Ronald Nicholson

DSP & iOS App developer. Amiga OCS architect & Mac 128k engineering. N6YWU, ballroom dancer, #rwri alumnus

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@OneUpKoopa @elonmusk I flick to Mad Max to speed up when going too slow. Flick to Chill or Sloth when going too fast. Then flick to one of the middle settings (or back and forth between two) to hold the speed with which I'm more comfortable.

[Vintage Computer Federation @vcfederation]

VCF WEST 2026 CALL FOR SPEAKERS!
We have a new exhibit registration system: https://t.co/VYSXU5SMZI

DATES: Aug 1st and 2nd at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
INFO:https://t.co/X1u4kFOoVC

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

In Europe they stuck entire towns with fortresses and castles with a church on top of those hills, and left the flat areas for agriculture. In the Bay Area we left the surrounding hills empty, and planted asphalt and concrete over some of the best farmland and orchard land on the planet.

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@Bre_levins @elonmusk kayfabe?

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

A wing generating lift accelerates and thus deflects air downward to counteract gravity. To deflect air downward near the bottom of the wing, there has to be a higher pressure there accelerating the air downward. To deflect the air above the top of the wing downward requires a lower pressure zone to accelerate the air molecules above the wing downward. That low pressure allows those air molecules to travel faster over the wing as well. The deflection, pressure changes, and acceleration all interact. None work in isolation.

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@c0degaf @lafaiel Linux in VM on a MacBook runs great

[Vintage Computer Federation @vcfederation]

Hedley Davis of Commodore (Senior Design Engineer) passed away March 9, 2026. He will be missed. He appeared at VCF East a few times.
Obituary is here: https://t.co/3xSscoBmxf
VCF East 2025: https://t.co/5HNNFjyfMV
VCF East 2022: https://t.co/mAuQZQDtJM

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@JohnDCook When I was learning computer science and programming, it was all about 1's and 0's. Later, when I started out as an engineer actually designing and debugging computer circuitry, I learned that in reality there is no such thing as digital.

[gizmo @SecondGizmo]

@_sorrengailll Running/participating in an international and well known sex trafficking ring that includes murder, cannabilism, and children and not receive even a grand jury summons, let alone time in prison

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@BretWeinstein As for AI, if it can act as if it has a psychological pathology, is that pathology contagious to the people conversing with LLMs?

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@BretWeinstein there are also some parallels between Weinstein's solution to the Cartesian dilemma, testing knowledge against the real world, and Taleb's Skin in the Game

[Dave W Plummer @davepl1968]

I restore old computers, and am always curious how their classic performance compares to modern PCs.
Are they a hundred times faster? A thousand? A million?

Here are the stats. I wrote a Dhrystone test in K&R C that runs on everything I own, unmodified, from the PDP-11/34 up to my M2 Mac Ultra Pro.

FWIW, the Mac Pro is 200000X as fast as the 11/34!

Code: https://t.co/7AU7HFifuY

[Shane Parrish @shaneparrish]

Woz's love for simplicity was born from a love of engineering.

When he designed the controller for the first Apple floppy drive, he used only 2 chips and a bit of programming. Competitors at the time used 22 chips.

Woz realized that he could use the CPU, rather than outsourcing the work to the drive itself.

Bill Gates would call it “The most clever program ever written for a small computer."

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

[AMIGATRONICS @aMiGaTrOnIcS]

🎉 #AmiWest2025 – Nov 1-2, Sacramento 🇺🇸
Celebrating 40 years of #Amiga!
See the #Lorraine prototype, #Mirari PPC, #AmigaOS 4.3, OS 3.3 beta, and more — with Carl Sassenrath & Trevor Dickinson 🎂💾 @amiwest
👉 https://t.co/znVYXiKztQ

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

@CoLDSToRAGE At least it knows you exist. Can't find my signatures anywhere, even though Amiga magazine articles about them have been published.

[Angsuman Chakraborty ✪ @angsuman]

Amiga Speech by Ron Nicholson (Amiga Ireland 2023) https://t.co/XTmcmJVOTt

[The Indigo Otter 🦦 @OtterIndigo]

@AmigaBill_ @hotpaw We really enjoyed meeting Ron in Ireland a couple of years ago.

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

Who would imagine that 100's of people in Germany would want to pose for selfies in front on a stack of wire wrapped prototype circuit boards that were built 41 years ago? The original engineers found it wonderful ... and Surreal. #amiga40 Lorraine for the Amiga 1000 OCS

[Iggi @Iggi76123640]

#amiga 40 this Sunday and so happy I made it! Met my #pistorm buddies @Claude1079 and Michal who are some of the most humble guys in the Amiga scene. Also the first time the original AMIGA has been shown outside the US.

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

I forgot to take a photo, but I think a standing-room-only audience was entertained by the talk Dake Luck and I gave at the great Amiga40 event. It was a blast getting to show off the Lorraine Amiga 1000 OCS prototype

[Ronald Nicholson @hotpaw]

Arrived in Germany where Dale Luck and I will be interviewed at the #Amiga40 event by @AmigaBill_ to tell stories about the invention and introduction of the #commodoreamiga Amiga 1000