retro – Terence Eden’s Blog

Run Internet Explorer 5 in your browser!

@edent — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 11:04:54 +0000

This is a slow, and very silly, way to experience an ancient browser. I'm aware that you could spin up a virtual machine, or pay for a browser testing service. But there's something nice about running a browser in a browser. Like wheels within wheels and fires within fires.

Using Copy's v86 it's possible to recompile x86 code to browser native WASM.

This means you can load up Windows 98 in your browser! (There are a bunch of other operating systems available)

Before going any further, open up a new tab in your modern browser and visit https://relay.widgetry.org/. This is the Internet proxy that your browser within a browser will be using. As I write this, the security certificate has expired - so you'll need to manually add an exception. Hopefully this step won't be needed in the future.

Next, run the networking.bat file to connect to the internet.

Next, double-click the Internet Explorer icon.

Success! You can now visit pages which don't use https. This browser is too old to support modern encryption. In fact, it's so out-of-date that it'll fail to work on all but the most simple of pages.

It crashed fairly regularly.

So, there you go - IE 5 in the browser.

It's a slow, annoying, and somewhat painful process. Which, to be honest, is just how I remember it.

YoreComputer - examining 1980s popular computer culture

@edent — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 07:33:09 +0000

There's a lovely Twitter feed called Yore Computer - run by Rob Manuel, it randomly tweets out scans of 1980s computer magazines. A wonderful mix of nostalgia, dated references, primitive graphics, incompatible file formats, and unrealistic promises by advertisers.

Here are a few of my favourites that I've spotted.

Behold! The comment section - hasn't changed much!

And you get the usual idiot blokes arguing that what women really want is computer games set in kitchens...

Arguments over copyright? You wouldn't steal a car...!

"I'd like to run a magazine which publishes the names, addresses, and hobbies of 12-14 year old." "Hmm... Sounds a bit dodgy?" "No, it's 1987. A simpler time, with less concern for child welfare and data protection." "Fair enough! But add some photos too!"

Today, online magazine quite often present code samples - but I struggle to image that anyone would have typed in all this machine code. Let alone done so correctly!

You can read the full listing on the Internet Archive.

Over-hyped technology on the front page.

StackOverflow - but on paper!

And, as a bonus, there is this incredibly accurate prediction.

Let me zoom in for you:

Anyway, you can follow along at https://twitter.com/yorecomputer

Would anyone be interested in a retro-tech conference?

@edent — Sat, 05 Nov 2016 10:31:47 +0000

The best ideas occur while drunk, don't you agree? Having just attended the blisteringly brilliant Hackference Brum, a bunch of us were drinking in a pub and chatting about how focused on the future most conference are. There's rarely any time to reflect on the past.

That got me thinking...

This... this idea seems to have some legs!

Interesting talks!

No PowerPoint!

Controversy!

Demonstrations

These social media posts were deleted by their authors.

What about catering? These social media posts were deleted by their authors.

And other cool things?

What about people who can't get there?

These social media posts were deleted by their authors.

Remember the dress code!

Wait a moment!

Now, there are some inherent problems with revisiting the past.

That reminds me of the American company who held a corporate party in a plantation house and asked attendees to dress in period costume. Their lone black employee decided to attend while dressed as a slave.

A salient reminder past isn't always a great place to visit.

I rather drunkenly made light of the situation.

Which, on sober reflection, wasn't the right response.

We can celebrate the past without glorifying it.

So, you want to attend?

Is this a good idea?

I've never organised a conference myself. The ones I've been involved in have been fiendishly complicated - corralling venues, sponsors, ticket sales, speakers, and catering is tough.

And yet... people seem to like this idea. Perhaps it would be worth holding it as a track at an existing conference to see if people really want to spend 45 minutes learning about COBOL.

If you've been to a similar event - or know of an upcoming one - please do let me know.

Finally, here's what I'd like you to do. Find a conference and pitch them a retro-tech session. Do a talk on "classic" computing. Bring along old equipment to demonstrate. If there's enough interest, let me know and perhaps we can run a full-day event.