Robert Morrison

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I love an 80s computing book with completely unhinged technology metaphors.

Photograph of the from cover of “The Hacker’s Handbook” a ZX Spectrum 48K communications guide by Longman publishing. The illustration depicts orbital ZX Spectrums encircling the globe.A diagram from the book. The concept of duplex send and receive communication lines is, for (presumably) some reason, illustrated as two pairs of handlebars with the brake lines connected such that pulling the right hand brake lever raises a flag on the left hand lever of the other side.Another illustration and more abject nonsense. A cartoon of a car driving on a winding road that passes over a bridge and ends up at a car park. Along the way a police officer is marshalling traffic. The road is suppose to represent the telephone; the cop is software; the road (“highway”) also represent the cable; the eight lanes (annotated but neither depicted nor explained) lead to the car park with eight spaces that represents the screen.Biblically-accurate rendering of RS232 from the perspective of the computer. Allegedly. I quite like this one to be honest, I might get it as my next tattoo. We’re back to handlebars but this time with six brakes and umpteen flags. The brake lines are labelled TxD, RxD, CTS, RTS, DTR, DSR, circuit common, and DCD.