Mon, 27 March 2006

HTTP. FTP. SMTP. NNTP. Many letters, one heritage...

Welcome to Show 037! This week's Topic: The ARPANET!

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

Electronics that act like a physical disk drive - awesome idea. Check it out at the Semi-Virtual Diskette site!
It's Vegas, Baby! And Commodore fun! The Commodore Vegas Expo (CommVex) 2.0 will be held on July 29 and 30, 2006...
An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution - an interview with Robert Taylor on nytimes.com!
Here's a tribute to J C R Licklider, including a link to a PDF of two of his seminal papers on man-computer synergy that inspired the Internet.
Wikipedia articles on the ARPANET and Licklider - always a great place to start.
And here's an online history of the Internet, including it's ARPANET heritage, on the Internet Society website.

Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com.

For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page!

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan.

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

Direct download: RBP-2006-03-26-037.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 2:27 AM

Comments[0]

Mon, 20 March 2006

Show 036: The Dot Matrix Printer

I keep hitting the Control key, but I'm still not in control.

Welcome to Show 036! This week's Topic: The Dot Matrix Printer!

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

Old Skool Arcade, Modern Day Fun - In Portland, my home town! Check out the Ground Kontrol site...
Need to fix up your Commodore computer? Have a look at Ray Carlsen's homepage!
More TI 99/4A links - a Yahoo! group, and the TI 99ers online User's Group!
A Wikipedia article on the Dot Matrix Printer...

Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com.

For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page!

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan.

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

Direct download: RBP-2006-03-19-036.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:41 AM

Comments[2]

Mon, 13 March 2006

Show 035: The TI 99/4A Microcomputer

It's not 8 bits, but it's retro. And it talks...

Welcome to Show 035! This week's Topic: The Texas Instruments 99/4A Microcomputer!

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

Use your old DOS PC as a Commodore hard drive. How? With 64HDD...
A 21st century recreation of a 1960s educational computer toy? Now, that's retro! Check out the DigiComp I v 2.0 from Minds-On Toys.
If you're like me, and you think an Altair looked cooler than your modern-day LAN party case, have a look at the AltairPC project at Briel Computers.
Commodore 64 native code, cooked on a SuperCPU C64 or PC. Interested? Check out Slang, recently updated!
Wikipedia article on the TI 99/4A - great info, as always.
Another of my favorite sites, Old Computers Dot Com, with their coverage of the 99/4A. Check out the forums.
An early 80s review of the 99/4A, from Creative Computing, on the Atari Magazines site. Cool!
Want to see some photos of the 99/4A, and it's various stuff? Here's a Flickr site that will get you hooked up.
The TI 99/4A Tech Pages - bits, bytes, schematics, pinouts - it's all here!
There are several emulators for the 99/4A, including the Win994a simulator.
The excitement continues with an annual fair in Chicago - couldn't find a main site, but there are videos of the event for your viewing enjoyment.

Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com.

For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page!

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan.

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

Direct download: RBP-2006-03-12-035.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 1:43 AM

Comments[2]

Mon, 6 March 2006

Show 034: Retro Du Jour (updated)

One retro computer, over easy. Would you like some chips with that?

Welcome to Show 034! This week's Topic: Retro Du Jour!

Topics and links discussed in the podcast...

Have a look at The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, The Source for Video and Computer Game History since 1997!
Peter Naur wins ACM'S Turing Award for his work on ALGOL 60 (Wikipedia Link).
If you've got time, they've got videos - extensive Computer History Museum footage at Google Video! Lots of topics, great information.
C64 HQ - Welcome to the world of C64 nostalgia. Check out the Interview section and Audio/Video links, talked about on the show.

Be sure to send any comments, questions or feedback to retrobits@gmail.com.

For online discussions on Retrobits Podcast topics, check out the Retrobits Podcast forum on the PETSCII Forums page!

Our Theme Song is "Sweet" from the "Re-Think" album by Galigan.

Thanks for listening!

- Earl

Direct download: RBP-2006-03-05-034-2.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 3:06 AM

Comments[0]