NotesCOMPUTERS ARE BAD is a newsletter semi-regularly issued directly to your doorstep to enlighten you as to the ways that computers are bad and the many reasons why. While I am not one to stay on topic, the gist of the newsletter is computer history, computer security, and "constructive" technology criticism.FeedUnfurl
NotesAre you writing a publication where you want to use the Lena picture, but don’t want to support its troubled origin? I offer to you my recreation of the Lena/Lenna picture, which you can use to your hearts content.Unfurl
NotesMy original vision for this article was to cover the development of computer art from the 50’s to the 90’s, but it turns out there’s an abundance of things without even getting half way through that era. So in this article we’ll look at how Lovelace’s ideas for creativity with a computer first came to life in the 50’s and 60’s, and I’ll cover later decades in future articles. FeedUnfurl
NotesIf you attempt to make sense of Engelbart's design by drawing correspondences to our present-day systems, you will miss the point, because our present-day systems do not embody Engelbart's intent. Engelbart hated our present-day systems.Unfurl
NotesThe first model of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's low-cost Linux computer will likely be available for purchase later this month. The organization announced today that manufacturing on the first batch is set to complete on February 20.Unfurl
NotesThis type of scaling presents some interesting technical challenges. I'll dig into our development workflow and how we address concepts like scaling, deployment, code review, and testing.FeedUnfurl
NotesAh, the anticipation of Christmas morning. Who could ever forget that frenzied level of excitement we felt as children as we climbed into bed on Christmas Eve, with our palms sweating and our hearts racing. If you grew up celebrating Christmas, it's likely that you've felt this way at least once in your life (maybe you still do). The experience of waking up on Christmas morning and discovering a cache of otherwise unattainable goodies is one that you will never, ever forget. I have to tell you that my heart is pounding right now just writing this. Unfurl
Notes"Halt and Catch Fire, known by the mnemonic HCF, refers to several computer machine code instructions that cause the CPU to cease meaningful operation. The expression "catch fire" is usually intended as a joke; in most cases the CPU does not actually catch fire."FeedUnfurl
Notes"In the summer of 1980, MIT graduates Donald Faber and Peter Haberle moved into an empty two-car garage and started work building their first ever personal home computer. Almost 30 years later, what began as a humble two-man operation has since grown into an even more humble, even more cramped computer company, based out of an even smaller single-car garage."Unfurl
Notes"I decided: why not ignore the fact that my first computer and my latest computer are 27 years apart? Why not stack them on top of each other, take some silly photos, and put up a chart comparing how many kilo-whatsits of X the Atari had to how many giga-whosits the Dell had.
So you have it... a brief comparison of the classic and short-lived Atari 1200XL to the modern and also short-lived Dell Inspiron 1525."Unfurl
Notes"I finished wiring the audio circuitry for BMOW yesterday, which marks the end of wiring for BMOW… for version 1 at least! I took the opportunity to reflect on my wire-wrapping odyssey, and took a bazillion photos of the namesake Big Mess o’ Wires before it disappears forever into an opaque case. It’s really quite a sight. There are 1253 wires with 2506 individually-wrapped connections, and I’ve got every one logged in a spreadsheet."Unfurl
Notes"For fans of the Commodore Amiga, the introduction of the new Amiga 3000 was big news, even though the price tag was nearly $4,000. This program looked at the new Amiga computer and new third party appplications. Demonstrations include the Amiga 3000, the Amiga 2500, the AmigaVision authoring system, The Animation Studio, and the Video Toaster from NewTek. Also includes a visit to FAUG, the First Amiga Users Group, in Palo Alto. Guests include Paul Montgomery, Tim Jenison, Lou Wallace, and Hedley Davis. Originally broadcast in 1990."EmbedUnfurl
Notes"With almost every student owning a laptop, the school decided that the time was right to save several hundred thousand dollars by eliminating access to shared machines. (It’ll continue to offer space for students to share as they work together, so the lab’s value as a collaborative environment won’t disappear.)"Unfurl
Notes"PS: Try searching for quadriplegic and computers. It's a hint. Amazing progress has been made in making computers accessible to people with disabilities. Seriously."Unfurl
Notes"When Bushnell finally decided on the name for his pioneering video game company, he called it “Atari”. In Go terms this is like saying “watch the hell out, I’m just about to win the game”."Unfurl
Notes"“You don’t actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country,” said Mark Soohoo, a McCain aide for online matters, at a conference on politics and technology. “You actually do,” interrupted Tracy Russo, a former blogger for John Edwards."Unfurl
Notes"All of the cables were still wrapped in original plastic with aged looking tape. The manuals were all sealed, and the computer itself did not have a spot of dust on it or in it. All connectors and slots appear to be virgin."FeedUnfurl
Notes"The 65XE was essentially a straight replacement for the Atari 800XL, adding not much more than a new version of BASIC, and updating the looks to match its big brother, the 130XE."Unfurl
Notes"The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured by Atari Inc. starting in 1979, and later Atari Corporation starting in 1984."FeedUnfurl
Notes"This article will explore the 8-bit computer industry (from about 1982 to 1990) and in particular the graphics architectures, algorithms and techniques being employed at that time in computer games."Unfurl
Notes"the sound of two computers locating each other across a vast expanse like primates in the jungle, only one of the primates has 32-color pictures of naked women for the other primate."Unfurl
Notes"Hosted by Stewart Cheifet, Computer Chronicles was the world's most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the personal computer revolution."Unfurl
Notes"Appreciating these differences may be crucial to understanding the mechanisms of neural information processing, and ultimately for the creation of artificial intelligence."Unfurl
Notes"one of the first Atari demos to show 128 colors on the screen (the beginning logo) and that was actually good music for a computer back then."Unfurl
Notes"Computers have great difficulty with the Game of Go. The field of Artificial Intelligencehas conquered chess, but still has difficulties with Go. This blog will contain information about advancing the state of the art Go AI"Unfurl
LAN Party House
Computers Are Bad
lena | Morten Rieger Hannemose
Early Computer Art in the 50’s & 60’s — Amy Goodchild
Papercraft Models — Rocky Bergen
The RUM 80 – a home brew Z80 computer built from scratch | Hackaday
A few words on Doug Engelbart
Raspberry Pi's $35 Linux computer on track to launch later this month
Scaling GitHub
Halt and Catch Fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Atari 1200XL vs. Dell Inspiron 1525
Classic Computer Magazine Archive
Internet Archive: Details: Amiga 3000
f.lux
Atari 65XE
Atari 8-bit family - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia