The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Retrocomputing’ Category

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ELIZAGEN – ELIZA Reanimated: The Original 1965 Chatbot Restored On An Emulated IBM 7094 Running MIT’s CTSS

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/01/30

Wow, 60 years after her birth, the original ELIZA Chatbot got resurrected after a re-discovered paper version ¹ of the SLIP and MAD based source code was found in the Joseph Weizenbaum archives: [Wayback/Archive] ELIZAGEN – ELIZA Reanimated

Back in 1965, ELIZA ran on top of CTSS on an IBM 7094. Nowadays, few of that hardware is still running, but luckily there are emulators.

Back in the days, a large percentage people chatting with ELIZA thought she was a real person. With the dwindling language proficiency, the rise in believe in alternative facts, and THE RISE OF USE IN ALL CAPS, likely that percentage has increased.

Steps to get started with ELIZA are at [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – rupertl/eliza-ctss: The original ELIZA on an emulated CTSS environment, which carefully got assembled over the course of the last 2 months.

If you want to know about the process, be sure to read the

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Posted in AI and ML; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Development, History, LISP, Power User, Retrocomputing, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Iconography of the X Window System: The Boot Stipple | matttproud.com (blog)

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/06

https://proud.social/system/media_attachments/files/112/768/011/579/353/261/small/b76295db1a6e025d.png

The X Windows System starting up with the seminal stipple on the root window and the X_cursor on the pointer.

Oh, the days of /etc/X11/XF86Config frustration (:

Nevertheless, a good tribute to the X Window System, the successor of the W Window System on V Operating System (not to be confused with System V), that turned 40 in June 2024 is [Wayback/Archive] Iconography of the X Window System: The Boot Stipple | matttproud.com (blog).

Via [Wayback/Archive] mtp: “To celebrate the X Window Syst…” – proud.social (image on the right of that post):

To celebrate the X Window System’s 40th birthday, I did a deep dive on something about it: the iconography of its boot-up stipple (that gray pattern you first see as the X Server starts up):

matttproud.com/blog/posts/x-wi

Did you know the stipple has a name, age, and cultural significance to the ecosystem? I’ll share my personal history with it. What’s yours?

#XWindowSystem #UNIX
#History #RetroComputing

(Later forks replaced XF86Config with xorg.conf).

--jeroen

Posted in History, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

Ends in a few hours: The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/15

Memories of the Apple ][ and //e past, though I won’t participate (my eye hand coordination is mediocre at best, so even completing a game will be a challenge:

[Wayback/Archive] The Jordan Mechner Prince of Persia Challenge! | ThecePlay

Via [Wayback/Archive] Jordan Mechner on X: “@sarsij @sujoygolan Hi, you can play 1990 @princeofpersia in your browser or in emulation via @internetarchive. Links are posted here (for @TwinGalaxies Prince of Persia challenge, with prizes–ends midnight tonight)”

More links:

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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, Games, History, Power User, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

Isotopp’s classic IT book collection

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/09/26

This is too cool!

PSTN, ISDN, data communication, networking, Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, C, C++, Unix, Linux you name ancient but relevant stuff and it is there.

  1. [Archive.is] Kristian Köhntopp on Twitter: “Ich hab hier diese …… “
  2. [Archive.is] Kristian Köhntopp on Twitter: “Exotische Sprachen sind exotisch. Aus dem Postscript-Buch hab ich immerhin noch eine Signature bekommen. … “

Some pictures below the signature.

The isotopp and PostScript explanation is in my post How isotopp became the online handle of Kristian Köhntopp.

Via: [Archive.is] Kristian Köhntopp on Twitter: “Weird Books: … “

–jeroen

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Posted in History, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

History of ASCII Art

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/09/01

Geocities is long dead, but luckily a lot has been archived: [Wayback] Archive.is: History of ASCII Art with a very comprehensive history ranging from ancient old hand painted art to contemporary computer made illustrations.

Via: [Wayback/Archive.is] ASCII art: The roots of ASCII art

--jeroen

Posted in ASCII, ASCII art / AsciiArt, Development, Encoding, Fun, History, Power User, Retrocomputing, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Lode Runner Web Game

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/01/24

Just found out about [Wayback] Lode Runner Web Game:

A HTML5 (CreateJS) remake of Lode Runner

I have played that way too much in my Apple ][ and //e days.

Hopefully I won’t be addicted to it as back in those days.

Just watching the demo mode is soooooo cool!

I remember designing my own lievens, then winning from the local Apple shop (Vlasveld Computers, which also had a country wide Apple magazine). Cool days!

–jeroen

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Posted in //e, 6502, About, Apple, Apple ][, History, Personal, Retrocomputing | Leave a Comment »

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