Notices by Studio 8502 :verified: (mos_8502@oldbytes.space)

@deutrino Put them both in a steel cage with a lump hammer each. Last man alive wins all the other’s wealth, minus 45% tax.

@governa Pointers I grok. References in C++ confuse and infuriate me.

Various bits of #retrocomputing software and books unearthed while cleaning this disaster recovery zone of an office.

I believe that #retrocomputing is about more than nostalgia (which is fine on its own, too!).

I believe that it's also about a reaction to the truly sorry state of modern computing. Old computers didn't spy on you, they didn't beg you for micropayments, they just did what they were told. They were tools for work, for learning, for entertainment, not tools for the capitalists to control us even more than they already do.

I also believe that retrocomputing has a future; we are, as a community, more than smart enough to design and build our own new retro-inspired designs, and build for ourselves a computing world worth living in.

Here's something I wish more boards had: Pinouts in the silkscreen. Even for something as trivial as what amounts to a fancy MAX232 breakout board, it's just good practice in my opinion to make sure documentation is present.

All right kids, gather round. This here is an Osbourne 1, the first really successful portable personal computer. It ran CP/M, had 64KB of RAM and two 90KB(!) single sided, single-density 5¼" floppy disks, and provided you with a real keyboard and a 5" monochrome CRT display that showed 52 columns of ASCII text.

Yes, people actually used that tiny little screen. But there *was* an upgrade you could install so you could use a monochrome CRT monitor with 80 columns, or you could connect a real serial terminal to it and use it that way.

Cool tools: Tilde is a simple text editor for the console reminiscent of DOS’s EDIT.COM, but with more features and GUI-like keyboard shortcuts.

If the idea of learning Vim doesn’t appeal, and Emacs gives you the willies, it’s worth trying.

#linux

PROTIP: If you treat coding as a game, then every new platform comes with a full library of entertainment.

Think you’re not good enough? I get it. You might well be right. It doesn’t matter though; you’re the one who showed up and did the thing. Those “better” people aren’t here, you are, so they can suck it from the back.