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SQLite Doesn't Use Git
Instead, it uses Fossil as a version control system. Some thoughts.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 390 posts.
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The Changes for the 2nd Edition of “Code”
Whenever a 2nd edition of a book is published, people ask “I already have the 1st edition. Do I need to get the 2nd?” It’s a legitimate question and I’ve asked it myself. Reading a 2nd edition after the 1st is not trivial: It’s a commitment of both additional money and additional time.
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New technical analysis confirms the evidence against Billy Mitchell
Hot off the heels of the new Billy Mitchell testimony published on Friday, perfectpacman.com is proud to publish a new 48-page technical analysis by hardware engineer and Donkey Kong expert Tanner Fokkens. Fokkens is a moderator and longtime member of Donkey Kong Forum, and co-founder of Snektronix Incorporated…
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The tyranny of the wagon equation
A mathematical extension to ACOUP's recent blog post on military logistics
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The history of sending signals to Unix process groups
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
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Apple II Desktop Updated
The Apple II Desktop has been updated. Version 1.2 Alpha 48 includes a ton of updates. The program is now available in eight languages. Updated features include: General Added Sample.Media folder with some samples of various file types.Improved appearance of keyboard shortcuts in buttons.Improve appearance of ()^…
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Mille Bornes
Edmond Dujardin, Joseph Callenac and the design history of Mille Bornes.
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Writing an app is like coding for LaserDisc
11 years ago to the day, I was at a tech conference. It was 3 year after the iPhone had launched its app SDK. Those of us who had been in the mobile game a while had already spent years developing apps for Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows CE, and at least a dozen other OSes which I've since scrubbed from my memory. But…
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Why was western printing superior to Asian printing?
Movable type was not invented by Gutenberg but in China and later advanced in Korea, so why didn't Asia have a printing revolution?
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C64 Theremin
The Theremin is one of the earliest electronic instruments. It's played by moving one's hands in front of two antennas: One controls pitch and the other controls volume.
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Holier Than Thou: Precision Holes by Drilling, Boring, and Reaming (2021)
It’s imperative that design engineers understand the full journey of the parts they design, from the drawing definition, through manufacturing, and inspection. One of the most common features in machine design is a hole. Whether it accepts a bolt or holds a precision bearing, it has to be the right size and in the…
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The cursed computer iceberg meme (2021)
this is not a hall of shame. the intent is to awaken you to many of the peculiarities and weirdness of computers. hopefully, after reading these articles, you will have learned a lot and will embrace chaos.
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Why no Roman industrial revolution?
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2022509 points587 commentscited by 33History & Retro Computing details
This week we are taking a look at the latest winner of the ACOUP Senate poll, which posed the question “Why didn’t the Roman Empire have an industrial revolution?” To answer that,…
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Oberon (2009)
Steven Frank's essay on the current state of the desktop UI 1 reminded me of Oberon, a delightfully insane system I used back when I was studying computer science at ETH Zürich. The first thing you have to understand about Oberon is that it evolved entirely outside of the normal genealogy of user interfaces…
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A History of HTML (1998)
The events and circumstances that led to the World Wide Web's current popularity
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Sanyo Triple Five
Even though I seem to have terrible luck with x86-based computers, that doesn’t mean I have to take it lying down. I can go out there and cause even worse things to happen to me. Like, for instance, buying a broken super-budget PC-incompatible from 1982.
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The best and worst of 1994 and predictions for '95
Disaster Relief. We saw the best of Internet users when they pulled together to help each other through several natural disasters in 1994. The year brought floods, earthquakes, and other major tragedies. Almost immediately following each of these events, Net users gathered around their terminals and formed newsgroups…
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“I survived the TCP transition” (2013)
This year we invited Vint Cerf to tell the story.
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Adam74: A terminal for a small 8-bit computer
Something that struck me reading about the history of the Apple I computer was the fairly simple “ASCII bus” that it used for input and output. As I understand it a hobbyist back in the day could get an ASCII keyboard that quite literally presented as an interface a header giving 7-bits of ASCII and an additional…
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Outdoor Sound Propagation in the U.S. Civil War (1999)
Students of military history know that acoustic refraction and unusual audibility have often played significant roles in the outcome of battles. Before electrical and wireless communications became common on the tactical level, the sound of battle was often the quickest and most efficient method by which a commander…
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Book Review: 1587, a Year of No Significance
Finalist #15 in the Book Review Contest
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The story of the first “computer bug” is a pile of lies
A fun, endearing, delightful pile of lies.
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The Intel 80376 – A legacy-free i386 with a twist (2010)
25 years after the introduction of the 32 bit Intel i386 CPU, all Intel compatibles still start up (and wake up!) in 16 bit stone-age mode, and they have to be switched into 32/64 bit mode to be usable.
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Intel 286 secrets: ICE mode and F1 0F 04
With some recent interest in undocumented opcodes and microcode on modern Intel chips, I decided to do a proper writeup on what I found out while researching and playing around with the venerable 80286 ("Beige Unlock"?).
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Logistics, How Did They Do It, Part III: On the Move
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2022216 points39 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details
This is the third part of a three part (I, II, III) look at some of the practical concerns of managing pre-industrial logistics. In our last post, we outlined what ‘foraging’ actually e…
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