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Floppy Disks: It’s Too Late
Someone has to break it to you, and that person is me. It’s over. You waited too long. You procrastinated or made excuses or otherwise didn’t think about it or care. You didn’t do…
Topics /
History & Retro Computing
The most popular blog posts about history & retro computing on Hacker News. 3,229 posts.
1322
SAS Rescue 3 Trapped British Diplomats in Albania
My diplomatic life true revealing stories behind the hype is a story that takes the sheen off the perception of a glamorous and privileged lifestyle.
1323
Windows XP minimal-requirement experiments (2006)
Wettbewerb um die ultimative Mindestanforderung für Windows XP zu finden.
1324
ThinkPad 560E
I’ve been idly looking for one of the mid-90s ThinkPads known to have perfect OpenStep/Rhapsody support for years as a fun collector piece, but been unwilling to pay eBay prices. The other week I scored a pristine IBM ThinkPad 560E for $20 in a Shopgoodwill auction, below is notes on getting it up and running, plus…
1325
Ultima (2012)
When we left Richard Garriott, California Pacific had just released his first game, Akalabeth , a substantial windfall for the 19-year-old university student. In between classes and SCA events, he spent his sophomore year at the University of Texas writing a new, much more ambitious game, which CP published just as…
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The Most-Used Mathematical Algorithm Idea in History (2016)
Stephen Wolfram shares a glimpse into his conversations with Solomon Golomb, developments on shift registers, polyominoes, scientific contributions.
1328
Tiny transformer inside: Decapping an isolated power transfer chip
I saw an ad for a tiny chip 1 that provides 5 volts 2 of isolated power: You feed 5 volts in one side, and get 5 volts out the other si...
1329
Jef Raskin's final gift to Aza (2010)
Studying how an individual's thoughts, emotions, ideas, and aspirations are formed through their interactions with others is the focus of social psychology as
1330
Amiga 1000: Ten years ahead of its time
This computer was so good and so far out there, we didn't know what we had.
1331
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!)
1332
A History of C Compilers – Part 1: Performance, Portability and Freedom
Let's talk compilers with part one of a whistle stop tour of their history
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Roman Finger Counting
I recently wrote a final paper on the history of written numerals. In the process, I discovered this fascinating tidbit that didn’t really fit in my paper, but I wanted to put it somewhere. So I’m writing about it here.
1335
Disassembling Jak and Daxter
I don't work at Naughty Dog, and I don't have any secret knowledge of Jak & Daxter, except what I figured out myself from the disc. So a lot of this may well be wrong. Take a pinch of salt with it.
1336
Rabbit hole: stumbling across two Portuguese punched cards
Look, here's the thing, I don't like mysteries that involve technology. I think I hate them because I know that some other human created the...
1337
Greybeard Stories: The Jamming Gyro
This is a story about how it's essential that you think of all the possible failure modes when you install a fix. Just because you've fixed the problem, that doesn't mean you haven't introduced a new one.
1338
Using an Amiga in 2021: Making an intro
Every once in a while, someone asks about my interests. I usually just say I'm into home computers from the 1980s and, since most people are very nice and polite, they then ask what I do with them. I usually say something about competing in computer graphics at "digital art festivals," because explaining what the…
1339
The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans
This is the tale of what for me was a rather remarkable adventure. It was assembled on the basis of my personal recollection and experience, emails, GPS logs and some official documents. It represents solely the perspective and opinions of myself, in my more lucid moments. It is in no way intended to represent th
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Could the ancient Romans have built a digital computer?
The Romans were undoubtedly master engineers. They were experts at civil engineering, building roads, improving sanitation, inventing Roman concrete, and constructing aqueducts that adhere to tolerances impressive even by today’s standards. Perhaps the best evidence of their aptitude is the fact that many of those…
1342
The evolution of the web, and a eulogy for XHTML2
In 2009, the W3C cancelled the development of the proposed successor of XHTML, XHTML2.
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1345
Excellent analysis of Assange's Wikileaks motivations (from the horse's mouth)
(en Español) (auf Deutsch) (in het nederlands) “To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We…
1346
FPGAs and the renaissance of retro hardware
Almost every few weeks, a new and exciting retro hardware project is announced. These are truly …
1347
Reading Ancient Scrolls
This is an elaboration of my submission for the letter detection prize as part of the Vesuvius Challenge in June. It gets technical and esoteric but the first few paragraphs are of general interest…
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Airmash – a game that refused to die
The game Airmash was announced on Dec 10 2017 on Hacker News by a user named fivesigma. The game became very succesful in the year to come. But it would have a very rocky history.
1350
How to slow down scientific progress, according to Leo Szilard
“Science would become something like a parlor game. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get grants”