bitsavers

http://www.patreon.com/bitsavers

Has something to do with http://bitsavers.org
Had something to do with http://kfjc.org
and spies.com

"Nibbled to death by ducks"
-- Steve Williams
#bitsavers #NerdFood #KFJC #MAME #SiliconValley #AppleLore

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relay.damus.io

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Last Notes

2026-07-29 15:08:18 UTC

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as someone who has spent decades attempting to find original historical source code, I find the concept of "re-creating historical source code via a slop engine" offensive and soul-crushing.
https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/using-claude-to-re-create-extinct-software-matlab-from-the-1980s.1258246/

2026-06-21 14:35:29 UTC

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"Here’s the thing: from where I live, the world has drifted away. We aren’t precarious, we’re unnecessary. The money has gone to the top. The wages have gone to the top. The recovery has gone to the top."

2026-06-14 17:09:23 UTC

"LLMs are wood chippers being fed the tree of knowledge. All you get out of it is mulch"
-- Me

2026-06-13 15:25:36 UTC

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My infamous Steve Jobs story.
In a Town Hall meeting, he berated a person for taking notes, telling them notes were unnecessary and they should focus their attention on Him

2026-06-07 17:31:26 UTC

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But the line goes UP as it goes to the right. Isn't that "good"?

2026-06-06 21:59:38 UTC

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No Starch Press should get someone to write an electronics book called
"Don't Do This"
and then explain why for each thing

2026-06-06 21:39:15 UTC

I just posted "don't clean electronic boards with piezoelectric resonators or oscilators in an ultrasonic cleaner"
and someone replied "it works for me"
fuck hobbyists

2026-04-17 01:09:47 UTC

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That is one of TWO 7030s that CHM has.
The one from BYU is just empty cabinets
The second is from LLNL and it has everything except the core memory (which went at auction to Oregon State) and the console typewriter, which someone outbid on at the auction. They wouldn't give it up when asked. They intended to use it as a typewriter :eyeroll:
donated by Lowell Wood acc no. X2462.2002
Another fun fact is there are no pictures of the console in IBM documents because the Selectric hadn't been annouced yet!

2026-03-08 13:47:08 UTC

Jerbs wuz here
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/116/193/854/066/492/015/original/8080f842823104a2.jpg

2026-01-22 02:53:53 UTC

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Bringing Up Baby

2025-12-31 21:06:39 UTC

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I don't want anything living in my bowser

2025-12-24 09:32:50 UTC

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Video of the disk image running on a real PDP-11/45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh-9rBYmGow

2025-12-20 00:09:48 UTC

The Unix V4 tape read was successful
https://discuss.systems/@ricci/115747843169814700
#bitsavers
#note12sl…95nz

2025-12-08 16:43:46 UTC

"Friendly reminder to keep magnetic disks away from laptop lids!"
#bitsavers
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/115/684/940/863/462/718/original/8d19f76224bcb129.png

2025-12-05 01:38:03 UTC

Today's exercise in "no fun".
Someone noticed the pages of this pdf were out of order. This brought back a bad memory that, in fact, this rather expensive used tome was bound incorrectly, and I forgot to fix it when I made the pdf.
Several hours later after renaming every page to correct his, and create an easy to search version, it is up for your enjoyment.
Unix_System_V_Release_4_System_Calls_and_Library_Functions_for_Motorola_Processors_1993
I am baffled why anyone would want to lump some of the sections of the Unix Programmers Manual into one mongo alphabetized one, but there you are.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/unix/System_V_Release_4_Motorola/0-13-035841-X_Unix_System_V_Release_4_System_Calls_and_Library_Functions_for_Motorola_Processors_1993.pdf
warning... it is a 48 megabyte file.
#bitsavers

2025-11-27 08:28:07 UTC

Colossal blunder on my part this afternoon.
Pulled the drives from an areca raid array and
forgot what order they have to go back in
so now the array isn't recognized and RESCUE doesn't see it.
Has anyone documented the magic parameter sectors that describe this anywhere?

