Last week at #EMFcamp I gave a talk about the nothing-like-it-on-earth RSRE Flex operating system for #PERQ workstations. I'm very happy with how it came out! For a challenge, watch at 2X: media.ccc.de/v/emf2026-91...
media.ccc.de
RSRE Flex: reviving an innovative, remarkably odd British operating system that almost nobody knows about
1980: Royal Signals and Radar Establishment researchers realise Flex, a mould-breaking, comprehensively alternative vision of computing. ...
![A parody clone of the cover of a Ravensburger puzzle box, advertising a "Laserburger Puzzle" with "up to 570" pieces and "Crummy Laserburger Qualtiy [sic]". The puzzle claims to have "Arduousclick Technology", referencing the "Softclick Technology" of actual Ravensburger puzzles. The puzzle itself appears to be a halftone image of a bunch of potatoes, and helpfully the original potato image appears at the bottom of the box art alongside the text "it is potates".](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jnkt7ufz6gagh23g2mimla26/bafkreigxi34pq7bgbsriesdpvmihkrevr5apmlxjgz7ws4cnip3f4dpf54)
![Close-up of an Apple Lisa computer's display as the LisaDraw program sends a festive card design with a Christmas tree to a dot-matrix printer. The Lisa's print dialogue is verbose. It tells the user that print spooling is available: that is, the user can dismiss the dialogue and do other work while printing continues. But it also points out that if the user does this and then at some point "hear[s] a whistle", they should reopen the print dialogue. (The Lisa's "whistle" is a rising bloopy sound that the Lisa makes if printer trouble occurs, like running out of paper. I only know early versions of the Lisa Office System to make this sound.)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jnkt7ufz6gagh23g2mimla26/bafkreigusajvo7xa4xjyqwcxh7oekwdidpixwn5mcvgyhkxm2uuw3ikxpi)
