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Items tagged with: RetroComputing
"I asked Grok" "I asked ChatGPT" well I asked Racter, your artificial insanity companion
🪨 HyperCard on the Macintosh 🛠️
The "software erector set" that launched careers and an entire industry, and came tantalizingly close to delivering us the world wide web 6 years early. Our last post of 2025 takes a deep look at this important title. I also muse a bit on the approach HyperCard takes in extending the definition of what it means to develop software. Happy holidays!
(Back January 2)
stonetools.ghost.io/hypercard-…
#RetroComputing #hypercard #classicmac #mac #atkinson #nocode
HyperCard on the Macintosh
How do we approach the challenge of helping non-programmers build software? Do we throw up our hands at today's complexity and say, "Just let an AI do it.Christopher Drum (Stone Tools)
Letter from Stephen Hawking to Clive Sinclair, Feb. 2 1985
#sinclair #sinclairQL #hawking #retrocomputing
Also note in the above screenshot that the "Award Modular BIOS" screen does not have the normal logo. But there's still SPACE for a logo.
The fact that the #sunpci did not show the Award logo bothered me from the start.
The reason for this is obvious now. The "Fake text mode" that the SunPCi application implements simply doesn't have support for the weird mixed text/graphics mode that the BIOS wants to use!
I spend a bit of time dissecting the #sunpci driver in #ghidra. And I can now boot the SunPCi from my own code! Using the #solaris driver still.
Some terrifying conclusions:
The windowed output in the SunPCi userspace application comes from repeatedly read()ing the /dev/sunpcidrv0 node. That just returns some raw video data and mode information.
Userspace contains a VGA emulator itself. Whenever it doesn't understand something it just switches to the external VGA.
Can you recommend modern hardware recreations (no software-only emulators) of the ZX Spectrum that are 100% compatible with the BASIC of the original 48K model and don't cost a fortune?
The devices should be fully assembled but kits or boards with no case are an option. They should also provide connections to modern displays and possibly also external keyboards.
I'm aware of these recreations:
ZX Spectrum Next
specnext.com
ESP32 Rainbow
esp32rainbow.com
Recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum
recreatedzxspectrum.com
Asking for a friend, an actual friend.
A purple Silicon Graphics workstation cube that's a *lot* bigger than I thought it would be.
Most of Hollywood's '90s CGI special effects were created on SGI machines like this...
On display at acms.org.au/
#SiliconGraphics #SGI #computerhistory #retrocomputing #retrocomputer
Home - Australian Computer Museum Society
“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” Alan Turing (computer scientist)ACMS
Back in 1979 Sharp made this 'RaTeCaPuter' - Radio, Television, Cassette "Boombox" and, most excitingly, comPuter!
Details in Alt Text, or link in Japanese 🇯🇵!
retropc.net/ohishi/museum/rate…
Have you ever wished you could create a StuffIt archive on your modern Unix-based Mac with a native open source tool, so you could more easily transfer files to your retro Macs? Well... have fun.
github.com/thecloudexpanse/sit
#retrocomputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #VintageMacintosh
GitHub - thecloudexpanse/sit: Create StuffIt archives on Unix systems
Create StuffIt archives on Unix systems. Contribute to thecloudexpanse/sit development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
I miss when software contained stuff like this.
(LaserWriter Pro installer app)
#rsrcSpelunking #retrocomputing
