That’s one aspect our modern boring computing has lost: industrial design. I think the “case modding” culture of PCs is fighting that boringness.
Why do I have the Image of the future kitchen, you press a button
and the computer and other things just rise oout of the floor some how.
The Jetsons had the real future kichen, a robot maid, with big ***.
The PDP 8 had table top version in 1967 but I thought they also had a version
other than a rack or desk.
Ben.
There were certainly a few decades of beige boxes: it’s one reason, perhaps, that I’ve never loved PCs much. Even the beige box versions of the Amiga and Archimedes don’t do much for me - but I bonded with the all-in-keyboard Amiga 500 and 1200. Arguably, computers progressed beyond the beige box when consoles came out, and smart phones, and tablets (as the article implies) as well as the various routers, NAS boxes and ‘voice assistants’ (which are computers in some senses but not the senses that appeal to me.)
Perhaps this is something which continues to draw me to retro computing, where a computer was something you might use to compute with - some prime numbers, some digits of pi, some fractals.
Which is odd, because this article about the kitchen computer is more or less presenting an appliance: something you’d use, not something you’d program.
You might be right, @jhi, about the case modding, and it’s an interesting point, but it’s not my milieu!
1 Like
I liked the orginal PC, it had a good keyboard and the monitor fit on top
of the case.A printer and or a modem sat a few feet away. Mice optional
for $100.
Nowdays it is mess of usb cables and devices with wall warts
everywhere. Still using a IBM keyboard, my typing still hunt and peck,
but the keys work. I dread replacing the computer, because I need to re-install the internet and can’t seem find the old passwords and setup options.
1 Like
Modding is not my milieu, either, but thought it is an obvious “fight the beige box” reaction.
1 Like