These pages follow my interest and work in technology. It's a mix of
critique, cool looking shit, elegant beauty and awfulness. have no interest in
boundaries between disciplines, it's all one big practice to me.
This document is loosely broken out into before, and after. The internet of
course. Pre- and post- matter because of how people worked, collaborated, and
communicated radically changed, before and after.
Bad links, old data, and meaning
29 feb 2020
Keep in mind some of these documents pre-date the internet, or are from the
earliest years thereof. The current permutation of the intertubes ("it's not a
big truck!") believes itself to be, acts as if it is, an idealized seamless
fabric of links. A perfection not yet realized? Or a self-defeating delusion
maintained by a deluded culture? YOU DECIDE. Old documents with dead links
spoil the illusion, and sites with bad links are punished by the search engines
to enforce the fantasy.
Documents from 20+ years ago are from a world that no longer exists. What to
do with their old, bad links? Yes yes yes, they're errors, obviously. But they
collectively refer to the inter-linking of their time, and even bad links are
meaningful within that localized reality. Do we delete old movies or books
because they contain outmoded ideas or relationships? Yes, if it's science and
technology; no, if you are studying culture and human interactions or writing histories.
Of course most dead links I simply fix. But for ones I deem "historic" (run
your own damn website!) my solution is to textually "damage" URLs so that
search engines and browsers don't recognize them, and knock my already dubious
standing amongst the SEO set, but allow people reading the document to see what
the link intended. Usually this means simply removing the anchors and
enclosures. It's a bit ugly but integrity is preserved. Also I'm lazy, and it's
easiest.
Before the internet, science and tech was practiced more or less within
closed cultures, and documents and lore and all that were sealed within. It's
still difficult to find old contemporary information, now. Things pre-net
generally aren't documented except occasionally historically, which is
completely different from contemporary views. That's what makes it so
interesting to me.
Electron tube database,
1958-1961 An indexed database of vacuum tube
catalogs. I suppose the data is useful if you're working on old
stuff, but mainly the catalogs are beautiful. Some 2000
devices are indexed, but entire catalogs are rendered as color
images of reasonable resolution. These devices were once
bleeding-edge technology, in exotic metals and glass.
Burroughs Nixie
additional datasheetsDatasheets that don't
quite fit in the tube database scheme. These are courtesy David
Forbes (www.cathodecorner.com).
NIXIE indicators and
decimal tubesBefore the current eraof
general-purpose displays, information display was usually
symbol-specific; mostly digits. Awful and beautiful, at once.
Miniature lamp data
Technical information on miniature incandescent lamps. It's
surprisingly hard to find this data. Pages from an ancient
Cramer Electronics catalog.
COMPUTING MACHINERY AND
INTELLIGENCE by Alan Turing: I propose to
consider the question, "Can machines think?" This should begin
with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and
"think." The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so
far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude
is dangerous, If the meaning of the words "machine" and "think"
are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is
difficult to ...
On holy wars and a plea for
peace Embedded in this now-arcane discussion
of bit, byte, and word ordering within computers and
communication links are insights the author makes further on.
Skim the nerdly parts if you like, and enjoy a taste of some
lovely cultural discourse from a time gone by.
Real
Programmers Don't Use PascalWritten as
sarcasm but ends up endorsing macho programmer culture. A
letter to the editor of Datamation, volume 29 number 7, July
1983. I've long ago lost my dog-eared photocopy, but I believe
this was written (and is copyright) by Ed Post, Graphic
Software Systems, Wilsonville OR USA. The story of Mel is a
related article. Programming has had it's bro problem for some
time.
Mel the Programmer
Though this was written in the 1980's, the LGP-30 was a vacuum
tube machine from the late 1950's. Turns out that Mel is Mel
Kaye, a real person, who wrote the software libraries for the
LPG-30 and LGP-21, and is a macho programmer of the canonical
sort, self-modifying code, obscure, secretive,
anti-documentarian. I have his signature on some LGP
documentation. His code is tight, fast, absolutely unreadable
and absolutely unportable. The requirements of "optimum coding"
of serial drum memory machines and primitive tools made clarity
impossible.
Classic Computer Scams: World
Power Systems, Inc. In 1979 an outfit calling
itself "World Power Systems, Inc." appeared in the pages of
BYTE magazine, selling products just a bit too wonderful to be
true. Alas, they were scam artists, taking people's money and
sending nothing in return. In the early 90's I stole their name
for my website.
BEFORE: DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODS
Burroughs Corp. Nixie and
Panaplex application notes While there's
sufficient information in the net and elsewhere to light up
Nixies and make them work (see my Nixie datasheets) as far as
subtleties go (off-cathode leakage, ionization time vs.
multiplexing, the reason for the funny digit stacking order)
there's little informatin out there. But here are a few useful
Burroughs Application Notes.
the Charactron display
device The Charactron was a special-purpose
electron tube, was a peculiar device with a brief life, but
appears to have been an important fulcrum of sorts in the
history of computer graphics and art.
