Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Computer Folklore, Circa 1984

Posted by timothy on from the and-counting dept.

savetz writes "The full text of the classic 1984 computer book Digital Deli, The Comprehensive, User-Lovable Menu of Computer Lore, Culture, Lifestyles and Fancy, is now on the Web. (Autstralian mirror) A wonderful look at technology culture in the golden age of the microcomputer. 20 other old computer books are at the site, too."

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, so that's what happened by ch-chuck · · Score: 4, Informative

    one mystery cleared up: I had always wondered how Byte Magazine, started by Wayne Green, ended up as his (ex) wife's property:

    Because he was in the middle of an IRS audit and did not wish to have his new venture involved, Wayne registered the magazine in his wife's name. As it turned out, this was a serious error. No one except those involved will ever know just what happened, but when the smoke cleared Wayne still had 73 magazine and his ex-wife, now married to a German gentleman, had Byte, with Carl Helmers as the editor.

    doh!

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
    1. Re:Oh, so that's what happened by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Informative
      It got stranger than that. Wayne Green was then going to start a magazine called Kilobyte. Byte, to block him, ran a really bad comic called Kilobyte and trademarked it.

      So Wayne Green started Kilobaud instead, and Byte dropped the comic right afterwards.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  2. Re:Full Book Text Online by Lord+Ender · · Score: 4, Informative

    Damnit, for the last time, theft and copyright infringement are COMPLETELY different things!

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.