Trailing Edge Technology

Chrysler's in-car phonograph | Crave : The gadget blog

2007-02-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Chrysler's in-car phonograph | Crave : The gadget blog

Modern Mechanix � sensational new “fact-power” unleashed by Remington Rand UNIVAC

2007-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

Modern Mechanix � sensational new “fact-power” unleashed by Remington Rand UNIVAC

Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor | The Register

2007-01-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Bill Joy's greatest gift to man – the vi editor | The Register

101 Amazing Facts of Earth

2006-12-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

101 Amazing Facts of Earth: "101 Amazing Facts of Earth"

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part I: The Early Years (1980-1983) | Armchair Arcade

2006-12-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part I: The Early Years (1980-1983) | Armchair Arcade

Minimoog

2006-12-27T22:29:00.000-08:00

Minimoog

The NeXT Years: Steve Jobs before His Triumphant Return to Apple

2006-12-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

The NeXT Years: Steve Jobs before His Triumphant Return to Apple

OldVersion.com

2006-12-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

OldVersion.com

Photo-Freeware.net - Top Downloads by categories

2006-11-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

Photo-Freeware.net - Top Downloads by categories

Find it ALL Here!: Battle of the GUIs timelime in Pictures

2006-11-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

Find it ALL Here!: Battle of the GUIs timelime in Pictures

Radio Shack 1988 Catalog Excerpts

2006-11-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Radio Shack 1988 Catalog Excerpts

Linux Spreadsheets

2006-10-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

I worked for the company (Innovative Software, later bought out by
Informix) that produced both the SmartWare and WingZ spreadsheets.

http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/spreadsheets.html

BYTE.com - Computer History

2006-10-29T12:33:00.000-08:00

Made good money working on most of these , one time or another.

Want to see some of these run? I just need to rumage around upstairs.

The 128k Mac, upgraded to 512k, will only take the flip of a switch.

Model 100, ditto. Have to plug in the SE30...

http://www.byte.com/art/9509/sec7/art4.htm

Interview with Bill Gates

2006-10-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

Favorite computer: Model 100
(Also last code he was primary developer. I LIKE Bill Gates the
developer...)

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/gates.htm

PC World - The 30 Products and Services We Miss Most

2006-10-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127507-page,1/article.html

Apple Matters | September 25: Lisas Head to the Landfill

2006-09-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/history/september-25-lisas-head-to-the-landfill/

Slashdot | Tales from a BBS Junkie

2006-09-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/25/1454239

Music thing: 744 Pages of Pure Geek Heaven

2006-09-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/04/744-pages-of-pure-geek-heaven.html

Music thing: TINY MUSIC MAKERS: Pt 4: The Mac Startup Sound

2006-09-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/05/tiny-music-makers-pt-4-mac-startup.html

Damn Interesting � The Extraordinary Dymaxion Automobile

2006-08-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Damn Interesting � The Extraordinary Dymaxion Automobile

History and Evolution of programming languages

2005-02-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

History and Evolution of programming languages

Here is a brief run-down on the history of various languages used to write programs through the years. As the programs themslelves, and the systems where they were run are certainly old in computer (dog) years, they seemed to belong here.

Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget'

2005-02-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Technology | Apple laptop is 'greatest gadget'

Meet My Web Server: My Newton

2005-02-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

Meet My Web Server: My Newton

Jargon's Driver Museum

2005-02-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

This is an archive of drivers and hardware utilities maintained by Jarno "Jargon" Niemelä.
The purpose of this archive is to collect device drivers for devices no longer supported by their manufacturers.
If it's old, it's drivers belong here.

Total Hardware 1999

2005-02-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

Total Hardware 1999

Remember that first love?

2005-02-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Digital Retro by Gordon Laing - Vintage retro computer history book

"Digital Retro is an essential read for anyone who owned or lusted after a computer in the Eighties. If the mere mention of Sinclair, Commodore, Atari or Acorn brings a fond tear to your eye, it's the book for you."

List of models featured

MITS Altair 8800
Commodore PET 2001
Apple II
Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80
Atari VCS
Nascom 1
Atari 400 / 800
Sharp MZ-80K
Acorn Atom
Texas Instruments TI-99/4(A)
Mattel Intellivision
Tangerine Microtan 65
Hewlett Packard HP-85
Sinclair ZX80
Sinclair ZX81
Osbourne 1
Commodore VIC-20
IBM PC
BBC Micro Model A / Model B
Commodore 64
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Colecovision
Grundy Newbrain
GCE Vectrex
Dragon 32
Compaq Portable PC
Apple Lisa
Oric 1
Jupiter ACE
Mattel Aquarius
Nintendo Famicom / NES
Acorn Electron
Apple Macintosh
Sinclair QL
Amstrad CPC-464
IBM PC AT
MSX / Sony HitBit
Tatung Einstein
Atari 520ST / 1040ST
Commodore Amiga 1000
Amstrad PCW 8256
Sega Mark III / Master
Acorn Archimedes
NeXT Cube

Oh Yeah! This one is DEFINATLY on the shopping list!

