The idea that you could save money by soldering together your own PDP-11 system from parts, and that there was a company that actually sold the kits (as well as assembled versions), is terrific.
And today (assuming you can find a vintage DCJ11 CPU or equivalent) you still can build your own hardware PDP-11 via PDP-11/Hack and other designs! (Though personally I'll probably go for an FPGA version.)
I watched my dad build the PDP-11, terminal, and paper tape reader/punch. Eventually we got a dual-8” floppy drive; he might have built that, too, I don’t remember.
QDOS had the advantage of being able to reimplement the CP/M-86 design rather than starting from scratch.
There were lots of disk operating systems created for 8 and 16-bit machines, as well as a number of BASIC + DOS type systems. But CP/M is the one 8-bit OS to rule them all - even running on an Apple II or C64 with a Z-80 CPU card or cartridge.
> Get Apple Pascal up and running in some kind of emulator on my Mac, so I can experience it again
I wonder if Lisa Pascal will run in a Lisa emulator...
> Build a p-machine emulator, in Rust
Probably a p-code interpreter and/or p-system VM! (Analogous to the JVM but for Pascal/p-system rather than Java and its bytecode. p-code translator/JIT compiler probably left as an exercise for the reader.) I'm surprised that nobody seems to have written one in JavaScript and/or webassembly... the latter basically being p-code for the 2020s.
I haven't seen a web-based p-System, either, which was a little surprising to me. You can run either the Apple or CP/M versions through emulating the entire computer, though.
That is probably why nobody's felt the need to make a p-System for the web.
Can you successfully transfer data over unreliable connections? LLM is just a misbehaving DB, once you pin it down the right way and lower your expectations, then "reliable LLM applications" are definitely possible. But if we go yolo with regexp-like-intelligence, then...
> the store manager kept putting those PCs up at the front of the store. The district manager would come back and make him put it in the back
It's interesting and sad that RadioShack somehow managed to succeed and fail at least twice in computing, first in the 8-bit microcomputer era and second in the Tandy PC era. It seems like they failed in the build-your-own-cheap-PC era as well.
> A lot of what used to be consumer electronics exists on everyone's smartphones. No more clock radios, walkmans, boomboxes, tape decks, VCRs, DVD/CD players, landline phones, etc. I would bet Bluetooth speakers have essentially replaced home stereos for many.
I still seem to use a lot of electronics: bluetooth and wired speakers, headphones and earphones, power strips and adapters, USB cables and gadgets, SSD enclosures, phone accessories, game systems, all sorts of computers, tablet/e-reader, monitors for computing/gaming/video, musical instruments and amplifiers, functional and decorative lighting, chargers for everything, networking/WiFi stuff, automatic cookers, etc. RadioShack and Fry's used to sell those things.
It's a shame that the maker/DIY electronics revival turned out to have limited appeal, because I'd like to visit a store that had Raspberry Pi and other microcontroller boards, components for real-world interfaces and robotics, 3D printers and supplies, etc.
In addition to the electronics components aisles at Fry's, I miss their PC component section. And their convenient return policy. I'm surprised that there aren't more shops for PC customization. I also wish there were a shop where you could put together your own custom mechanical keyboard, picking out switches, keycaps, etc.
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