FoxQuirk 🦊 @quirk@computerfairi.es

With the development of the minicomputer and the microcomputer in the 1970s, "mainframe" moved towards its modern meaning, with computers partitioned into micros, minis, and mainframes. IBM started using "mainframe" as a marketing term in the mid-1980s; e.g. calling the S/390 "mainframe class". 6/n

IBM's construction of computers from frames was a major innovation: the frames fit through doors and were transportable. Earlier computers were often constructed in place and difficult to move. Photo shows an IBM 701 at GE with frames for power and drum storage, and main frame in the center.

What is the origin of the word "mainframe"? Digging through archives, I traced it back to 1953. The IBM 701 computer was built from "frames": power frames, a storage frame, a drum frame, and the main frame. This 1953 drawing from the Installation Manual shows the dimensions of the "main frame". 1/n

pro tip for anyone dealing with hostile bureaucracy:

rules and laws aren't real! people make them up together

if you get a no when you really really need a yes, try again. ask again a different day, a different location, a different person, a different way

the system is people, all the way down

and you might find the person who says yes

me trying to get people to play tabletops with me

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/29/which-side-are-you-on-2/#strike-three-yer-out

"Trump has torn up the rules to the labor game, but that doesn't mean the game ends. That just means there are no rules."

The Leopards should be afraid, for without rules, Wildcats may eat their faces for a change.

These punks saw me coming

In case you were wondering... My spouse is a school bus driver and these are the instructions drivers have received today.

🦨As promised, we've added a toggle that allows you to remove any lesbian content from the game, to keep all the anti-woke anti-DEI people happy. Here's a demonstration of it in action

#indiedev #gamedev #gamemaker

Somebody asked me:

"Why bother with FPGA? Why don't you just use an emulator at that point?"

My view on modern #retrocomputing:

* Hardware will fail. If we are to preserve long-term, both emulation and gate level simulation are critical.

* FPGAs can implement things that are hard to implement in software, and vice versa.

* Improvements in one will positively affect the other.

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I do not disrespect the nostalgia, but I have an unusual perspective on #retrocomputing:

I never stopped using any of this stuff, so for me, it's a continuum. I used all this stuff yesterday, I use it today, and I will use it tomorrow.

Snug little dude I happened upon while organizing. Still like how this illustration came out. :]

From a purely technical standpoint, based on RFC 2616, I reject the premise that this web page has been moved permanently. Really should be status code 302 or 307 with an Expires header set to "Sat, 20 Jan 2029 12:00:00 EST"

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #nonbinary #queer #http #webdev #devops

I double checked this, and was able to verify. All previously public links to content on #PrEP on the #CDC website no longer work. Perhaps there are new URLs? But at the moment, this seems to be the case. Apparently effective #HIV prevention is too #woke.

@hikari > the swedish krona is a currency that, allegedly, has a physical form‬ [citation needed]

I'm not entirely convinced the swedish krona is a real currency with an immaterial form either tbh, despite having allegedly converted my pound sterling into it on a few occasions

(I don't think the physical GBP is real either, they started putting some old bloke on the notes instead of Liz but at least some places still accept those faux notes and sometimes even coins)

it was so strange using euros for a few months those like tangibly exist and are sometimes the only thing that can be exchanged for goods and services