Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does.

[slowenough@mastodon.social]

@patrislav @casandro @bit101 @occult This was a helpful overview for me of this kind of spot-on context: https://www.caimito.net/en/blog/2025/12/07/the-recurring-dream-of-replacing-developers.html

One thing that happens in each round is that some portion of the people who are thinking they won't need programmers any more end up becoming programmers using the language/tools that were supposed to replace developers. (Business people learning COBOL, etc.)

Hoping we can lean into a future that repeats that pattern, in software and ideally hardware as well.

[bob@beamship.mpaq.org]

@occult

The way it was before the corprite take over

[felis_catus_domesticus@mstdn.party]

@occult

people on the fedi are another matter entirely.

thank god for block and mute.

[felis_catus_domesticus@mstdn.party]

@occult

the fedi will likely never live up to any promise because it is too easily made into a censorship platform. Nostr is a better design but it's currently filled with even crazier people than the fedi. Major tinfoil hat crowd in there, but that is the price you pay for free speech- you might hear something you don't like. Which brings us back to block and mute as tools.

[me@aron.social]

@occult What computing is in 2026

[jlamasfripp@mastodon.design]

@12thRITS @occult take this beautiful Vaper Draper too. You'll need it like three times a week.

[fox@social.hostnetwork.xyz]

@occult well that would be a fully decentralised network which the ferdiverse isn't.

[d1@autistics.life]

@occult It's so god-awful that it's awesome

[occult@vox.ominous.net]

@d1 I'd argue it's only awesome.

[occult@vox.ominous.net]

How @catsalad's toots get to my computer.

(BYTE magazine, July 1988)

[occult@vox.ominous.net]

This is how I toot.

(Amiga World magazine, March 1988)

#Mastodon #Fediverse

[occult@vox.ominous.net]

I found this ad for a six-degree-of-freedom 3D input device in the Summer 1989 issue of the SGI magazine "IRIS Universe".

I remember seeing stuff like this around in the 90s, but it all seemed so inaccessible at the time. Flipping through these old professional magazines, you spot some interesting engineering and industrial design.

@flexion, you should get one of these, restore it, and get it working on one of your systems.

#SGI #UNIX

[flexion@oldbytes.space]

@occult I only have the Magellan SpaceMouse for SGI. The Spaceball that someone had listed on eBay for a long time was far too expensive.

[flox_advocate@floss.social]

RE: https://vox.ominous.net/@occult/116103841606429399

@occult the historical posts in here make this a thread for @estherschindler and @nomad and @murph

Probably also for @sjvn and @hal_pomeranz

# BangPathForTheYou'veGotMail

We've got 3 years left to build this:

https://mastodon.social/@occult@ominous.net/116103844379755970

[hal_pomeranz@infosec.exchange]

@FLOX_advocate @occult This is the retro future I signed up for!

[flox_advocate@floss.social]

@hal_pomeranz @occult trinary rainbow MFA access cards!

And access so amazing it needs a seatbelt ( unlike starships ) !

[gryficowa@mastodon.social]

@occult Okay, you can say a lot about this power of light from screens, but this woman's hairstyle... Just this woman's hairstyle