Conversation

Notices

1. Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Apr-2024 08:15:11 UTC Charlie Stross

   • Electropict
   • Stephen Darlington
   • Keyboards

   @electropict @sdarlington @keyboards I bought an original 8256 the month it came out. By the time I sold it and switched to a PC it had 512Kb of RAM,a second (720K) 3" floppy drive, an external 10Mb hard disk, and was spending all its time running CP/M.

   • Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Apr-2024 08:15:07 UTC Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Electropict
     • Stephen Darlington
     • Keyboards

     @electropict @sdarlington @keyboards Yup, the PCW left me in ZERO doubt that Van Eck phreaking was possible! (Get a B&W TV set with a portable antenna and point it at the PCW at short range and you could—very fuzzily—pick up the screen!)

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.
   • Electropict (electropict@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 30-Apr-2024 08:15:11 UTC Electropict

     in reply to

     • Stephen Darlington
     • Keyboards

     @cstross @sdarlington @keyboards

     And multiple programming languages were available.  You could draw and print the Mandelbrot set on them, if you had half a day or so spare.

     They were great, for the time.  As long as no-one wanted to use a TV or radio nearby at the same time.  Shielded they were not, and the mice cables packed a punch across the spectrum.  Which is how I became a creature of the night. 😉