Obsolete hardware running obsolete software documenting obsolete media
Museum history
(Newest entry first)
- 2025-11-02: Message boards! I found something to fill (some of) the newly-won space on the floppy, and after a lot of testing it is now live. Check out the message boards section for details!
Also split this change log out from the main about page, and added an external links page.
- 2025-10-03: Tired of the white background! No big changes, just added a backdrop to the pages.
Removed the failed attempt at creating a guestbook and made some other minor changes, so I now have about 180KB free. Still no idea what to spend all that space on..
- 2025-04-02: More HTML fixes! Turns out there were a number of issues with the HTML files: UTF-8 characters, unnecessary use of "modern" stuff like CSS and <div> tags, etc.
Also re-processed all the .jpg files, simply to remove unnecessary metadata which was confusing certain browsers. As an added bonus, this saved about 100KB of space, which I now need to find content for :D
Finally, removed my Twitter contact details, as I left that vile platform some time ago.
- 2024-10-20: Fixed the broken HTML! Quite embarrassing; after being so proud of having written my own tool to do the HTML patching, it turns out it's chopping off long lines. So after finding a bug in Turbo Pascal that foiled my plans to fix it, I found a DOS port of SED, which after UPXing shrunk to 12kb!
Also cleaned up a bit in the above and below sections.
- 2024-08-11: Yes, it also (kinda) fits a BBS node! After mulling the idea for a while, and finally getting a Novell NetWare server up and running, I have managed to wedge a Novell client onto the floppy! So now, alongside HTTPSERV, FTPSRV and IRCD there's now an SBBS (Synchronet BBS) process running! It shares files and data with the other nodes. For now it's mostly for testing, but if it proves stable and functional, I'll add it to the BBS node pool.
- 2024-03-20: The Bulletin Board System is open! On a separate piece of hardware (a 386..), the Synchronet BBS software is now serving up bbs.anduin.net on port 23 (telnet). There are vague plans to add an LTE modem to allow actual phone calls; we'll see if and when that materialises. See the BBS page for details.
- 2023-07-10: The Floppy Museum Cluster! I built a new twin open frame* and mounted two brand-new 286-servers on it!
The frame was assembled from a couple of open frame-kits from Ali Express. The kits were opened, parts spread out on a desk, and instructions tossed. After a couple of days of fiddling, and getting some help to add a 72-pin SIMM slot on the new JCS286/SCAT boards, the Floppy Museum is now fully redundant! Two identical machines, mounted on the same open frame chassis, are happily serving up the web site and the IRC service.
* Sorry about the externally-hosted image; it just won't fit on that floppy while being a useful size. For the curious, a (much) larger image can be found here.
- 2023-06-21: Old hardware! Back on the old machine, let's hope it's stable! Also:
- After recompiling ngIRCd (using one of my OS/2 machines) with a new and shiny mTCP and an upstream patch for auto-join-on-connect, it now seems I have a reasonably stable configuration.
- The IRC server is now clustered!
The primary server and my test-bench machine is now part of an IRC "network", and connections are load balanced between the instances. If one goes down, your client should automatically connect to the other. And since the instances are linked, it doesn't matter which one you land on :)
- 2023-06-07: New hardware! That IRCd turned out a bigger challenge than expected: The poor machine had trouble reliably starting the services in a way that had them accept connections; theory is that the combination of multiple packet drivers, lots of inbound traffic during driver loading and service startup, and extreme memory pressure combined to a "perfect storm".
Turns out a different motherboard (don't worry; same chipset and CPU!) with a slightly less stupid BIOS allowed *just* enough additional memory headroom for things to stabilise.
Note: I'll be tuning the site a bit more over the next days/weeks, and I need to transplant the new motherboard onto the acrylic "open frame" that the old hardware was installed on. I'll keep a second machine (same build!) running to keep the site up :-)
- 2023-06-04: Rather major update, bringing new content from Jason, and:
- Removed Volkov Commander and some minor utilities to save space, because..
- ..There is now an IRC server running on the machine!
See irc section for details.
It's really getting cramped on the floppy now: less than 25KB free.
- 2023-03-28: Upgraded HTTPServ! Now with built-in NTP client, and a fix for the crashing bug!
PS: For anyone interested, the upgrade was done almost entirely remotely: FTP to update the executable, config and this file, then a walk to the "retro cave" to hit the reset button.
PPS: For anyone still reading, *c0in m1n3rz were spewing bad traffic on the Interwebs that made HTTPServ crash from time to time. Found and fixed by Mr. Brutman of mTCP fame! Thank you!
- 2023-03-06: A whole bunch of tweaks:
- There's now a favicon!
- Finally managed to use the second floppy drive for scratch storage, so I'm now offering *all* the tools and scripts used for download from /files!
The problem was an obscure BIOS setting - "DMA Extended XMEMR" - which needs to be disabled, otherwise this particular machine (and some others based on the same chipset) will eat floppies for .. well, any meal, really.
- In a feeble attempt at self-defense, I've added a robots.txt to keep search engines away from these files..
- 2023-03-01: Updated floppy with PKTMUX, now running HTTPD+FTPD for maintenance! See maintenance section for details.
- 2023-02-20: Museum went down, as it tends to every few weeks.
Of course on my first day of vacation, so it remained down until 2023-02-26.
Still trying to figure out why. Current theory is that some kind of broken HTTP requests brings down HTTPServ and the packet driver, since the machine itself remains fine: Loading a new packet driver instance and restarting HTTPServ is enough to restore service.
To anyone who may have attempted to access the site during that period: Sorry!
- 2023-01-24: Hardware and HTML day:
- Replaced NIC; hopefully packet driver is more stable
- Updated the museum pages with some corrections and a couple of new entries
- Minor HTML tweaks, added this event log
- Added contact info and simple page navigation
- 2023-01-12: Mentioned on Hacker News!
Well over 80.000 hits in a few hours! (Hint: read the comments)
- 2022-11-29: Acquired 'floppy.museum' domain!
Finally the site has a proper identity..
- 2022-10-22: First revision
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