Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Update: Comments Added to Sidebar

I added a recent comments section to the sidebar. This makes it a little easier to follow comment threads and note when someone makes a comment. This particularly true for entries that are buried or archived. Clicking the time stamp to the right of the poster's name will bring up the entire relevent post and thread, so the context isn't lost.

Feel free to jump on in. :)

Angel's Luck,
Capt.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Comment: Is the Shack back?

Okay, not having any major news to report (okay, there's some and I'll get to it soon), I figure I should post something. Why not something about Radio Shack? :)

The last few years haven't been good for the Shack in my area. They're all cell phone stores, with little stock or inclination to provide help for the electronics enthusiast. ("You've got Questions, we've got answers... as long as it has to do with your cell phone..." ahem...) It's been pretty sad.

But then... ta da! Lately, there's been a bit more interesting stuff showing up in the stores. Particularly of interest is the PC modding supplies from botique outfits like Thermaltake and others. Could the Shack be coming back to it's roots? Are they really going to start carrying bits for hobbyists in abundance again?

Probably not, but the stuff from Thermaltake, including fans, light kits and power supplies is definately welcome. Hell, I even found a set of Mobo standoffs! I know it might sound like I'm getting excited about a little thing... well, I am. I miss Radio Shack. Being in a metro area, we only get the corp stores, not the customized franchise stores of yore (you have to go out to the rural communities to get those still). I think it's high time to see the Shack getting back, at least a tiny bit, to the enthusiast community.

What's this have to do with CoCos? Well...

Instead of just picking some cable every now and then, you can actually go down to the Shack and get supplies to mod and repak you CoCo. Find a PS, add some fans, repak it into a slick case... with luck, most stores will have this stuff in stock by the end of Summer. No need to order parts you don't get to see and handle from the net. Just pop into Radio Shack and pick up what you need. Wouldn't that be nice? :)

Still have to see how it plays out, of course. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And hey, it's one more reason to start planning that CoCo mod or repak you've been planning for ages. :)

Have a look at http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kw=&brandCode=1000958

Angel's Luck,
Capt

Monday, July 10, 2006

News: The New CoCo Collector

The new CoCo Collector is now started. This new blog version replaces the old monthly format. See the first post for the full explaination. :) The short of it is: The Collector was getting too much to maintain by sitting down one evening and trying to wack it all out at once. The blog format let's me do it in bits as time allows. Much easier. It also let's me list auction listings elsewhere, outside the news blog. The Collector was also becoming just a rehashing of already over auctions. Valuable for compiling data, of course, but pretty damn boring to read. Not to worry, the boring bits will still be there, but this will make them easier to skip over if you couldn't give a rat's ass. Just skip straight to the Comment parts. And if you do like that stuff, well, dig in. It'll be in there from time to time as well. Finally, it's another piece in maintaining my sanity. Granted there aren't THAT many peices left, but we work with what we're given, right?

Angel's Luck,
Cris