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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.
My C64 had a cassette recorder (DataSette I think it was called). It wasn't being Soviet, it was being cheap when the floppy disk drive more expensive than the computer.
Can we please stop repeating the blatantly false claim that Soviets were communist? They may have cynically flown the flag, but in practice they were unapologetically fascist (same small group of elites controls both government and industry). Communism involves the workers owning the means of production - that's only compatible with the government owning the means of production if the workers own the government, and NOBODY is making that claim about Soviet Russia.
Maybe one day someone will be able to attempt state-level communism, but we're going to have to make some massive advances in democracy first.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Try modifying your BluRay player now. You'll get that knock on the door.