Joel Crane

@PotatoFi
63 Followers
39 Following
87 Posts
Idahoan 🥔 living in Finland 🇫🇮, working at Hamina Wireless. CWNE #233. I'm into old computers, retro videogames, 3D printing, and fixing stuff.
LocationHelsinki, Finland
Work Websitehttps://www.hamina.com/
Personal Websitehttps://www.potatofi.com
Joel CraneNov 1

As an American living in Finland I regularly get asked, "What's Halloween like in Finland?"

🇫🇮 Finnish parents don't like Halloween, more work
🎃 A thing at our kids' international school
🎃 Virtually no trick or treating
🎃 Small 1-table display of Halloween stuff at the grocery store
🎄 Store is dominated by Christmas stuff
🎃 Big growth in the past 5 years; previous there was zero Halloween stuff at the store

Show threadJoel CraneOct 19
The “1” key doesn’t sit correctly in the keypad, which makes me wonder if this was returned or binned due to a defect, and part of why it survived until 2025.
Joel CraneOct 19

A new-old-stock Nokia 6300 from eBay. I still have mine that I carried for 5 or 6 years in storage in the US, but have been planning to pick up a fresh one for awhile. I might grab a pre-paid SIM to see if the 2G networks are still around in Finland.

Next up, I'd like to find a NOS GSM Motorola Razr V3.

Show threadJoel CraneAug 31, 2025
@VirtualEnid @arstechnica One of my classes from my theology degree covered this one, so I enjoyed seeing it pop up again. IIRC, consensus at the time was, “Neat, but near-impossible to authenticate and doesn’t prove anything.”
Show threadJoel CraneNov 18, 2024
@jkretrotech I know exactly how that goes! Enjoy!
Joel CraneNov 14, 2024
My PowerBook 160 must have been dropped at some point, as one of the serial ports is missing right off the PCB. My 145B had completely different ports, so I couldn't borrow one from that, so I decided to design and 3D print a blank. 👍
Joel CraneNov 7, 2024
“You’re going home with me.” #GameBoy
Joel CraneNov 3, 2024
I hate that iOS app developers are leaving iOS 15 and thus the iPod touch behind, especially for apps that target kids. I get it, but I hate it.
Joel CraneOct 28, 2024

Something I need a bunch of: small MicroSD cards, in capacities like:

💾 128 MB
💾 512 MB
💾 1 GB
💾 4 GB

I need them for things like Game Boy flashcarts and SCSI hard disk emulators for old computers. They don't need to be fast, just reliable. Any ideas on where to find them?

Joel CraneOct 20, 2024
@NanoRaptor This would be a great question for Randall Munroe’s “What If?” channel.