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  • zxm 597 days ago | parent | on: Teletext on a BBC computer in 2024
    when they shut down analog tv in the changeover to digital i think i missed teletext the most so i didn't bother buying a new digital tv.

    a lot of like minded folks still miss teletext.

    and a few sites recreating the experience exist. https://www.nathanmediaservices.co.uk/ceefax/

    was great when internet was down still having access to news and weather, tv guides all available on your tv from your remote control.

  • zxm 598 days ago | parent | on: Atari 800 (or 400) vs Commodore 64
    the 1542 only had to be faster than tape to succeed :-)
    • bmonkey325 598 days ago
      It was really just an observation. When I would go to my friends house to play Test Drive it always seemed to load up slowly compared to when we played at my house. However, he had the 1701 monitor which was superior to just about every home display in existence. The wait was totally worth it.

      I remember people as late as 2002 friends of mine still using one for DVD playback.

      • ddingus 596 days ago
        Those displays are great!

        I ended up with a PVM to get similar quality.

  • zxm 602 days ago | parent | on: The Apple Mac was released 40 years ago: people ar...
    my current oldest is a psion organiser from 1997. 2mb of offline storage. a full qwerty keyboard, word processor, spreadsheets and database in a tiny portable case running off 2 aa batteries. great for storing passwords in an unhackable format :-)
    • bmonkey325 602 days ago
      This one ? Series 5 looks like a sweet device. Original owner or just tasteful . Unhackable? LOL. True story.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5

      • zxm 602 days ago
        no the previous model. the 3mx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3#Psion_Series_3m...

        i prefer the keyboard over the series 5. it can run for over a year on 2 aa lithium batteries at low usage. about an hour per month.

        i keep meaning to sort out a rasp pi sidecar so i can use the psion as a terminal to a full linux system for mobile computing but haven't found the time to do so. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-psion-sidecar

        i describe it as 'unhackable' as it has no connection to the internet. if stolen the password on it will deter most if not all. these days it's simply a matter of time before any device connected to the internet is hacked sadly.

        • bmonkey325 602 days ago
          I would consider it as unhackable simply as vintage tech that might befuddle a certain class of adversaries in much the same way a stick shift stymies car thieves or rotary phones confuse my younger neices and nephews as to its operation.
  • zxm 604 days ago | parent | on: The Inside Story of PC Magazine, PC World, and Mac...
    Magazines. When the internet came on hard copy :-)

    https://archive.org/details/PCMAG/PC-Mag-1982-02/

  • zxm 606 days ago | parent | on: ZX Spectrum Next Issue 2 ships out, chip shortage...
    it's one of the very few modern computers that gives me the same techno lust i had in the 1980s when i read monthly computer magazines following the rapid development of home computing at the time. in my tiny flat it's sadly too big for my small desk to share with my main computer.

    currently looking at https://ultimatemister.com/product/ultimate-mister-blisster-.../ for something to run my retro 80s software though still casting an envious glance every time i see articles on the spectrum next.

  • zxm 607 days ago | parent | on: 40 years since Elite became the most fun you could...
    elite: 'the game that couldn't be written' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4YLMLar5I
  • zxm 612 days ago | parent | on: Winworld software Archive
    Have downloaded a few items i used back in 80s and 90s. I use them in dosbox fullscreen for distraction free work. Would love a small sbc that runs dos that i could run them on.
    • bmonkey325 612 days ago
      Should be able to set up QEMU on raspberry pi and get FreeDOS up and going to run DOS applications. Sorry if you already know that and just looking for the hardware …
      • Darkstar 611 days ago
        DosBox-staging would be a much better (and easier) way than QEMU + FreeDOS
      • zxm 611 days ago
        i feel the pi is overpowered for the minimal system i am looking for. currently the best contender would be https://blog.adafruit.com/2023/02/24/fabgl-makes-an-esp32-an.../
  • zxm 614 days ago | parent | on: Is Fortran "a dead language"?
    i don't think it'll ever be a super popular language but i would not describe it as dead.

    where it has a future is the rise of 8bit computers for hobbyists. lying between assembler and basic in ease of use it will give very old cpus a much needed boost of speed. i suspect that some of those who take the time to learn the language may bring it with them onto more modern platforms going forth.

    • bmonkey325 613 days ago
      Numpy on Python leans into BLAS and LAPACK written in Fortran. In the engineering world it’s used in just about everything
  • zxm 618 days ago | parent | on: The Jupiter Ace Archive site
    a recent podcast on the jupiter ace i found interesting. https://radiopublic.com/advent-of-computing-60Q1LB/s1!cb0eb
  • zxm 619 days ago | parent | on: Windows Millennium
    windows me has a bad rep from a lot of people. i only had it on 1 computer but it never gave me trouble. it was in a rural location and the 56k modem struggled to get past 26k on bad phone lines.

    when it got infected win9x and it's ilk could be beaten into removing all the virus whereas when it was replaced with win2000 and xp it required a full reinstall.

    had to bring all the updates out on cd-rs but it worked great with that limitation. was so good to get that location onto broadband a few years later.

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Two Stop Bits is a discussion web site about retro computing and gaming.