Up now on Technologizer.com is my recent interview with John Linnell of the tech-savvy rock band They Might Be Giants. Linnell and I discussed his personal computer and video game history, how he’s integrated computers into his music career, a fierce Tetris addiction, and gruesome encounters with X-Acto knives. I hope you enjoy it.

By they way — Happy Birthday to Mr. Linnell, who turned 52 yesterday.

Does anybody out there still use an old, obsolete computer for real work?

For example, I’ve heard tales of TRS-80 Model 100 laptops powering road-side traffic signs, and of companies relying on Apple IIs with custom BASIC software from the 1980s. Some firms still keep ancient mainframes with important databases running deep in the basement, and while others have not yet upgraded from Windows 3.1.

I’m not talking about hobbyist vintage computing here. I’m talking about an individual or company who still uses an old, old machine to get things done. Maybe you’ve spotted a case of this while out and about, or perhaps you know someone who won’t let go of their trusty PC. Obviously, the older the computer, the more interesting the story.

If you guys know of any instances of this, I’d love to hear about them in the comments below! I’ll compile the best stories in a future blog post.

It’s just, you know, one a them computers. One a them things. Don’t work.

Discussion Topic of the Week: In your words, what is a computer?

Up now on PCMag is a slideshow I made showcasing freaky-weird 3D amateur computer art of the early 1990s. It’s composed mostly of GIF files from the BBS era that I’ve been collecting for some time now.

Here’s a snippet of the introduction:

Back in the early 1990s, when 3D computer-generated art was still a new thing, a brave new breed of amateur artists emerged. They took up early 3D CGI (computer generated imagery) tools and created graphical works that they then shared on dial-up BBSes and CompuServe.

Over the years, I’ve collected dozens of these now-vintage images, and I recently noticed that many of them are, well, more than a little bizarre.

When you’re done checking out the slideshow, feel free to post your fondest memories of vintage CGI graphics. And if you have any bizarre 3D CGI images of your own to share, please post a link.

Bloop bloop bleep bleep bloop bleep bloop

While cleaning out my garage the other day (as I do periodically to make room for new stuff), I came upon the family Big Trak, which my father bought for my brother and me at a flea market in the early 1980s.

In case you didn’t know, the Big Trak was an electronic toy tank that one could program to perform certain movements in a sequence. At its heart lay the famous Texas-Instruments TMS1000 microcontroller. While the user typed in commands on the keypad seen above, the Big Trak emitted an array of wonderful synthesized beeps and bloops that still give me warm and fuzzy feelings when I hear them today.

Like many of the flea market toys my brother and I received back then, our Big Trak arrived with a broken front axle and a missing battery door cover. My dad would purposely buy broken electronics for very cheap and fix them up for us. And so he did with the Big Trak. The gadget provided many hours of entertainment for us as it traversed our living room’s shag carpeting time and time again.

After about 10 years of rough play and 20 years of improper storage, my Big Trak was in pretty terrible shape when I came upon it recently. It was time to put the Big fella to rest, so I pulled out this keypad just before saying a final farewell to our old family friend.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite electronic (non video-game) toy of all time?

Ten years ago today, the first two Apple retail stores opened to the public. As you might expect me to do, I wrote an article about it. You can see the result, “A Tale of Two Apple Stores (The First Two),” over at Macworld right now. It’s part of a larger series of articles about the Apple retail stores’ 10th anniversary. Hope you enjoy it.

When you’re done reading, tell us about your first visit to an Apple Store. What were your feelings and impressions? Did you buy anything?

CYBERSPACE (echo, echo, echo…):

The future of mankind or an ingenious scheme to sell virtual furniture for real money?

It’s been a while since I’ve done a slideshow where I attempted to quantify the unquantifiable and rank a series of things in order from least to greatest. I’m typically not a fan of the format because the results are always subjective, but I still think it works because it stimulates public thought and gives me a good excuse to both entertain and educate on a subject I love.

The subject, in this case, is online worlds, where people gather together in virtual space to buy/sell mouse-crafted Furry outfits, chat about LARPing, and construct entire worlds filled with simulated genitalia.

So without further ado, I present to you “The 11 Most Influential Virtual Worlds of All Time” over at PC World. I hope you enjoy it.

When you’re done reading/pounding your fists, feel free to tell us about your favorite online worlds in the comments below.

California Games at the Kitchen Table (October 2010)

Think Windows, OS X, and Linux are the only modern desktop operating systems out there?

No?

(OK, I know you’re smarter than that. But just for a moment, feign ignorance so my intro works.)

Think again! Up now on Technologizer is “The Secret World of Alternative Operating Systems” — a slideshow devoted to 12 little-known GUI-based operating systems. Many of them are free, all run on the x86 platform, and none are based on Linux. Even cooler, a handful of them descend from legacy OSes and GUI shells that once intended to compete with Microsoft Windows.

This particular slideshow is devoted to operating systems that run on the most common PC standard at the moment, so don’t get disappointed if you don’t see AmigaOS, RiscOS, or MiNT up there.

I hope you enjoy it.

There are about 730 hours in a month.

You may remember getting one of these in the mail in the 1990s.

Ok, ok…you may remember getting dozens and dozens of these CDs in the mail. Some people used them as coasters, some as Frisbees. Some put them in the microwave to watch them sparkle. (To any kids reading: please don’t try this.) Me? I collected them.

I saved just about every CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online floppy disk or CD I ever received back then, and I amassed quite a collection. Some day I plan to write about these promotional disks more, but for now you’ll have to be satisfied with this shiny blue AOL Titanium 5.0 CD from way back in ’99.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What did you do with all the promotional CDs and floppy disks you received in the mail?