Maximum retro level achieved

desertfish · Post by **desertfish** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 9:52 am

"YouTuber Marc Verdiell, a.k.a. CuriousMarc, has turned a 1930s teletype machine into a Linux terminal. To do that, he had to make circuitry and programming that translates five-bit Baudot code into eight-bit ASCII code."

https://interestingengineering.com/video/computer-whiz-uses-1930-model-15-teletype-as-a-terminal-for-linux

here's a picture of this spiffy terminal interface:

Cyber · Post by **Cyber** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:33 am

This is so cool!!

Such projects always remind me computers from 1985 movie Brazil.

I have a Brother electronic typewriter, and I wish to do something similar with it, but did not get my hands on it yet.

Falken · Post by **Falken** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:51 pm

There is a club in germany that does that with teletypes. I saw a demonstration once. I think this thread is about this:

https://forum.classic-computing.de/forum/index.php?thread/14089-verbindung-fernschreibmaschine-computer/

If you don't understand german, there are some english speaking infos lined in there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zAbWapzwu

https://heepy.net/index.php/Optocouplers_for_teletype_current_loop

Too bad my father dumped his teletype years ago ?

It also reminds me of "The cuckoos egg" by Clifford Stoll. He connected simple line printers to the terminal lines of his campus to capture the input/output of intruders. ?

desertfish · Post by **desertfish** » Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:21 am

Clifford Stoll !!

I know him because of the Klein bottle episodes on Numberphile!

Falken · Post by **Falken** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 7:43 pm

On 1/23/2021 at 2:21 AM, desertfish said:

I know him because of the Klein bottle episodes on Numberphile!

If you don't know "The cuckoos egg" yet, I can highly recommend it. Not only for the retro factor but I thinks it's a really good story overall.

And if you _do_ know it, there is this dramatization which is really fun:

But I digress ?

geekpower · Post by **geekpower** » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:44 am

Cliff Stoll! Oh, how I love that human. I got to talk with him a number of times a few years ago as I was hoping to option his book and make it into a film or TV series. He's marvelous and his story is geek-tastic. The dramatization Falken links to is really worth watching, especially since Cliff plays himself.