October 19th, 2018:

	If you've been reading my Mastodon[1] posts this week, you'll know 
I lost one of my beloved computers this week, my Tandy 2800 HD laptop.  
It was having trouble the last time I used it[2], and finally succumbed to 
it's ailments.  First, the LCD's backlight flickered out for the last 
time, then something *popped!* audibly, followed by a thin wisp of magic 
smoke.

I'm a bit saddened by this, as the 2800 was one of my favourite computers, 
and one of my last classic MS-DOS machines.  As a personal history note, 
it was the computer I used to write the vast majority of text for the 
Thugs' website back in the day, and was the subject of the Thugs' intro 
page[3].  My eventual plans were to get the 2800 online via SLIP 
connection to one of my *nix boxes, but now I'll never get the chance.  
That's what happens when you procrastinate, I guess...

Thankfully, I still have one last MS-DOS computer, my 386-based Toshiba 
5200 laptop, nicknamed Angry Red[4].  I don't drag Angry Red out often, as 
it takes up a lot of desk space when space is at a premium.  I really 
should, though, it's a pretty capable machine, and will be more so once I 
upgrade to Windows 3.11 and finally put my Xircom parallel-Ethernet box to 
use.

Hmmm, now I'm getting ideas...

The Toshiba has a free 8-bit ISA slot (half-length), and I could really 
use a couple of additional serial ports so I can run my radio scanner and 
software-controlled radio, and maybe drive a 56k modem.

Looks like I have a project this weekend!

References:

[1] @sparcipx@mastodon.sdf.org

[2] http://sparcipx.motd.org/2015/01/01/retrochallenge-15-01-and-were-off/

[3] gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/sparcipx/thugs/intro

[4] 
http://sparcipx.motd.org/2014/07/15/retrochallenge-14-day-whatever-angry-red-planet/