Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does.
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wivax was a VAX at Wang Laboratories in Lowell, MA where Cadmus was based.
The TELEX number printed right next to it is also interesting. This represents telegraph infrastructure and the infant internet, side by side in a transitional moment.
Here’s an ad for cross-compilers and assemblers for UNIX environments.
My favorite detail here is this brag: “Over the past 3 years, we’ve built over 1MB of working code.” Cross-compilers, assemblers, simulators, and debuggers targeting six architectures across a dozen hosts. This code was dense.
The 80’s #UNIX wars were a wild time.
It’s also very fun to read the articles from the time and see what they were predicting for the future. “UNIX for the masses” was a popular topic.
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Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.
This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.
No DNS.
Machines screamed at each other to swap data.
@occult http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ better archive, you can find books from Ultrix, DEC, IBM, etc
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Here’s an ad for cross-compilers and assemblers for UNIX environments.
My favorite detail here is this brag: “Over the past 3 years, we’ve built over 1MB of working code.” Cross-compilers, assemblers, simulators, and debuggers targeting six architectures across a dozen hosts. This code was dense.
The 80’s #UNIX wars were a wild time.
It’s also very fun to read the articles from the time and see what they were predicting for the future. “UNIX for the masses” was a popular topic.
This is an original ad for a #UNIX computer company.
No AI art here! You can see the artist’s signature over the dragon’s wing.
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This is an original ad for a #UNIX computer company.
No AI art here! You can see the artist’s signature over the dragon’s wing.
The art in these ads is incredible. This one for ChipCrafter by SeattleSilicon is pretty great.
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@occult http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ better archive, you can find books from Ultrix, DEC, IBM, etc
@tromo @occult
excuse my digression, but you this amusing:
most of us don't wear a tie when we do these things, but it is historical fact Nikola Tesla wore a top hat when he went to work for Edison. Then he made very tiny highly detailed engineering drawing. They were accurate but hard to read because they were so small.
My dad used to golf with Ike Telsa. I was about 5 years old when Ike gave me a biography. There's a pdf on web now. The writing isn't great, but some items in itare precious -
The art in these ads is incredible. This one for ChipCrafter by SeattleSilicon is pretty great.
This is some proto- @prahou art right here.
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Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.
This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.
No DNS.
Machines screamed at each other to swap data.
@occult Kid that didn't know about UUCP bang path here. I love it!
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@occult Kid that didn't know about UUCP bang path here. I love it!
@aanee It’s very interesting to see how they solved these problems before the modern standard infrastructure and protocols were in place.
These types of solutions only existed for a few years, but they had to make do with what they had.
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Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.
This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.
No DNS.
Machines screamed at each other to swap data.
@occult Screamed? More like screeched!
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This is some proto- @prahou art right here.
To think all of this amazing art is buried in 40-year-old computer magazines.
This one is from the July 1988 issue of "VLSI Systems Design."
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To think all of this amazing art is buried in 40-year-old computer magazines.
This one is from the July 1988 issue of "VLSI Systems Design."
@occult strong Memphis style energy
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This is some proto- @prahou art right here.
@occult I recall so many of Robert Tinney’s artwork from the issues of Byte Magazine. I grew up learning about everything computing from that periodical.
I just learned in looking for these images posted here that Robert passed in 1-Feb this year. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/byte-magazine-artist-robert-tinney-who-illustrated-the-birth-of-pcs-dies-at-78/
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@occult strong Memphis style energy
@neauoire new Radiohead album art just dropped (1988).
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@neauoire new Radiohead album art just dropped (1988).
There’s an LLM coding joke in here somewhere.
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Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.
This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.
No DNS.
Machines screamed at each other to swap data.
@occult very happy with the typography and layout in this one.
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This is an original ad for a #UNIX computer company.
No AI art here! You can see the artist’s signature over the dragon’s wing.
@occult I didn’t know Gould made computer systems as well.
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@occult I didn’t know Gould made computer systems as well.
@DeltaWye and fantasy art!
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A abekonge@venner.network shared this topic
