pnewman2

Tangentially related story: On my first ever visit to Akihabara, back in the autumn of 2000, I saw a used SGI workstation (I think an Octane, it was rounded and kind of a teal blue) on sale in a really cool electronics shop. They had all kinds of other great stuff -- a big mixing board from a studio, television cameras, rgb monitors, stuff like that. The price was not that crazy but I was a broke college student, so I had to be satisfied with just the coolness of having seen it. So I moved on to the shops with robot parts and old arcade boards and stuff.

Akihabara is still a fun place to visit, but it seems to have been taken over entirely by the Otaku culture. Otakudom has always been a part of Akihabara, but now it seems like that's all there is. I miss the old Akihabara and the DIY/tinkerer spirit of it.

This may qualify as fair use, and in any case it's not like this is going to jeopardize sales of the 29 year-old Super Mario Bros or any of it's derivatives.

Yes! I forgot to include that!

Seems like a good time to mention the Demoscene, which feels like a similar concept but a bit more grassroots.

I'm not a participant in the Demoscene, but I admire both the technical and artistic creativity of what sceners produce.

Here are a couple sites for anyone who might be interested:

http://www.pouet.net/ http://www.pouet.net/prodlist.php?order=release https://www.scene.org/

I read this book as a child and now I read it to my young son. Creativity is certainly timeless.

My attempt at Ringo: http://new.weavesilk.com/?czix