Army Tactical Operations Central
(ARTOC) information system This talks about
an amazing brute-force approach to what is essentially a
real-time tactical multimedia system ... in 1961. I doubt it
ever worked but I bet it was expensive. My favorite line from
the article: ("hundred million bit disk file... each housed in
a 2-1/2 ton utility truck"). A 2.5 ton USB stick.
BEFORE: INFORMATION COMMUNICATION
An annotated history of some
character codesThis is a fairly comprehensive
and technically thorough discussion/dissection of serial
character codes, aka ASCII, ECMA6, Fieldata, ITA2, and others.
It was ambitions HTML in 1999, too.
Bits, Bauds, &
Modulation ratesThe scheme by which data is
sent serially over a single wire. First used mid-19th century,
still true today for asynchronous serial links. Mark and space
etc.
Number and character
representation within computers How is a
number (quantity) represented, stored in memory, or sent via
some communications protocol? There is no "real" or "right"
way. When you have the concept in your head of "one hundred and
twenty three", how you express that is utterly independent from
the concept. Arabic or roman digits, 123 small stones, etc. The
concept of a quantity is utterly independent of it's
representation.
U.S.TTY/ITA2 to ASCII translation
programs ITA to/from ASCII conversion
programs, updated and corrected in August, 1999. Probably
worthless now, you could do it in a browser.
BEFORE: INFORMATION STORAGE
Paper tape Paper
tape is a data storage medium from a past century. It's
roots are in mid-19th-century telegraphy. It's physically
lovely tangible media.
magnetic tape for data
storageOnce universal, now forgotten, storing
digital data (not analog sound) on magnetic tape is pretty much
a lost art. I like magtape for its physicality (only; it's
awful in practice). A small reel of half-inch tape typically
holds 10 megabytes, for an approximate sense of working with
it.
Librascope/General Precision
LGP-21 Computer
The LGP-21 is the transistorized "little brother"
version of the LGP-30 computer, a very popular vacuum-tube
machine first produced in 1954. Fairly complete set of
documents.
Data General NOVA4 As if
I had nothing else to do, I dragged home this complete 1980's
minicomputer system, a data-logger for an oil refinery, and
abandoned 20 years before, and made it work. You could today
(sic) easily replaces it's 2000 lbs, 5000 watts of waste heat
with a Raspberry Pi.
The Universal
Machine Meh. I did this paper design during
the year I was working in San Francisco, while Josh was in law
school. I didn't have any way to work on anything physical so I
did this paper design. It will never get built of course.
CP/M-80 diskettte contentsThe
remains of my CP/M-80 diskette collection, as stored files.
Mostly source of CBBS and minor tools.
Otrona Attache 8:16
diskette contentsThese are the contents of
all the diskettes for the Otrona Attache with the 8:16 Z80 CPU
"option board" installed.
BEFORE: NICE TO LOOK AT OLD TECHNOLOGY
Photos from the Ivall
book. Scans of select pages from "Electronic
Computers" by T. E. Ivall, 1956. Published by The Philosophical
Library (London, NYC).
Cubic Corporation
V-45 Digital VoltmeterOne of the earliest
digital voltmeters ever made; circa 1960. It's lovely and makes
great sounds, and has a beautiful display. 4 digit resolution,
0.01%, +/- 1 digit accuracy. 26 transistors, 4 telephone
steppers, 10 steps/sec. rack mount, 19"x5.25"x16", approx. 15
lbs
General Radio Model
723c Electronic Fork This lovely device is an
electronic frequency standard dating from the 1940's or early
1950's, a large tuning fork with a vacuum tube amplifier, and
electromagnetic transducers to drive the fork. It outputs a
nice sinusoidal voltage; a side affect is the constant, and
substantial, singing of the tuning fork in it's Micarta and
wood case.
Various fine instruments of
the past Teletype Model 28 Teletypewriter. A
mainstay of communications for a generation, the model 28 is a
genuine Brick Shithouse. Built into a hefty grey-wrinkle
cabinet that sits on the floor, a fantastically complex,
utterly reliable purely mechanical device.
BEFORE: COLD WAR
The Black Hole of Los
Alamos Ed Grothus' Black Hole, aka Los Alamos
Sales Co. nominally sells what he calls "nuclear waste" --
surplus from the infamous Los Alamos National Laboratory, home
of the Manhattan Project in the 1940's, and of even
less-reputable horrors in the decades that followed.
Civil Defense film
strips Below are some representative images
from some Civil-Defense 35mm film strips I purchased from
Xerxes Books' 'atomic ephemera' list around 2000 or so.
Content-wise these filmstrips are utterly predicatable --
fallout, basics of radiation dosage, radiacs, decontamination,
shelters, etc, ad nauseum. The graphical style is pretty nice
though, typical of the era. Unfortunately the quality of the
images here suffer f...
The Earth's
SatelliteA 45 RPM LP-sized "record" (grooved
plastic disc) containing audio recordings of the Soviet Sputnik
sattelite circling the earth. The recording was made by a radio
amateur. It's hard to grok now just how alarming this event
was to Americans. Audio and images.
post-internet technology
updated 08 feb 2020
Things of or pertaining to tech, science and culture after the start of the
internet. My Fido/FidoNet stuff is here even though it is not
strictly-speaking internet related, it overlapped the internet's early
commercial deployment, and was a parallel cultural response.
