Retro Computing at the Movies

Streaming and the wide availability of video on the Internet have made it easier than ever to find and watch material that was unavailable or just hard to find for many years. I a previous bLog article, I covered YouTube channels that are providing archival first person computer history videos.  But Hollywood entertainment is another culturally relavant source.  Here are several feature length Hollywood movies with connections to computing and computer history.

The films in this article fall into two categories.  The first set of films from before Y2K show peoples attitudes towards computing machines and their interactions with them.  The second group of films are more modern movies post Y2K which have historical computing as a theme of the movie.

Older Films (Pre Y2K)

Desk Set (1957) with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn was fun, I saw this film for the first time last year.  Two of the things that stood out to me were the uncertainties the workers had about how computer automation would affect their jobs and a repetition of the pattern where new automation solutions do not live up to the hype, at least in the short term.  An enjoyable film and one I'd recommend.

The films Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and Damnation Alley (1977)  both show inside of a Cold-War Atlas missile silo.  These were of interest to me since I'm a child of the cold war and the "What If" scenarios presented by these movies are definitely the main point.  But another thing caught my eye watching these films since these missile silos were controlled by a massive computer network called the SAGE Air Defense System (or its successor).  SAGE was designed and built during the cold war to try to prevent nuclear strikes from the USSR reaching the US.  If you are not familiar with the SAGE system, there's a fantastic talk from VCF 2025 that I'd recommend by Richard Thompson "The SAGE Air Defense System".  Richard points out in his talk that many of the SAGE control panels were saved and used a props in TV and film decades.  These appearance are cataloged on Mike Loewen's website here, and his catalog opens another whole world of media exploration in Film and TV shows.

What list of computer related films would be complete without a discussion of War Games (1983)?  This is the first film on my list that I remember watching at the time.  Back then I was more concerned about the threat of war but I was also interested in computers and computing.  Here's an interesting article about the tech used for making the film both on and off screen.  The main computer star of the show is the IMSAI 8080 computer, which has become quite expensive.  These pre-1977 machines didn't sell in the millions like an Apple II, but we can still have a similar experience with a modern replica kit built using a modern microcontroller.  I've got one of these kits on order, so stay tuned for a future bLog article on that topic.

Skipping ahead more than a decade, we have Hackers (1995).  I was in college at the time struggling to get an engineering degree and surrounded by computer geeks like me.  I didn't have a car in college and I didn't get out to the movies much which is just as well because we would not have found much to relate too in this film.  We weren't cool like the characters in the film.  It wasn't until studying the history of the Homebrew Computer Club and Hacker culture that I began to understand how computing was connected with the 60s counter culture on the West Coast.  This was not a significant part of my experience at a midwestern engineering school in the mid '90s.  However, rewatching the film recently was a fun opportunity for me to play the "Name that Computer" game.  Trying to figure out, is that an Apple PowerBook?  Is that a Toshiba Satellite or a Tecra? Which one?  I don't have a list from my last watch through.  Google search shows a detailed list, but I'm honestly not sure if you can tell just from shots in the film which computer is which, so I won't link that spoiler article here and let it ruin the fun of re-watching the film and playing "Name that Computer".

The only romantic comedy on todays list is You've got Mail (1998).  I recently rewatched the film as I was interested in seeing the portrayals of the early days of the Internet, but I'd forgotten (or never noticed when I was a kid) how problematic the Tom Hanks character's behavior (Joe) is.  But I watched the film so you don't have to.  Per the fantastic FAQ section on IMDB, Joe is using a "Desktop Replacment" IBM Thinkpad 770 and Kathleen is using an Apple Powerbook G3 250, the fastest of the Wallstreet machines.  I did enjoy the nostalgia remembering using the AOL free trial period and other dial up Internet experiences back in the day.

New Movies (Post Y2K)

The second category of films on this list is modern movie set back in time with computer themes.  When we look at modern films about the past sometimes we may learn more about our present attitudes than we do about the past, but these films are still interesting.

The next movie on my list is The Imitation Game (2014).  This is a film about Alan Turing and his team's work during WWII on code breaking.  I had my own doubts about the historical accuracy of this film after watching it.  One reviewer confirmed my suspicions says this is "... one of the most celebrated and most misleading historical movies ever".  I think most of us interested in computer history would be better off reading this article and skipping the film.

Silicon Cowboys (2016) was intriguing to me.  I've read and enjoyed Rod Canion's book "Open" about the founding of Compaq but I really didn't get into the TV Series "Halt and Catch Fire".  I remember one of the folks presenting about the history of Tandy computer saying "it was never that exciting" or something to that effect about that show.  But Silicon Cowboys is focused on what actually happened and that's still very exciting.

I've seeen The Social Network (2010) but it didn't make that big of an impression on me, so I'm not going to comment other than to say that I did watch it.  Hidden Figures (2016) is a feel-good movie where the underdogs overcome their challenges because of their patience and hard work.

What other films can you think of that have computing as a theme of the film?  Comment below or drop me an email, my address is in my blog Profile on the left side of the homepage.

Another member of the 1977 Trinity Joins the Collection - Apple II

One of my long term goals for collecting Retro Computers is to get the original Trinity of Home Computers from 1977, the TRS-80 Model 1, an original Apple II and a original Commodore PET.  In 2023 I got a really dirty TRS-80 Model 1 and cleaned it up.  I have a Commodore PET 4016 from 1980, but it's not the original machine.  I've also got an early Apple II Plus machine from 1979 which I've setup with the original ROMs so it would behave like an Apple II.

Earlier this year I found out about a large lot for sale locally and I jumped at the chance to buy the entire lot.  I've blogged about starting in on that lot of repairs here already.  I mentioned that I would set the Apple II aside for repairs.  It didn't sit for to many weeks before I came back too it.  Ironically, this machine was built in 1980, one year after my Apple II Plus but they have the same Revision 4 motherboards inside.  If you look on the timeline on Wikipedia it does not show any overlap between Apple II and II+ production but I think that is incorrect, Apple continued to make Apple II and II Plus at the same time and that may have continued right up till they switched to making the Apple IIe in 1983.

When I got the computer on the workbench I found that the video signal was stable but I was getting garbage characters.  Also, not all the keys on the keyboard were working.  I started by taking the entire machine apart and cleaning it throughly, it wasn't too dirty, but the seller had told me these were stored in a basement for years so the machine was just dusty.  This machine will never be a museum piece.  It came from the University of Minnesota so I've left those asset tags on the machine.  It has quite a few scratches and bumps on it but I don't mind since I intend to actually use this machine.

