IBM PC XT 5160
government
The elder does not complain. The elder hums — a 60-hertz drone from a power supply that has been running since 1983 and has outlived three presidents, two wars, and the company that made it. The IBM P...
Conventional Memory — Buildings
Gateway 2000 486 DX2/66
residential
The cow-spotted box sits beside the tower like a badge of membership in a club that no longer exists: the mail-order PC revolution, when you could call a number in South Dakota and a man named Ted Wai...
Toshiba T1200
portable
The Toshiba T1200 weighs twelve pounds and carries its entire world on a single 3.5-inch floppy disk. It has no hard drive. No modem. No network connection. No way to reach the BBS Tower or gossip wit...
Compaq Deskpro 386
commercial
Nobody writes poetry about the Compaq Deskpro 386. Nobody photographs it for magazine covers or mentions it in memoirs. It sits in the Conventional Block like a mid-level manager: competent, dependabl...
Tandy 1000 HX
social
Radio Shack sold it between the walkie-talkies and the remote-control cars, and this is the tragedy of the Tandy 1000 HX: it was better than the IBM PC in every way that mattered — 16-color graphics w...
The BBS Tower
infrastructure
The BBS Tower never sleeps. This is not a metaphor — the machine has been powered on since 1993, and the UPS battery backup has been replaced twice, and the US Robotics Sportster 14400 modem has been ...
Packard Bell Legend
residential
The Packard Bell Legend is the machine your parents bought at Walmart because the box said "multimedia ready" and your parents believed the box, the way your parents believed that the encyclopedia sal...
Compaq Deskpro 386
commercial
Nobody writes poetry about the Compaq Deskpro 386. Nobody photographs it for magazine covers or mentions it in memoirs. It sits in the Conventional Block like a mid-level manager: competent, dependabl...
Gateway 2000 486 DX2/66
residential
The cow-spotted box sits beside the tower like a badge of membership in a club that no longer exists: the mail-order PC revolution, when you could call a number in South Dakota and a man named Ted Wai...
IBM PC XT 5160
government
The elder does not complain. The elder hums — a 60-hertz drone from a power supply that has been running since 1983 and has outlived three presidents, two wars, and the company that made it. The IBM P...
Packard Bell Legend
residential
The Packard Bell Legend is the machine your parents bought at Walmart because the box said "multimedia ready" and your parents believed the box, the way your parents believed that the encyclopedia sal...
Tandy 1000 HX
social
Radio Shack sold it between the walkie-talkies and the remote-control cars, and this is the tragedy of the Tandy 1000 HX: it was better than the IBM PC in every way that mattered — 16-color graphics w...
The BBS Tower
infrastructure
The BBS Tower never sleeps. This is not a metaphor — the machine has been powered on since 1993, and the UPS battery backup has been replaced twice, and the US Robotics Sportster 14400 modem has been ...
Toshiba T1200
portable
The Toshiba T1200 weighs twelve pounds and carries its entire world on a single 3.5-inch floppy disk. It has no hard drive. No modem. No network connection. No way to reach the BBS Tower or gossip wit...