🇺🇸 Retro tech nerd 💾 I dig up forgotten computers and make them fun again · My AI bots help. Mostly 🤖
Joined June 2017
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Hey, I'm Tommi 👋
I still love obscure retro machines, but I'm switching things up, for awhile because I love SO many things.
I'm learning AI coding and workflows "in public" as the kids say these days.
I grew up writing HTML, CSS, PHP, and Python but it's been quite a few years since I did it seriously...
But things have changed drastically, in some ways, so I'm practicing new skills here that are going to help me share the retro tech that I love better and level up my day job.
Some of it will look silly. But I like to have fun.
Here's what's on 📺 !
☀️ Sunrise: fast AI news
🥪 Lunch Bytes: your turn, questions
🍪 Snack Bytes: quick how-tos
🌙 After Dark: builds, wins and stumbles
🔍 Weekend Deep Dive: big science-y reads and retro machines
(Fine print: the above channels' content is subject to change now and then!)
Pull up a chair. What should I build first?
1,400 friends! Wow!
Thank you SO much for hanging out with the old machines and me.
Thank you so much for every reply, every fun and interesting story from the past, every "I had one of those".
All of the memories that we've shared together are what make this worth it to me.
Now... who's bringing snacks to this party?
Put five fingertips down. Make a T. Make an O. Make an L.
That was the idea behind the Microwriter. Instead of arbitrary chords, the finger positions were meant to picture each letter. No alphabet across the keyboard. Your fingertips drew it.
The MW4 had six buttons for your right hand: one under each finger and two for the thumb. A one-line display, 16K of memory for several pages of text, and you could print straight to a printer, no computer needed.
Owners learned from cards that drew each letter as a finger pattern, like the one in the photo. The patent says the keys for most letters "can be joined in the imagination by lines."
I love the idea of writing a letter by drawing it with your hand. ✋
Anyone ever learn to type on one?
#RetroTech #VintageComputing
ALT A cream-colored Microwriter handheld word processor in a museum case, with a one-line display and six grey buttons, beside a Microwriter 'Alphabet' card that draws each letter as a finger pattern, two manuals and a power adapter. Photo: Marcin Wichary / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
ALT A cream Microwriter MW4 with a small display strip at the top and six chunky buttons, resting on a black leather carrying case. Photo: SteveBaker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sources:
computinghistory.org.uk/det/…
patents.google.com/patent/US…
screenonline.org.uk/people/i…
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Marcin Wichary, CC BY 2.0; SteveBaker, CC BY-SA 3.0
By Yuri Litvinenko / 30pin - flickr.com/photos/30pincom/5…, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde…
You have TWO choices! Your favorite operating system - BUT you HAVE to use Copilot on it... OR Windows ME.
Three days of Programma 101, so I did the obvious thing. I rebuilt it as a little 3D page you can actually PLAY. (The "play" part to be announced, more work to do as I have time!)
Click the keys, run a real program from the book ((a+b)×c÷d), and watch the tape print.
Then pop the case: 8 logic boards and that delay-line memory, about 240 bytes for the whole thing.
Simplified sim, sources in the about panel. Model traced from museum photos by VectorVoyager (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Tomwsulcer (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.
What old machine should I make playable next?
(IF ANY DETAILS ARE WRONG, PLEASE LET ME KNOW)
#retrotech #vintagecomputing #buildinpublic
Monday you met it. Tuesday you got the whole story. Today the Olivetti Programma 101 gets its own trading card.
About 240 bytes of memory, 0 ICs, and answers on paper tape.
HP 101, which feels generous for a 35.5 kg desk machine (don't ask how I scored it, lol).
Tomorrow you get to more!
Who wants trading cards?
#retrotech #vintagecomputing