The Keyboard is a Datanetics type.  I sprayed Deoxit on the keys that were not working and most of them came back to function just by cycling them a few dozen times, but the S key was persistently broken.  I was able to find a couple of Datanetics key switches on eBay so I ordered a couple.  After replacing the S key the keyboard was fully functional, except that the power light was out.  I removed the bulb and tested it, it was working, so it just needed to be reseated into the keyboard and it has been working fine since.

The garbage characters on the screen were a harder fix.  I removed every single socketed IC off the motherboard and sprayed the DIP sockets with Deoxit and replaced them but the problem persisted.  I should have tested all the RAM chips but at the time I didn't have a tester for the 4116 RAM chips used on this machine (I have since got a working tester for these).  Eventually I was able to identify bad 4116 RAM chips by trial and error and swap them out.  Since this is an original Apple II I have configured this with 48K RAM.   I will be leaving the 64K RAM card out, and I will not be adding an Autostart ROM, which makes this more authentic to the original experience.  Since the machine starts up in the ROM Monitor you have to learn at least one ROM Monitor command (Control-B) to get BASIC started every time you boot the machine.  I enjoyed learning about all the different early ROM versions of the Apple II and II+ and this is much more interesting now that I have access to the hardware.  Incidentally, the Apple I also started up in the ROM Monitor, and this was all code written by Steve Wozniak himself.

During the repairs the original power supply failed.  This was not the most common failure of RIFA filter capacitors which can be easily replaced, so I removed the circuit board and replaced it with the Reactive Micro Apple II Power Supply kit.  It still looks original because that fits in the original case, but I enjoy having the peace of mind that comes with a modern power supply.

Although I am interested in experimenting with the original hardware configuration, I'm not thrilled with the idea of loading programs from tape, so I may go ahead and leave the Disk II controller attached even though I know it wasn't an option in 1977.  The Disk II system was and is an amazing "quality of life" upgrade for this machine.

I'm quite happy with how this machine turned out...

Do you have memories of the original Apple II?  If you have stories or thoughts please leave a comment here, or reach out via my email shown in my profile.

My Apple III Adventure

The Apple /// Computer was released by Apple in 1980.  It has an iconic design, and was a famous failure for Apple.  They were trying to increase their share of the business of selling computers for business.  The chronology is important otherwise we risk passing judgement on the decision makers at Apple with the benefit of hindsight.  We should remember that Apple did got a taste of the potential of the Business market when Visicalc was only available on Apple II.  This "killer app" sold alot of Apple II computers for a period of time, but by 1980 Visicalc was becoming avaliable on other platforms.  The IBM PC wouldn't be out for another year (1981), and it would be several years after that before IBM PC Compatibility would emerge as a market trend.  I think this context makes the design decisions around Apple III a bit more understandable.  It's likely the failure of the system was due to the complexity of the system and technical problems with the computers.  This system was arguably the first Apple project that didn't have Steve Wozniak at the helm, and it does feel like a system that was designed by a committee.  Or maybe it just feels more corporate (by design).

Because the systems were a commercial failure they have always been rare in comparison to Apple IIs.  Because they are early Apple computers they've become more desirable for collectors and more expensive to purchase but once again my retro computer friend Steve Hatle has been very generous with several parts machines.  This gave me a very good shot at getting a working Apple /// system.  On intake the pile of hardware looked like this...

Working my way thorough the hardware I noticed that there were two different types of main circuit boards.  I started watching repair videos and downloading and reading manuals since I've never owned or even used an Apple III machine before.  As is so often the case, Adrian Black came through with a really informative Apple III video.  There was an earlier design and a later design for the Apple III.  I had one machine with the later design and one with the earlier design as well as a spare main logic board and memory board of the older type that was quite dirty.

One of the first things I learned was that all the RAM on an Apple III is on an expansion board.  The machines won't boot at all without that board installed.  The older style main board has 12 Volt RAM and can go up to 128K, the newer style RAM board runs at 5 Volts and can go up too 256K.  The differences are explained here, but the important point is that the RAM boards can not be swapped without changes to the motherboard!

On intake both machines were showing signs of life.  I started repairs with the older machine.  I went through and tested all the RAM chips one at a time.  The first row must be populated by special 32K RAM chips that Apple had made for them at the time.  These are prone to failure and I don't have a tester that will work with these chips so I pulled the RAM off both of the 12V RAM boards and tested using trial and error.  The Apple III does have a helpful RAM diagnotic on boot, but I don't think it's a very thorough test, which I will come back to later.  The second and third rows can be populated with 4116 RAMs, which I can test offline with a low cost tester from eBay, there were several bad chips that I replaced from chips I have in stock.  After that, the machine would get through the diagnostics and try to boot.

Neither keyboard was complete.  I was able to scavenge parts off one keyboard to get the first keyboard working.  I cleaned the External and Internal Floppy Disk drives and they appear to be working good.  After this the machine would boot off Floppy Disks I made from disk images on the Internet. It was very gratify to see the machine boot for the first time.  I started poking around with the Apple III and learning about the operating system software (called SOS) but then put this project on hold just before Vintage Computer Festival.

During VCF Midwest I was happy to learn from  Chris Tersteeg that the Apple III could boot off a Fujinet.  I got one of these circuit boards from Chris that allows the Apple III ROM to be modified to auto start a smart port device.  I later learned that you can make a special boot floppy that will do the same thing.  The project is called SOSHDBOOT by Rob Justice.  I also spent quite a bit of time experimenting with a similar project that allows the DAN II Controller to boot in the Apple III, but I ended up damaging my DAN II because I didn't notice that one of the slots on the Apple III had the end broken off.  I ended up having mis-alignment of the connector pins in the slot which caused a short of some kind. I don't know what the failure mode was exactly, but I could smell that things were getting hot before I shut down, and then the card will no longer work in an Apple II.  The Dan II is an open source project, so I hope to come back to that repair, but I have set that card aside for now.  On the Apple III I don't need four expansion slots, so I've tapped off the damaged one for a future repair and pivoted to using the BOOTI card instead since it is also supported.

