A True Telnet BBS on a Casio Calculator | Hacker News Reader

A True Telnet BBS on a Casio Calculator

ei3lh.eu

117 pointsaustinallegro12 comments

Just reminded me of my favorite toy as a kid, the IR-7000 [1]. I convinced myself I was Ethan Hunt riding around on my bike with it in my pocket.

Cool to see this working.

[1] https://segaretro.org/IR_7000_Communicator

I love this, but feedback to the author: the combination of a quirky font and quirky colours make this incredibly hard to read.

I think it’s the contrast that’s the problem, rather than the choice of font (although serif fonts can be slightly harder to read). Lighten the background slightly, and darken the text slightly, and it would be much more readable.

(But I too love the project, and am interested to see the result when the BBS is available via packet radio.)

I just ordered a Cardputer Adv on a similar interest. I saw the Cardputer Zero is sold out on Kickstarter! I miss my LG Phenom :(

I really enjoy this format. Like reading a story from the authors life. Like you might read in an autobiography.

I don’t think I write this way very often, but I enjoyed reading it.

My takeaway is to write a bit like a journal more often.

A Casio FX-730P got me through secondary school. Sitting there programming during every lesson instead of paying attention.

I love these little calculators. How amazing it would be if we could carry a text-only local model with no network access in this format? Kind of like a pocket companion. Not too different from a phone, but a lot cooler nonetheless (with much better typing).

That "AI-generated fake magazine advert" for the VX-4 is glorious.

These are not calculators, but pocket computers. Different markets (one crashed, the other still exists) with different hardware.

Man, one of these was my fever dream as a kid.

This is so awesome.

What a wonderfully hacky project. That's what's possible when hardware is not deliberately made unusable by planned obsolescence.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com