Negative Space: computer history
- 42 Astoundingly Useful Scripts and Automations for the Macintosh
- MacOS uses Perl, Python, AppleScript, and Automator and you can write scripts in all of these. Build a talking alarm. Roll dice. Preflight your social media comments. Play music and create ASCII art. Get your retro on and bring your Macintosh into the world of tomorrow with 42 Astoundingly Useful Scripts and Automations for the Macintosh!
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas
- Eight holiday images created on the TRS-80 Color Computer, from the early to mid eighties.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 0 (Go Tell It On the CoCo!)
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Day 0 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas. Christmas Eve, and the cattle are lowing.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 1 (Do You Hear What I Hear?)
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For day 1 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas, John Mosley’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” from the December, 1987, Rainbow Magazine. Mosley coaxes four-voice music out of the CoCo 1 and 2 using a machine-language program.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 10 (Up on the Rooftop)
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In the December 1986 Rainbow, J. D. German presented us with this game, involving flying and landing Santa to deliver presents!
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 100 (Hearth)
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Lower resolution graphics were more appropriate for animation, because you could page through up to eight screens like a flip book. This is Eugene Vasconi’s Holiday Hearth from December 1986.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 101 (Rudolph)
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An early form of musical ebook, without scenes illustrating the progress of the song—in this case, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Along with the secret world of POKE.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 11 (O Christmas Tree)
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Day 11 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas is the graphic accompaniment to “O Tannenbaum” from Robert T. Rogers “Holly Jolly Holidays”, from December 1984.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 110 (Snowman)
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Day 110 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas is Arron Branigan’s snowman, from December 1986. One of the strangest features of home computers of the era, including the TRS-80 Color Computer, was the use of “artifact colors” to produce more colors than were supposedly possible on the machine.
- 8 (bit) Days of Christmas: Day 111 (Dual Greeting Card)
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Day 111 of the 8 (bit) days of Christmas is Joseph Kohn’s dual greeting card, from December 1984. How do you create text on a graphics screen that doesn’t accept the PRINT statement?
- Astounding Computer History
- The sudden boom in home computing in the seventies was a surprise even to the experts.
- Creative Computing and BASIC Computer Games in public domain
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David Ahl, editor of Creative Computing and of various BASIC Computer Games books, has released these works into the public domain.
- Hobby Computer Handbook
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Hobby Computer Handbook was a short-lived relic of the early home computer era, an annual (or so) publication of Elementary Electronics.
- Hobby Computer Handbook: From 1979 to 1981
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Hobby Computer Handbook lived for four issues, from 1979 to 1981. Back in 1979 and 1980, I bought the middle two issues. I’ve recently had the opportunity to buy and read the bookend issues. PARENT
- Review of the TRS-80 Model 100/200
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The TRS-80 Model 100 and Model 200 were very early laptop computers that saved automatically, had networking built-in, and lasted for nearly a day on easily replaceable batteries.
- Tandy Assembly 2018
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Tandy Assembly was earlier this November, and I have never seen so many Radio Shack computers in one spot. Also, my love affair with daisy wheels is rekindled.
More Information
- The Best of Creative Computing, Volume 2 (ebook)
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“No longer do we have to look to educational institutions being the only source of hands-on computer power. Indeed, it won’t be long before there is more computer power in the hands of people at home than in all the schools and colleges combined.” (David Ahl)
- The Steve Jobs 95 Interview unabridged
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“I used to think that technology was the solution to all the world’s problems. And unfortunately it ain’t so.”
