On Wed, Mar 23, 2005 at 05:52:22AM -0800, Jeffrey Bergier wrote:
> and as for it being useless. In a productivity sense.... maybe.
N0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!
There is a common myth that techological advances lead to increased
productivity and better entertainment. The latter may be true as
games and video become more more immersive, yet several millenia
of human history have demonstrated that abstract games like chess
and go are equally able to engage our imagination and intellect.
As for productivity gains, many HCI studies have demonstrated that
implementation has a greater impact upon productivity than a
computers performance or capabilities (eg. Landauer, 1995).
What is the Retrochallenge?
------------------------------
The Retrochallenge demonstrates the utility of legacy (or obsolete)
technologies for work and play. It sets out a basic definition of
a legacy system and establishes a series of challenges which we
can fulfill for additional points.
What is a Retrocomputer?
------------------------------
A retrocomputer is any system produced before March 1993, which
runs an operating system released prior to August 1995 (the release
dates of the Pentium processor and Windows 95, in case you are
wondering). Any other hardware qualifies, provided that it doesn't
offer CPU acceleration. Likewise, any other software qualifies.
What are the Challenges?
------------------------------
Exclusive use of qualifying systems at home, 10 points per day.
Exclusive use of qualifying systems except at work, 20 points per day.
Exclusive use of qualifying systems, 50 points per day.
There are three levels here because using a qualifying machine
when you're away from home can be next to impossible, and some
people have no choice except to use the machine their employer
sets in front of them.
Getting the machine online, 50 points x protocol multiplier.
You get one multiplier for each of the following protocols:
IMAP, POP3, SMTP, NNTP, FTP, IRC
You get two multipliers for each of the following protocols:
HTTP, gopher (but you have to find a server)
I'm sure you get the idea. Feel free to add your ideas to the
bottom of the challenges list. Things I was thinking about: an
art competition, a demo programming competition, etc.. The point
is to show how much you could do (and can continue to do) with
legacy systems.
Byron.
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