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Debian 12 “Bookworm”
After 1 year, 9 months, and 28 days of development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 12 (code name bookworm ).
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 422 posts.
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The Mao-Kissinger Meeting of 1973
The archives of declassified foreign relations documents from the United States, China and other countries can give us some insights. I’ve enjoyed reading some of the documents in Wilson Cent…
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The impact of the ‘long peace’ on modern military capabilities
Bret Devereaux (A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry)2023268 points325 commentsHistory & Retro Computing details
Fireside this week! We actually haven’t had one of these in quite a while; we had a gap week in April but the last Fireside looks like it was in March! In any case, here we are and here’…
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The History of VisiCalc (1999-2018)
VisiCalc -- Links to the information from its creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, on this web site
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Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)
Shocking new research confirms the ancient Carthaginians ritually sacrificed children as offerings to the gods, overturning decades of denial. Uncover the dark secrets of this long-forgotten civilisation.
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Programming culture in the late aughts (2022)
How it felt to be computing in the late aughts vs. now.
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Preparing for the Incoming Computer Shopper Tsunami
There’s no way for me to know where your awareness starts with all this, so let’s just start at the beginning. Computer Shopper was a hell of a magazine. I wrote a whole essay about it,…
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Why did Usenet fail?
This is annecdata - not a serious academic study. Adjust your expectations accordingly. When I first got online, the World Wide Web was still in its infancy - so CompuServe was my gateway to the Internet. I loved their well organised chat room. A couple of clicks and I could be discussing Babylon 5 with people in…
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CIA, MKUltra, and the cover-up of U.S. germ warfare in the Korean war (2022)
CIA & Army Counterintelligence involved in secret “processing” of U.S. POWs who confessed to using biological weapons against China, No…
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Tomb Raider
If you have to stare at someone’s bum, it’s far better to look at a nice female bum than a bloke’s bum!
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27 years later and the Psion 3a is still wonderful (2020)
My daughter found my Psion 3a the other day, tucked at the back of a cupboard she was clearing out for me. It looked fine and is still in excellent aesthetic condition, and fortunately I had left n…
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What are the enduring innovations of Lisp? (2022)
Historically, Lisp was a behemoth in the world of language design innovation. The list of Lisp’s innovations is so long that I’d have to list most of the features associated with modern languages. (Do you like if statements? You can thank Lisp!)
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Fitting 44% More Data on a C64/1541 Floppy Disk
The physical data format on a Commodore 1541 5¼-inch floppy disk as used by the C64 is completely defined in software. The drive’s operating system fits 170 KB on a disk. This article explores different strategies, each with its pros and cons, to fit up to 246 KB.
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Homebrew Hercules Graphics Card
After viewing our CGA Redux livestream a friendly tinkerer named Arek contacted me if I was interested in a homebrew Hercules Graphics Card PCB that he designed. Naturally I said yes and assembled the card, playing beta tester for his design. It will probably be open sourced eventually, but is not yet available. So…
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Admiral Rickover's 'Paper Reactor' Memo (1953)
Rickover's famous speech about the distinction between academic (paper) reactors and practical reactors.
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Flowers for Turing
Alan Turing, the pioneering Computer Scientist and World War II codebreaker, has a statue in Sackville Gardens in Manchester. On 23rd June each year, we surround it with flowers in his memory for his birthday.
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M.U.L.E. 40th Anniversary Special
Written and copyrighted by Christian A. Schiller , World of M.U.L.E. curator, with contributions from Andrew Dieffenbach, M.U.L.E. Online developer. No reprint without permission. Happy to get feedback on this feature, either via the contact form or one of the following social media accounts: Facebook , Twitter or…
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The AARD Code and DR DOS (2021)
In this long article, I, being as far as I know the first outside Microsoft to have learnt how the AARD code works, explain that I condemn its form but broadly sympathise with its function.
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SR-71 Blackbird Speed Check Story
There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this...
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Recreating Medieval English Ales (1998)
In medieval England, ale was an alcoholic drink made from grain, water, and fermented with yeast. The difference between medieval ale and beer was that beer also used hops as an ingredient. Virtually everyone drank ale. It provided significant nutrition as well as hydration (and inebriation). The aristocracy could…
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Windows XP Activation: Game Over
For almost two decades, MSKey Readme 1 has heralded the defeat of Windows XP's product activation, not via mere circumvention , but by cracking the encryption algorithm itself.
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20 Years of Gentoo
Let’s see how Gentoo is doing these days. Below is a plot of Gentoo’s rankings on DistroWatch :
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Early Computer Art in the 50s and 60s
A deep dive on the early days of creative computing coming to life. Punch cards, plotters, light pens and lots more.
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Hippo Meat Nearly Became an American Food Staple
Visit our Ripley’s Believe It or Not! aquariums and attractions, today. Immerse yourself in a world of wonder and create memories with your friends and family.
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My dad built a cool thing but never boasted about it
My dad built something cool but didn't boast about it
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Idle DR-DOS
I have a laptop. Sometimes I run VMs on it, and some of those VMs run DOS. When a DOS VM does not have any power management, the laptop quickly lets me know by kicking up the fan speed. It is Very Annoying . So annoying that I really want to avoid the situation.