And the world was never the same...

2005-01-31T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Altair 8800

from MITS of

Albuquerque, NM.

Image from Computer Closet

I could not let January pass without noting that the Personal Computer is now 30 years old. (Note: Not the IBM PC, that johnnie-come-lately didn't come on the scene for another six years. Personal Computer was an existing industry term, co-opted by big blue. In a striking prophetic act, they Trademarked the name...) MrGadgets, along with the rest of the world, became aware of this device when it appeared in an article in the January 1975 edition of Popular Electronics.

The Altair is recognized by most as the first true personal computer. More information here: http://oldcomputers.net/altair.html. There is an article here: http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~csclub/museum/items/mits_altair_8800.html. (Note the EIGHT INCH floppy drive. I think I still have some 8" media buried upstairs.) Also check out Tom Sanderson's Virtual Altair Museum.

This, boys and girls is the progenitor, the one that started it all. Lest you under-estimate the importance of the Altair, you still can see it's influence on the modern technological world.

Upon seeing the article, Bill Gates and Paul Allen saw an opportunity. They DROPPED out of HARVARD and moved to NM to write Altair BASIC.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Also worth noting, MITS didn't really intend to start the Micro-Computer revolution. What then? The clue lies in the name: Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems. What kind of telemetry? Model Rockets, of course.

And so began the revolution...

Today I am a Man

2005-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

On this day, January 24 or the Year of our Lord, 1984 the Macintosh was released, and personal computing was changed in ways we barely even understand, even today.

Don't believe me? Once I figure out that the Ctrl key in WindoZ is the same as the Command key on the Mac, and the Mac Option key is pretty much the Alt key in Redmond's copy-cat world, I could transport from 1984 directly to today and wouldn't need a manual.

Mr. Bill countered with WindoZ 1.x and 2.x, complete jokes. Version 3 finally got something of a following, but it was still pitiful when compared to what Apple was doing, even with Jobs forced aside by the sugar-water salesman. He also tried ganging up with IBM on OS/2( good UI, but he just can't play nice.)

The first REALLY good UI out of Redmond was 98, and, surprise, surprise! It was the one that mimicked the Mac. (Court cases can sometimes be wonderful things...)

I guess it should not be surprising how long it took, Redmond didn't use their normal method of buying a solution.

There is a nice site that Chronicles the Mac's creation.

Andy Hertzfeild, one of the original designers, has written a book on his recolections of the process.

Read some of the stories and history, if you are not familiar. In a world where the PC is barely beyond a beige-box mentality, it seems strange. Treating a technolgy device as a work of art. Applying as much the aesthetic as the innovative in an elegant total design. This has always been the forte at Apple.

I have been asked by more than one musician why I didn't persue a musical career full-time.
In the early days, those of us who saw the future of technology could see the revolution.

As Andy's title indicates, the Mac embodied that revolution.

Apple has stumbled, but not quite fallen.

It has managed a nice recovery from the brink.

Many of my friends in the Ameteur Radio community were dumb-founded with my Mac-using habits. I never saw Apples demise as a good thing, even when a new job took me away from daily usage of their product. Who else would be the burr under Mr. Bill's saddle? Whatever it's faults, and they are legion, Apple has prodded the rest of the industry in so many ways, and continues to do so.

To that end, my oldest friend recently asked my thoughts on the new Mac Mini.

While that will be the subject of another post in detail, I will say this:

It is, by far, the smallest system, bar none. WindoZ or Mac.

And don't it just look COOL?

New Year, New Blog

2005-01-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

Took off the last two weeks of '04 from the 'Real Life Job' and spent several days policing the area. This included burrowing into the attic space above the garage that was way over-cluttered with at least two years of 'dumping'. I had set up a work area on one side of the floored area with a long shelf and a 'table' of sorts to mess with as a shack and lab/workbench. That is cleared again, and I plan on delving further into even more 'ancient' tech and organizing the area even more. In addition I recovered use of the computer loft area directly adjacent that will be more practical when closer to each Solstice, as it is both finished and heated/air-conditioned.

Soooo, I thought I would launch this little venture, to post both pictures and entries on old tech I run across in my 'Archaeo-Technical Dig.' In addition, I want to play with comments from readers, and this seems like a topic that might peak the interest enough to get some discussion threads going.

Besides, some of this stuff has both hisorical significance, vis-a-vis how far we have come, and some of it is still useful and fun!

More soon!

Meanwhile, check our my 'main' blog: mrgadgets.blogger.com
And my web-site: www.mrgadgets.com