[ale] OT: Woah, retro!

[Joe]

"James P. Kinney III" <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> writes:

> I could probably put my hands on a PDP-10 if I really wanted to play
> with antiques.
> 
> In the event of planet-wide disaster (asteroid impact) does the
> knowledge still exist to recreate the computer revolution or would it
> really be back to the dark ages? Could we actually hand code a
> rudimentary compiler than feed it the parts to build a better one until
> we recover back to this point (minus M$, of course :)

An absolutely minimal Forth interpreter, in 8086 machine code, is
under ten instructions long. Forth is just barely high-level enough to
do useful work in, IMO, but it'd be a great bootstrap language. (I've
never managed to do any useful work in Forth, but I can appreciate the
possibility.) But I think we'd be OK software-wise. I'd be worried if
there were no working hardware, though. I'm not quite sure about the
exact effects of EMP - it screws up magnetic domains, right?  Which
probably means that boot ROMs, for example, would be history, and we'd
have to get things rolling from the bare metal. But would EMP hose
stuff other than persistent memory?  Would the CPUs be OK? Or would we
end up looking for the long-lost plans for Babbage's Analytical
Engine?

-- Joe

> On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 22:10, Geoffrey wrote:
> > Okay, do I need to dig out my 3b2 300?
> > 
> > Jonathan Glass (IBB) wrote:
> > > My parents just retrieved their furniture from long-term storage.  In it
> > > they found my Tandy 1000SX!  2 5.25" floppy drives and 640K of RAM!! 
> > > Granted, it isn't as cool your stuff...but I wonder if I can get Linux
> > > to run on that old 8088?
> > > 
> > > :)
> > > 
> > > Jonathan
> > > 
> > > On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 19:40, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> > > 
> > >>During a spouse unit mandated cleaning, I was required to get rid of my
> > >>TI 99-4A card programmable calculator with the add on memory module and
> > >>thermal printer unit and several plug-in program packs including
> > >>statistics, statics and fluid flow engineering. Her excuse to have me
> > >>get rid of the lot was that the battery pack was dead and the charger
> > >>wouldn't run it any more.
> > >>
> > >>sigh
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>On Tue, 2003-02-18 at 13:43, Joe wrote:
> > >>
> > >>>I got a package in the mail from my grandma today, containing assorted
> > >>>junk of mine that she found floating around the house. It contained
> > >>>the following items, among others, which I mention purely for the joy
> > >>>of having them back in my posession:
> > >>>
> > >>>- My Dad's Texas Instruments SR-50 scientific calculator, c. 1975. No
> > >>>battery pack, no adapter, no manual. This machine was the central
> > >>>computing engine at Dad's land-surveying business for about five
> > >>>years in the 70's.
> > >>>
> > >>>- My Timex/Sinclair 1000, c. 1982, Z80A, 1K RAM. With manual (!), but
> > >>>no power supply, alas. Anybody got a dead one with a working power
> > >>>supply they'd be willing to part with? I'd love to see if this thing
> > >>>still boots. Hmm, maybe I can pick up a workable P/S at Radio Snack...
> > >>>
> > >>>Thanks,
> > >>>
> > >>>-- Joe Knapka
> > >>>_______________________________________________
> > >>>Ale mailing list
> > >>>Ale at ale.org
> > >>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > >>
> > >>-- 
> > >>James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> > >>CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> > >>Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> > >>770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> > >>http://www.localnetsolutions.com
> > >>
> > >>GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> > >>Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Ale mailing list
> > > Ale at ale.org
> > > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > 
> > > 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
> 
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7 

-- 
  "I'd rather chew my leg off than maintain Java code, which
   sucks, 'cause I have a lot of Java code to maintain and
   the leg surgery is starting to get expensive." - Me
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