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ยซ Oatmeal

Posts tagged computer history

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In reply to: Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever - The Verge

This, for me, points to the arbitrariness of the โ€œdesktopโ€ as a prime metaphor in computer user interfaces.

It made sense at the birth of contemporary computing โ€” business suits and what not โ€” but maybe thereโ€™s a new paradigm worth exploring? Something not so exceedingly boring. Something that embraces scale, or relationships that canโ€™t be easily modeled in 3d space?

In reply to: 1992: Silverwolf - 50 Years of Text Games

The truth, as will become a common refrain in this piece, is difficult to know.

In reply to: Why use old computers and operating systems?

In fact, as cell phones become more and more general-purpose, I suspect there will be more room for non-general-purpose personal computers. There is a ton of software, just like HyperCard, waiting to be discovered in the depths of computer history, and the computers needed to run them are cheap. If you like WordStar, why not get an old DOS machine? Even if WordStar is the only program youโ€™ll run on it, it might be a worthwhile endeavor — as long as you have space for it.