Mark Tyson

Mark Tyson

News Editor

Mark's enthusiasm for computers dampened at an early age by the rubber-keyed Sinclair Spectrum 48K and feelings of Commodore 64 envy. However, in the mid-80s, hope in a digital future was rekindled by the purchase of an Atari 520 STe. Since that time Mark has used a multitude of computers for fun and professional endeavors. He often owned both Macs and PCs but went cold on the former after OS9 was killed off, and warmed to the latter with the introduction of Windows XP.

Early work years were spent in artwork and reprographics but in the late noughties, Mark started to blog about computers, Taiwanese food culture, and guitar design. This activity led to a full-time position writing about breaking PC tech news for HEXUS, for the best part of a decade. When HEXUS was abruptly closed, Mark helped with the foundation of Club386, before finding a new home at Tom's Hardware.

When not wearing through the keycap legends on his PC keyboards, Mark can be found wandering the computer malls of Taiwan's neon-lit conurbations and enjoying local and international cuisine.

Articles by: Mark Tyson

The Biological Computing Company

Living neurons integrated into modern AI processing, claims SF startup — biological computing power used to boost computer vision, generative video, and more

By Mark Tyson published

Startup raises $25m to boost its biological neuron-driven pathway to replace, or augment, silicon compute in AI.

An ASCII animated real-time weather show forms the terminal backdrop

Weathr app turns the Linux terminal into a live weather display — background ASCII animated real-time weather show is powered by Open-Meteo

By Mark Tyson published

An open-source Rust-based app teleports real-time ASCII art-based weather animations into your terminal backdrop.

The Maclock alarm clock on Amazon

Tiny Mac look-a-like alarm clock transformed to run real Mac software

By Mark Tyson published

A vintage technology enthusiast has turned a miniature Mac-a-like desk toy alarm clock into a real Mac software running computer.

BMW wants to patent this logo-inspired fastener

iFixIt calls BMW’s new anti-consumer security screws 'a logo-shaped middle finger to right to repair,' Adafruit 3D prints a solution — BMW's connector reverse engineered using patent filing as a design blueprint

By Mark Tyson published

A perfect answer to the new proprietary bit designed to stop ‘unauthorized individuals’ servicing or repairing these cars.

ENIAC

ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose digital computer, turns 80 years old today — legendary hulking machine was 1,000x faster than its nearest rival

By Mark Tyson published

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was unveiled to the public today in 1946.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint team considers longer gaps between releases in attempt to accelerate development efforts — current six-month cycle means ‘we spend more time testing, fixing, and releasing than developing’

By Mark Tyson published

Linux Mint developers want to break from their self-imposed six-monthly cycle to build more ambitious updates.

Seagate Exos X16

Enthusiast fries 14TB HDD due to SATA power slipup — bemoans lack of SATA power safety and modular PSU cable standardization

By Mark Tyson published

A PC DIYer fried their 14TB HDD after a modular power cable mix up.

Tru-Di

Adding AI to sinus surgery system saw malfunctions rocket from eight to 100 incidents, according to new investigation — skull-puncturing errors are the stuff of nightmares

By Mark Tyson published

The introduction of AI to the operating theater doesn’t always work out as optimists, or the FDA, might expect.

A Sony Blu-ray player

Sony will ship its final Blu-ray recorders this month — exit from Japanese market the end of an era for the segment

By Mark Tyson published

Another rampart of the consumer optical media market has crumbled away with Sony closing down its Blu-ray disk recorder business.

Tungsten carbide

3D printing with one of the world’s hardest Tungsten-based materials is now possible — material’s incredible hardness made it difficult to additively manufacture

By Mark Tyson published

Scientists based at Hiroshima University have devised a novel way of 3D printing with one of hardest engineering materials used by industry.

Retro Apple Mac gets thermal printer floppy swap

Retro Apple Mac mod implements thermal printer floppy swap — machine also benefits from a Mac Mini brain transplant

By Mark Tyson published

A retro computer enthusiast has fitted a thermal printer into an ancient Apple Macintosh Plus.

A real-time 3D shader demo for the Game Boy Color

Developer creates real-time 3D shader demo for the Game Boy Color — you can download the ROM or interact with the 3D teapot online

By Mark Tyson published

A canny developer has managed to coax a Game Boy Color into running an interactive, user-controlled, real-time 3D shader demo.