There are many things missing here I will be restoring after I finish
formatting them.
AFTER: CULTURE
Peter Willetts on cultural dev of the internet
Neither before nor after, a view of internetworking that includes NGOs and
others that isn't military, isn't industrial, and predates the histories
written by commercial interests. Ted: "a pretty crisp MP3, 66 mins. I'll
look around for a proper citation, but it's a talk he gave 2009 Oct 26 at
University College London. Peter Willetts with an S — really interesting
guy."
Carbon Dioxide Camp
Our Burning Man camp, often a theme camp, semi-organized from 2005 through 2010,
was a great time, then we were done!
(december 2016) what with the recent horrific fire in the oakland queer
warehouse, and discussions about *physically* supporting queer and other
outlier culture, i thought that some of these pictures might be part of the
conversation. previous to all this, i had been asked to locate some pics of
this era for a documentary. it took me a while to find the particular shoe box
and hand scan (poorly) a...
These are live recordings made in the 1980s/1990s within the
SF punk scene. These recordings were made with my little hand-held Aiwa pocket
stereo casette recorder, with a very nice stereo mike.
All issues of HOMOCORE zine, 1989 through 1991, issues #1 through
#7, except for issue #5-1/2, the BAD POETRY ISSUE, because it's 2 feet by 3
feet huge and I have no idea how to scan it.
Photos of the Shred of Dignity household, 164 Shipley Street, our cruddy old warehouse. The
entire street is gone now.
MISCELLANEOUS
Squirrels learn containers
I've been hanging out with the extended squirrel clan in our neighborhood, they're far
smarter than I ever thoguht they could be. Their personalities are very distinct, but
with few exceptions I can't tell them apart visually (weird). Anyway they're very social
and seem to love any iteraction. Especially for oily nuts...
Some old stuff I wrote and collected about psytrance (psychedelic trance).
AFTER: DOCUMENTS
The standard for RS232 I
think this is the very first document that I put on a
webserver, in 1993. I swiped it from
http://unix1.hials.no/~aoy/home_uk.html. it was so damn useful
I was afraid it might disappear (lol). Finding this document was one
of the things that made me consider that the web might actually
be useful.
1994 online "toilet cam"
hoax In 1994 I put up this fake toilet camera
web page, to poke fun at the idiotic cameras-on-coffee-pots and
other net.nonsense that was all the rage then -- it backfired.
People took it seriously, and TIME magazine gave it an
anonymous mention in an article about the horrors of the
new-fangled internet ("we're doomed!") (OK, they were right.)
AFTER: FIDO/FIDONET, WPS, LITTLE GARDEN/TLGNET
Fido and FidoNet
Historiographic fodder for a history of FidoNet, the world's largest
ever amateur computer network. Predates the (accessible) internet.
I wrote the code and deployed it for a few years.
The Little Garden, TLGnet,
Inc. From 1992 until it was sold in 1996 I
ran an internet service provider (ISP) called The Little
Garden, later TLGnet, Inc. I had four other partners of varying
degrees of involvement. TLG started in 1992 as a "share" of a
then-arcane and expensive internet connection between three
pioneer businesses; more detail is available here.
welcome to 4chan
Let's just say things have changed since I wrote this.
AFTER: ELECTRONICS
ohm's law is easy
If you think you want to work with electronics you need to
learn Ohm's Law. It's easy, it's just a proportion. Without it
you can't do shit, and you will ruin all your LEDs, be
mystified by resistors burning up. It's all quite easy. Stop
resisting (no pun intended, but I'll take it.)
Circuit building: stop
using antique parts!The time to use
Darlington-configured power transistors is never. There's
nothing good about them. If you have a drawer full of them,
seriously, throw them out. MOSFETs are trivially easy to use.
Control 100 amperes with an Arduino pin and no heatsink or
weird base current. TIP120? why not use a 6L6? At least those
look cool.
In the late 1990's LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) had a public web
server running on what later turned out to be a classified machine. I don't
think any security breach occurred, but one day the machine simply disappeared.
I wrote to the webmaster (back when you could do such a thing) who told me an
audit discovered this alarming state and it was shut down. Luckily I'm a
packrat and occasi...
pretty much everything i've ever done in the last half century has had
electronics and code in it, though somehow little of it can be found on my
website. starting around 2010? i started being more methodical about
documenting it. code (and the electronics that code runs on) is a never-ending
conversation, never complete.
i got more methodical about documenting my work "recently", most of it the
roadster code and some sound projects, the libraries to support those, and the
electronics that it runs on.
In the late 1990's LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) had a public web
server running on what later turned out to be a classified machine. I don't
think any security breach occurred, but one day the machine simply disappeared.
I wrote to the webmaster (back when you could do such a thing) who told me an
audit discovered this alarming state and it was shut down. Luckily I'm a
packrat and occasi...
