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Merlin
5th March 2009, 15:04
Hi all, nice to see CA back!

I thought your Wiki may benefit from a link to The Retrobright Project, which is our ongoing work in cleaning and restoring discoloured plastic.

http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com

There's lots of reading there into how the project came about, an explanation in simple English as to how it works, recipes to try and Gallery of machines to show what can be achieved.

Feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

:blink::coffee::smartass::notworthy::thumbs:

Tiago
5th March 2009, 15:50
Excellent!!!
i must try it.
You know i try many times to clear my keys with no sucess, for the computer cases, i paint them and the result was very nice:

http://wiki.classicamiga.com/A600_new_case_and_painting
http://wiki.classicamiga.com/A1200_painting

but the keys always were the big problem, painting them i would lose the symbols...
i try to put them in washing machine, try many products, but none worked.
I must try this solution!
Great work !:D

Harrison
5th March 2009, 16:21
Great work on the Wiki Merlin. I had a look at the Wiki when you first launched it and it was mainly just the introduction page. It has evolved quickly and become a great site for the process and all details about it.

I have started a page on the CA Wiki about Retr0brite, and now that the official Wiki is more complete I will use the information on there to add some more detail and images about the process, as well as a link to the main Wiki.

Also great to see the high hit count already on there. You should be very proud of the achievement.

One question. Are you sure it's not possible to patent the process in some way? A lot of work has gone into the developing it and it would be very annoying for a company to take these ideas and produce something commercial from all your hard work, or to start charging to perform this process on customers machines.

Merlin
5th March 2009, 19:06
@ H

Unfortunately not :no: The costs of patenting it were prohibitive and there are countries that don't respect patents anyway, I think you could guess the ones I mean....

We got a mention on slashdot and the rest is history; we even got onto the Guardian online :shades:, but for some reason they confused you with me... I think that's becuase they did a Whois on the AmiBay site...:eyebrow: I've fixed that on the Wiki now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/04/gadgets

If you Google Retr0bright now, you get more than 5 MILLION hits and the site went from 800 reads on Monday night to over 75,000 this week (the site counter broke under the strain!!)

I am totally stoked that the Amiga crowd finally made it back to a newspaper with something good for a change.

Here's some "soundbites" from sites and blogs that I posted on EAB after Googling Retr0bright...........

From The Null Device....

With the unabashedly 133t name of "Retr0brite" (or perhaps "Retr0bright".....)

From Reddit....

I wonder if it works on Grandmas?
The yellow staining on your Grandmother has little to do with the existence of plastic, but more to do with the lack of it.
Good God! I love the Internet.
This is the exact line crossing moment for when concern for your old electronics turns into unvarnished geek obsession.

From Cracked.com....

Hah! Now I can pawn my old computers off as new!

From Gamesforum.ca.....

Think of it as "designer chemistry"

From Blog.makezine.com.....

Commodore restoration! I bow.

From Hackaday.com.....

I can’t tell you how eternally useful this will be, I’ve wanted to restore that snes for years, and no site has offered anything short of destroying the plastic..

This is like something off an Anarchy BBS from the 80’s. Or the scene in the motel in Terminator when they start making pipe bombs.

From Neogaf.com....

Haha.. Now they just need to make a TV-shop commercial for this.

From Racketboy.com.....

NON BELIEVERS, BEHOLD!!!
(This was a quote from Eastside that did the SNES in The Gallery)
wow...Win !!

From Macresource.com....

It's a bunch of old computer nerds who just happen to be chemical engineers. I'm going to have the brightest Laserwriter on the block!

From rllmukforum.com.....

Yeah its cool that there's people out there who give enough of a shit to put the time and effort into researching a solution to a fairly trivial problem huh. Its class that it can be reversed.

:notworthy::notworthy: We iz teh l33tne55!!! :notworthy::notworthy:
:lol::lol::lol:

Submeg
5th March 2009, 22:34
Holy ****! That's awesome, major respect to you and your knowledge of Chemistry!

