Posts from Seth Kushniryk

Reboot Camp '83: MS-DOS on the Apple IIe is Ready

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Two weeks ago I posted about getting MS-DOS 2.0 to boot on the AD8088 Plus coprocessor card. Since then I’ve been working on getting it into a publishable state, and today it’s ready.

The source is at git.sr.ht/~sethkush/reboot-camp-83. Everything you need to build and run MS-DOS 2.0 on an Apple II with an AD8088 card is in the repository — the full MS-DOS 2.0 kernel source (MIT licensed by Microsoft), the OEM BIOS, the 6502 bridge, build scripts, and a bunch of ported DOS software.

Adapting Mockingboard Code for the Echo Plus

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been looking at what it takes to make Mockingboard software work with the Echo Plus card. Both are sound cards for the Apple II based on the same AY-3-8910 family of Programmable Sound Generators, driven through 6522 VIA chips. The Echo Plus also has an SSI-263 speech synthesiser, but that’s outwith the scope of this post. For music playback, the two cards are almost identical; the only real difference is how the VIA’s port B pins are wired to the AY chips. I used cybernesto’s mcs-player as a reference — it has Will Harvey’s Music Construction Set player in both Mockingboard and Echo Plus versions, which made the differences easy to isolate.

MS-DOS 2.0 on the Apple IIe

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been porting MS-DOS 2.0 to the Apple IIe using the AD8088 Plus coprocessor card. It’s an 8088 CPU on an expansion card with its own RAM and ROM. The card shipped with CP/M-86, available from nanja.info. The original ALF advertising materials suggest there may have been an MS-DOS port at some point (they write about it in future tense, so I don’t know if it ever actually happened), but the original OS disks aren’t shared to any of the usual places. I decided to start my own port because I like directories and object-oriented Turbo Pascal, neither of which CP/M-86 supports. Today I got it to boot.

More Holga Pictures

Thu, 21 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I took some more photos with my Holga toy camera. Some in colour this time. The colour film is more expensive, so I probably won’t buy it very often, but it was fun to try. I’m happier with the results I got with the Holga than my 35mm photos on Portra 400. The first few photos are down by the water here in Kingston.

Holga Pictures

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Some time ago I bought a Holga 120N on eBay. Holgas are cheap toy cameras made in Hong Kong, but they’ve gained a lot of popularity for the cool effects they give photos. Even David Burnett uses one. The 120N is one of the more basic models with a plastic meniscus lens and no flash (though it has a hot-shoe). It has a very basic continuous focus wheel, with four markers on it, two apertures, a tripod mount, and a 1/100(ish) shutter speed (though it also has a bulb mode). It shoots 120 format film, though I’m planning to 3D print an adaptor to allow me to use 35mm film in it.

New Blog!

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re here, then you’ve no doubt noticed the new layout. I’ve completely redone my entire website, including the backend for my blog. In this post I’m going to describe what I changed, how, and why.

0. What was wrong with my old site:

My old website was built using PHP scripts I hacked together along with Cutenews, which is a PHP blog application that is reasonably easy to integrate into a site. The problem with cutenews is that it’s got a proprietary license. It’s also overcomplicated by useless features, yet at the same time it places many constraints on the formatting of the posts and the integration with the website. My PHP scripts that held it all together were also a security concern. Sometime soon I’ll write a post about what happened with my contact form, which I unwisely wrote myself.

Flowers

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a wonderful Botanic Garden here in Glasgow, so I decided to take some photos of flowers. This also gave me a chance to experiment with the “Macro” feature. I don’t have much to write about these; I’ll just post the photos.

Isle of Bute Trip

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

As a break from studying before my last two exams, I went on a tour of the Isle of Bute. We took the ferry from Wemyss Bay, then walked along the West Island Way. From there, we took the bus to Scalpsie bay to look at the seals. Then we went to Rothesay, the only town on the island and relaxed in the sun for a while. There are a lot of photos in this post, I narrowed it down by a lot, but it was difficult to eliminate any of these.

Some Photos From Around Glasgow

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

To finish off the rolls of film from my trips, I’ve been taking walks around Glasgow to get a few photos. Here’s a combination of various “end-of-the-roll” walks.

Back in April, I took a walk to Glickman’s Sweet Shop to get some IRN BRU candies. I’ll be bringing some home, so be sure to ask for some when you see me :). Along the way, I took these:

Inverness (and Edinburgh)

Tue, 22 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Way back in March I went to Inverness with my mum and her friend Donna. I finally got the film from that trip developed and edited.

Inverness is a beautiful little town with the River Ness running through the middle of it. It was quite a long trip from Glasgow, but well worth it. The best parts in my opinion were Leakey’s Bookshop, which must be the best used bookstore in the world; and the walking path along the river, which was really scenic as the sun began to set a bit.

Slide Film (Finally)

Mon, 21 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been sitting on this slide film for quite some time. I started it way back on the Isle of Skye, then finished it on the way to Inverness. I finally edited all of the photos on it.

