Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

(dmitry.gr)

90 points | by dmitrygr 2 days ago

6 comments

  • MSFT_Edging 41 minutes ago
    I still follow Dimitry on twitter for his technical talent, as I've done some palmOS software reversing as well, but man every other post is something along the lines of "we should let X group fend for themselves in a rattlesnake pit because they don't produce value".

    All to say it's a major bummer his cool work is tainted by his dehumanizing words and I wonder if he understands how he comes off to people.

    • xyzzy_plugh 6 minutes ago
      This puts it rather lightly. I stopped following him when he started posting incredibly racist memes.
      • MSFT_Edging 0 minutes ago
        Yeah I was trying to keep it civil for HN.

        The whimsy of the PalmOS work really clashes with the incessant racism and hate.

  • TruffleLabs 47 minutes ago
    Thanks for the details :)

    I was half expecting you to find the Pixter Color VM to be a Forth like interpreter ;)

    • mghackerlady 13 minutes ago
      I was expecting either that or some lobotomised Java VM since everyone was crazy about it at the time
  • Uncle_Brumpus 1 hour ago
    Thank you. This is a spectacular amount of work and information.

    As someone who is interested in similar old hardware that occasionally lacks any kind of documentation (specifically cameras), I sincerely wish I had this level of patience and determination (and also understanding, I'm not really a software guy).

  • VladVladikoff 54 minutes ago
    Wow great work and great post! love stuff like this on HN.
  • mcphage 42 minutes ago
    > If that was not enough of crotch-punch, in a desire to cut more costs, they decided to save $0.000001 per device and used the cheaper BJTs instead of FETs.

    Having had coworkers who worked for Fisher-Price, using worse components to save a fraction of a cent per device seems their general MO.

  • joe_mamba 49 minutes ago
    Always a pleasure to read your articles Dimitry, ever since I discovered your "Running Linux on an 8-bit microcontroller" project, back when I was studying electrical engineering in university. Your low-level hobby work is insane, specially on the palmOS side.