I discovered through trial and error some of the error codes for the SOSHDBOOT project which I'll share here:
BOOT ERROR C = No Smart Port Device Detected
BOOT ERROR R = Device Detected, but Not Good (One error is fragmented image files, fix here)
BOOT ERROR S = Device Detected and Drive Detected, but can't boot, (could also be fragmentation)

This project includes several Hard Drive image files pre loaded with software.  As a beginner to the III I was quite excited about not having to figure out program installation, but my excitement faded when the boot up stopped with an error message:
Selector Error 0D:.PROFILE/SOS.MENU

I thought that it may have another mistake that I'd made with the software setup on the drive emulation so I used Chris T's adapter to hook up my FloppyEmu to the external Floppy Disk port and put the same disk image on that.  I got the same error message.  So this made me think that the problem may be with the hardware configuration, maybe I didn't have enough RAM?  I looked for system requirements for the Selector III software that creates the boot menu, but I couldn't find that online.

But I wanted to work on the newer machine anyway, so I pivoted back to that and started doing more troubleshooting on the second machine.  The state I had left this machine is that it would do the diagnostics and pass with a keyboard attached, but it would not boot SOS.  It would boot the Confidence test disk, but it would only run for a few minutes before locking up with garbage characters on the screen.

I had used the on-board RAM diagnostics to condemn and replace several of the RAM chips in a previous troubleshooting session.  The machine was passing the boot RAM diagnostics, but I decided to remove the RAM and test one at a time on the separate RAM tester again.  What I found was a surprise, one of the "known good" RAM chips that I'd tested when I put the RAM in storage was the culprit, I should have been testing the replacement RAM as it went into the machine!  When I replaced that, the machine was back to booting and running with it's full 256K RAM.

Now I had a machine to test the theory about the Apple III Selector III menu needing 256K RAM.  This did indeed solve the problem, the Smart Port functionality works, and I have a second functional Apple III with an emulated Profile Hard Drive full of software to explore!  Very exciting.  Here's the machine paired with a Monitor III I had gotten with a previous Apple II purchase...

I spent a bit more time with the keyboards and a third parts keyboard from Steve.  I had been told before that if the light bulb on the keyboard died, the system would not recognize the keyboard, but I forgot that till I got to the point where I needed two working keyboards.  Sure enough, replacing the dead light bulbs on these two parts keyboards does allow them to be recognized by the computer, so this was another hurdle overcoming to getting the second machine back up and running.

Another side excursion on this project was the Power Supplies.  On the newer machine I purchased one of the Reactive Micro power supply upgrade kits.  This provides peace of mind.  On the second machine, I was continuing to use one of the original Astec power supplies without having given it much though, but I should have!  A couple of hours into one of the troubleshooting sessions the big RIFA on the high voltage side of the power supply gave way and released its magic smoke.  As the smell lingered in the basement I replaced the Rifas with modern filter caps from a different brand.  I've got a few hours on this repaired power supply, so far so good with that repair.

The second "Full" Keyboard is not quite perfect, I had to make some printed labels for a couple of the keys and the Alpha Lock key is a momentary key not a toggle.  The bezel around the keyboard is smashed, but other than that this is a second working Apple III machine that is somewhere between a partially completed project and a parts machine...

I did not anticipate at the start of this project that I'd be able to get two functional Apple III machines out of this lot.  These machines have a bad reputation but so far my experience with them has been good.  I'm going to keep the first machine setup and I'll keep poking around with it and learn more about the software.  One of my next goals is to try to get a printer working.

Do you have memories of using the Apple III?  Repair Stories?  Feel free to comment or send me an email using my address stored in my Profile at the top of the page.

My Newest, Oldest Apple II Plus (1979)

There were three very important home computers that came out in 1977, the Commodore PET, the Apple II and the Radio Shack TRS-80 Computers.  We retroactively call the Radio Shack the TRS-80 Model 1 but that is not how it was advertised at the time.  Also, the use of the term trinity to describe these three computers is something that appears to have begun in the mid 90s.

One of my goals in the Retro Computing hobby is to own all three of the original premade personal computers that didn't have to be built from kits like the Altair 8800.  So far I have been able to acquire; an Apple II Plus from 1979, a Commodore PET 4016 from 1980, and an original TRS-80 Model 1 computer.

Recently on a trip to Free Geek Twin Cities I was able to acquire another Apple II Plus machine and this turned out to be a machine from 1979.  This got me thinking again about wanting to get as close as possible to an original Apple II experience from 1977 and so I started doing research.  Tech Time Traveller has a really helpful video on this topic here.  He also painnstakingly built up this list of machines have have sold on eBay, since eBay doesn't keep pricing information and old listings around on their site very long  Thanks Tech Time Traveller!  Now that I know an original Apple II from eBay is probably more than I want to spend right now, what are my options?

Going back to the machine from  Free Geek, I learned that the board in my "newest" Apple II Plus is a "Revision 4" logic board.  This is from the period in 1979 was when Apple was making both the II and the II Plus at the same time, and often with the same logic board and only different ROMs and different RAM amounts.

At the same time as this was going on a listing came up on eBay for a computer that was listed as an original Apple II machine, but after inspecting it it seems likely that this machine had been upgraded to II Plus, which I later confirmed was the consensus in one of the Apple II Facebook groups.  I'm still considering the option of building an "Original Apple II" by getting bits and pieces and putting them together, but I think I'd rather hold out and wait till one comes along that is more complete locally, or with a backstory that I can learn about.

In the meantime, I learned about the Apple II ROM card, which was a period correct accessory card from 1979 that folks bought when they were upgrading their Apple IIs to Apple II Plus which allowed them to put the old ROMs onto an expansion board and switch them in at will from a switch on the back of the computer.  I used to have a modern card that did this, but ironically that card failed, so I set out to find a vintage card that still had the correct ROMs on it (Many, perhaps most of the ones on eBay have been stripped).  This article on the VCFed forums explains which ROMs where the period correct ones for an original Apple II (With Woz's Integer basic, and without Applesoft Basic).  I was able to find and acquire one of these period correct cards with the full ROM set, and it works great...

So, as of this writing, my Apple II Plus behaves in exactly the same way as the original machine, so I am now able to explore software from that era.  A good win for a reasonable price with parts that are still relatively inexpensive.

2024 Year End Retrospective - Six Years of Vintage Computing

I made a return to Retro Computing in 2018.  Or it may be more accurate to say that it's something I've always enjoyed doing and never stopped completely but in 2018 I started spending more time on the hobby and became aware that there were others out there who also enjoyed fixing up and using old computers.  This happened primarily through finding YouTube channels like The 8-Bit Guy, LGR, and Adrian Black and connecting locally with folks at Free Geek Twin Cities.  In 2018 and 2019, I acquired just a few machines and authored a few articles on my bLog about my adventures in Retro Computing but things changed in 2020.

