@kjhealy I really thought the jellybean iMac was going to jump-start some far-out case designs, but not so much :(

@kjhealy I concur! I can feel those toggle switches, hear the clickity-clack keyboards, and am awash with those colorful keyboards.

A while ago I built a working PDP-11/70 scale replica from a fabulous kit that Oscar Vermeulen sells. It blinks away on my bookshelf now. https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2021/10/09/building-a-pdp-11/70-kit/

@kjhealy @aud oh yes.

@kjhealy @aud

@kjhealy @aud

@kjhealy @aud

@kjhealy
I'm sick of minimalism, bring back bakelite! Computers need fins.
@adrienne

@kjhealy “…crew expendable….” 😇

@kjhealy I'm so sick of "Congratulations. You spent $2000 on premium kit, and now you have a glass aquarium (which will shatter if you look at it funny, and makes all the dust visible) with a bunch of pastel lights that look like Pride exploded inside said aquarium.

I want to see a modern case manufacturer say "we took precision measurements of the one specific AT full tower everyone had with a 386/40 or 486/66 in, and then scaled it slightly to fit modern components. Comes in beige only."

@kjhealy How else are we gonna make all those old sci-fi movies come true, right?

@kjhealy Peronally, I’m going pretty hard on the Esslinger 80s.

@kjhealy 💯

@kjhealy There's still one of these, with the 14" (4 colour !) Monitor hibernating in my attic 🙂
#bt #Merlin #Tonto / #ICL #oneperdesk

@kjhealy
Jane's home videophone.
(looking spacerific is not good enough; the new retro needs to follow you around the house..)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/future-calling-videophones-in-the-world-of-the-jetsons-6789346/

@kjhealy @pluralistic loki's TVA office design is a great example of this

@kjhealy Fractal Designs have some really nice cases, including ones with inlaid wood that do a great job of feeling retro and bang up to date.

@kjhealy

YES! Can I have one for Christmas?

@kjhealy Was just saying that to someone else in a sub-thread about the industrial design of the 2024 computers in the DS9 episode "Past Tense".

@kjhealy
Also, who needs a VIDEO terminal
when you can have the printed page?!?

@kjhealy So much yes. I think it's an untapped market. Do want.

@kjhealy
Also this Tektronix vector graphics terminal

@kjhealy #RetroWoody Its all about the #Wood baby! Ask #Studebaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BciC4N980ic

@kjhealy
I totally agree:

@kjhealy I concur.

@kjhealy How about no?! 😮

@kjhealy what's going on with the first image's font? Looks rendered.

@kjhealy computers used to be so cool

@kjhealy buddy, you and me both

@kjhealy @pixel The first image: Pure beauty! 🥰

@kjhealy
That last one looks like the inspiration for the terminals on Severed.

@kjhealy @lisamelton The one with orange keyboard looks like something I've seen as a patent from Apple, and which might be a design for a future iMac

@kjhealy I miss the retro designs but my wrists hurt just thinking about the ergonomic sins being committed by some of these.

@kjhealy
Yes Dave...

@kjhealy I could make an argument that, while the VAX was a triumph of CISC design, its console aesthetics were a serious descent into beige anonymity. Yes, bring back computers with identifiable color schemes!

@kjhealy The VT05 was really peak star trek ascii terminal, wasn't it?

@kjhealy @spottyfox - I CAN HEAR THOSE KEYS

@kjhealy If I had the energy and economic experience I would have found a company that does exactly that. I would have called it "Awesome Cases GmbH". Maybe someone else feels inspired. We are surrounded by so damn ugly hardware - this has to come to an end.

@kjhealy Truly the Lost Generation of carpal tunnels

@kjhealy
Worked with them---in the 70's. Now I am 70.
I'll stick with the newer ones---and also enjoy the fact that they take up a lot less space!

@kjhealy I like the green and blue ones. I like those colors.

@kjhealy Remember the "Soroc" line of computer monitors in the '70s? The name was a scramble of the owner's favorite beer (Coors) and the logo was a circle with a triangle - just like what the top of an old beer can would look like when opened with those now rare "church key" hold punch openers.

@kjhealy Actual keyboards. How I miss them. So much better for typing on.

