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Amiga Community Collaborates On Restorative Gel To Brighten Your Old Plastic
jamie pointed out an Amiga community that took a discovery of how to restore old computer plastic, super-charged it, and then opened the process to the public domain. Time to spruce up those old dusty TRS-80s in the basement. "All of the initial tests were done with a liquid and we realized that for large parts this was getting expensive, so the next stage was to make a paintable 'gel' version that could be brushed onto larger surfaces. This was tried in Arizona in the sun and the UK under a UV lamp and was found to be just as effective as the liquid. We have now released this to the public domain for anyone to use as we can't patent it and we coined the nickname 'Retr0brite' for it, as it summed up what we were actually doing with it."
However, a chance discovery was made in March 2008, by The CBM Museum at Wuppertal in Germany, that immersing parts in a solution of Hydrogen Peroxide could partially reverse the process.
They accidentally immersed old plastic parts in Hydrogen Peroxide?
Sounds like a "whoops" turned into a "cool!"
Both of them?
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"Fuck computers. We're going into gels."
I think KY already has a product for that.
You'd have to be careful with at least PET, because that degrades when exposed to H2O2 for more than a minute or so. So I'd check for possible side-effects before attempting to spruce up your preciousss with this.
I immediately thought of old toys, like my precious ships for the star wars action figures, the imperial shuttle or b-wing whose plastic is all faded and yellowed. Now I can run around the room with them making laser noises and re-enact scenes from ROTJ just like I did when I was eight. Awesome!
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
Better make it only in small batches. B-(
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"Fuck computers. We're going into gels."
I think KY already has a product for that.
But that's only for Apple users ;o) /joke
Ah yes... the venerable Amiga TRS-80. As much as I appreciate the requisite throwaway jokes in summaries, you really couldn't think of any Commodore Amiga product? Even a C64 jab would have been better.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Back in the day, Ami was a real contender.
Buy an A1000 and run some graphics demos on one. Then try to remember that it was made in 1985.
I've always dreamed of what the world would be like if modern computing had gone this route. Imagine your OS as a bank of roms, and your PC as a fully integrated machine rather than a patchwork of PCI cards and third party drivers.
Seriously, Amiga was an excellent design.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I assume that they are an acrylic, although polycarboanate plastic is also a possibility. I also assume that they are the thermoplastic variety rather than the thermosetting type. Acrylics often use an amine catalyst which tends to cause yellowing. Moisture and UV exposure causes embrittlement, clouding, cracking and crazing in acrylics.
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Really sounds like tooth whitening gel to me. Some of those procedures use high energy light to excite the peroxide which speeds up the process.
...is another man's sickly yellow. The basic rule of thumb for antiques/collectibles is to never remove its patina e.g. all that crap that's built up on its surface over the years, as it's an undeniable indication of its age (plus sometimes it just looks cool.)
Then again, vintage car fans don't hesitate to break out the paint and the rust remover.
Will diehard technology collectors prefer plastic as yellow as a smoking lounge drop ceiling, or returned to its brilliant off-whiteness?
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The problem here is that it's not that the plastic is 'unclean' but that the material has chemically reacted with UV and fire retardants to fade the plastic itself. It's the MacBeth of stains - you scrub and it never comes out.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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What you're doing is applying an oxygenating bleach to the surface. Works quite well to remove the yellow. But anytime you apply oxygen to a surface you speed up the rate of .... oxidation!
So while you're whitening it, you're also speeding up the deterioration of the plastic.
If you've ever used an "ozone generator" to remove smoke odors you know it does that job very well, and it also destroys every rubber band, ballpoint pen, and bicycle tire in the area.
Or you can use the DIY Gentoo based computer called "Go fuck yourself"
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
You're looking for Paul Thurrott's SUPERSITE for WINDOWS.
He's the AM Radio of the tech industry and the intellectual force behind the Microsoft Party.
Yeah basically, but the Mac was missing the key element of "helper" coprocessors.
That's it exactly. Amiga was years ahead of the competition. The design was simply brilliant. We didn't have a lot of speed. The processor is 8 freaking MHz. But with clever and elegant design, the thing could do miracles.
And the thought I have now is - what if this had been the main thrust of computing? What if this had become the dominant design paradigm? Add 20+ years of work and research onto that idea rather than the IBM beige box. Take the Amiga design concept and move that into a 3Ghz processor realm, with nVidia doing the Angus chip equivalent.
Computers today would look like the things we see in sci-fi movies. It'd be unreal.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Hi, I am the guy that wrote the Wiki. Now, I know that there are skeptics out there and I may have over simplified the science a bit so that non-nerds can understand what's going on, but I am open to listen to anyone who can explain the chemistry that is actually going on in a coherent way. I may have made it too simple I suppose. Regarding the ABS polymer itself; consider that black car bumpers and trim are made from (yes you've guessed it) ABS. These tend to go white (not yellow or brown) over a long time in sunlight. This is the ABS polymer degrading to the hydroperoxide via oxidation. The computer parts only go white if you use too strong a peroxide solution, so what is reacting under UV so quickly? My theory is it's the TBBP-A flame retardant which is active under UV and decomposes. There is also the phenomenon of migration, where ingredients can move within the plastic matrix and eventually get to the surface. I believe that the degradation products of TBBP-A migraet through the ABS and this is what make it discolour as the molecules attract oxygen molecules. There have also been comments elsewhere that the site is a hoax and that the photos are faked; if this were so, how could the photographs post in the various forums threads I added to the Reading section of the Wiki this morning be faked? They aren't, simple as......... I know I risk feeding trolls with this but this isn't a hoax. As this uses properietary products as part of the mixture, it couldn't be patented, however, I suppose I could have patented the use of H2O2 with TAED in a use for treating plastic. I chose not to and so it was released for all into the public domain. Don't flame me; try it for yourself. Let the flaming begin...........
The in-depth explanation of the chemistry on the site describes the relevant reaction as a reduction of the free bromine produced when the flame retardant decomposes.
Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
Let me make that perfectly clear: the amount of money involved in the deal was insignificant to BOTH parties, and Microsoft got what it paid for.
If the money involved in the deal was insignificant to both parties, then why did money change hands, and why did Microsoft actually get something for it other than a big lump of stock? I call shenanigans.
PS:It wasn't Jobs that was responsible for OS X. It was Amelio- he bought NEXT after BeOS stuck its thumb up at Apple and demanded a fortune. Jobs repaid the favor by manipulating the stock price and ousting Amelio.
From where I was sitting it looked very much like Apple wanted Jobs back, and Jobs came with NeXT and no other way. But then, I wasn't an Apple fan at the time. I outgrew that when Apple was insulting us with 68040s.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"