Just before the pandemic started in early 2020 I purchased my first compact Mac, a Macintosh Plus from Free Geek.  I ended up buying and repairing alot more machines during and after the lockdown.  Some were machines that I'd used and had nostalgic memories like Apple IIe and Macintosh PowerPC machines but others were older machines like the Bell and Howell Apple II Plus and the Tandy Model 102 that allowed me to learn more about repair, the use of the machines, and the history of the development of the machines.  During 2020 I participated in Vintage Computer Festival Midwest for the first time.  It was an online show and I watched most of the talks, learning about disk imaging with the SuperCard Pro, that some people use their crawlspace for storage of Retro Computers, and many other interesting topics.

In 2021 my acquisitions mostly happened all at once, I bought a large lot of Apple Laptops from my friend John Bumstead.  I spent a good deal of my hobby time during that year processing through that lot of computers.  I kept many of the machines and also sold many of them.  it was an amazing experience that helped me understand which of Apple's portable machines I enjoy repairing and using most.  I still have some PowerBooks from the early 2000's, the "Peak Fastener" era for Apple that I haven't processed yet, this is my least favorite era of Apple Laptops. But during 2021 I was also able to acquire some machines that I'd had little or no exposure too like an IBM 5150 that I purchased from Facebook Marketplace and a Next NextStation computer from VCF Midwest.  I also repaired or built up a handful of beige box PCs.

During 2022 I got on a bit of a Commodore kick.  The VIC-20 was my first computer that we had at home, so re-acquring one of those was quite nostalgic for me, but I also acquired older hardware, like a Commodore PET that needed extensive repair, and newer machines like C64 and Amiga 500.  I also acquired my first Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardware including a little know CP/M machine called a DEC Robin, and a more common DEC Alpha computer.  I missed VCF Midwest in 2022, but I continued to buy and build beige box PCs.

2023 was another enjoyable year for me in Vintage Computing.  During the year after searching for several years I was able to acquire a Gateway 2000 486 PC, which was my first PC that I had during college.  I got my first of the Original Home Computers from 1977, a Tandy Radio Shack Model 1, getting it clean was a major chore, but I'm glad to have one.  I also got a Kaypro 1 '86 an 8-bit Atari Computer, and several Unix workstations from the 90s including a Sun and an SGI Indy, so there was a great deal to learn and explore in 2023.  I was also able to attend VCF Midwest once again, this time as an exhibitor.  As an exhibitor I didn't acquire many new machines, but I was able to find many parts to help move projects along or complete systems I'd already built up.

As I think about 2024 the IBM RS/6000 is a highlight.  I had purchased one as a parts machine from Free Geek in 2023 and ended up failing in my repair attempt.  I thought I wouldn't get another chance but in 2024 a generous donor offered one on the forums and I took him up on it.  The machine runs great and joins my collection of Unix Workstations.  Also, it was made in Minnesota.  On the history / nostalgia front I acquired a Kaypro II computer, which was something I'd been looking for for a while as my grandpa used to have one of these.  The Compaq Portable III was a fun and challenging repair, and now I have the first three Compaq Portables.  I also got to go back to VCF Midwest this year, and one of my kids came along, so that was fun.  The Tandy 2000 repair was my largest repair effort of the year but my friend and I both came out of that with two working Tandy 2000 computers, which is a very interesting early MS-DOS machine.

So heading into 2025 what aspects of Vintage Computing will I do more of and what will I do less of?  What do I enjoy doing more and what do I enjoy doing less?

I enjoy learning about computers that are "new to me", and I get just as much (or maybe even more) enjoyment from going back in time as from going forward.  I enjoy repairing computers and learning about alternate operating systems.  I want to understand what it was like for the people using the computers at the time, so the CRTs, the Keyboards, and the Disks are important to me and I like that to be original.  I don't mind at all if we can find a way to replace the hidden hard disk drives with reliable solid state storage because we can't use the computers at all if they won't boot up, but that is my primary exception and I like to keep things period correct as much as possible. 

In general, I'm not a fan of computer gaming.  I know that's unusual since gaming is the "killer app" for most retro computer enthusiasts, but I've just never been a huge fan of computer gaming.  I also don't like overclocking vintage hardware or installing period correct processor upgrades, although more RAM is always nice.  In my mind, if you want a faster retro computer, just buy one from a few years later.

Because they are inexpensive and easy to repair I have gotten quite a few "Beige Box" PCs.  Some of these have historical significance like the IBM PC 5150 and the Compaq Portable I and others have nostalgic significance like my Gateway 2000 486, but I am running out of space for storage and I need to sell many of these PCs and stop collecting more "Beige Box" PCs.

During 2023 and 2024 when I exhibited at VCF, I was able to exhibit computers that tell a story and to sell computers at the same time.  I enjoyed that event alot and I hope to continue to be able to participate in VCF Midwest as well as some of the smaller local meet ups as time and budget allow.

Knowing which computers I'm willing to give away or sell also helps me think about preserving the ones I want to keep.  Several times this year when I got a computer out of storage that I had put away in good working order it came out of storage not working and needing repair.  So I've been on the lookout for spare machines for some of my favorites.  I don't need 3-4 of a kind, for me two seems like the sweet spot for space vs. long term usability, but unfortunately I cannot extend this policy to CRTs they are just too bulky.

Another lesson I've learned is that if I let my project list get too long, or if I am feeling too much pressure about a certain repair then it makes the hobby less fun.  If I have had a project on the list for over a year and I haven't gotten too it, it's OK to let that project go and sell or donate the hardware back to another collector or Free Geek and move on to something that's more exciting.

So what is next for vintage computing in 2025?  I have a stack of three Sun Ultra 5 and 10 workstations out in the garage that are "on deck" for repair, expect a bLog article about that in early 2025.  I have lots of little projects planned, small improvements to computers I already own.  In 2024 I've been posting about these smaller projects on Twitter / X and enjoying the community there, so I plan to continue doing that.

And for sure, I will keep an eye out for interesting projects and try to stay focused on buying computers from my wish list...

