Memoirs of the CP/M creator released:

“Our father, Gary Kildall, was one of the founders of the personal computer industry, but you probably don’t know his name. Those who have heard of him may recall the myth that he ‘missed’ the opportunity to become Bill Gates by going flying instead of meeting with IBM. Unfortunately, this tall tale paints Gary as a ‘could-have-been,’ ignores his deep contributions, and overshadows his role as an inventor of key technologies that define how computer platforms run today.

Gary viewed computers as learning tools rather than profit engines. His career choices reflect a different definition of success, where innovation means sharing ideas, letting passion drive your work and making source code available for others to build upon. His work ethic during the 1970s resembles that of the open-source community today."

https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/

#ComputerHistory #CPM #PersonalComputing #RetroComputing

If there's one constant with me, it's that a trend, craze, fad, in thing, hot new thing, latest thing, best-selling thing, mania, fashion, or chic is a clear sign to back away, smirking, and stick to what *I* find worthy of my attention, because bandwagons lead us to stupidity and worse, not to enlightenment.

#groupthink #fads #bandwagon #peerpressure #boringlives

I contend that Ryuichi Sakamoto was the only person in the history of our species who didn't look stupid in a long coat.

#everyonelooksstupidinalongcoat #longcoatssuck #badfashion

@giflian I love it.

The coining of the word "familect" to describe pronunciations, odd words, and linguistic quirks that exist within families and other small, intimate groups is such a delight, and explains a lot of the peculiar ways I say things.

#dialects #familect #newwords #language

As a child, I had a hard time discerning the difference between the words "whore" and "horror," which is why my parents were always amused when we reached the amusement parks at the end of the boardwalk and I'd scream "I wanna go to the whorehouse!"

#regionaldialects #familects #Marylandaccent

How completely unsurprising that Jimmy Fallon hasn't made a bold statement on the recent state of affairs. That guy is even more nothing than Leno.

#JimmyFallonsucks

@MadamOcto Nissan Figaros are pretty nice to look at, though they've been priced out of reach.

I believe that engaging with people on politics would be a lot smoother if we didn't collectively rely so heavily on synecdoche—calling little parts by the name of the big things they belong to instead of being specific.

Call out the parts, the machinery, and the actors and it's easier to focus on the problem.

#synecdoche #talkingpolitics #solubleproblems #quitit

I would like to find a genie bottle so my first wish can be to never have to see Jared Leto in anything again. My next wish will be something less frivolous, I promise, but that guy stinks up every thing he's in. Blecch.

@AvonVilla The Poly 800 was pretty ridiculous, and programming an Ensoniq Mirage in *hex* of all things, was insane. That said, the predominance of knob-per-function killed excellent envelopes (the 8-stage, variable-sustain-point, time/level on the CZ being a prime example), so we ended up with just the same variations on the Prophet 5 over and over. One of the reasons the ESQ-1 and the Hydrasynth are both amazing is a paged system with clear page buttons. I can happily wallow in those all day.

It's much harder to unlearn tiresome and obsolete stuff than it is to learn new stuff.

#learning #unlearning

My annoyance at DX7-style 6-operator FM synthesis being discovered and celebrated by a generation young enough to have avoided the indoctrination of the weirdly conservative (in the nonpolitical sense) boomer/genx-era synthesizer enthusiast community that anything with menu-based programming is categorically unusable is that now there are more people competing with me and DX7 prices are rising. Thank goodness for Dexed!

#synthesis #DX7 #FMsynthesis #phasemodulationsynthesis #synthesizers #dexed

The more I work with my Linnstrument 128, and the more I read the manual in depth, the more I'm convinced that the Linnstrument is the most thoroughly thought-out instrument ever designed. It's funny when I think there's something I wish it would/could do, only to either ask or spend a little more time with the manual and discover that it already does that.

#Linnstrument #RogerLinn #GeertBevin @gbevin #MPE #MIDIcontrollers

Notes from my trip.

https://last-night-i-dreamed-i-was-you.ghost.io/notes-an-object-at-rest/

#travel #cheapmotels #musicfestivals #notes

It's bad enough that small volumes of these stupid pickup trucks have been (illegally) imported into the EU under the IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) lately. The mutual safety standards recognition would totally open the floodgates.

Just a reminder that this is the most popular-selling car in Europe next to the most popular-selling car in the US.

We don't want these dangerous trucks in EU cities.

I'm a huge fan of trousers made of "flex" canvas or denim, or "stretch," or whatever they want to market it as, because having dungarees that are supple and move well is a killer app in the clothing arena. That said, their aging and failure mode is amusing, because they tend to hit a point where they just start getting bigger and bigger, in the same way testicles and breasts get lower with age. Suddenly, comfy trousers turn all vaudeville.

#stretchcanvas #flexcanvas #stretchdenim #pantsproblems

No matter how fervent or enthusiastic my faith in the promise of the human experiment is (and it is pretty devout), any time I have to drive a car, I begin to find myself firmly on Team Extinction-Level Asteroid Strike.

#carssuck #carculturesucks #drivingsucks #commutingbycarsucks

I am over everything and everyone for now, am completely exhausted by the panoply of nonsense, and find myself sorely missing my decades in the monastery, where I had quiet, space for contemplation, and a deep wellspring of serenity to give me the strength to take on the idiocy of the world. That's all lost to me, so for today, I'm content to let the world burn while I tend to my work.

#overit #seekingpeace #overwhelmed #fuckeverything

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.