Comments on: Books You Should Read: Bil Herd’s Back Into The Storm

By: Alphatek

Alphatek — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 14:43:10 +0000

In reply to RetepV.

Err, no. Apple took the ARM _from_ the desktop (Acorn’s RISC OS) to a mobile device (Newton). But yes – at the time, nothing came close to the ARM’s processing power.

By: RetepV

RetepV — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 10:46:09 +0000

In reply to rre4.

Eh, methinks you never used an Apple device? People tend to not think of Apple’s device developers as being hackers. But they are quite the hacker. Just at a different level than people think. For instance, Apple has single-handedly taken the ARM architecture from mobile devices to the desktop. No chromebook (the other ARM ‘desktop’ architecture) comes even close to Apple’s ARM computing power. If you’re looking for a revolution that might bring computers to the next level, keep an eye on Apple.

The issue for the home-hacker is basically that modern computers rely on such complex and highly integrated chips, that it’s near impossible to make any competing designs without going all the way down to the chip-level.

But on the other side: I think it will become cheaper and cheaper to design your own ic’s and have them made for real (not meaning fpga, but asics). So who knows.

By: Chuckz

Chuckz — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 18:17:05 +0000

His current website is http://www.c128.com/
He has a you-tube channel and a discord channel.

By: rre4

rre4 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:56:58 +0000

Today we need a similar visionary. An ecological computer that works for weeks on a single charge and is cheap to carry with you.
Someone who understands that computerization doesn’t have to rely on even more, faster, but on convenience and access. The cloud will count instead of our computer what our computer will not pull, but we must have a way to work digitally in all conditions. Yes, everyone also means those without a socket in sight and wifi overhead.
We need standards and a computer example for a hacker. Made by another hacker. Today, there are more hackers than there were computer users in the past.

By: N. Christopher Perry

N. Christopher Perry — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 12:04:11 +0000

I learned to do some great things on the VIC20 I commandeered from my father, culminating with controlling my second robot arm. The prize money I got at the Connecticut Science Fair with that robot I used to buy a C64! That was used to control my next robot, and I managed to get that system to talk too. I won a sizable pot with the this robot too, which I dutifully use to buy a 128! They were great machines that offered a lot of capabilities for hacking.

By: a Jaded Hobo

a Jaded Hobo — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 18:10:22 +0000

My illustrious career started in high school on a CBM 3016. The school had three of them and a 3032 with a dual floppy drive. Available for students to use after school time. A single floppy could hold all the programs you’d ever write.
I had to wait until I was making real money as an EE intern to buy my first own computer: A C128. With an audio cassette recorder I had to hack a DB9 connector onto. I also hacked the Philips monochrome monitor to accept both 40 and 80 column video and had a toggle switch to select either one. The cassette never really worked and was replaced with a 1571 the moment I had the money. Then the real hacking began in earnest: create proprietary disk formats to store the assembly programs for the CatCE 68000 board I had hooked up to it.
Then, from my first real job’s paychecks, I upgraded to an Amiga2000. And a 20Mbyte SCSI harddisk :)

Both computers and the 1571 are still prominently on display !

By: Ren

Ren — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:04:52 +0000

In reply to Eric.

“This book will go well with my Commodore collection. Vic20, C64, C128, C128D, C16, Plus4, Max, and a bunch of software and peripherals. 8-bit Commodore basically gave me the knowledge to have a career when I grew up.”

You suck!
(don’t take it personally, I’m just being jealous!)
B^)