Ashley Blewer writes about media preservation, software, and culture, including a syllabus built around the TV show Halt and Catch Fire.
HN commenters mostly link the Halt and Catch Fire Syllabus as a rich resource for fans, including a 'watch club' format built around the show.
Someone named Ashley Blewer did such a deep dive on this show that she produced a full online course and syllabus centered around it.
https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
It allows people to form a "watch club" around the show, similar to a book club, and have plenty of extra reading materials to understand the different tech eras covered in the show.
I think this show -- combined with the documentary "General Magic" and the book "Fire in the Valley" -- is a great way to be immersed in the techno-optimism of the early tech industry around the time of the desktop PC revolution and early internet.
For me, that sort of techno-optimism has stuck with me even if modern tech has more dystopian elements with which one has to grapple. It is still an amazing industry, all things considered.
p.s. total aside that Apple TV sells a digital "box set" of this show for a pretty low price these days. I am usually not a fan of "buying" a show from a streaming service but might be worth it in this case since it's around $16 USD for every episode across its 4 seasons, Apple has a good track record honoring digital purchases, and watching the show is a commitment.
Very cool. I'm not seeing an obvious connection between the audio and the visuals (I do see some kind of differences between the visuals for the organ solo vs. the rest of the song).
I can't believe no one has recreated the machine though. Perhaps someone will now.
Someone's HTML5 ... tribute? https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/portable-auroratone/?loclr=blogsig
Sadly the WorldWideWeb emulator link from 11 (www) [1] doesn't seem to be working anymore: https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/browser
Looks like it's 404 since February. [2] Any idea what happened?
[1] https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/classes/11.html
[2] http://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/browser
The Halt and Catch Fire Syllabus[0] has a lot of awesome content worth checking out as well.
[0] https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
Halt and Catch Fire was a great show! Leaving this gem here: https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
Syllabus:
https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/