The colours are nice, but overall I wasn’t really impressed enough to consider shooting much more slide film. I have one more roll of Provia 100F that I think I’ll bring home to Canada. The cost just isn’t worth it compared to Gold 200 or XP2 Super, which have become by far my favourite film stocks.

It's been a while

Sun, 20 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t been writing anything lately because I’ve been so busy with exams. I just finished my last exam on Friday. I plan to relax this weekend before sorting through the backlog of film I have in my drawer. I should have a lot of photos to post during the week. Today though, I’m going to the park to read.

Isle of Skye Trip

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I went to the Isle of Skye two weeks ago, and I finally developed, edited, and sorted my photos from the trip. I just mailed the roll of slide film to be processed on Friday, so it won’t be ready for a while, but I’ve got two rolls of C-41. I found a way to map my photos with the app I use to keep track of them all. So here are maps of the first two rolls I shot on the trip:

Ilford XP2 Super and Some Boring Computer Stuff

Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

XP2 is a black and white film that is developed using C-41 (colour) chemicals. This gives it the advantage of great exposure latitude. The datasheet says photos can be taken anywhere from ISO 50 to ISO 800. I’ve found 1600 worked alright too, just with a bit more grain. XP2 is made here in the UK, so it’s a bit cheaper compared to Kodak’s offerings.

With this roll, I began adding EXIF information to my photos. I use an app on my phone to keep track of all my settings, then I run a script I wrote to automatically add the metadata to the scans I get from the lab. This way I keep a lot of the data that is added automatically by DSLRs and is helpful to learn from. I also started using a program called Darktable to edit my photos. Darktable is a great free and open source alternative to Adobe Lightroom that runs on Linux, making it perfect for my workflow. I’m still learning to use it, but I’m very impressed by the fine adjustments it can make.

Pinhole Camera Update

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I took the film from my pinhole camera to the lab yesterday and picked it up today. The resulting images were… well… better than nothing, but not great. They’re about what I expected, maybe a bit less. I rewound the film early by mistake, not wanting to tear it again, so that wasted the last 10 inches or so, but I still got enough images to be satisfied with it. I’m now more than ready to move back to my SLR.

A Doubly Disappointing Day

Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I finished midterm exams yesterday, so today I decided to go out and take some photos. I was finishing the roll of Portra 400 I had in my camera. I shot up to frame 36, and without thinking, I tried to wind the camera again. Usually there is a lot of tension if you get to the end of the roll—not this time. The film tore with almost no extra force on the winder. When I got home, i blacked out my closet door with towels, turned off the light, and tried to feed the film back into the canister in the dark. That didn’t work at all. After trying for about 20 minutes I gave up, and accepted that I’d lost 36 photos.

Pinhole Camera

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t had anything to post in a while. Exams are coming up. But I made a pinhole camera!

The Glasgow University Photography Society held a workshop on Wednesday where we built pinhole cameras out of matchboxes. Here is my final result:

I’m a little concerned about light leaks. Hopefully the film doesn’t come out all white or all black. All in all it took two hours to build, but that could have been faster if I knew what I was doing. Hopefully after my exams I’ll have some photos to upload.

Making Borsch (Борщ) in Scotland

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Borsch (борщ) is a Ukrainian (Eastern European, really) soup with many regional variants. It is one of my favourite soups, so I make it often. Shopping for vegetables in Scotland is unlike Canada, so I thought I’d document the ingredients and steps I used.

The ingredients are as follows:

⅓ Cabbage
1 Red onion
3 or 4 Charlotte potatoes
300g of beets (pre-steamed because that’s how they’re sold here)
1 small leek
Salt
Apple cider vinegar
Dill
1 bay leaf
3 cloves of garlic
Sugar
Sour cream
About 100g of butter
2L of water

City Centre and Museum of Transportation

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Before I walked around the city, I stopped for lunch. Normally I wouldn’t go to Tim Horton’s, but as a Canadian, when I see one in Scotland I have to try it. It was awful. Worse than in Canada. I figured not much could go wrong with a turkey-bacon club, but I was mistaken. 0/10, never eating at Tim Horton’s again.

While walking around I decided I’m happy I don’t have to drive here. It’s all so complex with one-way streets and other oddities at every corner. I find it bad enough driving in heavy traffic back home. There’s nothing better than an empty highway.

More Photos From Glasgow

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Starting at YVR, here’s one of the tarmac. I really like the lighting of this one.

Here’s one taken out the window shortly after taking off:

It didn’t take long for the sun to disappear.

Here’s the view of the University’s main building from the street:

There’s a lovely park beside the University called Kelvingrove park. I went for a walk around it shortly after arriving. Here’s a photo of a duck pond in the park:

In Glasgow

Fri, 05 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

So, I’ve arrived at the University of Glasgow for a five month exchange, and I figured it would be a good time to finally try blogging.

I got here in the morning on New Year’s Eve on a flight from Reykjavík. After a taxi ride to the main gate of the University, I got the keys to my apartment. I then walked around for two hours completely lost and confused trying to find the place. Navigating the streets here takes some getting used to. The people here are some of the nicest people you will meet. They were getting out of their cars to help point me in the right direction. Finally after a couple hours someone knew where Southpark Terrace was, and I was able to go home.