Blathr Wayne Lorentz

I am both impressed and disappointed with macOS.

I set up a new user account so that I could telnet in to a macOS box to perform certain tasks that can only be done via telnet, and with a CLI.

Not surprisingly, in 2023, macOS doesn't come with terminal definitions for a TRS-80 Model 100. It's a 40-year-old machine, so it makes sense that I would have to build my own. Which I did.

But as I was doing so, I noticed that macOS still comes with terminal definitions for far older, and more obscure computers than the one I'm connecting to it with.

• Altos machines
• Amigas
• Apple Lisas (natch)
• 85 types of AT&T terminals
• C. Itoh (I didn't even know C. Itoh made computers)
• Commodore B-128s
• HeathKits
• I.B.M. computers running Aixterm in Japanese
• Microbees
• Minitels
• Dozens of NCR terminals
• Several types of Kaypros
• Four types of Zenith machines

Granted, these terminal definitions are just part of the stock set that is packed in with many Unixes. But I still find it surprising that after a half-century, these files continue to proliferate, and still exist, even though the number of people who would use them is basically zero.

Weekend project: Coming up with a harder, slower, less-reliable way to read the New York Times. Mission accomplished.

Some people like to measure a computerʼs ability to asking if it can run Linux. Some ask if it can run Doom. I ask, ”Can it run Zork?” The answer for my TRS-80 Model 100 is “Yes, with a little help.”

Today I learned that top does not respect terminal settings. But htop does.

Today I learned that Nano works fine on the tiny screen of a TRS-80 Model 100.

…and weʼre online!

Slightly less dramatic than connecting to CompuServe for the first time, but nevertheless a personal communications victory.

I have written down my memories of using a TRS-80 Model 100 as a journalist.

To keep it kosher, I wrote it on my TRS-80 Model 100.

Relaxing, retro style.