2025-11-24 11:30:52 UTC

https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/115/604/445/219/908/432/original/ca16913ac5c3c1da.jpg

2025-11-18 13:13:33 UTC

tell me again why Cloudflare isn't considered a MITM?
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/115/570/873/460/912/115/original/5c7cb76c1fc8c654.png

2025-08-26 19:16:32 UTC

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Sweep seconds hands run from an AC motor were great until the power company stopped regulating line frequency.
I keep hoping someone will make a self-setting clock mechanism with a sweep seconds hand

2025-08-24 17:36:41 UTC

Refreshing to hear of a boss not being a lemming
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/aws_ceo_entry_level_jobs_opinion/

2025-07-04 12:00:26 UTC

Put this next to your G4 Cube Kleenex dispenser
https://www.ebay.com/itm/187386715254
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/114/794/850/690/190/784/original/dd01970ad0018b18.jpg

2025-06-07 17:43:49 UTC

From Bill Atkinson's Facebook via the Call-A.P.P.L.E. discord:
Dear Friends and Family,
We regret to write that our beloved husband, father, and stepfather Bill Atkinson passed away on the night of Thursday, June 5th, 2025, due to pancreatic cancer. He was at home in Portola Valley in his bed, surrounded by family. We will miss him greatly, and he will be missed by many of you, too. He was a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it. He was fascinated by consciousness, and as he has passed on to a different level of consciousness, we wish him a journey as meaningful as the one it has been to have him in our lives. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and dog, Poppy.

2025-03-08 19:02:30 UTC

A pleasant surprise in a book on Bendix G-15 programming that I scanned today
https://genius.com/Tom-lehrer-lobachevsky-lyrics
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/114/128/378/522/775/082/original/956b92f8733dcbb3.jpg

2025-02-24 16:57:26 UTC

I post-processed a bunch of Univac 1050 software documents that were in the scanning queue.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/univac/1050
In the 00s, someone on eBay was selling 7 track diagnostic source tapes from the basement of a Univac factory for the 1050 which Paul Pierce read for me. I haven't looked at the images in 20 years but it's probably time to see if I can print out the data.
As far as I know, this is the only 1050 code that survives.
@npub1zyz…tpl5

2025-02-05 05:53:02 UTC

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the most common interchange format, the one all the users group disks used, was sssd 8" 26 128 byte FM encoding on 77 tracks

2025-01-19 17:13:19 UTC

January 2025 is the 20th anniversary of my quitting Apple (Oct86-Jan05) and next year will be the 20th anniversary of me being software curator at the Computer History Museum.
Choosing which of the two was less stressful and having an impact on the world is easy.
#AppleLore #bitsavers

2024-12-06 16:05:14 UTC

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Were there people who used Geoworks Ensemble?
Other than the source finally getting released I've heard nothing much about it. I guess I travel in different circles.

2024-11-29 16:19:54 UTC

A collection of Charles Babbage Institute newsletters from the 80s and 90s
I couldn't find scans on line at the CBI website.
Lots of interesting information on how they came to be and what their collecting strategy was.
https://bitsavers.org/pdf/charlesBabbageInstitute/newsletters
#bitsavers

2024-11-14 11:45:01 UTC

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or one diagram

2024-10-20 19:03:22 UTC

Somehow, I don't think that 2024's richest man in the world, who also is an immigrant, would ever think of using his money to create something like this.
https://www.npr.org/2013/08/01/207272849/how-andrew-carnegie-turned-his-fortune-into-a-library-legacy

2024-09-23 19:21:02 UTC

after looking for a copy for thirty years, the APDA LocalTalk PC driver reference is on bitsavers
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/networking/localtalk/LocalTalk_PC/APDA_M7055_LocalTalk_PC_Card_and_Driver_Preliminary_Notes_198708.pdf
#AppleLore #bitsavers

2024-09-21 16:39:28 UTC

Here is an IC mystery
When did TI make plastic TTL with the logo
embossed into the divot?
It seems VERY unlikely they were making epoxy bodied ICs in 1965
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/113/176/521/499/810/359/original/54196403ff3acf6b.png

2024-09-03 21:00:39 UTC

I have a couple of Corvus Concept 68000 machines booting for the first time in 30+ years.
Starting to pull out all of the source files for the system I've collected over the decades
http://bitsavers.org/bits/Corvus/Concept/Floppies_5inch/SOURCES
I'm hoping I can get someone interested in making the Concept driver work in MAME. I'd really like to get a local hard disk emulator working now that its able to boot again.
https://assets.oldbytes.space/assets.oldbytes.space/media_attachments/files/113/075/627/686/127/861/original/1cc02b36aba4cf78.jpeg