Now there are blood pressure testers at every pharmacy. 
I used to carry my tube tester all the time.
Hard to balance on your boombox. Especially while you’re balancing it on your shoulder.
Yes.
I can believe it, depending on what a given company does transferring data online might take too long. Sending huge amounts of data on some drives or tapes might be more feasible and reliable.
Thank you @Grey_Devil for sharing, none of the following is directed at you.
I’m going to yell at cloud for a bit, so feel free to skip over if that’s not your thing, although it seems totally on-brand for this topic.
At first I was like:
But then I was more like:
I’m going to quote significant portions of the article, because in reality it’s just a press release repackaged anyway.
Maingear’s latest, the (appropriately named) Retro95, is a deceptive love letter to old-school “pizza box” PCs. It’s Wolfenstein 3D and Sierra adventure games on the outside; Cyberpunk 2077 in ray-traced 4K on the inside.
My gut reaction was that this was not, in fact, a pizza box PC. This is a desktop PC, with a desktop case. I had a different idea of what a pizza box case looks like, which is to say that it looks like an actual pizza box. Pizza boxes, and therefore, pizza box PCs are quite a bit thinner. That’d be some seriously deep dish pizza. Wikipedia agrees with me.
Also a weird flex to name-drop a 5 year old PC game.
Here’s some actual useful information from the article:
It looks like the Retro95’s case is sourced from the Silverstone FLP01.
Oh, so they just re-badged a case? That’s it?
Looking at Silverstone’s page, I have even more issues:
Take, for example, this:
At first I was bothered by the fact that 3.5" floppy drives didn’t look quite like that. This is roughly what a contemporary 3.5" drive would have looked like:
It’s too wide, the cutout isn’t in the middle, and there’s no activity light or button. I know it’s just molded plastic, but if you’re trying to appeal to people’s nostalgia, try harder.
Then I realized that the top bay is a full 5.25" (half-height), but it doesn’t look like a 5.25" floppy drive either. Here’s a contemporary one in it’s natural habitat:
The cutout is offset, but not by nearly as much, and the slot is thinner and open rather than having a flap, and there’s the issue of the missing handle.
All that, and it’s primarily a facade that you can replace with an optical drive anyway. So why not make it look like an optical drive instead, like this?
They could have even made the headphone jack functional, instead of hiding it under the other drive:
Frustratingly, this second drive is even more distorted than the first one due to being shrunk down so that the door can open, I guess?
The rest of the case is fine, I guess. I do appreciate that they tried to imitate the indicator lights of the time, at least, although it’s unclear if they are functional:
Notably missing is a turbo button, unless that bottom-right square is supposed to be one, nor is there a lock or a two (or three) seven-segment display to show your clock speed. Those would have been nice additions, but might have stuck out too much given the other glaring omissions and inaccuracies.
A rocker switch power button could have been interesting, although I understand that could potentially limit functionality, but the one they include is a bit understated. The same could be said for a reset button, which is still a useful feature.
Also, SilverStone does not call it a pizza box, or even a desktop case, but rather:
I’m not sure it makes any more sense as an HTPC case, given that the goal of most HTPC builds is to blend in with the rest of your components as much as possible. Anyone who wanted to look like they threw something together from spare parts would be better off putting something together from spare parts.
From the article:
“This one is for the gamers who lugged CRTs to LAN parties, swapped out disks between levels and got their gaming news from magazines,” Maingear CEO Wallace Santos wrote in a press release. “The Retro95 drop is our way of honoring the classic era of gaming, with a system that looks like the one you had as a kid but runs like the monster you’d spec from Maingear today.”
Swapped out disks between levels?
Unfortunately, the Retro95 is a limited-edition run. Maingear says once it sells out, that’s game over.
Or, you could just buy the Silverstone case and put your own components in it.
Maybe this is another case of people being nostalgic for a time that never existed…
what’s the quote? “never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of reels of tape going down the interstate” or something like that. maybe Woz?
edit:
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway
Haha i don’t mind, I posted that article because i thought it was neat (at face value) but having someone give a more informed point of view on it is even better.
“Designed by AI”, probably.
While I have no direct evidence, I suspect this was just regular lazy or ignorant humans.
Here’s the press release for the FLP01:
https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/press-release/flp01
Taipei, Taiwan, January 13th, 2025 – — SilverStone’s iconic GD09 HTPC chassis has been a beloved industry favorite since its debut in 2012. Even with technological advancements that have led to larger components and increased heat output to support more demanding tasks, the GD09 remains celebrated as the top choice for HTPC setups.
It appears to be a modification of an existing case design, the GD09, which originally debuted in 2012:
At Computex 2023, SilverStone delighted attendees by showcasing the GD09 in a retro-inspired design. Taking cues from the NEC PC-9800—a Japanese PC introduced in 1982—the chassis was reimagined with a beige cream aesthetic, evoking nostalgia while seamlessly blending into any living room environment.
They claim it was inspired by the PC-9800, but a quick search does not return anything resembling what they’ve created:
There are a few design cues, but overall it feels like a missed opportunity.
Even so, I feel like Silverstone got closer to what their stated goals than Maingear, which I think is targeting a different demographic. I’ve expended far too much energy on this, but ultimately it boils down to “We made it beige, aren’t you nostalgic?” Compare that to some of the things that 8bitdo has done:
This mouse looks terrible to use, but they absolutely nailed the aesthetic.
I really like the big red buttons. I wish I could have one on my desk that did…whatever. Gotta look into that.
Unfortunately, the Super Buttons seem to only work with their keyboards. It wouldn’t be too hard to DIY something like that, though. It’s just a very specifically shaped macro pad, which itself is just a very specifically shaped keyboard.
I have debated on getting that keyboard before, mostly for the giant button pads. I did see the light of day and decided against it, but i secretly still want those big buttons as i think they would be great to use as macro buttons that i could use as foot pads. Do i have a use case for configurable foot pads? No 
The story of the first processor, and how it saved the world of computing from a corporate patent troll.
Additional reading:
Those are Super Nintendo cartridges, right? It’s not just me?
Indeed, they are. This is courtroom demonstration put together by Lee Boysel in 1995 to demonstrate what his 26 year old processor could do. It’s a fascinating story. He blew TI out of the water.