[FredPret]

I miss the soundscape of old computers:

- the POST beep

- the sound a floppy drive makes after inserting

- the infernal scream of a dot matrix printer

- even I don't miss dial-up sounds though.

[rockostrich]

If you're looking for this sense of nostalgia in book form, I highly recommend reading "LaserWriter II" by Tamara Shopsin [1]. It's 90s tech nostalgia wrapped in a concise narrative about a college student going to work at a computer repair shop.

I also recommend her memoir "Arbitrary Stupid Goal" [2] but that has a lot less tech nostalgia and just a lot of funny anecdotes about her family and their diner on the Lower East Side.

[1] https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374602581/laserwriterii [2] https://www.tamarashopsin.com/asgfaq/#/

[awiesenhofer]

Just today at a shop I saw a self checkout terminal crash and reboot - featuring the old AMI boot screen and a nice POST beep. Made me wonder what ancient hardware might hide behind these modern cases and UIs.

[toast0]

> even I don't miss dial-up sounds though.

I do. It's like the walk-up song to talking to my friends and having a good time.

[1oooqooq]

post beep is a premium feature today!

most boards won't have any. if you pay premium, you get post beep. if you pay even more you get post stage led indicators.

so this item on your list is not about the past but enshitification.

[Tijdreiziger]

Can’t you just buy a PC speaker (beeper) and plug it into a 4-pin header on the motherboard anymore? That used to be the case around 10 years ago.

[10101100]

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