Posted by jpluimers on 2017/06/29
David Hill – of ThinkPad design fame – is going beyond “Black Paint”. It means he will be far less involved with [WayBack] ThinkPad: Industrial design, more with other design and – very important – his loved ones.
Today I’m announcing my “rewiring”. I want to broaden my view and create the opportunity to do more in the field of design.
–jeroen
Via Petr Vones.
Posted in History, Power User, ThinkPad | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/06/27
Interesting read with lots of references: [WayBack] The Cryptowars, twenty years ago – The Isoblog.
My TL;DR:
–jeroen
via: [WayBack] So as a society, we are having the same conversation for 20 years now, and we won’t really make progress here because of Zuboff’s law. – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+
Posted in Encryption, History, Opinions, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/06/26
–jeroen
Posted in Assembly Language, CP/M, Development, History, Software Development, Z80 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/06/15
A diverse community pays off but also needs investment from everyone. Small steps…
A playable post on how harmless choices can make a harmful world.
Source: Parable of the Polygons – a playable post on the shape of society
–jeroen
Posted in Development, Fun, History, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/06/14
The records represent the largest and most complete set of DEC records in existence, dating from 1947 through 2002, with the bulk from the company’s years of operation from 1957 through 1998, when they were bought by Compaq Computer. The collection is a comprehensive technical history of every major computing innovation at DEC, as well as its nontraditional business culture, which still serves as an industry model—nearly every contemporary company strives for a “culture of innovation.” The processing of the collection presents an extraordinary opportunity to study DEC’s product lines and business practices in depth as was never before possible. Very few companies as influential as DEC have as long a history, and the breadth and depth of this collection makes it unique in its comprehensiveness.
Source: [WayBack] What the DEC?!? Records of Minicomputer Giant Digital Equipment Corporation Open for Research at CHM | Computer History Museum
via: [WayBack] Alan Cox – Google+
I could spend months in this archive (:
The PDP-11 and VAX-11/750 were the machines I first learned about DECNET, EARN and BITNET.
–jeroen
Posted in History | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/05/10
The end of April and early May are busy times for my marching band Adest Musica. The period includes important days like King’s Day and Liberation Day filled with festivities.
Right before Liberation Day is a much more sober Remembrance of the Dead.
To prepare for that, I usually try to put some time aside to do some reflection on the people I’ve lost over the years.
This year, I took a deep breath and read back through the, now 1 year old, [WayBack] I’m writer and free software author Pieter Hintjens and I’m dying of cancer, ask me anything! : IAmA.
It’s till impressive and well worth reading, both because of the person (Pieter Hintjens), his life and what he went through until his planned death.
Even though Pieter and I only know each other electronically for a short time, I’m still proud of what I learned from him.
The marching band calendar this spring: https://teamup.com/ks7a793f73fc4d5e89?date=2017-04-22&view=l
–jeroen
Posted in About, History, Personal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/04/28
The story isn’t a catch-22, but it is still fun to read:
SSH port is 22. The history of how I (Tatu Ylonen) got it. How to configure it through firewalls and iptables.
It also shows how agile the Internet was back then.
Source: [Archive.is] SSH Port
Via: [WayBack] “The SSH (Secure Shell) port is 22. It is not a co-incidence. This is a story I (Tatu Ylonen) haven’t told before.” https://www.ssh.com/ssh/port – This is why I Code – Google+
–jeroen
Posted in Development, History, Internet protocol suite, Software Development, SSH, TCP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/04/20
Geek pr0n on the C64:
Making a demo in just 256 bytes would be a formidable challenge regardless of platform. A Mind Is Born is my attempt to do it on the Commodore 64. In the absence of an actual 256-byte compo, it was submitted to the Oldskool 4K Intro compo at [WayBack] Revision 2017, where it ended up on 1st place.
Source: [WayBack] A Mind Is Born
Via:
–jeroen
Posted in 6502, C64, Commodore, Development, History, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/04/20
Some 23 years ago…
Posted in Apple, Classic Macintosh, History, Macintosh SE/30, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2017/04/19
Every now and then I complete more pieces of my early 1990s vector fonts era. This time I’ve found back the name of the company that provided some parts of the software that we used at Polyvroom to produce vector fonts (both PostScript and TrueType): “Galiad Computers Ltd.” from Israel. I don’t remember Eitan Mizrotsky though.
At the time of writing, http://galiad.co.il/ seems down, but the Web Archive has old copies of it. I totally forgot they did some more public Border Software as well.
Another party involved back then was Visualogik. They still exist, so I will get in touch with them one day.
Mecanorma, LetterPress and Letraset dry tansfer lettering (click to enlarge).
I also learned that Trip Productions has reorganised a few years ago and now the letter rubbing part of Polyvroom (that they made for/with Mecanorma, LetterPress and Letraset lettering you could rub off: dry transfer lettering – image via @GraphicsVectors) is now licensed to ProCraft BV. The text is not completely accurate (Trip took over late 1994 when Polyvroom went belly up), bug gives a good impression:
Mecanorma was a French company and leading manufacture of instant lettering. The rub down lettering was manufactured by a Dutch company called Polyvroom BV. Around 1985 the company called Trip Productions took over Mecanorma and Polyvroom. In the following years Trip Productions BV developed digital fonts and produced the rub down lettering from Lisse in The Netherlands.
The main product of Mecanorma was always the production of the rub down lettering. It was not easy to to scale down the company when the market of the rub down lettering did almost disappear because of the new technology in the world. Many of the production lines for the rub down lettering were closed down. The rub down lettering is a decal technology and to survive Trip Productions did try to focus on that technology for a long time with success.
In 2012 the decision was made that they had to turn the company around. A new company was formed called Trip Licenses BV and they focus on the license of the Fonts and Patents the company has. The production and sales of the rub down lettering is still active and licensed to ProCraft BV in The Netherlands. The digital fonts are licensed to House of Type (ITF Inc.) in the USA.
I also found this about the Mecanorma Collection on MyFonts which has a more accurate timeline:
Mecanorma Collection
FollowAlong with Letraset, the French company Mecanorma was one of the major vendors of instant rub-down lettering. Along with licensing typefaces from other vendors, Mecanorma commissioned original typeface designs.
From 1989 until 1994, Mecanorma worked with another Dutch company Visualogik to create digital versions of their typefaces. These typefaces were released in Type 1 format, bearing a “MN” suffix. In addition, Monotype licensed and digitized some of Mecanorma’s typefaces. In 1995, Mecanorma stepped back from the professional graphics market and entered into other areas such as home decoration. During that time, their decorative materials, including their instant rub-down lettering, were manufactured by the now defunct Dutch company, Trip Productions BV.
In 2004, International TypeFounders (ITF) licensed the digital typefaces from Trip Productions BV and released them as the Mecanorma Collection. This helped to preserve one of the finest digital font libraries of display typefaces around, combining real arts and crafts into the tools of today.
In 2014, International TypeFounders entered into a permanent agreement with Trip Consultants BV, the legal successor of the French type foundry Mecanorma. As the exclusive worldwide digital rights owners of the collection, ITF have now republished the Mecanorma Collection in OpenType for the first time.
–jeroen
via:
Posted in Font, History | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 