Harrison
5th March 2009, 22:39
That is really cool indeed. I bet you are really happy.

The guardian link you posted is broken though because you copy and pasted a truncated url with the middle bit missing.

I did just do a quick google and you are right. Many blogs and news sites seem to have mentioned it. Very nice. :)

Merlin
5th March 2009, 23:19
Link now fixed.

To be honest H, I am proud that the Amiga community have got into the news for something good for a change, whilst at the same time being humbled by the way it's taken off, we never imagined that it would explode the way it has.

I am getting enquiries from Star Wars, Transformers and Lego forums about restoring toys, fruit machine forums about restoring the fruit tape reels, Land Rover forums about car parts, it's gone mental.....

Above all though, we made sure that all the communities involved got credited for the roles they played in the discovery. That was most important to me, I have never stolen anyone's work and presented it as my own. CBM Wuppertal and a1k.org did the initial work, all we did was perfect it and create the magic gel that does the trick in hours instead of days.

TiredOfLife
5th March 2009, 23:26
I've seen this discussed in quite a few different places on the internet.
It really is mad how quickly news can spread.
Something that at face value would only be of interest of to a few computer enthusiasts has really took off.

Harrison
6th March 2009, 00:00
I've emailed Bobbie Johnson to see if he can correct the name in the blog article and give you the recognition you deserve.

Merlin
6th March 2009, 11:00
Thanks H, it's appreciated.

:thumbs:

Harrison
6th March 2009, 11:34
He's now updated the blog. :)

And added the note at the bottom:


Update: I originally referred to Merlin as the alter-ego of David Watts. In fact, David Watts is another member of the UK Amiga Community; Merlin's real name is David Stevenson (I've now corrected the story to reflect that).

sarek2k
7th March 2009, 21:30
I'm supposed to be doing a weetabix style logo i assume it's for this (merlin)

however i can't find a weetabix font i'm also toying with the idea of a soap box with
RetrOBright a bit like the old Radion box if anyone remebers that!

it's not finished yet infact i need AGAIN - sigh a good retro font i'm sure harrison pointed me in the right direction ages ago but can't remember now.

Remember it's a work in progress :)

Merlin
8th March 2009, 20:55
@ Sarek

I wanted L33tabix really.... maybe with a 'Matrix' style box with the cascading symbols.... lol

Nice work on the box mate; what did you use to create that?

Submeg
8th March 2009, 22:44
Wow, that's really great that it's taking off, would be good for it to spread to other applications! Let's hope the word really spreads!!

sarek2k
9th March 2009, 00:05
@Merlin could always do a Dvd Case with the Matrix style logo (i guess the font would be easier to find than the weetabix font :))

Used Xara Xtreme as always m8!

Buleste
9th March 2009, 10:05
Wow, that's really great that it's taking off, would be good for it to spread to other applications! Let's hope the word really spreads!!

Sounds like you want it in a Vegemite jar;).

Merlin
9th March 2009, 20:59
Guys, it's gone completely mental. I am getting enquiries from Lego forums, toy collector forums, fruit machine restorers and all sorts. I've seen discussions in Land Rover and Alfa Romeo forums, old telephone collector forums and the list goes on and on.... we have really created something special that appeals to so many retro communities and they all really appreciate that it is totally free.

I never expected this at all; I just wanted to potter about in our little shed in the corner of the Internet. I guess that's the true power of the Net at work.

As Zetr0 will tell you, I am shocked and humbled by what has happened and am struggling to cope with this new found l33tne55.

Meanwhile, work continues at Muppet Labs to perfect this technique.....

:blink::D

Buleste
9th March 2009, 21:06
Merlin and Zetr0 at work

http://buffetoblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/muppets-bunsen__beaker.jpg

Harrison
9th March 2009, 23:43
The funny thing is that picture might not be far from the real duo! :lol: Give the professor a little beard and it could easily be Zetr0! ;)