Today we take an overly close look at Cory Doctorow’s latest novel in the Martin Hench series, "Picks & Shovels". It’s ripe with references to 1970s and 1980s personal computers, often with very specific details, but some of it just doesn’t ring true, unfortunately. It was partly due to similar problems in earlier novels such as "The Impossible Fortress" by Jason Rekulak, and "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin that I was reading so closely. But the factual errors are an opportunity to learn more about how the Altair 8800 actually operated, and other facts about its use and upgrades, and other interesting parts of early personal computer history.
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2nd channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCAgWzEh5c8391eJnELDy9OA
Picks & Shovels by Cory Doctorow:
https://craphound.com/ (Cory Doctorow’s website)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification (interesting information about Audible and DRM)
My video on The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak:
Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080 info and pricelists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800
https://archive.org/details/Mits-masChristmasCatalogDec1975FromPopularElectronics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSAI_8080
https://vtda.org/docs/computing/IMSAI/IMSAI_PriceList_01May76.pdf
Altair 8800 Operator’s Manual and Simulator:
http://altair32.classiccmp.org/pdf/88opman.pdf
https://wixette.github.io/8800-simulator/
Learn about the Compaq Deskpro 386:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Deskpro_386
Index:
0:00 Previously: The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
2:47 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
7:31 Computer History Errors? Surely not!
12:30 Prologue: An Altair 8800 in 1979?
16:30 Altair upgrades
21:10 Altair front panel
26:51 Programming the Altair 8800 (by simulator)
38:18 Apple ][+: Marty’s intro to personal computer with video output?
40:31 1982 or 1986?
44:05 ZX80 for word processing? A refurbished 386 in 1986?
49:10 My mistakes? Thanks / credits
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