Christopher Drum

christopherdrum@hachyderm.io

A nerd doing nerdy things that sometimes delight other nerds.I run a retrocomputing blog, focused entirely on productivity software from the period 1977(ish) - 1995(ish). No games; just work. <a href="https://stonetools.ghost.io" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no">https://stonetools.ghost.io</a>This Week in Retro was very kind and surprised me with a nice segment about my retro-enthusiast work <a href="https://youtu.be/UHYscl1Ayqg?si=UWdLyX7gIQPs-zNd&t=2137" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no">https://youtu.be/UHYscl1Ayqg?si=UWdLyX7gIQPs-zNd&t=2137</s

Posts

Post #2154229
I had to write about Cheifet. https://christopherdrum.github.io/posts/2026/01/stewart-cheifet-passing
Post #2154228
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/115828083257631023 Today&#39;s AI boom is not the first, though it is definitely the biggest. Today we speak of systems being capable or incapable of AI. Back in the day, even the lowly #c64 was put to work in the #AI mines. I was curious to see how that worked, and to understand the original boom a little better. That led me into looking at Japan&#39;s &quot;Fifth Generation Computing&quot; initiative. I had no idea how spooked the W...
Post #2154227
@thomasfuchs If expert systems weren&#39;t inevitable, how do you explain what I just did with a C64? https://stonetools.ghost.io/xper-c64
Post #2154225
@thomasfuchs 85% is good enough for me (I&#39;m easy to please).
Post #2154222
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/115904894792019266 The tension between my interest to grow closer to this software and its constant moves to push me away was crazy high.
Post #2154219
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/115987139747205973 Video production has always been a little terrifying for me; I simply have no head for it. That didn&#39;t stop me from diving head-first into those unknown waters for this week&#39;s post.
Post #2154216
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/116071488450412028 After the multimedia extravaganza of the last post, I went back to basics with this one. I&#39;m talking barebones, green monochrome text on a black screen, 64K RAM, hardcore, &quot;getting business done&quot; stuff. Just help me lift this 29 pound &quot;portable&quot; Kaypro II onto the desk and I&#39;ll show you what I built.
Post #2154214
@thomasfuchs @clemtre Glad you&#39;re enjoying it!
Post #2154213
@thomasfuchs @clemtre I have been contemplating what to do with categories of supplemental products like this. In the dBASE article, I did a mini-roundup of CP/M compatibility add-ons. Maybe I can find some space in a future word processor article to do something similar for spell checkers. 🤔
Post #2154212
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/116184728275122986 I&#39;ve been good friends with #VisiCalc over the past five years, but I&#39;ve always turned my nose up at #Lotus123 for some reason. &quot;Thinks he&#39;s so special. He&#39;s not special. Just a copycat wannabe jerk and...&quot; well, I&#39;ll save all that for therapy. I finally broke down and learned it, and you know what? I didn&#39;t hate it. I liked it, even. Maybe I even... loved it?! #retr...
Post #2154210
RE: https://mastodon.social/@stonetoolsblog/116303856686192513 Aldus PageMaker dramatically altered the course of my life, showing me how the written word can be amplified with the right tools. It&#39;s been over 30 years since I last touched it, and I had a lot of fun, but also was hit with a bit of &quot;Was this how it always was? How did I put up with it for so long?&quot; I picked a project that interested me and PageMaker absolutely came through in the end. If you know my blo...