@kjhealy yes!! The production design of the workplaces/cubicles was what originally pulled me in to give Severance a watch. This aesthetic is organic in a way that reminds me of Jugendstil designs.

@kjhealy I want my lisp machine back!

@kjhealy I always had a fondness for the tech aesthetic of Space: 1999

@kjhealy yes please

@kjhealy @lisamelton This reminds me of the Intertec Superbrain I had (and used!) circa 1990, after rescuing it from a dormitory common lounge. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertec_Superbrain

@kjhealy @leyrer

@kjhealy This is great except... I do rather like having my desk space.

@kjhealy @cabel such iconic pieces in Lost and Severance

@kjhealy I NEED a Data General Dasher D2! :nc_aww:

@kjhealy Absolutely! I dig the swoops and the two-texture plastic juxtapositions.

@kjhealy I have many fond memories of that ADDS terminal! I wrote drivers for it on a real-time operating system.

@kjhealy truly. Is anybody doing it now other hobbyists?

@kjhealy

What a look! The colors are so satisfying.

@kjhealy Wow, I started programming in 1979 and I don't remember any of those - very spacey! My 80s Televideo portable (think Osborne) would fit the same aesthetic. 3Com tried to revive the look around 2000 with the Audrey, which had a strong Jetsons vibe.

@kjhealy Yeah computing doesn't feel like it used to with all these thin monitors and RGBs. A resurgence of iMac like colored shells would also be welcome in my opinion.

@kjhealy some custom USB or MIDI interfaces would be awesome. Oh, this looks interesting: https://yaeltex.com/

@kjhealy I'm here for this

@kjhealy I don’t remember how many CRT terminal types I used (Infoton, Hazeltine, and Tektronix for sure), but they were all nicer to look at than to type on. The only terminal I enjoyed using was a DEC hardcopy unit that was almost impossible to get on because everyone else preferred it, too. Terrible to admit how much I enjoyed going through page after page of fanfold paper.

@kjhealy Pretty colours!

@kjhealy Cool tech, wonder how that VT-20 ended up with a typo on the screen tho. "Defintely"

@kjhealy look at this beauty, a holborn:

@kjhealy cc’ing @mwichary on this thread just in case there’s anything new to him here in these beautiful shots. 😁

@kjhealy

These things look more futuristic than the future does

@kjhealy I can't keep up with these new fangled machines.

@kjhealy Agreed, the weird colors and curves were great, just because we don't NEED a huge case doesn't mean we should get one!

@kjhealy
All of you need to subscribe to the #casettefuturism for more of this!

@kjhealy Severance: I've got this

@kjhealy

@kjhealy Let's bring back the OG

@kjhealy Same for desks and cubicles… (both examples from the ‘Plasticarium’, Design Museum, Brussels).

@kjhealy@mastodon.social Cool!! Though I have never seen the real thing.

@kjhealy hm. How can we package the 40” monitor around a keyboard? Would that require a ton of swooping, stream-lined plastic? Waiting for drawings of retro shapes for modern giant screens.

@kjhealy Counterpoint: if you find yourself seated at a 1970s terminal...there is almost certainly a xenomorph right behind you.

@kjhealy +1

@kjhealy and software? 🥹

@kjhealy
Quantum computers look pretty interesting and (to me) somewhat retro :)
https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=quantum%20computer%20picture

@kjhealy seen these? https://www.docubyte.com/projects/guide-to-computing/#.V7woS7WHZtt

@kjhealy Gotta research how to hook up that adm3a terminal to my PC...

@kjhealy That lack of ergonomics, though... 😬

@kjhealy https://www.deutsches-kunststoff-museum.de/sammlung/virtuelles-museum/k-2010-00008/

@kjhealy @djsundog sure! Ergonomics be dammed. Back in my day we coded basic until we had a crick in our necks and that’s the way we liked it! 🤪

@kjhealy
Do you know @mwichary He made a book about keyboards, and computers.

@kjhealy are you familiar with this?
https://www.theverge.com/23841276/mythic-computer-keegan-mcnamara-pc-builder

@kjhealy
They look a lot more science-fiction-y than what we've got.