An idea for an alternate home/personal/8bit computing timeline:
Imagine history, where the next step after printing BASIC program dumps in computer magazines, instead of evolution towards cassette tapes, memory cartridges and floppies, some kind of high capacity QR codes would be standardized and massively used by computer zines.
So, instead of AD/DA converters, used to connect cassette recorders, early home computers would be instead equipped for manual scanning. Not for scanning images (OCR software was already known, but considered high-tech, these days.... image compression was not standardized, with exceptions like GIFs on Amiga's, which were kinda high-end) but for scanning code and data. Hand scanners existed, but compared to tape recorders, it was luxury periphery.
Instead of saving your programs to cassettes, you would print it as huge QR-like-code and scan it into restarted computer next time. You would also buy paper magazines with open source games published, next levels for these games, and so on: like half of the pages would be reviews and screenshots and so, and half would be scan codes, which would provide actually significant bandwidth, for the era (depending on resolution of both print media and scanners, but still...). It would be more accessible, than typing-in BASIC source code manually...
I think the reason history didn't take this turn was the relative low availability of affordable printers in 1980s and relative abundance of audio cassette tapes and chance to reuse them. But still, magazines were being printed and such distribution channel would make computer zines viable...
We could perhaps emulate some of this with smartphones - the required resolution of cameras is available, printers are still around, and it is alternate channel to wi-fi and wireless, completely contact-less and relatively private...
#solarpunk #permacomputing #retrocomputing
Imagine history, where the next step after printing BASIC program dumps in computer magazines, instead of evolution towards cassette tapes, memory cartridges and floppies, some kind of high capacity QR codes would be standardized and massively used by computer zines.
So, instead of AD/DA converters, used to connect cassette recorders, early home computers would be instead equipped for manual scanning. Not for scanning images (OCR software was already known, but considered high-tech, these days.... image compression was not standardized, with exceptions like GIFs on Amiga's, which were kinda high-end) but for scanning code and data. Hand scanners existed, but compared to tape recorders, it was luxury periphery.
Instead of saving your programs to cassettes, you would print it as huge QR-like-code and scan it into restarted computer next time. You would also buy paper magazines with open source games published, next levels for these games, and so on: like half of the pages would be reviews and screenshots and so, and half would be scan codes, which would provide actually significant bandwidth, for the era (depending on resolution of both print media and scanners, but still...). It would be more accessible, than typing-in BASIC source code manually...
I think the reason history didn't take this turn was the relative low availability of affordable printers in 1980s and relative abundance of audio cassette tapes and chance to reuse them. But still, magazines were being printed and such distribution channel would make computer zines viable...
We could perhaps emulate some of this with smartphones - the required resolution of cameras is available, printers are still around, and it is alternate channel to wi-fi and wireless, completely contact-less and relatively private...
#solarpunk #permacomputing #retrocomputing
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