software is a mirror that reflects the times and the environment it was created in.
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software is a mirror that reflects the times and the environment it was created in.
this is why much software created in the 1970s counterculture was joyful and humanistic, and why much software created in the 2020s capitalistic hellscape is soul-crushing malware (adware, spyware).
#retrocomputing can mean celebrating hardware limitations and creative coding, but it can also mean celebrating personal computing - computers that are tools for liberation - bicycles for the mind, not cattle trains to the slop farm.
@psf I am fairly sure that I have never had anything on social media touch my soul quite like the phrase “bicycles for the mind.” Love that so freaking much.
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software is a mirror that reflects the times and the environment it was created in.
this is why much software created in the 1970s counterculture was joyful and humanistic, and why much software created in the 2020s capitalistic hellscape is soul-crushing malware (adware, spyware).
#retrocomputing can mean celebrating hardware limitations and creative coding, but it can also mean celebrating personal computing - computers that are tools for liberation - bicycles for the mind, not cattle trains to the slop farm.
@psf I worked at #Broderbund and #GeoWorks, two companies that made software for people, to make their lives better. I'm glad I did. I still work in tech, but do not recognize that desire to help people in the current environment.
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software is a mirror that reflects the times and the environment it was created in.
this is why much software created in the 1970s counterculture was joyful and humanistic, and why much software created in the 2020s capitalistic hellscape is soul-crushing malware (adware, spyware).
#retrocomputing can mean celebrating hardware limitations and creative coding, but it can also mean celebrating personal computing - computers that are tools for liberation - bicycles for the mind, not cattle trains to the slop farm.
@psf "computers that are bicycles for the mind, not cattle trains to the slop farm."
Perfect.
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@psf I am fairly sure that I have never had anything on social media touch my soul quite like the phrase “bicycles for the mind.” Love that so freaking much.
@profbib To give credit where credit's due, I got "bicycles for the mind" from Steve Jobs, who, knowing him, probably got it from someone else.
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software is a mirror that reflects the times and the environment it was created in.
this is why much software created in the 1970s counterculture was joyful and humanistic, and why much software created in the 2020s capitalistic hellscape is soul-crushing malware (adware, spyware).
#retrocomputing can mean celebrating hardware limitations and creative coding, but it can also mean celebrating personal computing - computers that are tools for liberation - bicycles for the mind, not cattle trains to the slop farm.
@psf Vibe coding is going to hit Apple app developers and Android app developers hard. I miss the "free" web, when we were passionate about sharing, in the 90s, and community in the early 200s. I don't like the mercanary 2010s and 2020s.
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@psf I worked at #Broderbund and #GeoWorks, two companies that made software for people, to make their lives better. I'm glad I did. I still work in tech, but do not recognize that desire to help people in the current environment.
@morgan @psf
This. People used to be proud of the software they created! And for good reasons too.I have fond memories of C64 GEOS by Berkeley Softworks which later became GeoWorks. There was an interview in I think Compute's Gazette on their work on GEOS, how their engineers would take a routine and try to shave off clock cycles and bytes of memory use. And do it several times per each routine. It was such an amazing environment on the ridiculously constrained hardware. And now we have emulators for that stuff running inside the browser, consuming several gigabytes of memory.
One of the fondest memories of it is a when I returned a larger history homework project written with GeoWrite (I think in 1990), and the teacher asked me to stay after class for a chat. I was dreading some disciplining, although wasn't sure for what. Instead he was genuinely amazed at the print quality and just wanted to know what equipment I had used to do it. He was something between flabbergasted and disbelief when I told him it was entirely done on a Commodore 64. He said his expensive new PC couldn't produce anything like it.
