> He had kept tape backups from old BBS systems, and was able to recover a warez copy of the SDK – unbelievable! It actually worked, I was able to build a few sample plugins!
I was just thinking about trying to create an archive of all the manuals, firmware updates, drivers, and any software utilities for current synthesizers, eurorack and otherwise, since they’re actually hardware that will still be around in a few decades. I already keep copies of all this stuff for gear I own, organized by manufacturer in my personal cloud storage drive, but it seems like it would be a public benefit for the community to have something centralized and more importantly long-lived.
I was thinking about how to potentially have some kind of yearly distribution of such an archive, maybe have some type of archival blu-ray that people could pay for a physical copy of that would hopefully last 100 years, then the odds of /someone/ out there having a copy of that last esoteric firmware .bin that you need to save your corrupted firmware on your ARM-based DSP eurorack module should approach 1.
My dad had a ton of 123 files on a secondary laptop with an ancient Windows version, just because these had important information that he still needed to look at from time to time. I was a bit worried about the resiliency of this setup, to put it mildly.
Recently I realized that LibreOffice could convert Lotus files to ODF/ODS files, even in the CLI, so I made a very simple bash script to convert them all, and bulk uploaded them on my Nextcloud with Collabora, and gave my dad a login and a crash course. So now he can look up his files online, and they get properly backed up as part of my normal routine on the server.
Big tip of the hat to data archeologists like OP and the LibreOffice contributors.
Changed your life for the better I hope? My kids asked for a Nintendo Switch, but instead got a Steam Deck, along with my 12-year old desktop that is on it's second GPU, second pair of RAM, and third disk drive but still chugging along well. Those systems aren't anywhere near hackable like when we were kids, but I'm hoping just the possibility being there is enough.
Newer systems offer dramatically more opportunity for hacking. The problem is that you just don’t have to.
If you want to introduce hacking for necessity, try introducing an SBC into the mix. For $40, you can get a system younger you could be never dream of. Actually there is a Milk-V is $5 right now.
I begged for a BBC Micro and got a ZX Spectrum. Turned out to be much better at getting me interested in programming, even if the Spectrum was on the way out.
> The simpler hardware of the Spectrum was much more approachable.
I'd contest that assertion. I was 15 when when my folks bought my BBC Model B. It was a far more interesting machine to hack around on than the Spectrum. The BBC was set up my future as a software developer.
Apologies. I also meant to say that the BBC was just as approachable as the Spectrum then lost my train of thought after the phone rang :) I found the Spectrum super frustrating to use, especially with that dead-flesh membrane keyboard.
I got an apple 2gs with leisure suit larry that neither me nor my much older brother could reliably figure out the answers to the "age verification questions" at start-up
I wasn't permitted to have a computer until I'd passed my 'O' levels, so instead typed out my code on a clonky 1960's office typewriter in the evenings and weekends. I did have rudimentary syntax highlighting because it used a black/red ribbon :)
Funnily enough I'm doing something similar, but with the extra step of turning parts of programs into object files first. That means I'm not limited to extant object files, but it requires some amount of reverse-engineering to make it work.
I have a proof-of-concept with aln [1], the Atari Jaguar linker. I start with a Linux x86 a.out executable, which I delink into an ELF object file and then relink as an ELF x86 executable, working around mismatched ABIs as needed.
1. It's cool AF how you made getting UNIX -> Linux binary seem to be, even without source code and without original compiler and language. This is HN :D
2. You reminded us all that people still use Usenet for something more than rars in 2023!
3. You reminded us all of the past BBS scene which definitely helped to bring enthusiasm (and great shareware distribution of software) to the masses long before the popular of the internet, thus opening up great memories of the past I imagine for many.
Thank you for the post, and looking forward to your progress.
The BBS ethos is returning, I think. Especially in light of the implosion of Twitter (and all 'social' media, eventually). The older Zoomers are so infatuated with '80's and '90's retro stuff that many are downloading modem negotiation sequences as ringtones! My 23 year-old niece just recently did so. American Horror Story, Stranger Things, and other shows of that ilk are feeding the nostalgia.
It just proves the old saying: 'If you wait long enough, everything comes back into fashion.'
Linked from this excellent article is https://scenelist.org/, which is just the nostalgia bomb I needed this morning. Excellent trip down memory lane; highly recommended.
In fact, I had forgotten all about 1-2-3 as I'd tried this out some time last year. I still have the 123 binary working happily under Linux. It's quite an achievement to have something that's been obsolete for many years "Just Work".
I always wanted this - a terminal-based spreadsheet (I don't use much fonts and pictures in spreadsheets anyway). Glad to know it's finally here! I hope it's going to get ported to Mac and Windows as well.
Emacs has had a spreadsheet mode (SimpleEmacsSpreadsheet) for a really long time. I've never used it, but it might be worth checking out.
But also, Org-Mode in Emacs (which itself is a bottomless pit of awesome I have never explored) also has a way of using org-mode table cells like a spreadsheet using the Emacs 'Calc' stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15aDIvb5LJs
That looks really powerful. And of course, can run in either terminal or in window like all of emacs.
I really wish someone could resuscitate Javelin (it "Understands the Arrow of Time" to quote the old ads). Where you can create a variable and define its time period: is it a monthly value, a daily value, a quarterly value, and so on -- and then simply chart, compare, add or subtract values without having to jump through hoops or manually try and push values into groupings. Javelin was the 1984 PC Magazine product of the year but there doesn't seem to have been anything since that works that way.
There is a very real phenomena where you learn something new.
Then start seeing that thing every where,
at a frequency you "know" was not present before.
It is quite uncanny.
Now on top of that we have these massive engines of silicone designed with the sole purpose of identifying your patterns so they can infiltrate your thought processes and make you buy something you otherwise would not have.
When is it just learning something new and when is it a subversive engine?
Why History Needs Software Piracy[1]
[1] https://www.technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-s...