Apple II (original, not plus not e)
Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100
Apple PowerMac G5, late 2005, dual 2.3Ghz model A1117 (last air cooled G5)
Apple Macintosh SE/30 or Logic Board

Toshiba Libretto Palmtop PC
Grid Systems Laptop w/ Plasma Display
IBM Thinkpad T30 or A31 (Last model with Serial Ports Built In)

Commodore PET 2001 (chiclet Keyboard and Tape Drive)
Tandy Model 100
Digital VaxStation 3100 (w/ monitor, keyboard and mouse)
DEC PDP-11/03 or similar 11/23, etc.
Digital PDP 11
68k Apollo Workstation
68k Sun Workstation

Thanks for reading this long and rambling article, if you've made it this far I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Compaq Portable III Restoration

 One of my contacts at Free Geek recently reached out, he had a computer that had been on my wish list for a while, a Compaq Portable III.  I already have a Compaq Portable I (which also was a project computer from Free Geek) and Compaq Portable II, and I really like these early Compaq machines because of the story of the company.  If you haven't read about it, I recommend Rod Canion's book "Open".

Anyway, this repair story starts with a water damaged Compaq Portable III.  It was quite dirty and since I'd been told it was water damaged I had quite low expectations, purchasing it as a parts machine for a future repair.  When I got it home, I immediately got started with cleaning since it was so dirty I didn't even want to touch it.  Here's a picture from "Before"...

Definitely too gross to work on.  After cleaning for a while I started to take the machine apart.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The machine was very dirty and dusty inside as well, but there were no signs of water inside.

The next step was a Power On test. I could hear some clicking from the Power Supply, but no fans, no backlight from the display or any other signs of life.  Then, there was a snapping sound and smoke!  I suspected a capacitor.  Testing with the machine off, there was a short on the 5 Volt power rail, which for this era of machines often indicates a bad Tantalum capacitor.  I was able to find the blow tantalum and replace it, and as soon as that was done the machine booted.  I was glad to see that the Plasma Display appears to be intact as this is the unique new feature that really sets this machine apart from the Compaq Portable II which still had a CRT, and the next generation from Compaq which had a more normal LCD display.

The system had the following errors, Keyboard Error, Disk Controller Error, and Time of Day / Clock Error.  The keyboard error and Disk Controller Errors were easy to resolve because these peripherals were simple disconnected.  I cleaned the 1.2MB 5 1/4" Floppy disk drive with a cleaning floppy and I was able to boot the machine from a DOS disk.

I also discovered that the Hard Disk in the unit had been disconnected.  When that was reconnected, I discovered that the disk was blank with only a few DOS files left on the machine.  I tried re-installing a newer DOS, but I was not able too do so, there are write errors when formating the drive, so I'm disconnecting it and replacing it with an SD to IDE adapter solution that I've used in some other vintage machines.  Based on this other helpful bLog article, I set the system up for a Type 42 hard drive which provides just over 500 MB of disk space for this machine on a 1 GB SD card.

Fixing the clock error proved to be the most difficult part of this repair.  This is important for these early Compaq machines because they do not have the BIOS setup program in ROM, you have to boot up from the Compaq diagnostics floppy every time the computer looses power and that make the machine alot less usable.  Apparently there were two different clock circuit options for the 286 version of this machine.  One option is the Dallas Clock chip, which are still being made today, but that is not the option this machine had.  This machine has a rechargeable battery which had been removed from this computer probably due to concerns about leakage.  I tried jury rigging a battery holder for a CR2032 battery into this space where the rechargeable battery was but I made an error in connecting that and my modifications were a failure.  After doing some more research online I found this fantastic article on MinusZeroDegrees.net.  This article contains enough detail that I thought I would try to switch my board over from the unobtanium battery pack too the Dallas clock chip circuit configuration.  I was able to make those modifications, and now I have a working battery backed up clock and drive settings!

I installed MS-DOS 6.22 on this machine, and copied many of my commonly used utilities over to the machine.  That wraps up the repairs on the Compaq Portable III for now.  It needs a bit more cleaning, and perhaps some day I'll find a RAM expansion for it, but for now I'm quite happy to have one of these in the collection.

Please reach out in the comments or via email (My email address is on my profile) if you have any thoughts about the Compaq Portables.

Trash to Treasure - Osbourne 1a Computer

 The Osbourne One is widely regarded as the first portable computer.  It was released in 1981, and although it didn't include a battery, it was advertized that it could fit under the seat of an airplane.  I have a soft spot for CP/M machines and so I've had the Osbourne 1 on my wish list for a couple of years.

Last year my friend Steve gave me a "fixer upper" Osbourne Executive.  That was an interesting machine, too, and this example was is really good cosmetic shape.  I spent quite a few hours restoring the machine, working on the CRT alignment, cleaning and lubricating the floppy disk drives, making boot media, and troubleshooting the main board.  But ultimately, I was not able to get it booting.  I isolated the fault to the main logic board, I think there is something wrong with the floppy disk controller because the machine can move the drive heads and step to tracks, but when it starts to boot, it reads in track zero, steps the head to the next track, then stops responding.  The machine behaves the same way with a Go-Tek drive emulator, so that's why I'm pretty sure the fault lies with the main logic board.  So I had put that repair on hold and was going to come back too it.

However, a more interesting option presented itself a couple of weeks ago.  I was shopping at Free Geek Twin Cities as I often do and they mentioned that an Osbourne had just come in.  It was in really rough shape, quite yellowed, and keys missing from the keyboard, but it appeared to be booting and asking for a boot floppy.  It wouldn't boot from the disk that had been left in the drive, but in my experience almost all of these drives from the early 80s need cleaning and lubrication before they can work correctly.  So, they offered me a good price on the Osbourne as a project machine and I purchased it...

The first order of business on a restoration like this was for me to get the machine booting.  I started by making some "known good" boot disks using my SuperCard Pro disk imaging setup.  I think I've covered this workflow before, but my current workflow for making boot disks for new to me machines is to find disk iamges on Dave Dunfield's site here.  I then use the fantastic tool HxE Floppy Emulator Software to convert the IMD disk image format to the SCP flux format used by my disk imaging hardware.  Then, I use the SuperCard Pro to write out the disks to hardware.

One hack that I've learned on the hardware side with these CP/M Machines is that since they must boot off Drive A it will have alot more wear and tear on it.  It makes sense to swap Drive A and Drive B as well as service both drives.  In this case, the drives mechanisms were from two different vendors but the control boards were the same.  The Osbourne 1 has power going to the floppy drive over the ribbon cables, this was not the case for the Osbourne Executive.  It turns out that all you need to do to tell which drive is the A drive is swap the termination resistor, there are no other jumpers on the drive controller board, after this the machine was booting!

Once I got the machine booting, it was time to swap over the external case parts from the Executive.  This article explains the differences between the very early Osbourne One computers and the 1a model that I have here.  I was quite fortunate to have purchased the 1a, not realizing at the time, but the case is exactly the same shape as the Osbourne Executive.  The front bezels are unique, so I cleaned up the front bezel of the Osbourne One with soapy water.  The Executive had a bulge under the handle in order to accommodate a fan, but many people feel the machine should have had a fan so I'm happy to have that as part of my Osbourne One even if it's a slight anachronism.

