4 ms·

I often question myself on why the aesthetics of personal computing were so special our brains that it sticks to this day.

trollbridge 6mo ago
Perhaps because we grew up with it. The VGA 8x16 font reminds me of growing up when I had my first computer that was all mine, with a plasma display where the pixels were clearly visible, yet quite restful on the eyes.
- agumonkey 6mo ago
  the nostalgia doesn't check all the boxes, even though yeah it's hard to deny, but it embodies a different mindset, a strange limited visual form that promised the future. it was also its own kind of design and aesthetic, today we have infinitely capable machines and all possible fonts but we lost that difference. ps: i have the same relationship to vintage desktop computer form factor, something about an old blocky box, an hdd led, a cd drive
  - trollbridge 6mo ago
    One odd thing I have noticed is that my young children think a COMPAQ Portable III (not the machine I had as a youngster, but similar) is far more interesting to them than a modern, sleek MacBook. I think it's because they can touch it and turn it on and off, it simply occupies more physical space, and it makes more "interesting" noises.
    - agumonkey 6mo ago
      Yes, it's close to what I'm feeling. I booted a pentium 2 era Dell desktop and all the physical aspects (volume, surface, motor noise, activity led) made me feel happier. It's partly emotional but also informational, I'm informed of what is there and what is happening (for disk activity led it's also very very useful, I miss that on hdd and usb keys all the time). Todays machines are unbelievably powerful but it's basically a nanoscopic blackbox out of reach for your mind.
joezydeco 6mo ago
Because there were constraints. Name it: CPU speed, RAM, screen size, connection speed, whatever. We long for those days when we had to sit back and think the problem out instead of adding another package import.
kstrauser 6mo ago
It was an era when you could know a machine. I had a C64 and had a huge chunk of its kernal addresses memorized from sheer repetition. You could remember its whole ISA and timings. The memory map was learnable. The hardware interfaces were simple. I have zero desire to use a C64 again, aside from the occasional nostalgia pang for a specific game or program. But I do miss that feeling of complete, total understand of the thing in front of me. I think that’s the feeling that implanted on me, and that the aesthetics conjure. “Hey, the world is complicated, but this font looks a lot like the time when you felt like you knew everything.”
- jibal 6mo ago
  I started programming on an IBM 1620 with 20,000 BCD digits of memory, 20 usec to add 2 digits, 160 usec for branch not taken, 200 usec for branch taken. I remember these and many other details but I have no desire to go back because I'm not an idiot. The first computer I owned was an Amiga 1000, to which I added a 50 MB hard drive that cost me $1000. Again, no desire to go back. Same with bad fonts.

trollbridge 6mo ago

Perhaps because we grew up with it. The VGA 8x16 font reminds me of growing up when I had my first computer that was all mine, with a plasma display where the pixels were clearly visible, yet quite restful on the eyes.

agumonkey 6mo ago
the nostalgia doesn't check all the boxes, even though yeah it's hard to deny, but it embodies a different mindset, a strange limited visual form that promised the future. it was also its own kind of design and aesthetic, today we have infinitely capable machines and all possible fonts but we lost that difference. ps: i have the same relationship to vintage desktop computer form factor, something about an old blocky box, an hdd led, a cd drive
- trollbridge 6mo ago
  One odd thing I have noticed is that my young children think a COMPAQ Portable III (not the machine I had as a youngster, but similar) is far more interesting to them than a modern, sleek MacBook. I think it's because they can touch it and turn it on and off, it simply occupies more physical space, and it makes more "interesting" noises.
  - agumonkey 6mo ago
    Yes, it's close to what I'm feeling. I booted a pentium 2 era Dell desktop and all the physical aspects (volume, surface, motor noise, activity led) made me feel happier. It's partly emotional but also informational, I'm informed of what is there and what is happening (for disk activity led it's also very very useful, I miss that on hdd and usb keys all the time). Todays machines are unbelievably powerful but it's basically a nanoscopic blackbox out of reach for your mind.

joezydeco 6mo ago

Because there were constraints. Name it: CPU speed, RAM, screen size, connection speed, whatever. We long for those days when we had to sit back and think the problem out instead of adding another package import.

kstrauser 6mo ago

It was an era when you could know a machine. I had a C64 and had a huge chunk of its kernal addresses memorized from sheer repetition. You could remember its whole ISA and timings. The memory map was learnable. The hardware interfaces were simple. I have zero desire to use a C64 again, aside from the occasional nostalgia pang for a specific game or program. But I do miss that feeling of complete, total understand of the thing in front of me. I think that’s the feeling that implanted on me, and that the aesthetics conjure. “Hey, the world is complicated, but this font looks a lot like the time when you felt like you knew everything.”

jibal 6mo ago
I started programming on an IBM 1620 with 20,000 BCD digits of memory, 20 usec to add 2 digits, 160 usec for branch not taken, 200 usec for branch taken. I remember these and many other details but I have no desire to go back because I'm not an idiot. The first computer I owned was an Amiga 1000, to which I added a 50 MB hard drive that cost me $1000. Again, no desire to go back. Same with bad fonts.