Ancestors

Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 00:26

It's been almost 50 years since the first issue of the Byte magazines, and the headlines are still (more or less) relevant.

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Toot

Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 00:30

"I build computers as a hobby" has changed its meaning in the last 50 years, hasn't it...

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Descendants

Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 00:50

You know what, I kind of want a wire wrap. Maybe I can afford it...

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Written by Martin Piper (he/him) 💙💛🌻💉 on 2025-01-18 at 00:44

@nina_kali_nina not changed for some of us.

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Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 00:47

@martin_piper most frustratingly, 7400 is now ÂŁ1.53 apiece, not $0.23 :(

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Written by Martin Piper (he/him) 💙💛🌻💉 on 2025-01-18 at 01:17

@nina_kali_nina right!

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Written by Jeff on 2025-01-18 at 00:54

@nina_kali_nina I've got a manual, screwdriver format wire wrap tool. It's really great for making good mechanical connections for soldering, even without the wire wrap posts. The manual one is better for hacks and bodges than the powered one.

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 00:55

@nina_kali_nina - Luxury!

My first box (well, there was no box, but): http://exemark.com/Microcontrollers/PopularElecwebc.pdf

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 00:57

@nina_kali_nina I had a terrible time with the push button. They used the classic make/break debounce circuit, and I only had spst momentary buttons, and scratch-designing a suitable monostable stretched my young brain.

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 01:06

@nina_kali_nina - Jebus. I just looked at that again. They used a pair of 2101s. If I had used 5101s, and added some NiCads, and a couple diodes, I could've had pseudo-ROM.

How did I miss that? AAAAARRRGHH! SO MUCH AVOIDABLE SWITCH FLIPPING!

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Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 01:07

@jmax did you ever upgrade to a decent keyboard?

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 01:09

@nina_kali_nina - On that thing? No. I got access to minicomputers through school shortly after that, and the next machine I built for myself was some years later (a 6809 thing that was close cousin to the Tandy Color Computer).

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Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 01:12

@jmax I mean, you can get a full-sized keyboard and, let's say, a diode decoder, if you have some sort of a ROM to store a minimal monitor. Or you can at least get a hex keyboard and a shift register

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Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 01:13

@jmax but apparently there was a full sized keyboard add-on and Basic: http://www.cosmacelf.com/publications/books/cosmac-elf-manual.pdf

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 01:14

@nina_kali_nina - Oh yes. Much dreaming, many fantasies.

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 01:16

@nina_kali_nina - Had I pushed that project much further, the next order of business would've been the 1861 display. Then a better cassette interface, then an EPROM burner.

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Written by Nina Kalinina on 2025-01-18 at 01:17

@jmax you could've run a CHIP-8 interpreter and lots of games made for it! (before you ask, I've touched CHIP-8 only briefly and as an adult)

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Written by John Maxwell on 2025-01-18 at 01:20

@nina_kali_nina - Yup. But my actual addiction was to programming; it's just that there was no other option than picking up a soldering iron to get there.

I'm still mostly a software guy, although I can fake being an EE pretty good; maybe well enough to get paid for it (never tried). Currently polishing my RF engineering skills.

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Written by Walrus 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 on 2025-01-18 at 17:20

@nina_kali_nina

I don't know. I've only been doing it for 47 years...

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Written by Linker3000 on 2025-01-18 at 18:10

@Walrus @nina_kali_nina That's a slow build!

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Written by Linker3000 on 2025-01-18 at 18:16

@nina_kali_nina Let's ask our computer club members how much memory is in their builds..1978 edition:

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Written by Steckschwein on 2025-01-18 at 20:32

@nina_kali_nina not really

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