast, by far the largest album of original works I've ever assembled at once. It was also, for a while, supposed to be the last music I ever wrote. This story contains elements of a rather

Personal

Post-wreck Writeup

I survived a car wreck in early February. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to say that. My 2014 Kia Rio was totalled. But the vehicle looks a lot worse than I do. I managed to walk away with only a bone fracture in my left hand. I was

Gaming

Zero Hour Productions Announces Charity Streaming Marathon

Zero Hour Productions announced they would be putting together a charity marathon.

Code

Class Naming and Division in C#

Naming classes in code is hard.

Retro Computing

Pentium 4 DOS Gaming

Despite its flaws, the Pentium 4 can still be a great way to get into high performance DOS gaming.

Code

Creating a Blank Visual Studio 2017 Project

Find out how to create a Visual Studio 2017 C# project using the new format.

Retro Computing

Motherboards and Sound Cards with PC/PCI

Back when the Sound Blaster AWE64 was a big deal and Creative was making the move from the ISA bus to the PCI bus, a compatibility mechanism was needed to bridge the gap.

Code

Creating a Blank Visual Studio 2017 Solution

Find out how to create a Visual Studio 2017 C# solution using the new format.

Code

Moqzilla

I wrote a class library called Moqzilla. It's a tool that will automatically mock dependencies that are part of the constructor of the tested class.

Audio

The Legendary Sound Blaster

I share some of the history behind the Sound Blaster, why it was important, and pitfalls to remember when purchasing old models today.

Audio

Yamaha OPL3-SA ISA Cards

Yamaha's OPL3-SA would not only provide OEMs with great compatibility for DOS gaming, but also help Yamaha ride the success of their invention into the 2000s.

Audio

Aztech ISA Sound Cards

What's interesting about cards that come from Aztech is they tend to replicate features from the Sound Blaster extremely well.