1980's Soviet Bloc Computing: Printers, Mice, and Cassette Decks

szczys writes Martin Maly rode the wave of computer evolution in the 1980's while living in the former Czechoslovak Republic. Computers themselves were hard to come by, peripherals were even more rare and so enthusiasts of the time hacked their own, like dot-matrix printers and computer mice. If your build was impressive enough, the government would adopt it and begin manufacturing the design somewhat widely. Was your first computer mouse built into a plastic spice container? We covered what the personal computer revolution was like in Eastern Bloc countries back in December.

Comments

Re:And the less admirable aspects ...

[Anonymous Coward]

They have no idea what a real police state is - In a true police state you can't even have a printer.

And this is what frustrates me when people make the No True Scotsman argument - they don't even realise they've made it, or that the thing they're claiming runs a spectrum.

Tell you what, you go and take a few photos of government buildings today, see what happens to you.

I'll tell you what happened when a friend of mine, as a symbol of solidarity, took a photo of an American flag in another country - four cops and a dog tracked him down, searched him, deleted the photo, and threatened him with arrest for doing so without permission.

At the request of the American ambassador, no less.

So yeah, police state.