Blog

Psion Connectivity in 2026: mclink, plptools and Reconnect

Posted 5 October 2026

What is the best way to transfer information to and from a Psion Series 3 PDA these days? Of late I have shifted from DOSBox Staging to plptools. ‘PLP’, incidentally, stands for ‘Psion Link Protocol’.

Vibe rater: an experiment to assess AI coding assistance

Posted 17 April 2026

I’d like to announce the availability of PreviewJson 2, the new, second generation release of my QuickLook preview and icon thumbnail generator for macOS. It’s available now from the Mac App Store.

Retro LCD screen illumination: no backlight? Try a frontlight

Posted 27 October 2025

I have written before about the Psion 5mx, a palmtop computer from the late 1990s, and I have grumbled about its LCD screen. I don’t have a problem with LCD per se—you can’t expect the same screen quality that you get with a modern colour OLED retina display—but in the right light conditions an LCD can be perfectly usable. However, the 5mx screen’s specific level of reflectivity narrows the range of lighting conditions under which it gives you a good, clear view.

Amazing analogue: vernier callipers

Posted 22 October 2025

This short post is in praise of analogue technology, specifically my Mitutoyo vernier callipers, which I picked up a couple of years ago for no good reason beyond fond memories of time spent in Physics labs during my undergraduate days.

The most essential Amstrad NC100 accessory? It’s got to be a memory card

Posted 1 October 2025

I was resisting buying a memory card for my Amstrad NC100, but in the end I caved in. It was mostly because I have memory cards for my two Psion devices—a proprietary flash drive for the Series 3a and a CompactFlash card for the Series 5mx—because it’s reassuring to know that you can quickly make safe copies of working docs on a device without storage.

How to bring Amstrad NC100 screenshots to modern graphics apps

Posted 30 September 2025

While browsing some scans of old, out-of-print books about the Amstrad NC100, I discovered that it has a built-in screenshot facility. I knew my various Psion devices could do this, but not the NC100.

How to fix Amstrad NC100 coin cell voltage warnings... with paper

Posted 30 September 2025

Here’s a handy trick for any of you who, like me, have not only taken to retro computing in general but the Amstrad NC100 notepad in particular.

PreviewCode 2 brings a new UI and source code line numbers

Posted 2 September 2025

PreviewCode provides at-a-glance highlighted source code previews of more than 60 programming and scripting languages, and development configuration file formats. It makes use of macOS’ QuickLook mechanism: select a file and hit the spacebar to get an immediate preview of the file’s contents. It’s a handy way to view a file without opening it in an application.

CV as code: scripting to satisfy AI and (with any luck) human hirers

Posted 27 August 2025

It was time to update my CV (resumé to North American readers) anyway, and I figured, why not just script the process? Over the many years of my professional life, my CV has existed as finely laid-out LocoScript, Microsoft Word, QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign and ultimately Apple Pages documents all used as to create printed and, more recently, PDF copies of my Curriculum Vitae for distribution.

Primal Scheme: when Xcode settings vie with each other for supremacy

Posted 26 August 2025

In interesting follow-up to last week’s post about the Xcode build system. This week, while updating another of my macOS CLI utilities, I found my new build script was breaking. Why? It was attempting to create a macOS universal binary out of what I thought were two separate ARM64 and x86_64 builds but were in fact both… er… universal binaries.

Psion of the times: using a 90s palmtop in the 21st Century

Posted 26 August 2025

OK, so it was one of those purchases you can’t help yourself from making. A random, unprompted visit to eBay and suddenly I was £170 down but up one Psion Series 5mx palmtop with all the trimmings. And in very good condition it all is too.

Swift Fighting Man: How to duke it out with the Xcode build process and Win!

Posted 21 August 2025

Today was going to be about so much else, but instead I found myself mêléeing with Apple’s build system.

Index of all Smittytone Messes with Micros posts

Back to the Top