Another surprising item was that although the keyboards look identical and have the same connector they do not appear to be compatible with one another (I guess the analogy would be the XT and AT keyboards with the same connector but different scan codes). So, I removed all the yellowed keycaps from the Osbourne 1 computer and swapped the keyboard over into the Executive Housing.

The machine turned out lovely, I'm very happy with how it looks...

From the sides it is even more of a contrast as the old case was badly yellowed.

I'm glad to have the machine booting and running, but I would also like to add a Go-Tek with Flash-Floppy firmware.  I'm not quite sure how to do that with the non standard drive wiring on the Osbourne One, but that will be a project for another day.

Hackers and the PiPD-10

I've previously written about using simulation and buying replica kits as a more attainable way of getting hands-on time with retro computers that are rare.  This article is two years old (as of this writing), and since then I've built another PPD-8 like system and Oscar Vermeulen's PiPD-11 (in Mid 2023).  I still think these kits are a great way to learn about old systems.  The learning continues with Oscars newest kit, the PiPD-10.

As soon as I heard about the PiDP-10 project I was excited.  I've known something of the original Hacker culture since reading the Jargon file online in the early 2000s and I've had a copy of the "New Hackers Dictionary" since then.  My college, the Milwaukee School of Engineering had Digital Equipment Corporation VAX machines when I was there in the 1990s.  I'm sure that without being conscious of it I was exposed too and adopted a midwestern version of Hacker culture as it existed there in the late 1990s.  

I've been anticipating Oscar's new machine for quite a while.  During the wait I read Steven Levy's book "Hackers".  This is a book that describes longer periods of the history of computing, but it has chapters focused on the people and the culture of the MIT AI Lab in the early days of computing in the 1960s that I had not read much about before.  This is the time period of the PDP10.  Even though the ITS system did not become prominent and is not a direct predecessor to the Operating Systems of today, so many of the people who worked on it and the ideas behind it have been incorporated into today's software.

But enough background and back to modern times.  I got into the PiDP10 Google Group for conversation about PiDP-10 and I asked to be added to Oscar's "expression of interest" list as soon as the Beta test period ended.  My PiDP10 Kit arrived in mid April 2024.  I build the kit on the first weekend after it arrived.  The build went pretty well.  The biggest challenge that I had was damage around a trace that I caused by not being careful with a component, but once I repaired the broken trace all the LEDs worked as expected.  It was a long build but well documented as usual for one of Oscars kits.  The PiPD10 looks great and since it has some graphical elements I'm going to keep it in a place of honor on the shelf above my desk where I can also keep it plugged into a Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse...

The next step for me after building the kit was a challenge.  Not knowing anything about ITS I really needed the manual to make progress.  At one point I'd thought the system wasn't coming up because I'd corrupted the file systems so I re-installed a fresh image on the Pi and went through the entire install procedure again,  But that was not the root issue, I just didn't know how to bring up ITS.

Oscar published a draft version of the manual in the PiDP10 Google Group shortly after my kit was built and with that I was able to bring up ITS on the simulated hardware and begin a bit of happy hacking!  I haven't had much time with the system yet, but having it convenient at my desk will make it easy to go back and explore what it was like to use a computer back in an era when having computer access was not a part of normal life for people.  I'm looking forward to that!

Let me know in the comments, or send an email if you have memories or a connection to Hacker culture.  Also let me know if you have suggested about the ITS or TOPS operating systems and things that I should try on the PiPD10.  Thanks!

TRS-80 Model 1 - Trash to Treasure - Part 1

Due to the generosity of another member of the Vintage Computer Forums I was recently able to re-home a TRS-80 Model 1 (With 16K RAM and the Level II Basic Upgrade).  The machine had come from a smoking home, but it hardly had a smell any more.  Unfortunately it did have a coating of yellow sticky tar over the entire surface, so the grey pained areas look gold instead of silver...

When I first got the unit and before I even brought it in the house I did a bit of scrubbing with water and a microfiber cloth.  With a bit of effort and lots of water the tar layer came off, so I was hopeful that a more thorough submersion with dish soap warm water and scrubbing I'd be able to bring it into a condition that I wouldn't mind touching.  Since the computer is painted, I felt that using Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning on the outside would be too risky.  I took both the keyboard and the monitor completely apart and washed all the plastic parts with water, including removing and cleaning each keycap individually.  When I had the computer apart I rinsed the circuit boards with 99% Isopropyl and did an inspection of the circuit boards.  There were no bulging caps and nothing obviously wrong.  After putting the computer back together it looks alot better...

The silver portions look silver once again but you may notice that some the paint on the black parts of the plastic has thinned out quite a bit.  I didn't use any abrasives but the textured areas seem to have been stripped a bit even with only using dish soap.  I was pretty sure this would not be a museum piece when I started so even with these defects I'm happy with how the system has turned out.  Perhaps I will come back and use some car cleaning chemicals to try to restore some of these plastics, a trick that I've seen Adrian Black using.

The next order of business was the keyboard.  I was excited to learn that the key switches were from Alps.  The amazing key feel of these retro computers is a bit part of the appeal of these machines for me.  However the Level II machines are know to have keyboard problems and this one is no exception as most of the key switches didn't work.  This mirrored a problem I'd had with my Apple II Plus restoration, and because of the film on the surface of the machine and the dust inside I was not too worried about it.  When I had the computer apart I cleaned the keyboard deck w/ 99% Isopropyl and sprayed DeOxit into every keyswitch actuating each switch about a dozen times to start.  After waiting for things to dry I tested each key and most of them were working again with only 6 or 8 requiring a second application of DeOxit and a few dozen more actuations on each switch.  After probably about 100 actuations I finally gave up on the F key.  I had Alps keyswitches in my stock because I'd purchased some spares for the Apple II Plus repair, so I was able to use those parts.  Although, the TRS-80 uses Short Stem Switches which are more expensive and rare, so it was easier for me to take the non working switch apart and swap the stems since I only needed one.  After soldering in the F key the entire keyboard is working and I was finally able to write my first 10 PRINT program on this machine, always a happy milestone in these retro computing restoration!

More to come on this project.  I don't have the cable for the Cassette player, so I can't even use the computer to play programs in over the headphone port yet, but I have one on order and I'll be bringing the machine back out for some gaming fun when that arrives.

