Anyway, that's the software side of things, and on the hardware side there's the collection of old scanned computer manuals, truly a labor of love. A random skim through the manuals reveals, eg. the Hayes Stack Chronograph, which is an external system clock. I thought external CD-ROM drives were old school, but it turns out that that school was built on the ruins of an even older school.
[Wait, under what circumstances did you swear revenge on Ned Batchelder's weblog? -Ed. Such questions are not productive in these times of transition, as we seek to reopen friendly relations with Ned Batchelder's weblog. How come I never heard about this? Is this one of those delusional things you make up as you type to make an entry more interesting? -Ed. You're a spy for Ned Batchelder's weblog, aren't you? Fie! This means war!]
Wed Oct 15 2003 08:32 PST:
I know I previously swore revenge on Ned Batchelder's weblog, but it's growing on me. On Monday he linked to a big list of historical documents from computer science, including the feelies of historical computer science, flowchart templates. My dad gave me a couple flowchart templates when I was a kid, and I drew with them, and I just now realized in a where-does-your-father-do-his-barnacles moment that not every child drew or draws pictures made of flowchart template shapes.
You can only tell that joke once, but you could coast on this for a while:
But eventually you would have to switch to this one:
Wed Oct 15 2003 17:15 Jokes You Can Only Tell Once:
"Why is this joke so funny?"
"I give up, why?"
"Because the punchline is completely novel!"
"Why is this joke so funny?"
"I give up, why?"
"Are you kidding? It's a classic!"
"Why is this joke not so funny?"
"Because the punchline is so stale."
"Yep."
