Respect the history
For several years, I’ve been intending to watch the series “Halt And Catch Fire”. And tonight, by accident, I did.
My world overlapped with that world. Not tightly, but when you worked with early personal computers, the familiarity index is high. I think we all knew some of the back stories to the various computer companies, and the comparative architectures; this series tries to tie it into a bundle for the rest of you. Note how I set myself out of the game, although I was little more than an interested observer. To the history, and to the story.
I’ve thrown away much of my own hardware collection (yes, Kaypro, you are safe for another round). In retrospect, the machines were all cut from the same mold. You have to fit the hardware into physical space, in the same way that cars have gone with the four tires on the ground for the last century. Evolved capability, but storage and memory and processing power are the beginning and the middle (we don’t know the end, yet).
Try to imagine if someone had brought a RPi4 to the table, thirty years ago.
So where does that lead me? Well, I’m going to watch a few more episodes before making a judgement call. History. And then, tomorrow, I’ll swap my new replacement keyboard onto my laptop, because that’s what I have retained as a necessary skill. Repair, for as long as you can.
And going into the next little while, at least my personal computer (with its own history) will be familiar.