I'm very happy to have an example of one of the original 1977 "Trinity" of home computers.  This is the first one I've had, my Apple II Plus and a Commodore PET 4016 are the closest I'd gotten so far.  Do you have memories of using the TRS-80 Model 1?  Do you have suggestions for games or programs I should triy out when I get my cassette cable?  Let me know in the comments below, or my email address is in my Bio and you can reach me via email.

Nabu - Glad to be on the Bandwagon!

Recently I was happy to be among those who purchased a Nabu computer listed by the seller PellMill Inc on eBay.  I'd missed out on the first round after the video from Adrian's Digital Basement, telling myself that it would be a long time till anyone would be able to reverse engineer the product enough to load code on it.  How wrong I was!  Within a couple of weeks of the video coming out, DJ Sures and the team at The Nabu RetroNET had code up on their website that would allow a modern computer to emulate the network adapter and feed software to the Nabu PC.  Once I found out about this I regretted not purchasing a machine at first and I took the opportunity when the next batch of machines was released.

While I was waiting for my Nabu to arrive I watched videos and did some reading up on this computer.  I was able to buy the USB to RS422 adapter and solder up an adapter cable using 9 Pin D-Sub connectors I had on hand, and 5 Pin DIN connectors (DigiKey Part Number CP-1050-ND) that I'd purchased for another project.  I purchased the Dtech adapter recommended on nabu.ca, but I don't like the look of the screw terminal connector so I soldered both ends of the cable and got a nicer looking cable.

Getting the software going was a bit more of a challenge.  I used the PC based version of the application to get started.  This was actually quite simple and it worked out of the box the first time...

What I really wanted too have is a Raspberry Pi based solution so that I could permanently pair with the Nabu and have a functioning stand alone solution, just like the Nabu would have had back in the day.  Aaron at the Retro Hack Shack has a video showing how he did this which was inspiring.  It turns out that the software team has made some significant improvements in the Linux version and Mono is no longer a dependency, meaning that this can run from the "lite" version of a Raspberry Pi, and so it's easier to run this on a lower power Pi.  This is quite helpful because of how hard it has been to get Pis.  I was fortunate to find an RPi 3A+ unit from Microcenter back in December 2022.  This model doesn't have alot of RAM, so it's a good match for the lite version of Raspbian, and ends up being a good match for the proeject with a the compact size but also a full sized usb port for the Serial Dongle to plug into...

This solution create a nice clean solution which can easily be mounted behind the Nabu, and I can remote in to the Pi (via ssh) from any modern computer to run the text based console app that is handy in order to change to a different software cycle.

I'm excited about learning more from my hands on experiences with the Nabu.  I've already moved it out to the main entertainment center...

It's great been alot of fun playing DigDug and other 8-bit classics on the flat panel TV.  The Nabu fits in quite well with the "mostly" black look of my entertainment center, it truly was a product ahead of its time both in both form and function.

I Can't Be-leive it!

I've been wanting to run BeOS for quite some time.  I've made numerous attempts over the last couple of years ever since learning that my Power Macintosh 8600 is on the hardware compatibility list for this OS, but I've always had it lock up on boot up, or very shortly after during the install process.

I could not resolve my issue(s), I didn't know if it was due to a hardware problem with my Power Mac's Logic Board, an incompatibility with the upgraded ATI Rage video card I had in there or some other problem.  Also, I had some concerns about the stability of the machine, I'd even done a recap on the main logic board.  So, the project remained on the back burner for quite some time.

But I recently got re-inspired because Sean from Action Retro was willing to go to great lengths to get BeOS running on his TAM (and show the failures along the way).  Sean has used various disk imaging hacks before to get software onto his computers.  Because of limitations of SCSI2SD, I'd been trying to run the install process of BeOS and this was what kept on locking up on my computer.  I decided to make a couple of hardware changes.  First, I went back to the built in Video on the motherboard, I wanted to eliminate any potential incompatibility with the ATI video card.

Watching one video alone was not be enough information to get going, but Sean pointed to a rollicking good thread about running BeOS on the TAM on Tinker Different.  This thread contains a helpful link onto Macintosh Garden that has BeOS disk images that are useable with compatible machines, bypassing the install process.  All one needs to do is copy them onto a modern SCSI to SD solution and give BeOS a try!  In order to enable using these pre-made disk images, it was time to upgrade my SCSI2SD solution.  As amazing as that tech was when I installed it in 2018, solutions like BlueSCSI and ZuluSCSI are much easier to work with on projects like this.

One other cosmetic improvement that I have been wanting to make is to move the SD card slot around to the back of the machine and replace the front cover on the machine (which of course I've kept) so I took this opportunity to make this change as well.

Of course I didn't want to loose access to the MacOS disk images I've built up over the last years.  Another interesting post on TinkerDifferent lead me to this amazing tool called Disk Jockey.  This software runs on the modern computer and allows the analysis of disk images.  I was easily able to create a disc image of the Mac Volume on the SCSI2SD card(s) and then convert them to full drive images for the modern SCSI solutions so the PowerMac can still boot the first and last versions of Mac OS (7.5.5 and 9.1) was well as BeOS.  I've stored these each on a separate SD card for easy of swapping.

It's really great to finally have a BeOS system, and I'm quite happy with how it looks...

I've really been enjoying tinkering with it.  The history of Apple's negotiations with both Be and with NeXT for their "next generation" version of MacOS are now the stuff of computer history legends.  I consider myself lucky to be able to go back and see the best of what both OSes had to offer at the time.

Starting the New Year with a New-to-me Retro Computer

 Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you've all had some time off and some rest.  I was able to get alot of small projects done during the break, and I've tried to "clear the decks" a bit to start 2023 on a good footing.

One of the opportunities that came my way in December was finding a couple of people who were purging TI 99 4/A Computers.  I also have not had alot of interest in these machines until I started watching a YouTube Channel called Usagi Electric.  The TI-99 scratches a couple of itches for me.  One of them is my interest in engineering / business failures, or the "Might have beens" of technology development, and the others is my interest in Mini Computers.  I didn't realize it until Usagi mentioned the history that the TI Microprocessor used in this machine was based on their minicomputer architecture.  The rise and fall of TI and their battles with Commodore are one of the more interesting chapters in the early history of the home computer.

