[vcf-midatlantic] An object lesson in modern vintage computing

Dave McGuire mcguire at neurotica.com
Fri Nov 20 15:11:12 EST 2015


On 11/20/2015 06:04 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>>> 2) is retro tech practical or nostalgic?
>> 
>> Nostalgic
> 
> My interest is purely practical. If you don’t know why things are
> done a certain way one tends to re-invent the wheel.

  My interest is in both.  For me it goes far (really far) beyond
nostalgia...first, it's respect for how we came to be where we are
today.  These amazing iOS and Android devices we're so attached to
didn't just leap into existence in a vacuum; their development was a
process that really began in, very roughly, the 1940s.

  Further, as a designer, knowing where we came from better prepares me
to help guide where we're going.

  My favorite quote:

  "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on
retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to
improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when
experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is
perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it."

  - George Santayana, 1906


                -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA



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