901
Teaching Apple Cyberdog 1.0 new tricks (featuring OpenDoc)
In the distant nethermists of time, documents once briefly ruled the earth (or at least Mac OS), and to that end I managed to find a verrr...
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 3,229 posts.
History & Retro Computing
Any year
902
"Hacker News" for retro computing and gaming
I noticed over time that I was drawn to the retro computing or gaming posts on Hacker News . So, I've set up a dedicated web site in the sam...
903
The story of ispc: origins (part 1) (2018)
This one time, at Intel, I wrote a compiler...
904
Examining the silicon dies of the Intel 386 processor
You might think of the Intel 386 processor (1985) as just an early processor in the x86 line, but the 386 was a critical turning point for m...
905
The Banality of Genius: Notes on Peter Jackson's Get Back (2022)
A Special Edition of The Ruffian
906
The Beatles’ collaborative notes: Three ways to write a song
"Just say whatever comes into your head each time..."
907
The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines
Tunneling is an important technology for modern civilization, as a tunnel is often the only reasonable way to create a direct path between two points.
908
Medieval staircases were not built going clockwise for the defender's advantage
This story has been making the rounds on the internet with a claim that you’ve probably been told during visits to castles, but, there’s no evidence for it whatsoever. In short the idea…
909
MiniDisc Hacking
Most MiniDisc aficionados are aware of unit hacking to gain access to new features. The unit that perhaps benefits the most from this is the Sony MZ-N510, which also comes in the N520 and NF610 variants. The 2001 model R700 can be hacked to add many features of its upscale brother, the R900 , as well as the Type-R…
910
Forty years of programming
I am about to turn forty-six. This means I have been programming for forty years, half of them professionally. During most of that time, I used a "standard" setup with 104 keyboard, a flat mouse, and a sitting desk.
911
The Last Express
A moving train at night is an incredible place to hear stories. Like a campfire.
912
Dick Smith’s Wizzard-ry 8 (Bit)
Homemade clone of the Dick Smith Wizzard/VTech CreatiVision game console.
913
Translating Latin demonology manuals with GPT-4 and Claude
At long last, a real-world use case for AI!
914
Windows NT 3.1 on Dec Alpha AXP
As I was preparing the Windows NT RISC exhibit for VCF west , I realized that I’m missing a rather important piece of the history. While I was showing the potentially last DEC Alpha Windows build ever – AXP64 2210 , I don’t have anything earlier than NT 3.51. It would be nice to showcase the very first RTM version …
915
The short life of New York City’s first skyscraper
In 1889, a slender building was unveiled on a commercial stretch of Lower Broadway, snugly situated between two older structures. Rising 11 stories, it wasn’t the tallest tower in the city. N…
916
The Irish Logarithm
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
917
The Curse of Dialup World
An acquisition gets weird.
918
The TRON Project: How Japan almost ruled IT (2022)
Stockpicking of unloved and undervalued Japanese companies using the Graham and Dodd framwork of value investing.
919
How flip-flops are implemented in the Intel 8086 processor
A key concept for a processor is the management of "state", information that persists over time. Much of a computer is built from logic gate...
920
A couple of messages about changes to ianVisits
I've been contacted a few times recently about the sharp decline in descriptive images on the events listings.
921
Things Every Hacker Once Knew (2017)
One fine day in January 2017 I was reminded of something I had half-noticed a few times over the previous decade. That is, younger hackers don’t know the bit structure of ASCII and the meaning of the odder control characters in it.
922
Japan’s silent movie culture is still going
There was a cultural divide in benshi preferences, rather like the difference in taste between those
923
Usability of Old Computers
I set up a Retro PC recently. One of the reasons I did this is because I was inspired by this thread:
924
How to Roman Republic, Part IV: The Senate
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2023200 points121 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details
This is the fourth part of our planned five part series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IIIc, IV, V, A1, A2) on the structure of the Roman Republic during the third and second centuries, the ‘Middle’ Republic.…
925
Nintendo 3DS Architecture
An in-depth analysis that explains how this console works internally
926
How Equifax Was Breached in 2017
On a Saturday night, a security engineer at Equifax was updating an SSL certificate on a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS). Immediately after, suspicious connections were detected. After a more in-depth investigation, it became evident that the situation was far graver than anticipated. A service had to be…
927
Historical maps probably helped cause World War I
On cartography as historical argument
928
My trip to the Communication and Laptop Museum in Estonia
I ended up going to a small museum run by a passionate enthusiast in the beautiful countryside of south-east Estonia while on vacation, here are my notes on it.
929
930
How the Mac didn’t bring programming to the people
HyperTalk, AppleScript, Prograph, Automator, Swift Playgrounds and Shortcuts – all wonderful tools in their day, but none has brought coding to the crowd.