Anyway, I was able to get a couple of bundles of unwanted TI-99/4As, four machines in total.  One was working and three were not.  Having a working machine is always a big help and I started watching videos and swapping parts.  Noel's Retro Lab and Adrian's Digital Basement both have helpful series on this machine, although I must confess that I haven't done any board-level troubleshooting yet. I was able to get three of the four systems working and the fourth one has so many things wrong with it that I'm not sure it will be worth repair, I may just keep this as a parts machine for the others.

One of the running machines has an Alps keyboard, so even though it's not the most pristine of the cases I am a bit of keyboard snob and so likely this one will become my favorite TI-99 4A...

I've paired it with a small RCA color TV, model XL100 from 1987.  The image isn't great, perhaps because the tube in this TV is getting tired or because the image is going through an RF modulator.  One of my next steps for this machine is to built a Composite video cable for it so I can use it with a more modern display, I have the parts on order for that from Digikey.  Thanks to Adrian I now know that it's the same cable as the one for a C64 or Vic-20, so I will build a couple of these.

Leave a comment or send me an email if you have any interesting memories of the TI-99/4A!

Documentary / Storytelling Videos and Primary Source Videos on the Web in the 2020's

For me a large part of the appeal of the Retro and Vintage Computing hobby is learning about how to the machines work and how they would have been used.  These aspects of retro computing are best experienced hands-on.  But I'm also super interested in the historical context and the teams that built them both because these are amazing stories, and because those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

One of the things I'm realizing is that for the documentary / storytelling YouTube creators (channels like the 8-Bit Guy, LGR, RMC Retro, 65Scribe, Tech Time Traveller and Nostalgia Nerd) they spend alot of time searching through archival material and viewing old photos and video.  Hats off to them for bringing awareness and attention back to these machines and the stories of the teams who created them.

During the VCF Midwest 2022 YouTube Panel Discussion one of the questions was about how much more effort it takes for the creators to make this type of content.  It is a very time consuming activity with some videos taking weeks of effort.  I would like to say that my own interest in Retro Computing has a great deal to do with these stories and I would like to salute these creators for their hard work.

There is another class of channels and websites that are dedicated to presenting primary source material in its original form.  There is more and more historical footage being uploaded to YouTube and other platforms like Archive.org.   For the retro computer enthusiast there is an overwhelming amount of original source material out on the web.  Here's a quick overview of some of these sources that I've been enjoying recently:

"The Computer Chronicles" and special events like recordings of MacWorld events are only a search away either at Archive.org or YouTube.com.

The Computer History Museum has been uploading a ton of oral history interviews from their archives.  

Both the Vintage Computer Federation and VCF Midwest have been uploading the talks from their events.  Sometimes these talks are given by primary sources, the people who were there when the machines were created and many of them are quite good storytellers.

The Computer History Archives Project has also been uploading a great deal of interesting historical footage.  

Dave's Garage is interesting for Microsoft users because for some of the topics that he discusses he's a primary source (and he's also very transparent about when he was "in the room" and when he wasn't).  

The Centre for Computing History has also published some good video interviews of historical importance, and is a good source for many of the parallel developments that happened in Britain in the early days of computing.

Here's a fun screenshot from one of these historical movies, Bill Gates in the computer lab at Microsoft.

From Computer History Archives Project

In the background from Left to Right we see an IBM PC 5150, a Compaq Portable I, and a Macintosh Plus, so this must have been 1986 or later.

What are your favorite sources of primary material on the web?  Please leave a comment or send me an email if you have other sources that I should have included here.  Thanks!

A New History of Modern Computing - An Important Book for Fans of Computing

I've read and very much enjoyed the book "A New History of Modern Computing" by Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi.  I've completed the book and I thought I should post a review and let readers know what they could expect from the book.  The contents of the book is copyrighted and is not one of the books that MIT press publishes online, but the price is reasonable.  A free sample is available on Kindle.

In addition to reading the free sample, you can get a bit more of the flavor of the book by reading the paper "Finding a Story for the History of Computing".  This idea of having a story to tell, or even better multiple stories to tell is quite compelling.  The book unfolds as a series of developments from the various users points of view, scientific computing, business computing, home computing, etc, as well as the more typical stories of the people who designed the machines and the chronology of developments.

The early parts of this book filled in many knowledge gaps for me, not just isolated facts but also connections between the history of the concepts and their current use.  As an example, the fact that pipelining and hardware parallelism were originally features of mainframes before they "trickled down" to workstation computers and PCs.  Of course it makes sense but because I had no exposure too mainframes, and little too workstations, I did not know this.  For me, the earlier parts of the book were both interesting and informative.

Once the books's history moves into the Home Computer and Personal Computer revolution, nostalgia will kick in, depending on your age, that may happen at different points in the timeline, but there is good coverage from a wide range of developments.  There are a couple of nostalgic games that one naturally plays when reading the book, answering these questions:

The first computer mentioned in the book that you ever used:
Apple II, Page 181.

The first programming language that you ever used:
Microsoft BASIC, Page 171

The first computer in the book that you had at home:
Commodore VIC-20, Page 196

And of course the lists of computers that you've every owned or worked on.  If you are a computer collector, then of course you'll be interested in reading about the computers that you currently have in your collection.

But as the book moves into modern times the tone of the book shifts.  Or perhaps it's just my response to the nature of the stories.  The book explains well the rise of the smartphone and AI, the idea that software is everywhere and that it is a universal solvent that dissolves everything (for example, the iPhone replacing: alarm clocks, maps, land line telephones, mail, TV, etc, etc),  This point of view is quite interesting.  As an example, when I look back at videos and lectures from as recent as 2014, I notice that the dominance of Intel is still assumed, but I'm writing this bLog article on an ARM powered Apple M1 machine, the fastest computer I've ever owned.  Apple has made three hardware architecture changes in the lifespan of the Macintosh and this last one has been by far the least painful, almost un-noticeable, and again this is arguably because of how good of a job Apple has done on the software emulation layer that's used to bridge the gap between old software and this new hardware.

I believe that the paradigm that the authors suggest is a very helpful one as we consider the future of computing.  It challenges us to try to decide what is the best kind of life that we can live, and how computing fits into that life given its ubiquity.  I came to the end of the book with more serious questions than answers, but perhaps this is fitting for those of us who work in the tech world and have a disproportionate impact and a therefore a responsibility to our fellow human beings.  

Technology is not inherently good or evil.  These are tools that we as individual human beings wield.  To the extent that we each understand how to use these tools we bear the responsibility to use them well.  My kids will tell you that they get sick of hearing this, but Uncle Ben (Or Aunt May, depending on your age) was right when he/she told Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility.

If you want a book that will make you think, I recommend "A New History of Modern Computing".