Blizzard hits 35

Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo studio Blizzard Entertainment hits 35 years old — marks its first milestone under Microsoft Gaming

By Mark Tyson published

Blizzard Entertainment is celebrating its 35th anniversary.

TPG1000Cs

20-gigawatt Chinese microwave weapon touted as ‘Starlink’s worst nightmare’ by country's media — portable 5-ton device can deliver full-minute destructive bursts

By Mark Tyson published

Scientists in China have developed an incredibly powerful microwave weapon capable of disrupting or damaging low-Earth orbit satellites.

Minisforum MS-02 Ultra mini workstation hands-on testing

Minisforum MS-02 Ultra mini workstation hands-on — can it replace my hulking desktop PC that is 11 times larger?

By Mark Tyson published

I wanted to see if the diminutive new Minisforum MS-02 Ultra could replace my very bulky but capable DIY desktop PC.

HP1345a monitor demo using DIY interface.

Legendary Windows dev codes demos and games for ancient ‘War Games’ monitor — interfaces with the HP1345a vector display using an ESP32 microcontroller

By Mark Tyson published

The ancient HP1345a vector display is now usable with a PC to USB serial connection and code shared on GitHub.

Intel processors

Intel clawed back CPU market share from AMD in the Steam Hardware survey for the first time in months — PC component crisis could be pushing builders to value-for-money builds

By Mark Tyson published

After months of consistent decline, Intel’s consumer CPUs have enjoyed a small but significant spell of market share growth, at least according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey.

This is an original copy of 8K BASIC on paper tape for the MITS Altair 8800 computer. The BASIC interpreter was written by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff. The tape is labeled "BASIC 8K without cassette" and dated July 2 (1975).

‘Most of you steal your software’ — Bill Gates complained about software piracy 50 years ago, and was openly irked by community's Altair BASIC ‘theft’

By Mark Tyson published

50 years ago ‘An Open Letter to Hobbyists,’ typed by William Henry Gates III, bellyached about software piracy among the hobbyist community.

3D printing concrete structures underwater

Cornell research shows that underwater 3D printing can be used to build or repair ocean structures in place — DARPA-funded project aims to make underwater construction faster, cheaper, and safer

By Mark Tyson published

Researchers based at Cornell University have developed a method for 3D printing concrete structures on the seafloor.

Radeon RX 9070 and XT

AMD Radeon RX 9000 GPUs begin to appear in the Steam Hardware Survey at last — RX 9070 arrives with paltry 0.16% market share, less than the GeForce GT 730

By Mark Tyson published

The latest Steam Hardware Survey is out, and a single AMD RDNA4 architecture GPU has charted in the PC Video Card Usage tables.

Saturn raytracing demo

Homebrew developer runs real-time ray tracing test on 1994 Sega Saturn — ancient hardware's untapped power revealed, more refinements to come

By Mark Tyson published

A recently published video shows real-time raytraced shadows in a game environment running within the improbable confines of a mid-1990s Sega console.

Big, old tech, 128byte USB flash drive uses magnetic core memory technology

Researcher builds bizarre 128-byte USB drive the size of a dinner plate using ancient pre-semiconductor magnetic core memory technology — data disappears once it is read, requiring special handling

By Mark Tyson published

A computing enthusiast has assembled one of the most bizarre low-capacity USB drives we have ever seen.

PicoIDE

Open source IDE-ATAPI drive emulator launches for vintage computers — drop-in 3.5-inch bay solution can save oodles of optical and HDD images to a microSD

By Mark Tyson published

PicoIDE is touted as 'an open source IDE/ATAPI drive emulator for vintage computers.'

Flexible Fiber Integrated Circuit (FIC) design

Shanghai scientists create computer chip in fiber thinner than a human hair, yet can withstand crushing force of 15.6 tons — fiber packs 100,000 transistors per centimeter

By Mark Tyson published

Researchers say they have built a computer chip in a flexible fiber that is thinner than an average human hair.

Intel 80286 CPU

The Intel 286 CPU was introduced on this day in 1982 — 16-bit x86 chip introduced protected mode memory, and would power the IBM PC/AT and a tidal wave of clones

By Mark Tyson published

44 years ago, this crafty collection of 134,000 transistors would mark a major inflection point in the PC industry.

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