All the way back in October of last year I wrote an entry called “I’m a Phreak” where I laid out what my most recent extreme interest has become — the old telephone network of the 20th century, and all that entails — the history, the technology, the stories, the rise and fall of The […]
What is a 4th of July on Xadara without some good old American rocketry? A boring one, that’s what. Today I think I’ll share a video I may have shared before, but if I have oh well – I’m sharing it again. This is a compilation from the late 90’s of launches from Vandenberg Air […]
Today, June 23rd 2021, marks 30 years since the release of Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive for the rest of the world.) Quite a different beast in gaming compared to other platform titles like the Super Mario Bros. series, Sonic the Hedgehog was, first and foremost, based around speed. In fact, […]
Today marked the 40th anniversary of the launch of Columbia on the first mission of the Space Shuttle Program, STS-1. It’s a little hard for me to think that it was that along ago, or that the program would go on for just over 30 years, ending in July of 2011 after 135 missions. Of […]
I generally try not to get too political here, but given that 2020 has been one hell of a year on virtually all fronts I figured now is as good a time as any to just kind of let loose with what I’ve been wanting to say on this subject. That is, the way the […]
In the past few months, along with my growing interest in the pre-world-wide-web internet and, before that, bulletin board systems I’ve also have a very related interest in the telephone system of yesteryear. At the time, it was in some ways the largest machine ever made by humanity and when you really get into just […]
Today marks 13 years since I decided “fuck it, I need a website” and registered the domain name xadara.com. In the past I’ve gone over the history of the site — how it started as a site for a music game related personal project, became more of a “general purpose” blog with some static, outdated […]
In one of those funny moments where multiple hobbies of mine (in this case typewriters and old computers) cross paths I thought it would be fun to take a look back to a February 1st 1980 internal Apple Computer memo regarding the banning of typewriters (and any similar devices) from the company by January 1st, […]
It’s now the year 2020, and everyone, as they tend to be year after year, is celebrating the new year as some kind of chance for new beginnings as well as taking the time to look back over the past, and with this being a big round number everyone is also talking about how we’re […]
Earlier this year I realized something — in a great many ways I’ve pulled a complete 180 from who I used to be a decade ago. Namely in opinions about some topics, preferences for some things and general interests. It’s kind of funny to think back, but given the stuff that can happen to a […]
Today happens to be December 21st. Many of you may recall back in 2012 (that’s 7 years ago now) everyone was talking about this whole “Mayan Apocalypse” thing, as one of their calendars happened to end on that date. Well, it actually didn’t, as it was misinterpreted, and the Mayan calendar naturally had beginning and […]
Ah, The Simpsons. A show I pretty much grew up with; as much as one really could say with regards to a television series, anyway. Today, December 17th, 2019 marks 30 years since the premier of The Simpsons as a stand-alone television show, starting with that holiday classic “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire.“ Honestly, […]
Last month marked 20 years since the release of the Sega Dreamcast console in the United States. The Dreamcast was the final game console released by Sega and while it started off with strong sales and a very solid game library, by March of 2001, just two and a half years after the consoles Japanese […]
The evening of July 20th was spent with me watching the entirety of the Apollo 11 moonwalk as it had happened 50 years ago on that same date. I knew the whole event was only about 2 hours long but, like everything about watching the mission in real time, it was amazing to me how […]
Six and a half hours after landing on the Lunar surface on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step onto another celestial body. A goal set by President Kennedy back in 1961, and a dream that many cultures in humanity had had for centuries in the past had […]