retro

RISCy business: The long and convoluted rise of today's dominant computing platform

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In the 1980s, RISC was the future. By the early 2000s, it was the past. And now it's the future again.

Ontario's Computer Part 2: The LEXICON Server

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In this follow-on to my previous blog post, I'll examine the brains behind the Burroughs ICON computer: the LEXICON server that all ICONs connected to across an ARCNET network.

Ontario's Computer: The Burroughs ICON

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Back in 1984, the Ontario government made their own computer for the school system, but ordered school boards to send them all to landfill a decade later. In this post, you'll explore one that survived and learn why it was cool.

SPARCbook teardown

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In a 2019 blog post, I explored a SPARC-based laptop from the 1990s running Solaris UNIX. In this post, I run through a teardown of the laptop to explore its hardware design.

The old Web was fun

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I was around during the birth of the web in the early 1990s. In this post, I'll tell you why the web was much more fun back then.

2019 in review

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Each December, I like to take some time to reflect on the events of the year - and this year was AWESOME!

Reviving an ancient BSD UNIX workstation

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I was gifted a really rare NS32016 BSD UNIX workstation prototype from the early 1980s!

SPARCbook 3000ST: The coolest 90s laptop

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Seriously, how cool is a SPARC-based laptop from the 90s running Solaris?!?

Halt and Catch Fire

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The best drama set amidst the backdrop of the computer revolution.

2016 in review

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Here's what happened this year!