What I didn't tell him was that GeoWrite didn't have scandinavian letters, so I had to add the dots over ä and ö manually
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@morgan @psf
This. People used to be proud of the software they created! And for good reasons too.I have fond memories of C64 GEOS by Berkeley Softworks which later became GeoWorks. There was an interview in I think Compute's Gazette on their work on GEOS, how their engineers would take a routine and try to shave off clock cycles and bytes of memory use. And do it several times per each routine. It was such an amazing environment on the ridiculously constrained hardware. And now we have emulators for that stuff running inside the browser, consuming several gigabytes of memory.
One of the fondest memories of it is a when I returned a larger history homework project written with GeoWrite (I think in 1990), and the teacher asked me to stay after class for a chat. I was dreading some disciplining, although wasn't sure for what. Instead he was genuinely amazed at the print quality and just wanted to know what equipment I had used to do it. He was something between flabbergasted and disbelief when I told him it was entirely done on a Commodore 64. He said his expensive new PC couldn't produce anything like it.
What I didn't tell him was that GeoWrite didn't have scandinavian letters, so I had to add the dots over ä and ö manually
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@morgan @psf
This. People used to be proud of the software they created! And for good reasons too.I have fond memories of C64 GEOS by Berkeley Softworks which later became GeoWorks. There was an interview in I think Compute's Gazette on their work on GEOS, how their engineers would take a routine and try to shave off clock cycles and bytes of memory use. And do it several times per each routine. It was such an amazing environment on the ridiculously constrained hardware. And now we have emulators for that stuff running inside the browser, consuming several gigabytes of memory.
One of the fondest memories of it is a when I returned a larger history homework project written with GeoWrite (I think in 1990), and the teacher asked me to stay after class for a chat. I was dreading some disciplining, although wasn't sure for what. Instead he was genuinely amazed at the print quality and just wanted to know what equipment I had used to do it. He was something between flabbergasted and disbelief when I told him it was entirely done on a Commodore 64. He said his expensive new PC couldn't produce anything like it.
What I didn't tell him was that GeoWrite didn't have scandinavian letters, so I had to add the dots over ä and ö manually
@Turre @psf we really did think we were going to change the world, at #GeoWorks. Everyone was young. Our most successful hiring practice was to recruit interns from the University of California at Berkeley, basically across the road. These third-year electrical engineering / computer science students would work for us for six months, get credit and pay, work on really cool software and hardware, then we'd make some a job offer, and many would accept. I worked with the smartest people, there. I learned so much. I came in the "wrong way"; self-taught. I'm still friends with many of them. I'm glad you had a good experience with our software! It was a labor of love. Some made some money, most gained valuable experience. A few went on to greatness. A bit of trivia; Eric Schmidt (Google) was on our board, later in the game...
Cc @lahosken @witort @witort@mastodon.social Did I get it right?
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@Turre @psf we really did think we were going to change the world, at #GeoWorks. Everyone was young. Our most successful hiring practice was to recruit interns from the University of California at Berkeley, basically across the road. These third-year electrical engineering / computer science students would work for us for six months, get credit and pay, work on really cool software and hardware, then we'd make some a job offer, and many would accept. I worked with the smartest people, there. I learned so much. I came in the "wrong way"; self-taught. I'm still friends with many of them. I'm glad you had a good experience with our software! It was a labor of love. Some made some money, most gained valuable experience. A few went on to greatness. A bit of trivia; Eric Schmidt (Google) was on our board, later in the game...
Cc @lahosken @witort @witort@mastodon.social Did I get it right?
@Turre @psf @lahosken @witort @witort@mastodon.social one more notable GeoWorks alumnus; Curtis Yarvin.
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@Turre @psf @lahosken @witort @witort@mastodon.social one more notable GeoWorks alumnus; Curtis Yarvin.
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@Turre @psf @lahosken @witort @witort@mastodon.social one more notable GeoWorks alumnus; Curtis Yarvin.
@morgan @psf @lahosken @witort@sfba.social @witort@mastodon.social
I seeing the news of GEOS ported to the PC and thinking, that is going to wipe everything else off the floor. It should have!That was one my first lessons on just how unfair that industry is.
